Logitech Lift Vertical Ergonomic Mouse Review

This review focuses on yet another ergonomic hardware device. While the topic of ergonomics may not be the most thrilling, it’s crucial for developers to recognize the extensive hours we spend at our computers, necessitating the use of high-quality peripherals. Considering we may use these devices for over 10 hours daily, it’s unsurprising that some of us may experience discomfort.

Introduction

This time we will be talking about Logitech Lift wireless vertical ergonomic mouse. It’s a vertical mouse designed to approximate and support a more natural “handshake” position when using the mouse. From what I gathered; this is much better as the handshake position is more natural because you don’t have to twist your arm like when working with a classic mouse. The position is more neutral as well, because with a classic mouse you are twisting your forearm and internally your shoulder as well to hold the mouse.

I felt persuaded by that and decided to get it. As i bought it with my own money, I feel that I can provide an objective review, certainly more objective than the people who provide affiliate links and much more objective than people who got their model for free from Logitech. So, let’s get started.

Straight to the point

The Logitech Lift is a well-built and comfortable ergonomic device which does its primary function very well – helping with the wrist discomfort. It is especially well-suited for users with smaller-to-medium hands. However, it lacks the features of Logitech’s top-tier MX Master 3S and it feels a bit heavier to move across the desk than Logitech’s previous vertical mouse, MX Vertical.

Detailed Review

Ergonomics & Learning curve

The mouse is not completely vertical, it is tilted on a 57° angle which Logitech says they have determined to be optimal. However, it is enough for people who experience mild discomfort and to prevent wrist problems from coming up at all, but to reverse an existing condition you would still need to get a much more expensive ergonomic device, from a manufacturer which specialises in ergonomics. Or so I have read in one of the many reviews while deciding which mouse I would buy. If I were to guess, I would say that they decided this design is optimal for most people coming from traditional mice but looking for a more ergonomic option.

To be honest, I did not see anywhere that Logitech says this mouse can reverse a medical condition. They say that the wrist will be less under pressure, and I did find this to be true for me.

On the other hand, I have read articles and seen several videos where people claim that the 90° angle is too aggressive and less natural than what Logitech has done here, as the 90º angle forces your wrist in a position which is not as easy to hold as the Logitech’s 57º angle. Even if I never owned a 90º mouse, common sense says to me that there’s some merit to this, as if I try to simply put my hand on the table, its position to me seems closer to 57º than to 90º. So, my instinct would be to say that 90º is more for the people trying to reverse a condition as mentioned above. However, I would hope that anyone having problems would of course consult the doctor first before attempting to fix the problem themselves.

My experience with the mouse has been an interesting one. At first, I felt a great deal of comfort in the short term and a noticeable improvement when compared to a regular mouse. After a few days, however, I did begin to experience some discomfort but on the bottom part of my wrist. It turns out that my posture was not good enough which has led me to drag my pinkie and the bottom part of the wrist across the table thus making that the new pressure point.

But after adjusting my desk and the chair and trying to relax my shoulders, while simultaneously not resting my arms and wrist on the table and instead allowing them to more-or-less fall freely from the shoulder and bending them in a 90º angle, the discomfort went away. So, I guess when Logitech says that the mouse promotes correct posture, that is what they mean.

The point is – if your posture is good and your workspace is adjusted as it should be, the mouse should do its job. But the mouse will motivate you to have everything correctly set up, so it’s less to be understood as a piece of hardware that will change everything for you and more as one step in the whole ergonomics journey. At least this has been true in my experience.

Here are a few tips I gathered along this journey:

• Your knees should be at a level with your hips
• Your arms should be straight with your wrists and at a 90º angle to your body
• Your monitor should be at about arms-length away
• The mouse and keyboard should optimally be on the same surface
• A vertical mouse seems to work the best when your arm and wrist is not resting on anything, but it is instead free to move, that is, it simply “hangs” as your shoulders are relaxed which enables free movement with the whole arm and not simply with the wrist

So, long story short – the mouse has indeed made a difference in how I feel but it did not do so by itself. And as you can see, there definitely was a period of adjustment for me. I do not even think I have fully adjusted to it, as 20+ years of using a horizontal mouse and not having an ideal posture are not easily undone.

So, in summary about the mouse and its ergonomics – yes, for me it is noticeably better than the classic mouse but these changes did not come from the mouse alone.

Usage in the Real World™️

Let us get the obvious out of the way – I would say that the mouse is nowhere as precise as a horizontal mouse. This was certainly the case for me. I suspect this is simply inherent to the design as in my opinion the hansahake position simply does not allow as fine motor control as when using the horizontal mouse. But that might just be the 20+ years of muscle memory talking – as the centre of gravity is certainly different because of its shape, my muscles might simply be better calibrated for finer motor control using a horizontal mouse and if that’s the case – then the precision should improve in time.

However, I still found the trade-off in comfort to be worth it, as we as developers tend to use the keyboard shortcuts more than the mouse anyway, so a smaller loss of precision is well worth the gains in comfort obtained by not twisting your forearm to get your wrist in the necessary horizontal position for 10+ hours every day.

