Tag Archives: computer mouse

This Collapsible Mouse Is So Flat It Shares a Sleeve With Your Laptop

Posted on by

Traveling with a mouse has always carried a specific low-level inconvenience. Full-size mice claim too much space in a slim bag, compact mice often sacrifice comfort for portability, and both still need their own compartment to avoid getting lost or damaged. The usual answer is a palm-sized wireless mouse that needs to be packed with some thought and unpacked with intention at every new stop along the way.

The Portronics Toad Fold approaches that directly. Rather than making a mouse smaller, it slides down in half with a magnetic snap mechanism, collapsing to a profile flat enough to slip into the same laptop sleeve as the laptop itself. At just 38g, it barely registers in a bag, and the snap closure means it doesn’t need a separate case or a dedicated compartment to stay protected during the commute.

Designer: Portronics

Connectivity covers both Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless, and multi-device pairing allows the Toad Fold to work across several devices without swapping dongles or going through re-pairing every time. Moving from a laptop to an Android tablet becomes a matter of switching, not reconfiguring. The included USB receiver handles the 2.4 GHz side for scenarios where a stable, lag-free connection matters more than portless convenience.

Opening the mouse reveals an ergonomic curved shape designed for extended use, with DPI adjustable up to 3,200 for precision across different tasks. The curve sits more naturally against the hand than most ultra-compact mice allow, since that category usually forces a nearly flat profile that gets tiring through long sessions. A matte black finish keeps the surface neutral and fingerprint-resistant without demanding any particular attention.

The built-in battery charges via USB-C, removing the need for replacement batteries, and an auto sleep mode stretches battery life during idle periods. That combination handles a full workday without needing to charge mid-session, which is the relevant concern for anyone moving between locations rather than sitting at a fixed desk with easy access to a charging cable at all times.

The Toad Fold is designed for a kind of worker who treats the mouse as the last thing to pack rather than the first. Students sharing library tables, remote workers bouncing between coffee shops, and professionals moving between offices all share the same friction with conventional mice, which tend to be an afterthought in bag organization despite being essential to how work actually gets done on a laptop every day.

Compatibility covers Windows, macOS, and Android, which handles most combinations of laptop and tablet a person might carry across locations. Multi-device pairing means a single mouse can stay connected to a laptop and tablet at the same time, reducing the friction of shifting between screens during a day that moves between different setups without a fixed home base. It’s a mouse built around the idea that the best portable peripheral vanishes into an existing bag without adding to the mental overhead of packing.

The post This Collapsible Mouse Is So Flat It Shares a Sleeve With Your Laptop first appeared on Yanko Design.

The $180 Razer Mouse That Makes a Second Gaming Mouse Pointless

Posted on by

Gaming mice have always had a specialization problem. The ones built for MMOs come loaded with thumb buttons that feel excessive the moment you switch to a shooter. FPS mice are clean and fast but leave MOBA players reaching for keyboard shortcuts that shouldn’t need to be there. Buying two mice for two genres has been the practical answer, which is also the least satisfying one.

The Razer Naga V3 Pro addresses that directly. It ships with three magnetic side plates that swap out in seconds, each designed for a different genre of play. The 12-button grid suits MMOs, the six-button layout covers MOBAs and battle royale games, and the two-button plate clears the side for FPS use. One mouse, three configurations, and the same right-handed ergonomic shape throughout all of them.

Designer: Razer

The side button system itself isn’t new to the Naga line, but the V3 Pro brings the rest of the hardware up to the same level as what’s inside Razer’s top-tier esports mice. The Focus Pro 50K Optical Sensor Gen-3 powers tracking with up to 50,000 DPI and 390 IPS, the same sensor found in Razer’s dedicated competitive mice. Gen-4 optical switches handle clicks with a rated life of 100 million actuations and are designed to eliminate the bounce clicks that can misfire at the worst moments.

The scroll wheel also gets a meaningful upgrade here. The HyperScroll Tilt Wheel Gen-2 offers four distinct modes: Free-Spin for fast document scrolling, Tactile for click-by-click precision, Precision Tactile for finer steps, and Smart-Reel for automatic switching between modes. In an MMO, cycling through inventory with Free-Spin feels different from navigating a skill tree in Tactile mode, and having that level of control in the wheel itself is something most mice don’t bother offering.

