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By Justin Yu, CNET.com on 27 April 2009 12:37 PM
Tags: trackball, kensington, slimblade, buttons, mode
1 2 While I cannot yet review the product reviewed here, because my order has not been delivered yet, I still can review the review.
It's bad.
The author obviously does not normally use a trackball and simply compares this trackball to what is apparently his favourite pointing device, which isn't a trackball at all. Worse still, the SlimBlade Trackball is not compared to any of its Kensington made predecessors, such as the ExpertMouse or ExpertMouse Pro. The product is not even adequately compared to the Logitech trackballs that the author refers to.
I have bought and used a few symmetrical Logitech trackballs over the years. They are much smaller, quite improperly designed for (large) adult hands, unsuitable for gaming because it is possible to actually knock the ball out of its socket by pushing it sideways. This cannot happen with an ExpertMouse/Pro, though I suspect it may be possible with a SlimBlade because the ball appears to stick out slightly higher. The reviewer would have found that out if he'd had any general or gaming trackball experience or had expended more than a cursive look at the product. under review
Using the Logitech trackballs actually convinced me to find and buy a larger, better designed and much more expensive trackball, which turned out to be a Kensington Expert Mouse Pro, which is very similar in dimensions to the product under review. (When after 4 years of intensive use the DirectLaunch buttons at the top of the device started failing, I got a free replacement in the mail.)
The only valid contribution of this review could have been that there should be a Bluetooth option. But then the author could have gone on to explain that on a niche market, having a decent size trackball for only AU$149.99 doesn't leave much room for options, but does make trackball users very happy.
Had he had the least inkling of what RSI is about, the author might also have explained that trackballs do not cure wrist pains and other RSI symptoms, but do in fact prevent them, and that if we all used trackballs on well-adjusted tables sitting on well-adjusted seats in stress-free environments, then there would likely be fewer RSI sufferers in the first place.
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this is my first trackball (got it for $129.99) and after only a couple of days i like it a lot... i was already using SteerMouse on the Mac, so i use that to adjust tracking and sensitivity... i really like having the choice of twisting the ball to scroll, and also being able to click into Media mode and use the trackball to scroll... i wouldn't mind if it had Bluetooth, but then i'm also relieved to not have batteries to worry about... some of the comments in this review are silly... size of a mouse pad??? worrying about the ball falling out if the whole unit gets knocked over???
The good: smooth action, ergonmically friendly... 5 year warranty...
The bad: not cheap, top two buttons are not user-configurable (they don't send standard mouse button messages)...