Expert

absolutely they best mouse for executives, presenters, writers, artists and RTS gamers. I use this side by side with my other trackball for every other gaming and activities. lasts and lasts, is easy to clean. mind cable wear tho. this was the first time I've ever had a mouse catch fire. no fault of design. it got pinched and shorted. however the old one's electronics saved both the PC port and its own board. I had enough parts left over to combine with an old one and make a spare. 10/10 I will always leave a good review when repair-ability and durability meets functionality and class. love the flow of the trackball and how I can swirl it where I want it putting my finger back on it when it reaches its destination. with five screens it is a must.

February 04, 2024 Update: Track ball works well. Doesn't seem to have but one issue and that issue is probably my problem. The scroll ring sometimes and my fingers don't jive causing me top hit one of the corner buttons. I must further practice, do much more practice. New Thought, 31dec23: Dragging and dropping, for instance, an email in MS Outlook to a folder can be challenging. I have not figured out the best method. Am looking for any ideas... 28dec23: Overall, I like the trackball and am tentatively at about 60/40 thinking to keep the device. Has many interesting functions and possibilities. Will know more as I work to better use the device. I definitely need more practice with the trackball because my long-term use of a regular mouse allows me to be pretty fast with the mouse. Early Pro’s: 1. Bluetooth connecting is really easy. 2. Kensington Works software for the trackball is easily downloaded for the device and pretty easy to use although it is not overly intuitive. 3. Large trackball seems very good particularly located in the mid position. Is good for me with some tremors and a shaky thumb compared with a side trackball. The middle trackball is far superior, for me, to the side mounted track balls. With practice, I am sure that I can rapidly move the cursor via the trackball. 4. Left Click/lower left button works pretty well. I seem to have it pretty well figured. Using my thumb for this button. 5. Right Click/lower right button not so handy as the Left Click button. Learning. May do better with it after more practice. 6. Have not really used upper two buttons, yet. 7. Scroll ring works well. Don’t have clicking noise that other reviewers have reported. 8. Don’t know how the battery life will be; we shall see. 9. Don’t yet know how the wrist rest will be although it seems okay with this short time review. Early Concerns: 1. Will take considerable practice for me which I am willing to do to become proficient with the trackball. 2. Have already learned to be very careful not to simultaneously touch the trackball while trying to scroll. Is easy to do! Result is my inadvertent action takes me some crazy place I did not want to go!

I will legitimately cry when they stop making this trackball. I own two of them -- one for travel and one for my office -- and they're the only thing I'm comfortable using. The efficiency and ease of motion is incomparable for my graphic design work, especially across multiple monitors. Limiting the motion to my fingers has been a miracle for carpal tunnel that had been developing and ended up stopping the development of it altogether. Plus, I often need to work in a very confined space in a dark backstage area where bumping something could be catastrophic, and this keeps my movements minimal in such spaces. It's just perfect, and my oldest one lasted me for 6 years at this point. They're just incomparable products.