Battery life holds up across both wireless modes. On HyperSpeed 2.4 GHz, the Naga V3 Pro runs for up to 155 hours; switch to Bluetooth and that extends to 280 hours. The mouse body weighs 112 g without a side plate, with the 12-button plate adding 20 g, the six-button adding 17 g, and the two-button adding 15 g. That last configuration brings the total down to where FPS players tend to want it, and the weight difference is noticeable enough in practice.

Up to 23 programmable buttons are available depending on the active plate, down from 23 to just two when the FPS plate is on. The pinky rest is also a button, lockable from the underside when not wanted, which adds one more control point without requiring any reach. Double-injection molded legends on the side buttons ensure the labels don’t wear off under daily use.

What the Naga V3 Pro argues, quietly but consistently, is that genre-specific peripherals don’t have to mean genre-specific hardware purchases. The plates snap off and on without tools, the transition between configurations takes less time than a loading screen, and the underlying hardware is good enough that nothing feels like a compromise.

The post The $180 Razer Mouse That Makes a Second Gaming Mouse Pointless first appeared on Yanko Design.

ROG Just Made Gaming Peripherals You’d Actually Put on Display

Posted on by

Gaming peripherals have gradually crossed from purely functional tools into design objects that enthusiasts keep, display, and collect alongside their builds. Limited-edition anniversary hardware has become part of that culture, giving manufacturers a chance to honor their history while reminding the community why certain names still carry weight. Making those commemorative pieces feel genuinely worthy of the occasion, however, is always the trickier part.

ROG, short for ASUS’ Republic of Gamers brand, is marking 20 years of gaming innovation with an anniversary lineup centered on a gold-and-black design identity it calls the Edition 20 colorway. Three peripheral additions sit at the heart of it, namely the Azoth Extreme Edition 20 keyboard, the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 mouse, and the Keycap Mystery Box Edition 20, each making the case that high-performance hardware and collector-worthy design don’t have to live separately.

Designer: ASUS

The Azoth Extreme Edition 20 is a 75% gaming keyboard that wears the anniversary theme without being heavy-handed about it. Translucent keycaps reveal the mechanics below, and a detachable 24K-gold-plated nameplate at the front makes the occasion official without being excessive. The extended silicone wrist rest adds completeness to the package, anchored by a gold-toned aluminum-alloy base that ties everything together without introducing anything out of place.

Beneath that exterior, an adjustable gasket mount toggles between Hard and Soft typing modes, useful for anyone who games and types for long hours in the same session. The custom ROG NX Edition 20 mechanical switches are transparent, factory pre-lubed, and hot-swappable, while an OLED touchscreen with a three-way control knob handles quick adjustments. In 2.4GHz wireless mode, battery life stretches to up to 1,600 hours.

The Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 shares the same design language and makes a natural companion to the keyboard. Built on the pro-tested shape of the Harpe II Ace, it houses a 24K-gold-plated metal interior frame inside a crystal-clear shell, with an RGB light guide plate illuminating the components within. A display case ships with the mouse in the box, which feels entirely appropriate given how it looks at rest.

The ROG AimPoint Pro 65K sensor delivers 65,000 dpi with less than 1% CPI deviation and 8,000Hz wireless polling through ROG SpeedNova technology. At 82g with glass mouse feet already included, it’s ready for competitive play immediately. Battery life holds at up to 90 hours over 2.4GHz RF and 98.5 hours in Bluetooth mode, both measured with the lighting switched off.

For those who aren’t swapping out their entire setup, the Keycap Mystery Box Edition 20 is the most accessible entry into the anniversary series. Each box holds a randomly selected keycap in one of seven designs inspired by iconic ROG peripherals and the ROG Fearless Eye logo, built through casting, high-pressure forming, hand-painted finishing, and structural assembly. The obsidian-inspired base and refined detailing make each piece genuinely display-worthy.

The ROG Claymore design is the one most worth watching for, as it includes two interlocking keycaps that reference the original keyboard’s modular layout. A Special Edition crystal-like ROG Logo keycap is also in the pool. Available as a single unit or a six-piece box with no duplicates, the Mystery Box turns 20 years of ROG hardware history into something you can keep in the palm of your hand.

The post ROG Just Made Gaming Peripherals You’d Actually Put on Display first appeared on Yanko Design.

ROG Just Made Gaming Peripherals You’d Actually Put on Display

Posted on by

Gaming peripherals have gradually crossed from purely functional tools into design objects that enthusiasts keep, display, and collect alongside their builds. Limited-edition anniversary hardware has become part of that culture, giving manufacturers a chance to honor their history while reminding the community why certain names still carry weight. Making those commemorative pieces feel genuinely worthy of the occasion, however, is always the trickier part.