So, if that is the case – that the mouse is simply inherently not as precise as a regular, horizontal mouse, then by extension it would mean it’s not suitable for gaming, especially not for FPS games. However, as I play almost no games – except those where the precision is not of critical importance, such as Chess, this was not a problem for me. However, if you’re into games and are looking to reduce wrist strain, you might consider getting this mouse but also keeping your old, horizontal one as well.

What I do miss however, coming from the MX Master is the horizontal scroll wheel. Even if you can get the horizontal scroll by holding one of the side buttons and using the scroll wheel normally and then you would get the same effect as with the dedicated horizontal scroll wheel, it is certainly less practical to do this.

The side buttons themselves are in a good position but are considerably more noisy than the primary left and right-click buttons and I fail to see why this must be the case, The primary buttons are very quiet and pretty much excellent for office work as there’s practically no chance they’ll disturb anybody, which makes the fact that these side thumb back-and-forward buttons are considerably more noisy.

The scroll wheel does not support the free-spin mode like the MX Master 3S, but it does feature a smart wheel which makes it possible to scroll faster by turning the wheel faster and scroll more precisely by turning the wheel slowly. It is tough to explain it better than that, but it is really very intuitive once you try it.

Beneath the scroll wheel there is a DPI sensitivity button but considering the mouse is vertical I found the position of it to be a bit impractical. Personally, I prefer the placement of the DPI button as it is on the previous version of the Logitech’s Vertical Mouse – the MX Vertical. MX Vertical has the DPI button above, accessible by thumb. This button on the Lift mouse causes you to have to bend your fingers a bit too much and it feels like a step backward from the earlier version.

A quick comparison: Lift Vs. MX Vertical

Speaking of the MX Vertical – which I unfortunately found too large, I am not sure how Logitech has managed that the Lift feels much heavier, even if the technical specifications say they are the exact same weight, Probably because this one is smaller so the weight is distributed across the smaller surface which causes it to have a different centre of gravity or something. in any case I found the MX Vertical to feel much lighter and easier to move than the Lift. However, the smaller size of the Lift works better for me so, even with this feeling of extra weight, Lift is a winner for me.

However, if you have larger hands, MX Vertical will be a better fit for you. Luckily, Logitech has provided a hand-size guide on the Lift page, to help you decide which one is better for you. Considering that the MX Vertical is more expensive, that is a classy move in my book as they could have just rearranged their website and marketing materials to push you in the direction of a more expensive product.

However, MX Vertical is available only for right-handers and only in dark tones, whereas Lift is available in the left-handed version as well. The right-handed version comes is 3 colour schemes, white, dark and pink.

For more details about MX Vertical, see my in-depth Review.

Battery and connectivity

This mouse does not come with a rechargeable battery, instead it uses a single AA battery which comes included in the package, While Logitech claims the battery will last for 2 years, again, as in the case of Ergo K860 keyboard, I am sceptical of this claim as I wouldn’t be surprised it comes from testing in the lab and rather conservative assumptions about working hours.

But the main reason I don’t prefer external batteries is that this in a lot of companies automatically diqualifies the mouse from bein provided by the company as IT departments don’t generally like to have to deal with extras. And the mouse is not something they would expect to have a maintenance cycle, no matter how big. On the other hand, not many companies are willing to invest in ergonomic input devices at all, so this might not be as biga objection as I think it is. In any case, if you’re buying the mouse for private purposes, I think you should definitely be able to replace the battery every two years.

Regarding connectivity, you can, it the signature Logitech style connect this mouse with up to three devices and switch between them with a press of a button on the bottom side of the mouse. As I already mentioned on this site, I am absolutely in love with this feature – and have used the mouse with Windows, Mac and iPad without any problems. It just works.

Software

I strongly recommend that you download the Logitech Options+ software as it enables you to reprogram all the buttons on the mouse. And what’s even better, it enables you to reprogram the buttons differently per App used., so for example, you can have the side buttons act as a Back and FDorward buttons in a browser and as Undo and Redo buttons in Microsoft Word or Photoshop, for example. Very practical. You can also define two levels of mouse sensitivity and use the DPI button to switch between them.

This mouse also supports Logitech Flow which enables you to switch to a different computer by simply dragging the cursor from the screen of one device to the screen of another. It even allows copy & paste functions between computers. However, this will probably be blocked by your company’s policy, so I wouldn’t buy a piece of hardware just because it supports the Flow feature. However, it can be considered a nice bonus.

Conclusion

The Logitech Lift is a fantastic mouse for anyone looking to reduce stress on the wrist and promote a more ergonomic posture. It comes with the well-known Logitech flexibility and connectivity options which makes it a great choice for anyone looking to use the same input device on multiple computers. However, it is not a productivity machine, like the MX Master.

I found the mouse very comfortable, after a period of adjustment, as mentioned above. However, this might not be your experience. You might find almost impossible to make it work for you. However, from everything I have read so far about ergonomics, it seems that vertical mice are indeed objectively better than horzizontal ones for reducing the wrist strain, so I would definitely recommend that you at least give it a shot. If you find a n online story with a reasonable return policy, you can even get it and then return it if it doesn’t suit you.

And, again, if you have larger hands, Logitech’s earlier vertical mouse, the MX Vertical will probably be a better fit for you.

Long story short, as a sooftware developer and someone who spends a LOT of time on the computer, I would definitely recommend this mouse.