I bought a new Mac last May, and with it I got the Magic Mouse. I was willing to give the Magic Mouse a good try, but decided after approximately three months that I needed to go back to a track ball. This was after downloading several Magic Mouse programs, all of which were supposed to make the Mouse easier to use, had more gestures, etc. I tried them all, but still had issues with the Magic Mouse. I have limited space on my desk top to use any mouse, wireless or not. And a track ball serves my needs a lot better. Also the battery life on Apple's Magic Mouse required changing the batteries about once a month. I found this to be tedious--another reason to upgrade to the track ball. I had a Kensington track ball on my G4 computer, but the old track ball wasn't compatible with my new iMac. The new track ball doesn't have the four buttons on the top of the track ball, and I would like them back. The previous model had an easy-to-use scroll wheel on the top of the ball. The new model doesn't. Instead Kensington decided to place a plastic wheel around the trackball which scrolls the page that your on. I find this wheel better than the old one, but I also find it to be "flimsy" and not the quality of the rest of the track ball. Not being an plastics or mechanical engineer, I have no recommendation as far as an improvement is concerned. But I do think that Kensington can made an improvement in this ring. Possible a ring made out of Teflon would work. The tactile feeling of all four buttons is excellent as is the software. I have all four buttons programmed both individually and collectively (top two/bottom two buttons). I had a wrist pad on the old track ball, and am using the wrist pad on the new one too. It serves to position my hand/wrist in the proper place to handle the various moves of the track ball. The interface to the Mac was simple and easy to implement. I plugged in the track ball to the Mac's keyboard, installed the software, and that was it. Up and running in no time. And most important, I have taken the batteries out of the Magic Mouse and stored the MM on the bookshelf. Since I have not had the need to clean the track ball, I have not rated "cleaning" as part of the evaluation. And therefore I can't comment on the ease of cleaning the track ball. I did look at other track ball options, but decided that since Kensington was the product line that I was familiar with, that I would go with them again. I don't regret that decision at all. Good product for the money. PS-Today I spilled my morning OJ right into the trackball. I figured that the ball was no longer under either Amazon's warranty nor Kensington's. So I proceeded to take the ball apart to clean the OJ our of the ball. In the process I damaged the wrist pad. So I wrote to Kensington in order to get info on a replacement. Here's their response: ----------- Dear Richard: Thank you for contacting Kensington Technical Support. We apologize for the inconvenience caused. We regret to inform you that Kensington does not manufacture the wrist rests separately and they are not available for sales or replacement as they are part of the Complete unit. In short get lost they are saying, we have logged the sale in and you're history. And here is my response: I know that you guys think that I enjoy trading correspondence with you. But the fact is that I am not having fun doing so. SO SINCE KENSINGTON DOESN'T MANUFACTURE THE WRIST PAD FOR THE EXPERT TRACKBALL, WHERE THE HELL CAN I OBTAIN ONE AS A REPLACEMENT??? If this is what you consider Customer Service, rest assured that I don't. -------- It seems that Kensington's apology is to say the least feeble. If a company can't or in this case won't support their products after the sale, then what good is it? Some might say, "Not having a wrist pad is no big deal". And everyone is entitled to their opinions. But I agree with Kensington: " as they are part of the Complete unit" and should be supported by Kensington without the customer having to purchase another trackball. I've been happy with Kensington trackballs for many years. But I won't plunk down my hard earned $$$ for anything else that says "Kensington" on it.

First of all, I want to note that I bought this on sale for around $58. At that price, you cannot possibly do better than this trackball, and I own and use a LOT of trackballs. At its normal $99 price, I think you can get better value elsewhere unless you absolutely need a left handed or ambidextrous trackball. I am right handed, and use this on my left side to give my right hand a break and for when I'm just leaning back and scrolling through web pages or documents. For certain programs (editing in particular), I will swap this to my primary hand. Being ambidextrous was vital to me. Yes, the scroll ring on this trackball has a weird feeling. The other reviews are not lying to you. The ring has a little side to side give to it but I don't have a gritty feeling like others seem to have, rather a plastic on plastic rubbing sensation. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, but it might bother you. I don't agree with people saying the trackball is too high or the angle is weird. With the included palm/wrist rest, I find it to be perfect. If you are trying to manipulate this trackball with the tips of your fingers, you are going to be at a weird angle, but you're also not using the trackball correctly and will never be able to reach the buttons. If you're right handed, the base of your hand/palm should to be centered on the included rest, with your pointer finger resting on the top left button, your ring finger resting on the top right button and using those two fingers, in conjunction with your middle finger to manipulate the trackball. That brings us to the software and buttons themselves. The Kensington software is fantastic. It works perfectly on my Mac, whether I am on Bluetooth or USB (ignore the reviews saying the software won't work with Mac when on Bluetooth, that is no longer correct). You can adjust the buttons at both the global level and at the individual program level. All in all, you cannot possibly do better for the price at $58. For reference, I have an Elecom Huge, which I purchased heavily discounted, a Logitech MX Ergo (Plus version), Logitech M570 and a Logitech Performance MX optical mouse. The Logitech MX Ergo Plus is my primary right handed mouse with this Kensington on my left side, getting almost equal and often simultaneous use. Occasionally I'll go to the Elecom Huge on my right hand to get my thumb a break. The Logitech M570, which the Ergo Plus replaced, is my travel trackball as well as the trackball I'll use on the couch or in bed if I'm on the computer. If you're into trackballs and you can get this trackball at or around $60, it should be a no hesitation purchase.