ROG, short for ASUS’ Republic of Gamers brand, is marking 20 years of gaming innovation with an anniversary lineup centered on a gold-and-black design identity it calls the Edition 20 colorway. Three peripheral additions sit at the heart of it, namely the Azoth Extreme Edition 20 keyboard, the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 mouse, and the Keycap Mystery Box Edition 20, each making the case that high-performance hardware and collector-worthy design don’t have to live separately.

Designer: ASUS

The Azoth Extreme Edition 20 is a 75% gaming keyboard that wears the anniversary theme without being heavy-handed about it. Translucent keycaps reveal the mechanics below, and a detachable 24K-gold-plated nameplate at the front makes the occasion official without being excessive. The extended silicone wrist rest adds completeness to the package, anchored by a gold-toned aluminum-alloy base that ties everything together without introducing anything out of place.

Beneath that exterior, an adjustable gasket mount toggles between Hard and Soft typing modes, useful for anyone who games and types for long hours in the same session. The custom ROG NX Edition 20 mechanical switches are transparent, factory pre-lubed, and hot-swappable, while an OLED touchscreen with a three-way control knob handles quick adjustments. In 2.4GHz wireless mode, battery life stretches to up to 1,600 hours.

The Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 shares the same design language and makes a natural companion to the keyboard. Built on the pro-tested shape of the Harpe II Ace, it houses a 24K-gold-plated metal interior frame inside a crystal-clear shell, with an RGB light guide plate illuminating the components within. A display case ships with the mouse in the box, which feels entirely appropriate given how it looks at rest.

The ROG AimPoint Pro 65K sensor delivers 65,000 dpi with less than 1% CPI deviation and 8,000Hz wireless polling through ROG SpeedNova technology. At 82g with glass mouse feet already included, it’s ready for competitive play immediately. Battery life holds at up to 90 hours over 2.4GHz RF and 98.5 hours in Bluetooth mode, both measured with the lighting switched off.

For those who aren’t swapping out their entire setup, the Keycap Mystery Box Edition 20 is the most accessible entry into the anniversary series. Each box holds a randomly selected keycap in one of seven designs inspired by iconic ROG peripherals and the ROG Fearless Eye logo, built through casting, high-pressure forming, hand-painted finishing, and structural assembly. The obsidian-inspired base and refined detailing make each piece genuinely display-worthy.

The ROG Claymore design is the one most worth watching for, as it includes two interlocking keycaps that reference the original keyboard’s modular layout. A Special Edition crystal-like ROG Logo keycap is also in the pool. Available as a single unit or a six-piece box with no duplicates, the Mystery Box turns 20 years of ROG hardware history into something you can keep in the palm of your hand.

The post ROG Just Made Gaming Peripherals You’d Actually Put on Display first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Wireless Mouse Splits in Half to Reveal a Hidden Game Controller

Posted on by

Most people who game on a PC own two things that do roughly the same job at different times: a mouse for the desk and a gamepad for the couch. They live side by side, occasionally getting in each other’s way, and neither one is going anywhere. Pixelpaw Labs, a hardware startup from Bangalore, India, thinks that arrangement is wasteful and has built something to prove it.

The Phase is a wireless mouse that physically separates down the middle into two independent halves. Snapped together, it sits on a desk and works like a normal mouse. Pull it apart, and each half reveals a joystick, triggers, a D-pad on the left side, and face buttons on the right, a split gamepad that was hiding in plain sight the whole time.

Designer: Pixelpaw Labs

That missing scroll wheel is not an oversight. Fitting a traditional wheel in the center of the body would have made the split mechanism impossible, so Pixelpaw replaced it with a capacitive touch strip along the top of the left button. Flicking a finger across it scrolls through documents and web pages, with a glide feature that lets the momentum coast rather than stop abruptly. It’s a trade-off that works around a real geometric constraint.

As a mouse, the Phase is competitive on paper. A 16,000 DPI optical sensor pairs with a 1,000 Hz polling rate when connected via the included 2.4 GHz USB dongle. Bluetooth LE is available for convenience and multi-device pairing across up to three devices, though the polling rate drops to 125 Hz in that mode, a gap that matters in fast-paced PC games.

Up to 18 customizable buttons are mappable through the Pixelplay companion app, and a Layer button doubles each button’s function capacity without adding physical complexity. Battery life is rated at 72 hours per charge over USB-C, which is more than enough to outlast dedicated gaming sessions on either side of its personality.

