Wireless Optical TrackMan Trackball

I love this mouse. I greet it every morning and give it warm caresses as I drink my morning coffee. I catch myself staring longingly at it daydreaming of using it sitting on a beach sipping a drink with an umbrella. I call her Bridgette. Is she perfect? Probably not - otherwise they'd still be a lot more popular. Is she perfect for me? Yeah. She is. So first the bad and then the good: This mouse is big. For folks with normal to big sized hands, that's a win in a world of tiny mice built for Hobbits. If you have the hand size of a large doll could you still manage it? Yes. It's not THAT big. The surface finish is...temporary. Dynamic. Fluid. I think of it more as patina at this point. Most of the painted surfaces (except for the left click button) on mine are still the same color they were when I bought it. I seem to remember a "soft touch" satin coating on the black parts but that has worn off mine years ago. She still turns heads though. Some people say that these mice have reliability issues. We've been together for a good 17 years and she's still going strong. There was a scare recently where her buttons stopped working but a careful dose of electrical contact cleaner in the switches and a few hours rest and she was right as rain. She's not bullet-proof but hopefully will be around another score or so before parting for good. What I love about this mouse is the feel. It's just right. Trackball people are a finicky group and rarely do we find something that suits us to little complaint. The size of this mouse fits me perfectly. All the buttons are where they should be, I don't have to strain and move and fight to make stuff happen. There's enough flexibility in programming the buttons you can set it to do most tasks easily with one click. It's not so complex that it introduces unwanted drama in your life trying to figure out the minutiae of endless setup options. The trackball is perfectly placed. It's far enough forward my fingertips don't have to hunt for it and just enough to the side that I don't have to twist my wrist to reach it. I can swipe easily from one side of the screen (or across screens) without a thought but still have enough control to be precise when needed. All without straining my wrist. I like the action of mouse clicking left/forward/back with my thumb as it's more natural than the thumb-driven trackballs. I either suffer from twitchy thumb or it's just a bad design for precise movement. The right click button is naturally placed just to the underside of the trackball and feels effortless to click with my ring finger. The scroll wheel is small but cushy and comfortable. There are soft indents to the scrolling so it doesn't get away from you. If you prefer the smooth scrolling feel the "cruise" buttons above and below get that done easily. The drag lock button can come in handy if you're constantly copying multiple files back and forth. I generally don't so it's easily remapped in the software. Battery life is really good. I usually go several months on a set of cheap AA's. It has an auto sleep function instead of a power switch which is handy. The nice thing about AA batteries is that you can easily find them anywhere. I think that's one of the main reasons mine has lasted so long. Dear Logitech or any other company that may stumble across this - please bring this model back with a reboot. People obviously loved it and they sell like hotcakes. I've seen used ones go for upwards of $400 now. Surely there's some profit in doing another run of these beauties!

