Contour Unimouse

Every other vertical mouse picks an angle on your behalf. This one runs on a friction hinge that holds anywhere between a mild tilt and nearly upright, which reads as a gimmick until you consider how much of this category’s return rate comes from a fixed angle that happens to sit a few degrees wrong for one particular forearm.

In practice most owners set it once and never touch it again, and that is not a criticism. The value is in arriving at the angle that works, not in changing it daily. A hinge adjusted twice a year has still earned its place if the alternative was sending a mouse back.

The thumb rest is the fiddlier half. It slides, pivots, and rotates, and a badly placed one loads the base of the thumb — precisely the spot the design exists to unload. Expect to spend an evening on it, and read Contour’s own setup guidance rather than guessing, because the intuitive position is usually too far forward.

Build quality is the recurring complaint. The shell is plastic and feels like plastic, and this costs more than the fixed-angle verticals from the large brands. Owner reports mention the adjustment screws working loose over months and wanting a quarter turn to firm up again.

A left-handed version exists at the same specification, which is close to unique in this category and reason enough on its own for some buyers. The wireless models have shipped with more than one radio arrangement over the years, so check whether the listing in front of you includes a receiver, pairs over Bluetooth, or does both.

The software is Contour’s own and it is thin. Button remapping works and the driver stays out of the way, but there is no cursor-across-machines feature, no per-application profiles worth the name, and nothing that will sit in the tray asking to update itself.