The controller halves use mechanical tactile switches, which is more than most mobile gaming clip-ons bother with. Pixelpaw also has an accessory called the Phasegrip, a bracket that holds the two separated halves apart with a smartphone mounted in the center, turning the setup into a handheld console for mobile gaming. The Phase works across PC, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and ChromeOS, so switching between devices doesn’t require swapping hardware.

Everything shown so far is pre-production, and the company has been upfront that the final surface finish will differ. That’s a meaningful caveat for a product whose physical fit and feel will determine whether the concept actually holds up. Whether they’ll be able to deliver this Holy Grail of PC gaming, however, is the real question that can only be answered in time.

The post This Wireless Mouse Splits in Half to Reveal a Hidden Game Controller first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Wireless Mouse Clips to Your Laptop Edge So You Never Lose It

Posted on by

Working on the move means accepting a certain amount of small friction. You can have a great laptop and still spend the first five minutes of a café session digging through a bag for a mouse, or realizing you left it on your desk at home. Accessories are the first things to get lost because they don’t have a natural home when you’re packing up in a hurry, and no amount of good habits fully solves that.

BondClip by BondArch is a wireless mouse engineered to clip onto the edge of a laptop or tablet, so it travels with the device instead of floating loose. The G-shaped architecture is the whole idea, a flowing aluminum loop that forms a natural clip and keeps the mouse attached to the device like a tool rather than stored like a separate accessory you have to keep track of.

Designers: Sangmin Yu and Rinchar Ren (HNDESIGN) for BondArch

The clip itself relies on geometry and friction rather than a clamp or spring mechanism. A silicone pad on the underside of the loop increases contact friction, helping BondClip grip the laptop’s edge firmly during travel without digging into the surface or requiring the kind of force that would mark a premium finish. The silicone also absorbs minor vibrations, so it doesn’t rattle around in a bag with the laptop.

The weight comes in at 72g and dimensions at 110.6mm x 60mm x 36.2 mm, which puts it in compact travel mouse territory. The more meaningful shift is behavioral. When you open the laptop, the mouse is already there, clipped to the edge and ready to go. That changes the rhythm of setting up in a meeting room or café, removing one physical search from the start of every work session.

Connectivity covers 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 5.4, switchable via a mode button on the underside, so you can pair it to a laptop and tablet independently and switch between them without re-pairing. Adjustable DPI runs from 600 to 3600, covering slow, precise cursor work and faster general browsing without needing software to set it up.

The 25 mAh rechargeable battery is rated for 130 hours of use on a single charge, with USB-C for recharging. At that battery life, it’s the kind of peripheral you plug in occasionally rather than manage carefully, which matters when you’re already keeping an eye on a laptop, phone, and earbuds.

The body is precision-bent aluminum alloy, with polycarbonate and silicone components, in Silver and Midnight finishes. BondArch calls it “office luxury,” which isn’t an empty claim when the sandblasted matte finish is clearly aimed at the same visual register as a modern MacBook. It’s a mouse that gives itself a place to live on the device it works with, which turns out to be a more useful idea than another wireless range number.

The post This Wireless Mouse Clips to Your Laptop Edge So You Never Lose It first appeared on Yanko Design.

3D-Printed Whale-Shaped Mouse Began as a Bored Classroom Sketch

Posted on by

Sitting in class, bored, doodling in the corner of a notebook with no plan beyond passing time is how a lot of throwaway sketches happen. Most stay throwaway. Sometimes, though, one curved line that looks a bit like a wave or a tail slowly becomes something that sticks in your head, and you keep drawing it until it isn’t just a line anymore, it’s a character with a face.

That’s how Whaley started. A whale character drawn during class kept showing up in sketches, gaining expressions and variations until it felt like a proper mascot. The creator turned it into stickers for friends and WeChat moments, and seeing Whaley on other people’s notebooks made the idea feel more real, a small proof that a doodle could be shared and enjoyed beyond the original page.

Designer: Ayanvitta Kalsi

Curiosity pushed the project into three dimensions. With help from a parent, online tutorials, and trial and error, the whale became a 3D model, then a series of 3D‑printed shells. Early prints had rough surfaces and cracks, but they were enough to sit on a desk as a reminder that the character could exist off paper, even if it just collected dust and made visitors smile.

The next step was turning Whaley into a working mouse by transplanting electronics from a cheap wireless mouse. The original shell came off, leaving a PCB with an optical sensor, scroll wheel, switches, and a 14500 Li‑ion cell. That assembly dropped into a new 3D‑printed base, so the hard part of tracking and clicking was already solved, and the focus could stay on the whale’s shape and feel.