I work intensively with computers. In radiology, the number of data points to process quickly is multifarious: dictation software, PACS, and workstations, 4 screens, etc. Volume is also inherently high. I've used this product for two-years and am very satisfied. At times, I was finding wrist fatigue a bit of an issue with the classic two-button mouse with a center roller. My symptoms were nothing serious, just irritation at the end of each day from "clicking". I purchased this roller as a trial, to see if I get any relief. It worked just as I had hoped. I have no symptoms during or at the end of the day. I not will not go back to just a mouse. Build is very comfortable and solid. Ease of use. For me, it is a 5*, but you should know that it does have quite of bit of complexity. As you can see, it has any number of buttons--which I was specifically looking for. I find that these myriad buttons are very functional and easy to use in practice. You just have to map out what are high volume or repetitive motions/keystroke actions. Now I love Macs and their simplicity (and this trackball also works nicely with them), but their mouse is too stripped down for my needs. I am someone who uses keyboard shortcuts whenever possible to speed things up. And again, in my business, speed and accuracy are critical. I already was already maxed-out with mere two-button mouse. This trackball allows me to custom assign functions and keyboard assignments. For instance, page-up and down are assigned to arrow buttons on the trackball. Now when I'm on a website or scrolling through ultrasound exams, I just click rather than moving to the keyboard. To initiate a case dictation is typically alt-8: now this function is tasked to a button on the trackball. Clicking the middle mouse scroll wheel is now assigned to mini-scroll wheel on the trackball. And so on. I worried that the trackball would have trouble interfacing with the programs I used. It essentially had no problem. It was recognized across the board. There has been only one function that still requires a mouse: a shortcut I use for zooming on the PACS is to hold down the option key and spin the center wheel. For some reason I am unable to replicate this function. Because the zooming shortcut is something I use all the time, the mouse stays on my desktop next to the trackball Which brings up another nice feature of this product: it can co-exist with a mouse. I plug the wireless transmitter into the front USB port and leave the mouse connected in back. I can use either device whenever I like. If a colleague comes over to review a case, they never know what to do with the trackball so I just move it out of the way and they use the mouse. If I move to a different workstation, I just unplug the transmitter and move and plug it into the next computer. The trackball will need to be configured as a first-time each time you start on a new computer, but done the profile will remain. There is logitech software that needs to be installed, but all of the mice are logitech, so the software for adjusting the trackball is for me already in place. My productivity is higher and I have less frustration thanks to this device. For not only does the device allowing me to short-circuit and subsume common tasks, but it it simply much faster than a mouse. You can adjust the speed of cursor tracking and you can also embellish cursor movement with an accelerator. With multiple large, high-resolution monitors, this is very rewarding. Everything is faster. When I have to review a case on a colleague's workstation with a mere mouse, I am given a glimpse of how I used to work: the mouse is sluggish and I have to do a lot of wrist movement. Sure, the conventional mouse can itself be accelerated, but you still have the basic fact that you have to keep moving your wrist to cover four screens and to scroll through hundreds of images. I appreciate afresh that I am using a trackball and not a mouse. Lastly, I do have to give high credit to logitech itself. 6-12 months into purchase, the buttons I had assigned to serve as "page-up" and "page-down" were not responding 100% of the time. Sometimes that signals that the AA batteries are wearing out, but even with new batteries the issue persisted. I called logitech and they switched out the device without any questions. Really top-flight service. The replacement is going on strong after 1 year. So in short, if you are considering a trackball, get one. This one is I think the top of the line. If you don't need to extreme functionality, consider the Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse which has fewer buttons but works on the same principle (I actually use the marble mouse at home, because my at-home use is much lighter). I have read about "review mills" that churn out praise or scorn. I find Amazon's reviews to be a great source for separating wheat from chaff. It has a critical mass of users and reviewers. That said, when I was looking for a trackball, however, I did not see a review that was on-point for my niche needs. Hopefully this review will fill that lacuna.

After reading the other Amazon reviews, I thought I would respond to some of the issues other reviewers raise from a Mac user's perspective. I run a new PowerBook 15" with OS X 10.3.2. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't notice any directional/orientation problems--the cursor follows the ball movement very well, even before installing the included Logitech software. Perhaps the necessary drivers are now universally available, or perhaps the Mac version is just better. Also, the "finger layout" has not proven to be an issue for me--I can use any or all of my fingers to control the ball without any cursor-direction problems. The wireless function has proven flawless on my Mac. The reciever is a couple feet away and actually off the desk (no line of sight) and works fine. It was essentially plug-and-play on the Mac--I didn't even have to push the 'Connect' buttons to establish a signal, it just worked. The software is necessary, however, to re-assign new functions to the several buttons on this model. As a former PC user, I can't go without a right-click button (one of the reasons I bought an external device for my notebook at all). The Mac software is very easy to use, and one can re-program all of the buttons and the wheel if one so desires. You can set a button to automatically double- or triple-click, or select keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Command and W to close the current window). Very easy, and quite useful--I use buttons to close windows, quit programs, delete files, and still have a handy web-browsing 'Back' button. The only possible drawback to the Mac software is that one cannot "train" the ball's orientation (from what I can gather from other reviews, this option is not available on PC either). This really only matters if you know you hold trackballs at a different angle than most people do. Please note that the software I'm reviewing is for Mac OS X only; the program for those running OS 8.6-9.2 is a different piece of software, which is also included in the package. Those are all the Mac-specific comments I can think of at this point; if you're a Mac-user you're probably used to things "just working," and this device is no exception. I'll also comment on some of the more universal issues raised by other reviews: Ergonomically, there is a period of adjustment--anyone moving from a conventional mouse to any trackball or from one trackball to another should expect that. It's never a bad idea to try one out in-store to see how they feel, especially since trackball models vary from one to another much more than mice do. This is not, as some have termed it, a 'disadvantage'--all new things take some time to get used to. If you've never used a trackball, it's weird for a while; it's also ergonomically superior/healthier in the long term. Also, I use trackballs for computer drafting/design, and find superior control to mice--finger-control is just more precise than either thumb-controlled trackballs or wrist/arm-controlled mice. The optical ball-tracking technology requires almost no cleaning, and there are zero moving parts to clean. Just pop the ball out and blow any collected lint out of the socket if necessary--which very rarely is. For any pointing device that's wireless, optical, and has this many buttons, this price is pretty decent--lower, I think, than my previous trackball that was wired and lacked the wheel. As for Logitech's reputation/reliability, I have had good experiences. My first trackball had to be replaced during the warranty period, but its replacement has lasted the four years since--I only replaced it now because it wasn't Mac-compatible. Now Mac-users can rejoice with a high-performance trackball that works seamlessly in OS X.

