Posturite Penguin Ambidextrous Wired Ergonomic Mouse | USB, Alleviates RSI, Easy-Glide, Vertical Design, PC Computer & Apple Mac Compatible (Black/Silver, Size: Small)

 

To start with I have to own up, I didn’t buy this from Amazon, it came from a local store raising money for Cancer research, however it was brand new and unused still in all its packaging with the scratch protection tape in place.

My laptop mouse had recently started to malfunction so although I wasn’t actively seeking a replacement when this caught my eye I thought I’d give it a try, especially as it was marked up at the bargain price of 5.00.

Out of the box the first impression was how remarkably similar it is in shape to the joysticks a friend & I made for an arcade style console cabinet we built back in the 80s.
With a view to long use we eschewed the more cylindrical skinny stick shape so beloved of arcade machine manufacturers back then and using a plastic bag full of wet sand and a small vacuum pump developed a shape that was comfortable to use in either hand and positioned in a way that was more natural to the angles of the wrist and arm when standing at the machine, what we ended up with wasn’t exactly identical to the Penguin mouse, but it was very close.

In use it’s very comfortable indeed, the rubberised black finish gives a comfortable but not sticky gripping surface which discourages sweat and is complimented well with the lightly textured silver plastic front section, combined with the slight shallow in the base into which the side of your hand sits the materials used and thoughtful design means unlike many mice which may fit the hand well but lose out because of poorly selected materials not feeling right or secure in the hand you never feel as if you need to grip this thing to keep hold of it, quite the contrary, you can hold it very lightly without ever losing control of it.

There are however a few niggly details that spoil the experience.

The plastic slide pads on the underside are square cut at the edges, , this means they are constantly catching on the sides of your mousemat, whilst some desks may have a surface that doesn’t need a mat most don’t, and having it catch on your mat all the time gets old VERY quickly.
My solution to the problem was to cover the pads with a strip of 18mm clear tape blending the pad edges into the base so they don’t catch any longer, a simple enough solution but one I really shouldn’t have had to come up with, especially given the 75.00 retail price tag of this mouse.

The mouse speed (DPI) is adjustable with a small button underneath, repeated presses switch it between 400, 600, 800 & 1200 DPI with one, two, three or four flashes of the quite stylish blue “P” on the back of the mouse indicating which setting you just selected, a useful little feature I’ve used a few times.
The problem is the speed seems to reset whenever the power to the laptop is cut, meaning you have to keep resetting it, personally I don’t find this to be an arduous task, but I can see it irritating some people.

It goes to sleep, after a minute or so the mouse goes into a sleep mode, now I can see the sense of this on a wireless mouse but on a wired one it’s just annoying, worse still there’s no way to turn it off, this particular “feature” is one I’d recommend the manufacturers lose ASAP.

My final little niggle is the buttons, the top one isn’t too bad although it occasionally feels a little loose on its mount, the bottom one however occasionally gets slightly stuck in the case, it still works and usually comes out when its used without needing any assistance but it is nonetheless irritating when you click it and you don’t feel the usual motion that confirms the action, again it’s not a big deal but I expect better from a mouse with such a price tag.

I used to run a technical support department for a fairly large company with a couple of thousand employees so I’ve handled more than my fair share of ergonomic IT kit, some good, some bad, some complete garbage, even with these few small faults all in all I’d say this is one of the better ergonomic mice I’ve used , its well made with quality materials, it certainly does what it says on the box.

Would I pay 75.00 for it? Possibly, although I’m no longer working I can spend a considerable amount of time on my laptop and I have a couple of sporting & motorcycling injuries that can be painful when I spend too much time at the laptop, my preference was always for a trackball rather than a traditional mouse but they don’t always led themselves to the button on whilst moving the ball around motions required of some of my graphics software, this solves that problem.
I’ll stick with this one for now, if I come across a next generation Penguin that has resolved the little niggles I have with it I may well be tempted to stump up a chunk of change for one.