Kensington Expert Mouse - Wired Ergonomic TrackBall Mouse for PC, Mac and Windows with Scroll Ring, Ambidextrous Design and Optical Tracking - Grey (64325)

Great trackball. Easy to connect; just plug the dongle in, and it's good to go. Really good size of trackball allows me to use three fingers to navigate precisely with my non-dominant hand. Comfortable to use from the couch too. The buttons click nicely and the scroll wheel works well. It's definitely a little bit pricey, but definitely worth it to be able to rest my injured dominant hand but still be able to enjoy good precision when using my home PC. The ball comes out easily to clean, so I wouldn't want to take this loose in my bag into the office, but that isn't really a consideration for me since I've switched this one out for the Orbit Fusion, which I'll take to work instead.

UPDATE 24 FEB 2011 Here is an update to my original review. I just as keen on this excellent input device as I was a year ago when I bought it. It has been in constant use and it really is imho the best input device I have ever used. I use it for graphics, mostly in Adobe Illustrator for example and there is so much control and it is precise. Equally it can go very quickly across screens so I can get across my two screens easily. I also use it for editing video in Final Cut Pro and here, it is really superb. It's great big trackball makes it very easy to just creep forward and back a frame at a time. I really do think that people may overlook this terrific input device because it is not slick and cool, but it is very much the best possible thing for the job. My only comment that could be negative, but isn't, is that using it exclusively may risk RSI problems with you shoulder. I think this is true of any mouse of this sort. That is why I also use the Contour RollerMouse Free. This I use for scrolling around word processing documents and that kind of thing. ORIGINAL REVIEW MARCH 2010 I bought mine on 30 January so I've had it for six weeks now. I absolutely love it! I do not use it exclusively, I use it in conjunction with a Contour RollerMouse Free. However I use the Kensington Expert Mouse for graphics. I recently just finished doing a lot of editing of a video with Final Cut Express and the Expert Mouse is superb for this kind of thing. Many years ago I used a Kensington trackball, I think in about 1995, and I really like that one, but this is so much better because it has such a large trackball. The negative things about this trackball are that it feels a bit cheap in construction compared with say, a Logitech or Microsoft mouse at this price, however I think it is well constructed nevertheless. It looks rather 70s to me but I don't mind this. In actual use the feel is very good. The scroll wheel bearing surface is noisy in a plasticy way but there is no problem with this in use. From time to time it is a good idea to remove a build up of gunge on the three little ball bearings. I keep an old toothbrush nearby for this purpose. It's also quite good to take the ball out and polish it, perhaps with your shirt :) Any of these small negatives are hugely outweighed by the fact that the level of control over the cursor is superb. That is what an input device like this is for and that is what it does so well. Before I got this I tried the most expensive Logitech mouse, however the software for that on my Mac was a disaster so I had to send it back. IMHO the Kensington Expert Mouse is a far better buy than that more expensive Logitech mouse. The level of control over the cursor is much better. The software for the Kensington Expert Mouse works very well indeed on my Mac. I use it with the default settings and it is fine. The scroll direction can be switched with a menu in the menu bar at the top of the Mac OS screen and this is very handy. If you buy this you will be initially disappointed when you take it out of the packaging. You will think it is a prop from the Star Wars movie. When you first use it you will think it is a bit weird if you have not used a trackball before. You will still be having doubts. After a week of using it you will never want to use a "normal" mouse again!

After years of faithful service from my Kensington Expert trackball, I decided to upgrade to the SlimBlade Pro for its portability and modern features. While it's undeniably a quality device, I find myself missing some aspects of my old reliable Expert. The SlimBlade Pro's biggest strength is definitely its portability - being able to easily slip it into a laptop bag and use it anywhere is fantastic. The dual connectivity (Bluetooth and wireless) works seamlessly, and switching between devices is effortless. Battery life is excellent, easily lasting weeks of regular use. The twist-to-scroll feature works well once you get used to it, and the clicking sound isn't as annoying as I feared it might be. Build quality feels premium and the device looks sleek on any desk setup. However, for some reason it just doesn't feel as comfortable or natural as my old Expert did. Maybe it's the different button layout, or perhaps the ball response feels slightly different - I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about the overall experience feels less satisfying. The Expert just had this perfect "feel" that I haven't quite recaptured with the SlimBlade Pro. The trackball does pick up dust and grime fairly quickly, requiring weekly cleaning to maintain smooth operation. Not a huge issue, but worth noting. It's a very good trackball that does everything it promises, and the portability factor alone makes it worthwhile for anyone who travels with their setup. Just don't expect it to necessarily feel better than whatever quality trackball you might already be used to. Pros: Excellent portability, dual connectivity, long battery life, premium build Cons: Doesn't quite match the comfort of older Kensington models, collects dust quickly

