myAir.0 OriMouse review
Coooool idea for digital nomads, but will it stick?
I don’t know when I’m going to make a Youtube video, so I decided to just write about it.
The idea of folding devices has been around. Now we are at the point where the laptop is being folded. Before laptops, tablets and phones were folded, this folding idea was applied to peripheral devices such as mouse. And especially if you were like me, who wants to carry as little as possible, you might have run into this folding mouse, OriMouse. I suspect this name comes from combining “origami” and “mouse”.
Flat myAir.0 Orimouse
It is a cool idea. When it is unfolded or in a flat mode, it is very portable. Thin profile all the way around. It is not paper-thin, but it is thinner than our phones nowadays. When you want to use it, you just do a squeeze motion and it becomes a mouse. Just like that, I was able to use just my thumb and pinky to make it into a mouse.
When it is folded
Once it is folded, it does everything. Right click, left click, and wheel gesture. It felt a little weird when I first held it, but to be fair, it is not the Logitech MX series. My idea of getting this mouse is to make a portable setup that I can use for office use, writing, web browsing and such. So I gave it a long-long try, like more than a year. So how did it go? Well, let me jot down some pros first.
When it is held in my hand
Positive impression:
Surprisingly considering how thin it is, it is very durable. I thought it would bend or break at some point with my laptops and iPads, but it stayed intact and did not sustain much damage. Once it is folded, it connected to my devices fast and it is very responsive. The folding and unfolding experience was very pleasant to the point where I can get rid of my stress release squish thing. So? Here is my conclusion for TL;DR people:
Cool idea, but unfortunately won’t stick around.
The wheel function is unresponsive from time to time. I’m pretty sure that lot of people would do a lot of scrolling. Web-browsing, reading and writing, and we have horizontal scrolling for those who create contents. Scrolling is such a basic feature and the fact that it does not work time to time definitely makes me stay away from using it. Click? Right click and left click? They are very, very responsive unless….you factor in click fatigue.
The buttons require a little more push. I was unsure why using this mouse made my hand a bit sore. I compared it with multiple inexpensive logitech mouses in my office and discovered that the position of the contact point between your finger and the point where the button is pushed is slightly different. The unfolding mouse has the contact point right around where your fingerprint is and this OriMouse had that point little behind than regular mice. At first you won’t notice the fatigue, you will notice the wheel issue more prominently. But as you use it more, the fatigue will accumulate and it will eat up your energy.
Price. When I bought this mouse, I liked the idea of folding. That is what got me into this. I already had MX Master 2 mouse as a main, and was looking for a second setup. But, when you combine the wheel and fatigue issues, I don’t think it is worth the $69 to $79 price tag. At that price, you can get MX Master 3 or other good wireless mouse or Microsoft Arc mouse if you were looking for a portable one. Or Lenovo yoga-book 9 mouse (I have this one and it is really, really good.)
Very, very minor thing; it is not paper-thin strictly speaking. The thickest point where the tracker (where the red laser comes out to read the movement of the mouse) is positioned is thicker than iPhone 16 pro.
Tracker
Compared to my car keyfob
So, would I recommend it? Not really. Honestly, I wouldn't mind the scrolling issue as much if it didn't cause discomfort in my hand. Then I was searching around the price for this post, and I found the price. As soon as I looked at the price, my brain just put a label of “not worth it.”
Maybe if you have a smaller hand than mine, price is not an issue, and wheel issue is just for me, it would work for you. Or if you just like the idea of mouse being flapped open and folds up, it would be for you. But for me, unfortunately I’ll have to let this one go.
