Yeah well, I do sorta expect it to die after a year, I am not making illusions. One year would be nice actually as with my sweaty hands, any semi rubberized plastic ends up looking less than pleasing...
I can't compare the vertical aspect to any other of such kind, never tried other ones I just trusted Logitech to get this one right.
I am overall very please, only contentious point could be (might be plus for others) is that the mouse is very, very light-weight. It lacks any kind of heft, almost feels like toy.