3M Wireless Ergonomic Mouse, Small (EM550GPS)
by 3M Office & Visual Products
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List Price: Our Price: $58.22 You Save: $38.21 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $56.38 (click here) Category: Office Product See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of 3M Wireless Ergonomic Mouse, Small (EM550GPS)
Customer Review: Significant improvement to wrist pain, fine for gaming (Runescape)
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had this mouse for over a year. My mother and grandmother both had surgery for carpal tunnel (and one also for tennis elbow) so when I started having wrist pain I knew I needed to get a more ergonomic set-up. I have completely eliminated all wrist and elbow pain using this mouse.
Right out of the box:
- great wireless communication
- good battery life
- extremely comfortable (the base is contoured to fit your hand)
- perfect fit (I got the small. My palm width is 7.5 cm with fingers closed and middle finger tip to palm base is 17 cm.)
After a few weeks of acclimation (I stopped using other mice entirely):
- nearly as quick clicking speed (adequate for gaming in Runescape)
- faster scrolling (the amount you move determines the speed, it's very sensitive and takes much less work than a scrolling wheel)
- nearly as accurate clicking (adequate for gaming in Runescape)
- thoughtless left/right/scroll use
What I miss/dislike:
- left hand use. I'm pretty ambidextrous and used to use left hand mousing when doing data entry.
- I wish the base separated from the top for more compact transport, as I carry it back and forth from work to home every day.
Long-term notes:
- nothing has broken, chipped, or worn down
- the black cover material has not rubbed off or colored my hands
- I have to clean it every couple weeks (especially the buttons)
- the batteries last about 2 months
- I recommend carrying it in a padded bag with the USB plug
- I've dropped it a few times and spilled tea on it, but it's fine.
Usage notes:
- I generally rest my elbow on the table when I use it.
- It is shaped like a joystick, but you move the whole thing while mousing.
- You use your thumb for left and right clicks.
- You use your fingers for scrolling (there is a button under them, I probably use my ring finger most to click).
- There are 5 sliders on the bottom. Between those and a mouse-pad, there is little friction.
- Make sure to mess with the pointer speed setting as you get used to it. My accuracy significantly improved in the first 2 weeks, so I slowly increased it over time.
- Same goes for the double click speed setting. My thumb is pretty quick now =]
- To plug it in: turn on your computer, turn on the mouse, and then plug in the USB. This always works for me. I never have interference or signal problems.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is to let yourself adapt to this mouse. Remember learning to write? Or using a regular mouse for the first time? It takes a little time to get the fine motor control, but it is a far superior hardware device than a regular mouse. I have never, and will never, go back to a regular mouse. I can play Runescape for hours without any disadvantage from using this mouse.
Thank you, 3M, for another great product!!!
Customer Review: Just okay, not what I was hoping for.
Summary: 3 Stars
What I was looking for is a joystick like device that I could move the cursor with. This does not work like that. The whole thing moves. Imagine your standard mouse with a stick stuck on top of it. It does take some pressure off the wrist but trying to control it accurately is a challenge. I'm not sending it back, because it's nice to be able to put away the standard mouse and use this for awhile to give my wrist a rest. But once I start doing detailed stuff, I have to go back to the mouse. (But I am able to use this longer each time.)
However, it does have it's own set of problems. If you let your wrist put weight on the device, that's nice, but it makes it harder to move and move slowly/accurately. If you take some weight off it by lifting your arm, now it's going to fatigue the arm muscles.
Another issue is that if you position it where most position a mouse (over to the far right of the keyboard) the device feels very awkward. I have tried moving my keyboard completely out of the way and putting it right in the center of my chest and it's much better. In fact, quite good. But then where do you put the keyboard?
So good as a break/change of motion to the arm, but not a fulltime replacement for the mouse.
Also if you want to try it, buy the small size unless you have gorilla hands. I'm a normal guy with "large" hands (buy large gloves) and the small is plenty big. I think the large would be rediculous big for all but the most extreme cases.
Customer Review: Do not buy this mouse
Summary: 1 Stars
I have used the 3M ergonomic mouse for over five years now, when my last corded mouse broke, I decided to replace it with the same mouse, but cordless instead. What a mistake!
The medium size mouse purchased was more solidly build than the predecessor, and very responsive. However, 3M has a major flaw when designing this mouse: each time when you turn the computer on, you have to press the tiny "connect" button not only on the wireless usb, but another tiny connects on the bottom of the mouse for it to communicate with the computer.
If you remove the usb and want to use the mouse on another computer for any reasons, you have to restart the other computer and press the two connect buttons. The buttons are so small that you will probably need to use a pen to press it if you have big hand. When you plug it back to the first computer, you would have to restart the computer and press buttons again.
This is the only wireless device I have used that requires you to restart the computer, press the connect buttons on the usb and the mouse, or if you plug it in to a computer that is already on. Every other wireless device I have used always works when you plug them in, like every usb devices. This mouse is inconvenient, and very annoying. If you plan to use this mouse only on one computer, and never plant to turn it off, I would recommend it. Otherwise, I would strongly advice everyone not to purchase this mouse.
Customer Review: Wireless signal intermittent at best
Summary: 2 Stars
I've gone through two of these wireless mice now. The shape is great, although it takes some getting used to; the squeeze trigger "scroll wheel" doesn't work in all applications on my Mac, particularly Microsoft Word and Safari which is frustrating. However, it is heads and shoulders above a typical non-ergonomic mouse or a thumb-wheel version. The Achilles heel for this guy, however, is the terrible wireless connection. My first mouse worked fine for several months, but then the wireless signal degraded so that my cursor bounced around the screen, the button clicks stopped registering, and signal resets and replacement batteries could do nothing. My replacement has developed the same problems after two weeks. I haven't changed wireless setups or done something else that would cause a sudden onset of interference.
Despite this rather significant negative, 3M's customer service is top notch, sending the original replacement and now sending me a wired (albeit less expensive) version of this mouse at no cost. Unfortunately each time I've had to wait several weeks since their warehouse seems incapable of keeping them in stock, but a good customer service experience mostly saves the product in the end.
Customer Review: Relieved the Pain
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow! What a relief of the daily pain I experienced in my wrist. I don't know if it is arthritis or the beginning of carpal tunnel - but it hurt. I wore an ace bandage type of wrap on my wrist and it helped to ease the pain I experienced on my job, which was 8 hours of computer/mouse driven work. I also have a second job which is heavily computer/mouse driven. It was getting to be impossible at times to complete my job in a timely manner. My husband purchased this mouse for me for Christmas, and the pain is almost all gone now. It took about 3-4 days for the muscles in my arm/wrist/hand to get acclimated to the different position, but I use the mouse a lot so it was quicker than the week mentioned on-line. The product is very easy to use! I would recommend it to anyone experiencing pain and/or those who have had carpal tunnel surgery. I have recommended it to many of my co-workers. Great product!