Kensington Expert Trackball Mouse (K64325), Black Silver, 5"W x 5-3/4"D x 2-1/2"H

Once, many many years ago, I went over to my friends house and was amazed and very curious about an input device he had plugged into his computer in lieu of a traditional mouse. Ever since then, I've wanted to try out a trackball but never did. Recently I've been using my computer from my bed, my keyboard on my lap, my mouse to my side. This position wasn't that efficient for mouse use, the mouse wanted to slide towards me so i had to put some books under the mouse pad in a very ghetto setup, and prolonged use from that position made my shoulder sore. I decided I would try out a trackball and see if that was better. I did my research and it looked like the kensington expert was exactly what i wanted: a large ball you control with your fingers not your thumb, multiple buttons, had a scroll wheel, the price was decent, it got good reviews, and most importantly looked awesome. And it relieved my sore shoulder. This trackball was everything I was hoping for.- The ball is very large and allow precise movements, which was my primary interest when looking at all the trackballs on the market. I tried out the extremely popular logitech thumb trackball and the thumb movement wasn't for me, it's imprecise and made me sea sick in FPS games. The ball is pretty heavy but once you break it in (ie cover the ball in hand oil) the ball rotates very smoothly and doesn't stick.- The two extra buttons are invaluable. After using a mouse with 2 extra buttons, it would be hard to go back to a mouse with only left and right click. The buttons on this trackball are huge and do take a bit of getting used to. Left clicking with your thumb becomes second nature after a bit of use, but the two upper buttons are more difficult to reach and for me, it took me quite a while to press the upper buttons when I needed to without really consciously thinking about it. Once you get used to it it's pretty awesome though. A word of warning if you enjoying gaming though: moving the cursor + clicking the upper two buttons is kinda difficult, with the upper left button being near impossible (when using your right hand; left hand vice versa). This is probably the worst thing about trackballs in general: you're controlling the cursor with your fingers instead of your hand movement. In order to have smooth cursor movement, it's difficult to press harder to reach buttons or press multiple buttons simultaneously. This negative isn't a deal breaker for me, but it is something to keep in mind. This trackball's software enables button chording (pressing the two lower or two upper buttons simultaneously for a third input [ie press left + right click at the same time to get middle click]) but I hate the software so I can't use it. More on that in the tips n tricks section below.- This trackball has a scroll wheel. It's not bad but I'm not 100% happy with it. The scroll wheel works fine, it scrolls exactly when it's supposed to and it doesn't feel terrible, but sometimes (maybe it's just mine) the wheel doesn't feel very solidly in there, it has a bit of jiggle, but it only feels that way sometimes. In addition the "grating sand" texture isn't amazing but it's not bad. I thought I would dislike it a hell of a lot more after reading all those bad reviews. The scroll wheel isn't bad, it's not enough to drop my review down a star, but I wouldn't say I love it either.- Trackballs are pretty expensive, it seems like they either fall into the overpriced and crappy category, or the overpriced and good category. This trackball falls into the latter. Compared to other trackballs or similar price I would say this is a pretty good value. At the time of this writing, $70 is pretty dang amazing (I bought it for $75).___Here are some miscellaneous tips n tricks about my experience with this trackball:* The software that you can download from the kensington website, trackballworks, is the worst piece of crap. Mouseworks or whatever the previous version was called I hear was significantly better and allowed a lot of customization, but sadly it doesn't work past windows XP. The feature I was talking about earlier, chording, is useless if you game AT ALL. The way chording works in this software is thusly: You press a button, but before the input for that button goes through, the software waits about half a second to see if you're going to press another button. This works ok outside of games where you rarely push two mouse buttons at the same time. I thought "oh ok I'll just turn the feature off." NOPE. Even if you don't assign anything to the chord input, there's still a half second delay, AND if you do push both buttons simultaneously, instead of sending both buttons inputs like you would expect, it sends NO INPUT. This effectively makes the software worse than useless for gaming. I called kensington support about this issue I was having and their answer was "that's just a limitation of the software, there's nothing you can do." So I thought "ok I'll just close the software" but for some reason that completely screwed up the scroll wheel, making it act weird as hell. After a few days I had the thought to uninstall the software which disabled chording and restored the scroll wheel's function. If you game, don't install the terrible software.* If you don't install the software but still want to assign different inputs to the buttons than the defaults (left click, right click, button 4, middle click, going counterclockwise from the bottom left button) then install x-mouse button control. I found that program searching for an answer to my question with trackball works. x-mouse button control is amazing, you can assign whatever inputs you want to the buttons, and even have each button do a different thing depending on the program you're in. Just pretend x-mouse button control is the software that comes with this trackball and never look back.* For those of you who are concerned about the reviews talking about the ball sticking, don't worry, after a little use it loosens up. For very precise movements, if the ball is stiff, it won't move at all until you reach a certain level of force, then it will suddenly unstick and the cursor will move way further than you intended. If this is happening, just use the trackball for a few hours and eventually the ball will be coated in natural hand oils. If it becomes smooth and then starts sticking again, trying cleaning the metal contact points the ball rests on with a bit of rubbing alcohol, this always makes the ball roll super smooth again for me. And here's something I recently found out: microfiber cloths are amazing. Wiping the ball for a few seconds with a microfiber cloth made the ball roll like new again and prevents sticking for days/weeks.* This trackball was uncomfortable to me at first. My hand didn't know how to properly use it and my wrist would get sore. After just a few days of heavy use, it became waaay more comfortable to use. It's all about how used to it you are. Don't listen to the negative reviews saying how uncomfortable this trackball is, all trackballs are more ergonomic than mice, and this one is no exception.This is by far the longest review I've written for an amazon purchase but this trackball deserves it. I love this thing. Do your research and buy the trackball you think is best for you, but if you do end up buying this one you won't be disappointed.

