Trackball Review Kensington Expert Mouse
Kensington is mainly known for its anti-theft locks, but in addition it also produces several other interesting products. I have long wanted to move from a mouse to a trackball, and then, finally, I got to this miracle - Kensington Expert Mouse.
The main advantage of the trackball is its ergonomics - the hand rests naturally on the stand, and does not require curved hand movements at work, which helps to avoid tunnel syndrome (my colleague developed such a disease, which required an unpleasant operation). This is about how the difference between classic and ergonomic keyboards. In addition, it is more convenient to move the mouse pointer from the left to the right edge of the monitor, especially at high resolutions. In my case, the total screen resolution is quite large - 4960 x 1600, in addition, I work in LabVIEW, where almost all the code is intensively drawn with a mouse, so the trackball is quite justified.
Kensington Expert Mouse - the product is not new, released five years. The package includes the actual trackball, wrist rest, and a couple of pieces of paper. The TrackBall Works software must be downloaded from Kensington.
The Kensington trackball is a massive stand with four buttons (you can reassign them more conveniently), a scrolling ring (you can't reassign it) and a ball lying between the buttons. The ball is not fixed in any way - it can be easily removed from the recess. The first impression - the trackball is actually quite a rather big one. Perhaps for a miniature female pen he will not fit. My paws are quite big and the big ball is the thing. Logitech trackballs have noticeably smaller balls. Here it is in comparison with the Logitech MX 1000 mouse, which I used for several years:
')
Immediately after connecting the trackball is not defined in any way (well, I have in any case). To start the cursor to run around the screen, I had to download and install the driver. Rebooting the computer driver installer does not require, which is nice.
In general, a trackball in this version requires a little getting used to. The fact is that the left and right buttons are at the bottom, not at the top. I tried to reassign them "in the mouse style," under the index and ring fingers, but this is inconvenient to work. It is much more convenient to press them with your thumb and little finger. The remaining three fingers rotate the ball. When moving from the border to the border of the screen, it is convenient to turn the ball with the palm. The undoubted advantage of the trackball is the ability to press a button without touching the ball, so when you press the cursor is guaranteed not to move. This is convenient, for example, for taking screenshots of a screen area or other precision actions - pixel accuracy is ensured. At first, it is a little inconvenient to rotate the ball without releasing the button (well, for example, to select text or objects on the screen), but this is a matter of habit. A ring around the ball is scrolling the page, while the reaction seemed subjectively slightly inhibited (it turns with light clicks, like a wheel in a Logitech mouse and as if it doesn’t react to every click), but scrolling the pages on the Internet is very convenient.
I would rate the quality of workmanship as “four minus”. It is clear that made in China, but the design is quite solid. However, on a flat surface, he rocked slightly on his four legs, so that one of them had to put a couple of pieces of paper. Secondly, the scrolling ring has a slight backlash and turns with a sort of "plastic" noise. Why it was not to put a penny Teflon ring - it is not clear. This is not a reason to give the toy back, but it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. Moreover, the product is not very cheap. Plastic, too, could be “rubberized”, as it is now fashionable.
We now turn to the software. The program for setting up is quite simple - there are only four tabs. It hangs in the tray. Two applications are loaded in memory, while occupying a little more than thirty megabytes of memory. In the setup program on the first tab, you can reassign the buttons:
I have so far assigned to the top double-click and the "back" button. In addition to actions, you can also assign a key combination. In addition, you can assign actions to pressing two buttons simultaneously. However, there is one drawback - you cannot assign different trackball behavior for different applications (as, for example, the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 keyboard can switch). Moreover, it seems that this applies only to Windows, because under MacOS the same window looks like this:
On the second tab - the standard settings for speed and acceleration, in addition, you can slow down the pointer or block one of the axes when you press a certain key:
In the above example, the pointer will slow down when you press the Alt button, and when you press Shift, it will move vertically or horizontally, depending on which direction the ball was turned right after pressing the Shift button (this, however, needs to be adjusted). Snap to Default puts a copy on the active button of the pop-up dialog. I don’t like this option, but some of my colleagues enjoy it.
The third tab is scroll ring settings. There are only two options - speed and direction. The ability to reassign the ring, for example, the cursor keys do not.
On the last tab is the version and link to the online help page.
The current driver version is 1.0.4. My operating system is Windows7 x64. There were some compatibility issues with Win7 x64 on the forums, but it still works for me, and I didn’t notice any special problems. There are also drivers for XP and Vista. MacOS is also supported.
Summarizing, we can say that the device deserves attention - a very convenient replacement for a traditional mouse. The cost of the device at the time of writing the review varies from 70 to 100 euros (a few years ago I paid about the same amount for the Logitech Laser MX1000 mouse). The warranty is five years. Relatively expensive, but in general this money is worth it.
Advantages:
big size
convenience and ergonomics
disadvantages
swing stand
creaking scrolling ring with backlash
inability to reassign behavior for different applications (Windows)
References:
The manufacturer's website - Kensington.com
Kensington Expert Mouse.
