Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325
by Kensington
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325
Customer Review: Way better than expected
Summary: 5 Stars
I know, there are now a gazillion reviews of this device, but this becomes a current update of sorts of another reaction, to what may or may not have changed over the last couple of years, about the nature of the fluidity of the scroll ring & trackball, among other impressions.
Well I had the Kensington Expert Pro Mouse for 5+ years, and got great service from it. Loved the LARGE trackball and surrounding buttons configuration. Did not love the dinky little scroll WHEEL, and no real use for the 6 other buttons slightly beyond comfortable reach from the comfortable hand position I held above the trackball.
Well finally one of the four buttons lost it's click. The unit did not survive the disassembly. So I looked for the only other trackball that had the same great top features this one had, and lo and behold, the only one out there that I could find was the refined down Kensington Expert Mouse Optical Trackball. But the REVIEWS! I didn't want sandy, gritty, draggy stuff. My only hope was that in the time since '04 (?) creation, that somehow something would finally be made better to resolve the ever severe criticisms.
Today the trackball arrived. Plugged it in, still had the most current driver from the last one, and set the feel and buttons up the same way. I must say that I was thrilled with the scroll ring, waaaaaaay better than the previous scroll wheel, and at least on this unit that I received, the ring is as fluid as I need, love it, no complaints, very nice action. <<< !! Oh !!, I should mention that one reason the scroll ring is so fluid is that I use a third party app called Smart Scroll, and this actually is what makes the scroll ring fluid and wonderful, download and try it, think it's Mac only.
The track ball itself is a little funny, set up to move briskly between two large screens, it will exhibit initial sluggishness and then whiz fine, and stay fine for the duration of use, only becoming sluggish again for a moment if I don't use it for a long period. I don't know if this will improve after some break in time, but the past unit was w/o problem (short of the common pebbles in the rollers complications) w/o the optical tracking.
Positioning of hand on the wrist support and reach over the trackball is just as nice and comfortable as before, I have large hands. And nothing like new clicking buttons, they feel very nice and clicky snappy.
Even with the little funnyness w/ the trackball inconsistency, I just love Kensington's trackballs, and this one is a real upgrade for me, so five stars it is...
[ADDED AFTER POSTING: Only hours after posting this review, the trackball is totally on cue and silky smooth; and really - the scroll ring - people are having problems w/ this? Mine is a pleasure (mostly because it's used in conjunction w/ 3rd party app Smart Scroll)].
Customer Review: Great trackball. MS Trackball Explorer was better.
Summary: 5 Stars
I was an Expert Mouse user years ago when it still used wheels, having tried just about every other trackball on the market at the time. I loved it, until I found the Microsoft Trackball Explorer. Though I have tested other trackballs since then, I have not purchased any other type or brand of trackball since... until recently when I was looking for another Trackball Explorer to use with my laptop and found that Microsoft had quit making them. I guess there were just not enough of us out there buying them to make them money. Of course, of the ones I purchased for various family members after finding the Trackball Explorer, I think I only had to replace one in the past 10 years or however long it has been, which means they did not make much from me after the initial purchases. I would guess that would be similar for other Trackball Explorer users.
Anyway, as for the new Expert Mouse, which I decided to try again. I have found that it is pretty much identical to the original wheeled type, only with it now being optical there is none of the hang-ups that would happen when the wheels would get gunk on them. Being optical also makes cursor movement more precise.
On the down side, diagonal movement is far slower and clunkier that vertical or horizontal, unlike the MS Trackball Explorer, which was smooth no matter which direction you moved the cursor, and even more precise than the Expert mouse.
It also takes a while to train yourself to not just lay your hand down wherever is comfortable when rolling the ball, as it is very easy to accidentally click the lower left or right buttons unless you keep your hand position in mind at all times. This was never a problem with the Trackball Explorer. Unlike the Trackball Explorer where all of the buttons and the scroll wheel were positioned right under your thumb and fingers, and required no hand movement to click or scroll, the Expert Mouse's controls do require you to adjust hand position for many actions. Also, unlike the wheel on the Trackball Explorer, the "ring" on the Expert Mouse has no push and click ability.
The Expert Mouse is well constructed, giving that "well made" feel I have never found in other trackballs except the Trackball Explorer.
All in all, even though the Trackball Explorer was by far superior in every way that I can think of, the Expert Mouse is the only real replacement for it since Microsoft decided to kill off the Trackball Explorer. I give the Expert Mouse 5 stars because it is a very good trackball, currently the best on the market in my opinion, though it would have received only a 4 if the Trackball Explorer were still available.
Customer Review: Great for mac and PC users. You'll wonder how you lived without it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, a trackball mouse will take a little bit of getting used to in the beginning, but it's not nearly as difficult as you might think, especially with this device!
The ball's movement is friction-free, precise, and effortless. I can navigate between dual monitors with ease, and the scroll ring is the most natural scrolling device I've felt on a mouse. I do find that the sound of the scroll ring is sometimes a bit rough, and I was worried about this complaint before ordering the mouse. But now that I have it, I've realized that the roughness is very slight, I don't find it to be that big of of a deal.