After having read several reviews around the web and being aware of the potential downsides as well as the upsides, I decided to buy myself one of these. Boy, am I glad I did. Admittedly, I'm the kind of person who's not satisfied with the typical mousing solution (I have really big hands and I do a lot of delicate work) and likes to try new things, so if that's not you then you may want to try one out before you buy if possible, or at least get one with a return policy. Caveat emptor. That being said, short of building a custom one myself, the Kensington Expert Mouse is pretty much what I want in a trackball, and having used it for awhile any regular mouse feels foreign and less-than-intuitive.First, the cons, in order of greatest to least issue (and they're all minor issues to me anyway).:: It does have a bit of a backward slope to it, probably about 10-15 degrees, which my large hands and already-tilted desk find mildly awkward. If you have a desk that's fairly high above your lap, then that backward slant will probably match the angle your arms are already at and this won't be an issue.:: The scroll wheel, as has been mentioned elsewhere, does feel a little scratchy, like a plastic-on-plastic sort of texture. It's not quite the buttery-smooth, gliding motion you expect after using the ball itself (more on that later) - it feels more like the back of a plastic spoon sliding across a Formica counter. That said, mine wasn't that bad, and probably would go away with a bit of silicone oil, but other reviews range from "not a problem at all" to "nasty-feeling deal breaker" so I suspect that Kensington's quality control could use a bit of tightening up. Again, get one with a return policy in case you don't like it. Common sense. I find myself using the scroll wheel less than I would otherwise anyway, as I've mapped one of the buttons to middle-click and I use that in web browsers to scroll up and down by moving the cursor. Smoother and easier than the scroll wheel.:: Occasionally, a button click won't register if you press the button on the corner or edge - you have to get closer to the middle. Rarely an issue unless I'm gaming, because my hands have a large span and I may physically miss the button at a critical moment when I'm not paying attention. It'll come with practice, I'm sure, just something to be aware of if you have palm-a-basketball-sized hands like me.Now, to the pros! Whee!:: Yes, it's got a pretty big footprint - it's about 5.5" by 9" with the included stiff-foam wrist rest (which I do recommend using, because of the aforementioned back angle) - but it doesn't move around. It takes up about 60% of the desk space that you'd dedicate to a typical mouse pad. Especially on those pull-out keyboard trays, there isn't enough room to use a mouse, but since the Kensington Expert trackball is under six inches wide it'll fit in a nice little rectangle next to the keyboard. Height is another matter, since the ball itself sticks out pretty high, but I don't personally find it to be too much of an issue. YMMV.:: The four large, programmable buttons. I'm not a lefty, but I mouse left-handed, so being able to map the buttons to essentially whatever I want with Kensington's free software is absolutely a blessing. In addition, different people will prefer to use different fingers for tasks of varying frequency, so whereas I don't right-click much and map it to where my ring finger sits, someone else may put it under their index finger or thumb. The software in general is pretty easy to use, and has enough functionality to feel nicely customizable without being so in-depth that only an advanced power user can take advantage of its potential.:: The trackball. Oh, that trackball. Smoother than a greased Fonzie on a Teflon-coated ice rink. Right out of the package it actually feels slightly rough or not as free-spinning, because the ball and its three contact points are completely pristine. Once you get some skin oils on it through use, it's like buttah. Gross-sounding, I know, but pretty much everything you touch gets skin oil on it. Speaking of which, the ball is just dropped into its socket, so to clean out the inevitable gunk that will accumulate in any trackball assembly you just have to turn it upside down and the ball falls out. No disassembly required. The inside of the socket is smooth plastic, so you just wipe it out and get back to work. The ball itself has a nice bit of weight to it, and is positively pleasurable to the hands in use. It's got a solid feel and has some inertia when you move it, which brings me to the next point...:: It has an infinite range of very smooth motion. I currently have a dual-monitor setup, and (besides being very awkward and un-ergonomic) I despise having to pick up a mouse, move it back to the other side of my mouse pad and continue my motion across the screen. DESPISSSSSE. It makes my fingers recoil just thinking about it... Ahem. Anyways. A quick flick of the ball will send the cursor moving across the screen, and the ball's inertia will continue the motion. It doesn't jump around or go crazy, it just follows the ball like it's supposed to. I have the acceleration parameter in the software set to maximum, so a fast motion of the ball will cover lots of ground quickly, but slow motions will still allow fine, precise positioning of the mouse. This becomes an even greater blessing with triple- or quad-monitor setups, and once again, this trackball takes up less desk space than an ordinary mouse. You don't have to have a huge screen to need this, either... for extra-fine work like Photoshop or video editing, you may want to slow the cursor speed down, which effectively makes the screen much larger relative to the motion of the mouse. There is no picking up and putting down with the Kensington Expert trackball - you just keep rolling. If you're not there yet... keep rolling. It feels natural, the way navigating a computer should.So, to sum it all up, I guess I could say that I love my Kensington Expert Mouse because it feels right. It's intuitive to use, customizable, ergonomic, and it just works. There are a couple little niggles, but in my humble opinion they are far outweighed by how they make my computing experience easier and more natural. Because everyone has different needs for their computing experience, not everyone will want or need one of these. If I was just an occasional casual computer user that isn't concerned with ergonomics or ease of use, I would absolutely think twice about spending $75 on a mouse I'm not sure I'll like when the one I have mostly does what I need it to. But that's probably not Kensington's primary market here. For me, and people like me, it's worth the money to make my interface with my computer feel good, because I use it every day.