To preface, this is the first time I've ever bought a trackball mouse or used one for longer than a quick 15 minutes. I used this mouse daily at work for ~8 months. The Ball and Buttons: I like the trackball on this and how well it rolls, but I find that it needs cleaning more frequently than I expected, or else the ball movement becomes a little "sticky". I don't find the extra two buttons at the top to be that ergonomic, requiring me to either move my hand's resting position up - which I don't find comfortable for using the trackball - or move my entire hand whenever I want to use those upper buttons. Maybe I just don't have as big of hands as I thought (Hand length is 7.5", measured according to ohcow.on.ca mouse size calculator guidelines). All this to say that while I don't find those buttons comfortable to use, I don't think that this is an oversized mouse. Ergonomics: Though I don't find the size of the mouse to too small or too large, the resting angle of my wrist when using this mouse is a bit of a pain point for me, both emotionally and physically. I find that simply resting my hand on the mouse is fairly comfortable, but when I need to use the ball, I raise my hand up while leaving my wrist on the pad, creating a bit of tension in the tendons on the back of my hand/wrist. I have often thought that putting some sort of triangular pad underneath the mouse would put it a softer incline, easing that tension when needing to use the trackball. This is my worst gripe with the comfort of this mouse, which makes it painful to use for 4+ hours. Scroll Wheel: I work in IT, and do a TON of scrolling when skimming through documentation, code, emails, etc., so a decent, working scroll-wheel is paramount to me. This scroll wheel is not even decent and I can barely classify it as working. I have found it most comfortable to use either my thumb or index finger to push/pull the scroll wheel and in doing so, it puts uneven pressure on the wheel, which then causes it to bind. This binding doesn't entirely stop the scroll wheel from moving, but it does create a very noticeable change in the force needed in order to scroll. This little feature makes me want to put this in the trash. Software Customization: The software is easy to download and install and the customization is fairly straightforward. I particularly like that you can hold down a key to adjust the speed of the trackball, momentarily. However, after the initial setup, I was unable to make any further changes because it would not recognize the mouse. I tried pretty much everything in the book and even reached out to their team to open a case, but they closed it without any message or response. 0/10 on customer service and 3/10 on quality.

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.

It's really frustrating just how poor this product (Wireless Expert Trackball) is despite the price you're paying. I remember the red trackball used to be a cool mouse that professionals used in their studios or desks. Now I question why. Here's a quick summary of things. I was going to write out in detail everything, but here's just the points: 1) Scroll wheel doesn't work. A mouse needs to do at least, AT LEAST, two things: 1) Click on things; and 2) scroll. This mouse does only half of what is expected from it.; 2) I thought it was just software/driver issues, so I double checked everything. Apparently the manual packaged with the product is outdated and tells you to download an old version (KensingtonWorks) instead of the new version (Kensington Konnect) despite the change earlier this year. Regardless, old or new - nothing fixed my issue; 3) Upon further research, it seems that the scroll wheel being broken is a common issue due to sloppy alignment or placement of the IR transmitter/receiver; 4) I requested a replacement, completely understanding that sometimes you just get a faulty product. And if the replacement works as intended, then cool. I was approved immediately for a replacement and notified I would get a replacement next day. Sweet. 5) Next day came, no replacement. Was told that there is a delay due to supply issues and they'll let me know when I'll get a replacement. 6) I'm literally looking at the product page right now and if I pay $87 (again), I can get the product delivered tomorrow. But since they have my money after sending a broken product the first time, they're telling me to wait and see when they can send me a replacement. I'M LITERALLY LOOKING AT FREE DELIVERY FOR TOMORROW IF I JUST BUY ANOTHER ONE. I got this because I do a lot of editing - for video and photography. I also do a lot of work involving excel sheets, accounting software, creating forms and etc etc Boring computer stuff mostly. My current trackpad isn't up to snuff with how fast I tend to work anymore so I wanted an upgrade. This product is great, I won't lie. I really like it. I've been using it to at least see if a trackball does make a difference, and does it ever. The trackball tech is really great compared to standard mouse and trackpads. But how do they mess up the most common feature of all mouses? I can live with a faulty product every once in awhile. That's life.That's why there's return/replacement policies. But between this being a common issue apparently for years now, the fact that they're still sending outdated manuals and material despite new software being needed to use their product, and having my replacement cancelled from next day to "we'll see" unless I just buy a whole new product, I'm left extremely disappointed. This is the first 1-star review I've given for a product (that I can remember), and I tend to buy a bit from Amazon and am even part of the Amazon Vine program where I review things from time to time. But this experience just left me extremely disappointed.