I bought one of these a couple of years ago and love using it. It's a little on the expensive side, but since I bought it to ease RSI problems, it has certainly been worth it for me. It *does* work on Vista to an extent - at least for me it does. The ball, scroll wheel and three buttons work without any additional software. The problem is that the software that allows you to program the buttons and adjust the scroll speed, etc is not fully supported on Vista. Apparently if you use it with a PS-2 connection rather than USB, the software works, but I haven't tried this. The ball is a decent size meaning that you are not scrunching your hand around a mouse, but instead have your palm open over the trackball. The rest makes it more comfortable to use, but it a bit tricky to remove once attached (I coax the black stems out of the bottom with a ruler). The scroll wheel stopped working for me after 2 years, but the 5 year warranty on this product meant I've now got a replacement trackball. Despite the problem with the scroll wheel, I really can't fault it. I will say, however, that the US support team were more helpful over email than the UK team. A call into the UK team was far more productive than email.

After having used the left/right-handed Logitech Marble Mouse pretty happily for six years why has this monster just become my new best friend? The snooker sized ball is massive and comfortable. It sits very well right next to the keyboard, the wrist rest encourages a very natural and ergonomic sitting position. The Logitech's design always had me wanting to be able to incline it sideways off the desk at an angle. Most of Logitech's right-handed-only models do cradle the hand at a slight angle. The ambidextrous model however doesn't. Presumably this is so they can flog more of these units to both left and right handers rather than simply make just ONE of their products for lefties, ok, rant over. The Kensington's large ball allows you to alter the angle at which your hand sits, as a far larger area of your fingers makes contact with the ball. A lot of other reviewers of this product on other sites say a great deal about the hardware so there's no point re-hashing that here other than to agree it does feel a bit on the cheap and plasticy side, but that said personally, I'd much rather something that's well made and works well than something that just looks good. The hardware is however only part of the story. It's the software that comes bundled with this that really makes the difference. You can easily program each of the 4 buttons and assign functions both the top two buttons and the bottom two buttons being pressed simultaneously too which effectively increases the number of buttons to six. The functions you can ascribe these buttons is extremely impressive, things I'd never have thought of as mouse functions. One click can bring up a really nifty `alt-tab' alternative. You can program any button to emulate any keyboard presses, so anything from entering a string of text to say Windows-D-ing or Windows-E-ing. You can even create your own right click menus. The mouse buttons can also be told to function differently within different programs. I've only just started using this but I knew in an instant that this is a really nice bit of kit.

I've had lots of trackballs over the years. All have started off well, but quickly disappointed, typically let down by poor quality switches and poor bearings so the ball would not glide freely. So far, although this isn't my favourite layout, this is proving to be the best for quality and reliability. I like the large ball. It is easy to clean, and it glides nicely. The switches so far are positive and don't bounce. I like the glossy finish too - I can't stand that matt finish that other trackballs use which goes gummy after using it for a while. I'm not a fan of the twist-to-scroll idea, and would have preferred a proper scroll-wheel, but it does the job. I'm a Linux user, so the middle mouse button gets used a lot. Unfortunately, it's not very conveniently placed and requires a change in hand position to use it. I also wish it would wake up quicker after going into power-saving mode. I don't use the pointer for long periods, so when I do reach for it, I have to waggle it around for a couple of seconds to wake it up. The battery life is excellent, so it really doesn't need to power down so aggressively. My search for the perfect trackball continues, but so far this is the best I've found in terms of quality and reliability. It's pointless having a more ergonomic layout if the buttons don't work, or the ball is erratic, so I'm sticking with this for now.

