Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325
by Kensington
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List Price: Our Price: $68.53 You Save: $59.42 (46%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $35.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325
Customer Review: Best Trackball mouse I've used!
Summary: 5 Stars
After developing some pain in my wrist and forearm, I began to re-explore using a trackball. I was an avid trackball fan, but when my last trackball (an old MS trackball, since discontinued) gave up the ghost I went back to standard mice, using primarily MS Explorer Mouse.
I checked out the MS Intellipoint trackball, but did not like the layout or the cheap look to it. I did end up purchasing the Logitech Trackman wheel mouse, but after a few days just couldn't get comfortable using a thumb based trackball. So I took the plunge and purchased the Kensington Expert Optical Trackball. It was love at first use!
The trackball is a very decent size, just about the size of a billiard ball. The action of the ball is smooth as silk and easy to control with just the finger tips. Four buttons are on the unit and the right and left click buttons are conveniently assigned to the lower 2 buttons, making a mouse click a thumb press away (although the Kensington software will let you re-assign the buttons to your own preference).
The scroll wheell around the trackball is just brilliant. The wheel seems to have slight detents when scrolled, it think leading the "scratchy" comments that have been made. However, the slight resistance of the scroll wheel isn't that bad and I've found has led to slightly more precise scrolling - instead of encountering a free spinning wheel that's difficult to be accurate with. Concerning some of the comments that you can't turn the scroll wheel without moving the mouse, I've yet to encounter that. I tend to use the scroll wheel from the side so I've not experienced moving the mouse while scrolling.
As for the comments that the unit appears "cheaply" made, well all I can say is my unit has a very solid and satifying appearance, with all buttons working perfectly.
All said, this is probably one of the finest trackball mice I've used and well worth the money.
Customer Review: Continuing a Tradition of Greatness
Summary: 5 Stars
Kensingtion long ago established itself as the premier supplier of flexible, high performance, ergonomic pointing devices for personal computers. The current Expert Mouse Optical Trackball raises the bar for the followers, again.
Although I've not yet had mine long enough to be sure, I suspect that the new optical system will eliminate the need to clean dust, lint, and pet hairs out of the little wheels inside the base every few years. The MouseWorks driver retains its unassailed position as the Lexus of pointing device software. You want lots of ways to "click" with special, customizable meanings for each way? MouseWorks in combination with any pointing device will charm you. Combine MouseWorks with this four-button trackball, and you'll wonder why you ever considered any other pointing device.
One caveat: If you install on a MacBook (and perhaps other Apple laptops), MouseWorks seems unable to distinguish the high performance trackball from an ordinary two-button mouse on the WinDoze side if you run both MacOS and WinDoze XP on your MacBook. The regular Kensingtion "read the script" tech support folks won't even understand the problem (e.g., they'll tell you to "disconnect the track pad built into your lap top as though it were an external device you can unplug.) Possibly, if you get your concern escalated often enough, you'll eventually reach a point where a person who's empowered to think can offer useful help. Since I do not use the WinDoze side of my computer very often, this minor disappointment is not a high priority for me.
If using the trackball with full capability on both sides of a dual-OS MacBook matters to you, knock a star off this review. This product is outstanding enough to justify the extra effort to get help with proper installation on BOTH sides of your MacBook. I'll get it done some day (especially, if I ever REALLY need the WinDoze side of my MacBook).
Customer Review: Heads up for Windows Vista Users (possible fix for you)
Summary: 5 Stars
I just purchased this trackball despite all of the warnings about the Kensington MouseWorks software not being compatible on the Windows Vista platform. While that's true from an "official" standpoint, it's not true from an "unofficial" standpoint.
I can't guarantee this will work for everyone, but from an architectural standpoint, it should for any user on the Windows Vista 32-bit platform. The first thing I did was plug in the Kensington Expert 7.0 Trackball and once it was detected by Windows, I then downloaded the latest release of the MouseWorks software(v6.22) from Kensington's site and modified the properties of the 'setup.exe' to run in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode and then ran that 'setup.exe'.
