Vertical mice are foreign objects here. We’ve never used one before, so the Logitech Lift Mouse met a great deal of scepticism on entering the studio. Part of their ergonomic range, this mouse is designed to provide comfort and customisation. So we’ve been using it for the past few weeks to see if it can actually replace the traditional horizontal mouse in our daily workflows. Buy on Amazon

Design

Looking like a product designed in the image of an enemy from the 1993 video game release of Spectre Supreme, this is actually a really pleasing object to handle, with smooth plastics along the front where your fingers reside and the back of the mouse coated in a soft to touch silicone material on which your palm rests. It’s a solid object too, as proven when our Logitech Lift mouse has had a few unexpected test falls from the desk, due to a certain cat knocking this mistaken prey to the ground - the 'mouse' has remained unscathed. Although coming from the glass & aluminium Apple Magic Mouse, the plastically character of the Lift is a less auspicious experience.

The left side hosts two mappable small buttons. Mac users will find Mission Control options like show desktop or App exposé particularly helpful here. On the right side the primary functions inhabit a flatter angled surface, with left and right click, another button and the scroll wheel - both of which are mappable buttons. A flap underneath the Lift reveals a concealed USB receiver for devices that require it and a single AA battery, which is claimed to provide up to 2 years of battery life by Logitech.

What’s it like to use?

Coming from a traditional horizontal mouse it was a shock for the hand to be rotated by 57 degrees clockwise. But you begin to adjust to it rather quickly and it becomes second nature after half an hour of hopping back and fourth between typing and using the mouse. Despite the buttons all being at totally foreign angles, the enormous noticeable difference to an ordinary horizontal mouse design is that the Logitech Lift encourages your arm to be rested on the surface in front of you and your hand is then sort of cantilevered onto the mouse, so the point of stress in your wrist is entirely removed. Your arm and hand are both left in a similar position to that they would be if you were handwriting and this defines how the top half of your body is postured. It definitely has discouraged slouching, because it’s more comfortable to have your elbow hanging off the end of the desk, and that means you are sitting in your chair and making proper use of its support, which has to be a good thing.

Logitech have made a clear effort to make sure this mouse doesn’t slip out of your hand or topple over, through having it ergonomically weighted. It’s blissfully smooth to manoeuvre, and one nicety of the Logitech Lift Mouse is that it’s not fussy about the surface it happens to travel on for accurate cursor tracking. We’ve used it on textured fabric and there is no trouble at all. Importantly the primary left and right buttons have a reassuring amount of travel, but are near silent in operation. Moreover, the 2 mappable buttons on the left have proved absolutely essential and hugely time saving in our workload for quickly accessing the desktop or specific app window. Strangely, we found these easier to use vertically than on horizontal mice. One thing we missed, and is a useful characteristic of the Apple Magic Mouse, is the ability to scroll in any direction through an inbuilt touch surface. But the Logitech Lift Mouse isn’t all that unusual in only being able to scroll up and down with its SmartWheel, which does allow for fast scrolling and can be configured on a Mac to perform an action when pressed, with ours bringing up Mission Control. It’s silky smooth when scrolling slowly down through a website, whilst a flick of the finger can whizz to the bottom of a 14,000 messages email list in seconds. Nevertheless, scrolling along timelines and documents is slower in our workflows, making this definitely an area where Logitech could explore ways to provide a new solution in future products.

Verdict

Surprise, should be the takeaway word from this review. The Logitech Lift has shown there is reason to rethink the traditional horizontal mouse we have all used for so long. A vertical mouse can be more comfortable and encourage improved posture, which for those who suffer from back and neck pain is a big help and relief. Furthermore, the 4 mappable buttons speeded up our workflow better within this orientation and the SmartWheel is one the best physical scroll-wheels we’ve used to date. Buy on Amazon