New mouse: Keychron M5
This is going to be a quick one. In my keyboard blog post I complained that there is no proper ergonomic mouse with on-device memory. And it turned out that I was wrong. More specifically Claude missed this during its research [1], because I specifically asked for a QMK mouse, which truly is rare. But there is also Keychron, producer of mice, among other peripherals. It is not QMK, but it has onboard memory for its settings, so they work without drivers and on every device I attach them to, and that is the whole point for me.
The Keychron M5#
So I got a Keychron M5 vertical mouse! Just two months after I bought a Logitech MX Vertical 🤦♂️ [2]. The Logitech mouse is okay, but the LogiOptions+ software is atrocious and I hate it with all of my heart. Even simple button remaps only work when this monstrosity is running in the background. Not to speak of different polling rates.
From a build quality perspective the Keychron is below Logitech, at pretty much the same price point. It has no rubber surface, it is way lighter and the buttons feel cheaper. But the ergonomics are fine and after using it for a couple of weeks, I don't mind the lack of feel. I actually came to like the lighter weight, even though this irritated me at first.
But it stores five profiles on device that are managed with a webapp. Look ma! No spyware! This webapp itself is also slightly below the competition. It has a lot of options, and it gets the job done, but who can read this tiny font?
The only thing I am really missing there is a "Desktop" button for Mac. I had to work around it with a key combination to achieve that.
Summary#
It's fine. The best option for my requirements that I could find. Is it the best mouse ever? No[3]. Do I use it every day? Yes[4]. When ZSA announces in the ergo that they produce a mouse now, will I instantly order it? Probably