Once the installation is complete, when you look in the 'Device Manager', it should show up as 'Kensington USB Expert Mouse'. Now if you don't reboot after the installation, when you open up the MouseWorks software, it will show that no Kensington devices are detected, however, after the reboot, the MouseWorks software should detect the device fine assuming you installed the software package in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.
I am able to use all of the programmable functions within the MouseWorks software for the Kensington Expert Mouse 7.0 release with zero issues on the Windows Vista 32-bit platform. 64-bit users are more than likely out of luck, but that problem is probably at the driver level.
If you don't see Kensington USB Expert Mouse in the 'Device Manager', you may want to find which human interface device is representing the Kensington trackball and then change the driver for it to point to the Kensington INF and manually select the Kensington trackball.
I can't guarantee it will work for everyone, but it really should. Good luck.
Customer Review: Best trackball I've used
Summary: 5 Stars
I use a trackball out of necessity to prevent a recurring repetitive-stress injury from recurring. I've probably tried 7 or 8 different types, and this one is by far the best:
- It's big, which in a trackball is good. The bigger the ball, the less fine motion you need to control it. The miniature trackballs make my hands hurt more than than a mouse does, and the trackballs that you manipulate with your thumb instead of your whole hand cause injuries (my thumb hurts to the point that I can't use it after a couple days).
- All four buttons are programable to do useful things. I have the upper right one programmed to toggle track-ball-as-scroll-wheel mode and the left one to flip between horizontal and vertical scrolling.
- The movement of the ball is silky smooth.
- The scroll ring works well, though it does rattle around a bit when you use it. The cheesy feel doesn't affect the functionality, however.
- The wrist pad is wonderful.
There are two negatives, which I can easily live with:
- Two-dimensional scrolling isn't supported. You need to hit a button to go from horizontal to vertical scrolling, and can't move diagonally, for example, to scroll simultaneously in both dimensions.
- There's a bug in Apple OS X 10.6.4 that prevents the machine from (sometimes) recognizing the device. I have a ridiculous workaround ----- close the cover, open the cover, plug in the trackball --- that solves the problem, but it's an annoyance. This problem is Apple's, however, not Kensington's. I've observed the problem with several external keyboards and mice, and also on several machines. OS versions up to and including 10.6.2 don't have this problem. Of course, Apple's own hardware works fine :-).
Customer Review: The Best And Most Durable Trackball I've Ever Owned! (A Report From 3 Years In)
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this trackball for 3 years now and it is still working like new. The ball was stiff when I first got it, but that went away after a day or so of use.
Look for the instructions left by "Eric G" in these comments as they make the scroll ring much nicer. I modded my 3 year old model just now by removing the magnet (held in by a springy piece of plastic with a post on it going through a hole in the magnet's center) and lubing the ring mechanism from the rear with "TDL Dry Lube" from the hardware store - TDL works really good on vertical blind mechanisms BTW). I first removed the left plastic button assembly (3 screws) in order to more easily remove the cup assembly (2 screws). I wish I had modded it when I first got it.
I also just removed the wrist rest - it was getting loose anyway (pad kept falling off of the plastic bridge piece) and it was causing a sore spot on my wrist. The desk seems like a better rest for now, though I keep feeling around with my wrist for the missing pad to locate the trackball - old habits...
This is the best and most durable trackball I've ever owned, and I've owned a ton of them over the years. Mechanical ones die very quickly if the bearings and rotors aren't hardened steel, optical is really the only way to go. Now if they could only put trackballs back in laptops I might consider buying one - touchpads and that stupid IBM rubber eraser tip thing drive me crazy!
If I could, the only thing I'd change about it is the angle - I'd rather rest my hand on the trackball case and have the ball itself located more forward. The angle my wrist takes when I use it is slightly uncomfortable.