Multiple printed shells followed, each one tweaking the fit around the scroll wheel, refining the back curve, and dialing in how the left and right buttons flexed. Layer lines and seams slowly gave way to a smoother, polished blue whale body with a small smile cut into each side, a tail at the back, and a white underside that still let the sensor and glides do their job.

The finished Whaley Mouse behaves like any other compact wireless mouse on a desk. Left and right clicks are integrated into the head, the scroll wheel sits where a blowhole might be, and the body fits under the hand like a small creature rather than a generic plastic shell. It’s playful without being unusable, showing that peripherals can have personalities without sacrificing basic ergonomics.

This project grew step by step, from boredom to doodle, from stickers to 3D prints, from donor mouse to finished product. It’s a neat example of how following a small idea a little further than usual can leave you with something you can actually use every day: a whale‑shaped mouse that quietly proves a sketch doesn’t have to stay in a notebook if you’re willing to keep asking what comes next.

The post 3D-Printed Whale-Shaped Mouse Began as a Bored Classroom Sketch first appeared on Yanko Design.

Razer Just Built the Pokémon Desk Setup Every ’90s Kid Wanted

Posted on by

A lot of people who picked their first starter Pokémon on a Game Boy now sit in front of multi-monitor setups, pretending to be adults. Their desks are full of neutral black peripherals that say serious work, even though their playlists are lo-fi Pokémon remixes and their browser tabs tell a different story. The gear stays boring because that is what grown-up keyboards and mice are supposed to look like, apparently.

That is where Razer’s Pokémon collection comes in. Instead of one Pikachu mousepad, Razer built a full ecosystem that includes the BlackWidow V4 X keyboard, Cobra mouse, Kraken V4 X headset, and Gigantus V2 M mat. The line is officially licensed and leans into Kanto nostalgia, wrapping every peripheral in Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle graphics across bright yellow surfaces with synced Razer Chroma RGB lighting.

Designer: Razer x Pokemon

The BlackWidow V4 X Pokémon Edition keyboard anchors everything. Underneath the graphics, it is a mechanical keyboard with Razer’s clicky switches, six macro keys, and programmable RGB. You can map macros for raids or productivity shortcuts, and the mechanical switches help with both gaming and marathon typing. The Pokémon skin does not change performance; it just turns something you already needed into something that feels like a personal trophy from childhood.

The Cobra mouse and Gigantus V2 M mat work as a paired set. The lightweight wired mouse uses optical switches for durability and precision, with RGB lighting that syncs with the rest of your setup. The soft mat underneath is optimized for fast swipes, whether flicking through game menus or dragging layers in design software. Together, they turn everyday cursor movement into something that feels like your oldest digital companions are right there.

The Kraken V4 X headset pulls audio into the same universe. It supports surround sound for positional cues, has a clear mic for calls or streaming, and features RGB lighting around the earcups. You hear footsteps in matches, but you also use it for music while answering emails or video meetings without switching gear, which makes it more versatile than something covered in Pikachu art probably should be.

Of course, Razer points out the collection works for productivity and content creation, not just gaming. Mechanical keys help with typing speed, the mouse and mat work in design software or spreadsheets, and the headset handles conference calls. The Pokémon layer is simply a visual narrative on top of hardware you could justify buying even in plain black, which means you get function and nostalgia without compromise.

The collection treats your desktop as more than a neutral workspace. It acknowledges that the same person editing spreadsheets might still know every line of the Pokémon theme song, and both can coexist. Instead of hiding that part of yourself in a drawer of old cartridges, Razer lets it sit under your fingers, lighting up every time you log in and reminding you that being functional and still loving Pikachu are not mutually exclusive.

The post Razer Just Built the Pokémon Desk Setup Every ’90s Kid Wanted first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Steampunk Magic Mouse Competitor has a built-in SD Card Reader, and even Charges Normally

Posted on by

We could spend a lot of time bashing the new USB-C Magic Mouse for repeating the same charging port mistake as its predecessor, but let me just take a minute to ask a few questions about mice in general. Wireless or not, why does a mouse ONLY serve as an input device? Personally, it has the capability to do much more than move a cursor, right? So why is it that in all these years the only improvements to mouse design are only upgrading their Bluetooth chipsets and making them more responsive?