The main advantage of the trackball is its ergonomics - the hand rests naturally on the stand, and does not require curved hand movements at work, which helps to avoid tunnel syndrome (my colleague developed such a disease, which required an unpleasant operation). This is about how the difference between classic and ergonomic keyboards. In addition, it is more convenient to move the mouse pointer from the left to the right edge of the monitor, especially at high resolutions. In my case, the total screen resolution is quite large - 4960 x 1600, in addition, I work in LabVIEW, where almost all the code is intensively drawn with a mouse, so the trackball is quite justified.
Kensington Expert Mouse - the product is not new, released five years. The package includes the actual trackball, wrist rest, and a couple of pieces of paper. The TrackBall Works software must be downloaded from Kensington.
The Kensington trackball is a massive stand with four buttons (you can reassign them more conveniently), a scrolling ring (you can't reassign it) and a ball lying between the buttons. The ball is not fixed in any way - it can be easily removed from the recess. The first impression - the trackball is actually quite a rather big one. Perhaps for a miniature female pen he will not fit. My paws are quite big and the big ball is the thing. Logitech trackballs have noticeably smaller balls. Here it is in comparison with the Logitech MX 1000 mouse, which I used for several years:
')
Immediately after connecting the trackball is not defined in any way (well, I have in any case). To start the cursor to run around the screen, I had to download and install the driver. Rebooting the computer driver installer does not require, which is nice.
In general, a trackball in this version requires a little getting used to. The fact is that the left and right buttons are at the bottom, not at the top. I tried to reassign them "in the mouse style," under the index and ring fingers, but this is inconvenient to work. It is much more convenient to press them with your thumb and little finger. The remaining three fingers rotate the ball. When moving from the border to the border of the screen, it is convenient to turn the ball with the palm. The undoubted advantage of the trackball is the ability to press a button without touching the ball, so when you press the cursor is guaranteed not to move. This is convenient, for example, for taking screenshots of a screen area or other precision actions - pixel accuracy is ensured. At first, it is a little inconvenient to rotate the ball without releasing the button (well, for example, to select text or objects on the screen), but this is a matter of habit. A ring around the ball is scrolling the page, while the reaction seemed subjectively slightly inhibited (it turns with light clicks, like a wheel in a Logitech mouse and as if it doesn’t react to every click), but scrolling the pages on the Internet is very convenient.
I would rate the quality of workmanship as “four minus”. It is clear that made in China, but the design is quite solid. However, on a flat surface, he rocked slightly on his four legs, so that one of them had to put a couple of pieces of paper. Secondly, the scrolling ring has a slight backlash and turns with a sort of "plastic" noise. Why it was not to put a penny Teflon ring - it is not clear. This is not a reason to give the toy back, but it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. Moreover, the product is not very cheap. Plastic, too, could be “rubberized”, as it is now fashionable.
Driver and Settings
We now turn to the software. The program for setting up is quite simple - there are only four tabs. It hangs in the tray. Two applications are loaded in memory, while occupying a little more than thirty megabytes of memory. In the setup program on the first tab, you can reassign the buttons:
I have so far assigned to the top double-click and the "back" button. In addition to actions, you can also assign a key combination. In addition, you can assign actions to pressing two buttons simultaneously. However, there is one drawback - you cannot assign different trackball behavior for different applications (as, for example, the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 keyboard can switch). Moreover, it seems that this applies only to Windows, because under MacOS the same window looks like this:
On the second tab - the standard settings for speed and acceleration, in addition, you can slow down the pointer or block one of the axes when you press a certain key:
In the above example, the pointer will slow down when you press the Alt button, and when you press Shift, it will move vertically or horizontally, depending on which direction the ball was turned right after pressing the Shift button (this, however, needs to be adjusted). Snap to Default puts a copy on the active button of the pop-up dialog. I don’t like this option, but some of my colleagues enjoy it.
The third tab is scroll ring settings. There are only two options - speed and direction. The ability to reassign the ring, for example, the cursor keys do not.
On the last tab is the version and link to the online help page.
The current driver version is 1.0.4. My operating system is Windows7 x64. There were some compatibility issues with Win7 x64 on the forums, but it still works for me, and I didn’t notice any special problems. There are also drivers for XP and Vista. MacOS is also supported.
Summarizing, we can say that the device deserves attention - a very convenient replacement for a traditional mouse. The cost of the device at the time of writing the review varies from 70 to 100 euros (a few years ago I paid about the same amount for the Logitech Laser MX1000 mouse). The warranty is five years. Relatively expensive, but in general this money is worth it.
Advantages:
big size
convenience and ergonomics
disadvantages
swing stand
creaking scrolling ring with backlash
inability to reassign behavior for different applications (Windows)
References:
The manufacturer's website - Kensington.com
Kensington Expert Mouse.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/130430/
All Articles