Contour Design Perfit Mouse Review

Product Requirements:
Device:
Windows PC, MAC

The lowly computer mouse is an often overlooked PC peripheral. Quite often,
users will buy a new input device only when their current one has become
defective. This is surprising considering the fact that we use the mouse much
more than other add-on hardware. If you’ve ever needed to purchase a new mouse,
you may have been overloaded with the number of different styles available.
There are optical mice, ball mice, corded mice, cordless mice, mice with scroll
wheels, mice without, mice with 2 buttons, and mice with 3 buttons. There are
even devices that replace the mouse, such as trackballs… but we won’t go there
in this review.

I want to tell you about the Contour
Design Perfit Mouse. This USB Plug and Play mouse is designed as an
ergonomic input device, and could be considered the Cadillac of cursor movers.
Instead of only offering one model, Contour Design offers four! Three left
handed mice in sizes S, M and L, and four right handed mice in sizes S, M, L,
and XL.

In order to determine the model that is optimal to the size of your hand, you
are instructed to measure the distance from your wrist crease, to the tip of
your middle finger. Based on the measurement, the perfect mouse can then be
ordered. The scale is:

My measurement was approximately 7.5 inches, so I decided to go with the
Medium size as my Perfect Fit mouse (get it?). When my Perfit
mouse arrived, I was surprised at how large it looked to me. I’ve been using a
small 2 button Logitech optical mouse for quite a while. See size comparison
below.

Although the Perfit is large in comparison to most generic mice, it is
comfortable in hand. It is shaped in such a way to support your hand and wrist.
Contour Design calls this your hand posture. The top of the mouse, where the
palm of your hand rests, has a bump that reminds me of the arch in a good pair
of shoes. This is very important to people that have RSI (Repetitive Stress
Injuries) or Carpal Tunnel, as it elevates your wrist and keeps it from resting
on the desktop.

There are 3 buttons that are each approximately 1" wide, slightly concave and
elevated. Each button has excellent tactile feedback. Since there are three
buttons, and they are quite wide, it almost feels like you should rest one
finger on each button. The left button and right button work as expected, while
the middle button acts as an automatic scroll toggle when browsing webpages.
When activated, an arrow will appear on the screen. Moving the mouse up or down
will scroll the page automatically in that direction.

On the thumb side of the mouse are two protuberances that you don’t normally
find on a mouse. At the top is a rubber scroll wheel that is activated with your
thumb. At first it feels strange to have the scroll wheel in this location,
instead of on top of the mouse. Although I’ve become accustomed to using the
wheel on the Perfit, I’ve found that for me, it still doesn’t feel as natural as
using other wheel mice.

Below the wheel is a smooth curved thumb rest. Below that, is a ridged rubber
button that is easily pressed forward or backward. While browsing webpages,
pressing this button will allow you to quickly jump forward or backward one page
in your browsing history. When I remember to use this feature, I find it to be
much more convenient than moving my cursor up to the forward and back buttons on
the browser’s top menu bar.

The Perfit is an optical mouse, and as such, glides easily across most flat
surfaces. This mouse has 800dpi, which is twice what most mice have. I’m not
sure if there is a major advantage to having a greater dpi though… I did
notice that I had to adjust the mouse movement speed with the Perfit to make it
slower.

I’ve been using this mouse for about a month, and in that time, I’ve found
myself wanting to go back to my old Logitech. There’s nothing wrong with the
Perfit, it has some really nice features, it’s just not as comfortable in my
hand as the Logitech is. I will say that I would bet that the CAD guys at my day
job would love to use this mouse. With a $109.95 price tag, this isn’t something
that the average Joe will want to run out and buy. Especially considering it is
not cordless… But, for someone that may have carpal tunnel, it could make a
big difference in ease of use and comfort.

Price: $109.95

Pros:
Ergonomic
Back / Forward buttons

Cons:
Expensive
My perfect size seems a little large