Why, why did I wait to buy one of these it's beyond brilliant. First up let me explain, about 3 months before buying this I had a fall and broke my wrist, broke 2 bones and did some ligament damage - ouch, yes it's as painful as it sounds and if you take nothing else away from this review be careful with icy pavements. The healing from a broken wrist can take up to a year in some cases and a lot of pain ensues while thats happening, when I had a cast on for 6 weeks towards the end there was no discomfort hardly at all so in my head it's yay, cast off, back to normal, rock on. Er no, as the cast came off my reaction was mm ow ow OW OW! MOTHERFU.... that hurts, and so began a quest to find someting I could use comfortably and get my extremely bored arse back to work. So finally, the trackball itself, what can I say, silky smooth operation from the actual ball, being 55mm across it means you can control it with three fingers if needs be, the four buttons around the ball are totally customisable if you download a small application from Kensingtons website and you aren't limited to four functions either, you can add keys to each button so you get a different function if you press shift, or control, or alt or the win key so four individual functions on each of four buttons - that's a lot of shortcuts. In addition to this you can specify a set of shortcuts for each application, the combinations and permutations are mind boggling. There is also a scroll wheel right next to the ball and again it's customisable in terms of speed and direction and inertia which I tried but didn't like but it's worth looking at it to see if it works for you. There is of course the usual pointer speed control which using a super ultra wide high resolution monitor I have set quite high to quickly move around the huge screen area, that is fine but it's not the most precise method - however Kensington have thought of that too, you can set one of three keys to instantly and temporarily lower the pointer speed making precision a doddle, there is even a setting to lock the movement to just vertical or horizontal movement in a single axis and while this might not sound like the pinnacle of technology if say you have a bunch of tabs open in a browser or are going through a bunch of drop down menus in a professional application such as Photoshop or illustrator - which I do all day every day while doing actual work it just makes it even easier - hence quicker to use. It's just one more reason to like this trackball and why I will NEVER go back to using a mouse again - ever. Looking at one of the other reviews there was a criticism that you had to float your arm to use the trackball and it placed strain on your arm/wrist - well as this was the entire reason I'd been looking at things like this trackball to reduce just that and allow me to get back to work take a look at this... https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0752MCX82/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's basically a device that clamps to your desk and cradles your arm taking the weight and strain away from your arm - and crucially for me the wrist, a combination of that cradle and this trackball means I have a perfectly straight arm position from the elbow to fingertips and the sometimes unbearable pain of using a mouse - and i've tried 6, everything from gaming mice to really thin bluetooth mice to smaller sized mice, even a vertical mouse has gone, I can use this for hours with nothing more than the odd twinge - using a mouse all day I'd have to mainline so many painkillers it'd turn me into a zombie. Very seldom do I buy anything that makes a real improvement to my daily life but this is definitely one of those times and I don't like this trackball I love it.

So as the reviews all seem to be tied into each other, this review is for the Kensington Wireless Trackball Expert Mouse (Red ball + 4 buttons) Crap. I have several of the Kensington Orbit Optical Wired USB Trackball Mouse with Scroll Ring (blue ball) and they are absolutely superb so I thought I would take a punt on the much more expensive wireless version to help me move about with my laptop (I hate the trackpad on my work laptop). 1st problem - I wanted to be mobile with this. Made an incorrect assumption that the ball was the same sort of size as the blue one in the orbit. BZZZZZT. It's massive. This thing has a direct influence on the earth's tides. 2nd problem - The planet-sized orb falls out if turned upside down which, if you want to be mobile like me then this is a constant annoyance (the blue orbit version holds the sphere in place) 3rd problem - the scroll wheel is appalling. I read reviews saying that it was crap and thought maybe people weren't used to it or something, how bad could it be compared to the smooth and accurate one on the Orbit version (you can flick that one and it will spin and keep going, for me also useful). This one will move and that's the best I can say about it. It feels crap and uncomfortable to use. The size of the ball also makes it an issue if you want to twist the wheel more than 1 cm. I know there are ways to improve this and was going to do so but after the next problem I decided not to bother. 4th problem - The deal breaker for me was that the main selling point was that it was wireless Bluetooth. I also have a pair of BT headphones and the 2 do not get on even when not connected to the same device. When my headphones (Bose QC-35 if that is relevant) are on, this trackball drops off every 10 seconds. I don't know who is to blame but even if it is my headphones fault, they win this round. Summary - It's like this has been made by a completely different company to the one that made my beloved Orbit. Tried my best to put up with all of its foibles and for 20 quid, I might have but this thing cost me over £100. Not a chance, had to go back.