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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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for PC or Mac 64325
Customer Review: great product
Summary: 5 Stars
I've used Kensington Expert Trackballs for many years, after upgrading from Logitech trackballs. My previous Kensington recently died after 8(?) years of great performance.
On this model, Amazon beat most brick and mortar store prices by about $20+, plus free shipping and no tax. It arrived ontime.
The installation on a Dell desktop running XP took about 2 minutes. I plugged the USB cable into the PC and was immediately recognized. I downloaded current drivers from the Kensington site, adjusted the settings and started using it. I find the feel comparable to my earlier versions, plus it comes with the ergonomic pad. I've read the other reviews and don't really understand the gripes.
One thing to be aware of is that the Mouseworks driver appears to have some incompatibility with the Firefox browser. Not sure which is the culprit. After each Firefox launch I have to reset the pointer acceleration and the snap-to setting. Plus Firefox does not recognize the scroll function; it shows the scroll icon on the screen after chording, but neither the ring nor the ball activate scrolling. I believe the problem is with Firefox since scrolling works in IE and I have no reset problems. Inconvenient, but not sure if this is a Kensington problem per se. I e-mailed them to ask, got a prompt response to install the default driver rather than the newer Beta version, but that didn't work either. (Aside: I wonder if the MS trackball recognizes Firefox?)
Great product, decent price from Amazon versus others. I highly recommend it even with the Firefox issue.
Customer Review: Very ergonomic and versatile
Summary: 5 Stars
This has a very simple design but it works brilliantly, reason being because just over 50% of the trackball is exposed so you can use your palm, your thumb, finger, even your feet (?!). The buttons are large enough so that whatever position your hand is in, you will always have easy access to at least two of them. Add the ability to customise each button and you can easily find the perfect position (I use the left mouse click and browser back button the most so have them set up for easy reach). The scroll wheel is also helpful, but to be honest I tend to use the keyboard for scrolling.
The Mouseworks software (download the latest version from their website) is also easy to use, allowing you to customise the buttons, introduce button combinations and change the sensitivity of the trackball. Also handy is a rest reminder, which you can set to give you a pop-up and sound alert to take a break - very important for those who work intensely for long hours. I use the rest reminder to remind me to change my working position for a while - the beauty of the Expert Mouse is that I can use it comfortably while standing up and working without feeling any wriststrain. Another feature of the software I use is the ability to mirror the buttons for left-handed use, allowing you to quickly swap hands if you want to.
While this is relatively expensive, I would highly recommend the Expert Mouse as a sound investment for those who are concerned about finding an ergonomic mouse/trackball that can be comfortably used in several positions. Kensington have a top product here.
Customer Review: The best of breed, but not quite perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
Fresh out of the box, the action of the ball was not as smooth as my old Kensington Turbo Mouse (I have both versions 3 & 4). The old ones have large stainless steel rollers which provided the smoothest action I had experienced. When I looked inside the new Expert Trackball I was surprised to find not rollers, but just three "frictionless" contact points supporting the ball. I couldn't imagine that these would ever provide the effortless action of the old models. But within a couple of hours of light use, the bearing surfaces must have achieved break-in, because it is now incredibly smooth--far better than the old ones.
As others have noted, the action of the scroll ring is not so smooth. It's wonderful to have it there, way better than a little scroll wheel. However, the rough feel seems oddly incongruous with the quality of the rest of the device.
Kensington MouseWorks is very well done, allowing easy programming of all functions. In Mac OS X it appears in the System Preferences.
If you have trouble with arm or wrist pain from using a normal mouse, this is well worth the cost. I keep it to the left of my keyboard, to give my right wrist a needed rest. I have an Evoluent Vertical Mouse on the right for times when the trackball is not the optimal input device. Together they allow all day pain free computing.
Sometimes I have to plug it in a couple of times before the driver software kicks in. Not sure what that's all about yet.
Customer Review: Excellent Piece of Equipment
Summary: 5 Stars
I now own 2 of these Trackball Kensingtons. The first I've been using with my Power Mac at home over 3 years for editing with Final Cut Pro and computing / web surfing in general. With a 20" wide 16x9 AR monitor and very limited space for a convential mouse to move around this was the perfect solution. With the substantial weight of the ball itself and very precise tracking, once I got the feel and used to moving the cursor with it I was and am now able to make it fly quickly to wherever on the big sized screen in a "blink" it seems. It comes with a very nice cushion which attaches to it with a push snap set of little plastic nubs. My wife bought me an even more comfortable gel cushion for the same purpose. Totally happy with it.
Then a couple months ago at work with my PC setup and a decent sized 4x3 monitor, an often paper strewn desk and again limited space for the conventional mouse, I got tired of running it off of its little mouse pad. (I know....it's possible to adjust the mouse to cover more area with the same travel). Anyway I went ahead and bought another Kensington on my own dime for the work application and use its supplied palm pad. Great decision.
Pros: Everything. High quality construction. Easy to clean the optics whenever needed by simply lifting or tipping the ball out. 4 assignable buttons and scroll ring.
Cons: None (unless you consider the $80 or so which can be found online too much to spend)
Customer Review: Excellent Trackball
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using kensington trackballs for over 10 years and have owned the Expert Pro (blue and beige), Turbo Mouse (4 button beige) and the Orbit. I have used this particular model for over 1 year. Still works great.
Pros:
- Excellent Kensington software that makes this trackball highly configurable and customizable.
- 4 button design allows you to map frequently used actions to the buttons.
- Optical. Adds precision and allows the trackball to accumulate more dirt before you need to clean it.
- Scroll wheel. It is well placed and easy to use (unlike the scroll wheel from the previous blue and beige model)
- Big ball. Easy to move, allows for more precise movements, more comfortable on the hands.
Cons:
- Scroll wheel not fluid. The scroll wheel feels like it could use a little grease. It's physical and does not affect scrolling on screen. But it does give the trackball a cheap feel and makes scrolling noisy.
- Maintenance. Even though it is optical, you will still need to clean it from time to time. Dirt accumulates in the cavity holding the ball and will interfere with the optical sensor if you don't clean it on a regular basis. It's not hard to clean but they should design it next time so it doesn't trap as much dirt. Perhaps have a hole at the bottom so dirt just falls through.
All in all a great trackball. Not as well built as my old Turbo Mouse but this should last for a long time.