A winner of the Red Dot Award for best Design Concept, the D Mouse comes with a few unusual design choices that may seem weird at first, but make a world of sense if you try to think about how these changes make a mouse ‘better’ than existing ones. Built with an unusual design that employs stainless steel mesh on top and wood on the bottom, the D Mouse looks extremely different from existing plastic mice – because it is. This one comes with NFC pairing, a built-in SD card reader, and in-device storage of up to 1 terabyte, transforming the mouse into a data storage and processing device too.

The best part? It has its own cable integrated into the mouse that wraps around the base, and charges normally – unlike the Magic Mouse that needs to be overturned to charge. Even after an entire decade of people pointing it out.

Designer: Tride Design

The D Mouse is notably a wired mouse, relying on a built-in braided USB-C cable to connect to devices – although it does have Bluetooth 5.0 too. The wired design makes sense considering the D Mouse also works as a data storage and transfer device, given that wired transfers are far more secure and rapid than wireless transfer. Unwrap the cable, plug the mouse in, and it becomes a cursor that also stores data for you. The mouse has up to 1TB of SSD storage on-board, which is fairly helpful if you want to stash important files that nobody goes looking for. After all, who searches for files on a mouse, right?!

The rest of the mouse has a fairly unique but familiar design. The silhouette of the D Mouse is like your everyday ergonomic peripheral, albeit with a metal and wood construction instead of plastic (98% of the materials are recycled). A steel mesh on the top provides a very tactile surface to rest your hand, while still being breathable because of the open mesh. The mouse clicks silently, and instead of the scroll wheel, there’s a scroll-bar right near the thumb for touch-sensitive scrolling.

The mouse has a built-in card reader, along with internal storage that makes it perfect for creatives wanting to carry their files and access them on multiple devices without dongles and such. In this case, the D Mouse IS the dongle, working both wired and wirelessly, depending on how many files you have to transfer. It’s got an integrated fan that keeps the mouse (as well as your palm) cool while in use, and if you’re a gaming fanatic, there’s LED lighting too.

The D Mouse is a winner of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept for the year 2024.

The post This Steampunk Magic Mouse Competitor has a built-in SD Card Reader, and even Charges Normally first appeared on Yanko Design.

Smartphone touchpad concept tries to solve one of the biggest problems with big phones

Posted on by

Almost everyone wants smartphones with big screens because of how much content they can see, but those same people probably don’t like using big phones because they require both hands to use comfortably and securely. Some manufacturers have introduced “one-handed mode” features that shrink the screen to a smaller size temporarily, but not only is that actually more cumbersome, it is also less accurate because of the small area you have to hit with your large finger. We don’t have problems using computers with gigantic monitors because we have computer mice that offer precise and accurate control, even if we’re not touching the screen itself. That’s the kind of control that this concept design is trying to bring to smartphones, practically putting a miniature Apple Magic Mouse on the back of large phones.

Designer: Geontak Oh

The computer mouse is actually a very weird and unintuitive tool that has become second nature to most people by now. You are indirectly controlling the screen, moving a detached piece of hardware whose only connection to the computer is an arbitrary one. Before touch screens were a thing, it was really the only way to interact with a graphical user interface, so it’s a bit ironic that we might need something similar to do the same on touch-enabled devices like smartphones.

Poinf is a design concept that tries to solve the problem of using a large smartphone with one hand. With the way we hold our phones, the thumb is the only finger we can use to tap on the screen, which is next to impossible if the screen is too big for our stumpiest finger to reach. But what if you could use a different finger to do that? And what if that finger is always on the back of your phone anyway?

The idea is to put what is practically a small, squarish touchpad on the back of the phone, held there using MagSafe or other magnetic technology. The actual interactive part is a small quadrant of the slim device, an area that can be easily reached by your index or even middle finger. You slide your finger across the surface, pushing around the equivalent of a cursor, and use tapping gestures to “click” on user interface elements. You can easily detach Poinf when you don’t need it, so it doesn’t get in the way of “normal” smartphone use.

Poinf is definitely an intriguing solution to a very old problem, but it also brings a few issues of its own, particularly with usability. Moving a cursor by moving a finger on the back of the screen could require some mental gymnastics, severely affecting your speed and efficiency in the process. Of course, your brain can eventually adjust, like how it has come to accept the computer mouse, but it will take time and effort before that becomes second nature. Additionally, however, you also lose access to important touch gestures like pinching to zoom or quick scrolling, so you’ll have to do double work to teach yourself a new action vocabulary for this rather niche control mechanism. In the end, you might give up and just use the phone with both hands anyway.

The post Smartphone touchpad concept tries to solve one of the biggest problems with big phones first appeared on Yanko Design.