I love the programmable buttons because they can be used to program menu functions as well as opening applications. In addition, you can also program functions for when you press a combination of buttons. For example:
I have the four buttons programmed as follows: left-click, right-click, close document, close application. I also have it programmed so that when I press the two lower buttons together, it will minimize the active window. And when I press the two top buttons together, it will "restore" (i.e. un-maximize) the window so that I can move the window to my other monitor.
I never thought that something as simple as the ability to automate small tasks and program the mouse buttons would provide me with so much more efficiency, but it does.
This is a great improvement from the Kensington Turbo Mouse, in particular:
- The placement and functionality of the scroll ring
- The ball's effortless movement and optical tracking
- The wrist rest's feel and design
In addition, Kensington's customer service is beyond fantastic. I've had nothing but pleasant experiences when dealing with this company.
The best part is that even after hours and hours on the computer, my wrist no longer hurts the way it used to with a traditional mouse. This was such a great buy, that I now have two of these mice, for home and work. And it's worth every penny.
UPDATE - 9.25.08
Still love it, absolutely no complaints. My current setup is a sony VAIO, macbook pro, and a view sonic 20" monitor. I hooked this mouse up to a Starview 2-Port KVM Switch Kit with Cables (PC/Mac) and it works flawlessly. No loss of functionality or programmable button execution between operating systems. It was seamless. (And in case anyone is wondering... hooked up the monitor directly with a VGA cable to the sony, and DVI to the mac. Works great!)
Customer Review: Excellent product
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never even used a trackball device before buying this device, and I love it. It only took a few days to get used to it, and after a week or two, I don't think I would ever want to go back to a mouse.
As someone mentioned, when you first begin to use it, the ball does feel a little rough and makes a grinding type sound. Literally, within a couple hours, it was worn in and now is silky smooth.
With the exception of the ball and scroll ring, it does look very "plasticy", which, of course it is. It could use an updated look, but I don't downgrade it for that.
The one improvement I wish is had was a better scroll ring. My previous mouse was the Logitech MX Revolution Mouse (which didn't look "plasticy"), and I LOVED the scroll wheel on that thing. It was on ball bearings, and had some heft to it, so you could give it a spin and it would spin for several seconds. Very handy for scrolling to the bottom of a large spreadsheet or web page. However, that mouse gave me tendinitis in my thumb. I wish this scroll wheel was on ball bearings and had more heft as well. As it, it does not scroll very smoothly, but it is better than nothing. I don't know if other trackballs have this feature, but it they didn't, I don't think I would like them.
UPDATE: After a few more weeks of using this trackball, I have discovered a downside. The position of the left click wheel is such that it requires a lateral pressing motion of the thumb, which is starting to give me a sharp pain in my thumb. I've tried using my middle and ring finger to roll the ball, leaving my index finger for clicking, but that just doesn't feel right. If the button was more on the side, so you could depress it with the bottom of your thumb instead of the side, I think it would totally alleviate that problem. I did recently purchase the Logitech Optical Marble Mouse. It's button is on the side, which was much better. However, I didn't like the smaller ball nor the lack of scrolling ability. You can click a button, and then scroll with the ball, then re-click the button to return to normal function, but I found that extremely unhandy.
I love the size of the ball, and while the scroll ring could be improved, I really like it as well. But while it pains me to remove a star from my rating (if I can figure out how to), I can't justify giving 5 stars to a device that causes thumb pain. I'm not sure it I'll be able to keep using this. Why can't someone design the perfect mouse/trackball?
Customer Review: I love my trackball
Summary: 5 Stars
Earlier this year, I started experiencing some hand and finger problems including pain and numbness. I was noticing it most near the end of a long day, and while using my mouse.
For a long time, I had been using (and loving) the Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. I can't stand wired mice, and Optical is a must, so this mouse was a good fit for me. But, having 3 screens requires a lot of mouse movement, even with very high mouse speed.
When I mentioned my hand pain to Chris (coworker), he suggested switching to a trackball. He had hand problems many years ago, but they had subsided after switching to a trackball. I wasn't persuaded yet though. I had tried working at Chris's computer before, and I couldn't stand using the trackball. Using his computer made me feel like I was trying to draw a portrait with my left hand (I'm incredibly inept with my left hand). I didn't think I'd be able to adjust to the trackball.
About a week later though, Chris was out of the office for the day. I asked if I could borrow his trackball and try it at my station. What a difference! It turns out that my clumsiness with the trackball before was just because I was sitting at his desk, using his keyboard, from his chair. There were too many factors and overall, I was uncomfortable. At my workstation however, the trackball was very natural. I purchased one that very day; the same one he had--a Kensington Optical Expert Trackball Mouse 7.0 with scroll ring.
This device is awesome. The scroll ring is very, very nice. The programmable buttons are slick too. I have the upper-left button programmed as a double-click, which saves time and frustration many times. The click-lock is programmed as the combo of the bottom 2 buttons--and that's handy when moving windows. I love being able to just flick my fingers and move the cursor across 2 screens, even moving windows this way. I've gotten to be very precise with the trackball--more so than I could've ever gotten with a mouse. Best of all though: no hand or finger problems while computing anymore.
If you have a coworker that uses a trackball, see if you can borrow it at your station one day while he or she is out of the office. I've converted Jess by letting him borrow mine. He and I are both very happy we made the switch. And, thanks to Chris for the advice!
(http://blog.jeffhandley.com/archive/2007/12/06/i-love-my-trackball.aspx)