On the good side, this trackball has an excellent ergonomic design. It fits nicely into my palm and the buttons are well placed. It's not perfect. No item of this nature can be expected to fit more than a small percent of hands without something being off. But it does the job as well as can be expected and better than any other trackball I've used. Also, you can customize the buttons to do almost anything you're normally likely to use them for. My only complaint in this regard is that it left me wanting more buttons because I couldn't decide which functions to assign and which to forsake. You can set the scroll wheel to scroll as fast or slow as you're ever likely to need. But the scroll wheel moves with distinct clicks. Some people prefer this type of action but I find it inconvenient. If you adjust the scroll speed to a fast setting, you can't scroll short distances, making it impossible to navigate properly in, for example, a small text box (The text you want to read may jump out of view with a single click). But if you set the scroll speed slow, you have to spin the wheel a lot to navigate long pages. With an infinite (non-click) wheel, you could set the wheel to a fast speed while still retaining the ability to fine tune short-distance scrolling. I knocked half a star off for this feature failure. Most people buying this item will do so with the specific desire for a cordless model. I only chose it because they don't offer a corded model. Batteries are wasteful and costly and I fail to see the need for this feature in a mouse. But that's a personal choice, and one with which I'm sure most will disagree. I did not consider this as a factor in my rating. But I did knock a star off for the action of the ball, which is far beneath the standard I'd expected from Logitech. Gamers already know not to use a trackball for gaming. But you seriously do not want to use this one. You WILL die in battle. It's difficult to move the cursor to a point with accuracy, even if you do so slowly and deliberately. It's impossible to do so quickly. You also do not want to use it for drawing or any situation where you need to track along straight lines. It simply can't be done, no matter how carefully you move the ball. It took me weeks of use just to get a good feel for tracking in the direction I wanted. I also dropped half a star for the positively dismal performance of the wireless reception. Honestly, they couldn't have made it any worse. If the receiver is behind anything at all, it won't get the signal. It even fails if it falls over. In summary, if they'd implemented infinite scrolling, accurate tracking, and decent wireless reception, I would have given it 5 stars and grumbled silently that they don't offer a corded model. If you like the clicky scroll and don't mind the jerky ball action, and don't need to place the receiver behind anything, go for it. Personally, I've already ordered a new trackball. But I will definitely keep this one.

I can't remember when I bought my old A4tech trackballs: one for home, one for work and a spare. Gotta be at least ten years, and they're still going strong. Why anyone would prefer a mouse, I'll never understand. A few weeks ago, my not-all-that-old Dell computer at work was replaced by a brand new one, USB only. The old PS/2 trackball, with an adapter, wouldn't work. Newer driver wouldn't work, A4tech eventually answered my emails (4-5 weeks) and explained it wasn't fast enough. Among the few trackballs still available in this mouse-driven world, only the Trackman seemed like a suitable replacement. I took a chance that I'd like it, and basically I do. The old unit had three buttons, two wheels and the ball. The Trackman has eight buttons, one wheel and the ball. As a semi-retired older guy, I'm aware that my fingers, especially thumbs, aren't always as limber as they used to be. The old A4 fit my hand perfectly and the buttons were far apart enough to be able to hit them easily. In particular, the left button was pushed down and required a very light touch, while the Trackman's left button - the one you use more than all the rest combined - is pushed IN, a movement which is somehow more difficult for me. Think of it this way: you'll never see me texting on a little telephone with teeny buttons. There are trackballs that have the ball on the left side, but I'm not going to be able to use it comfortably for the same reason - my thumb isn't as agile as it used to be. I'm not arthritic yet, but I also can't do pushups like I used to. Wait a minute, I never could do pushups. A few of the other buttons are very small, such that you push straight down on a little nub with the tip of your index finger. It gets annoying if you need to use it too much. And they're too close to the wheel, so it's easy to accidentally scroll up or down. On the other hand, you can choose to use these two little buttons to page forward and backward when browsing; a big plus as far as I go. Another great feature is the programmable buttons. I use one for copy and another for paste. I can click, highlight, copy, point and paste faster than it takes to say it. Having only one wheel means I can't scroll a window sideways, but I rarely need to do that, except when using a spreadsheet. Maybe I can program the Trackman to do it, but I haven't been able to find a way yet. There are numerous other choices, like using one button to do a double-click. One thing I find mildly annoying is the "buzzy" wheel. It's not a smooth roll, it's notchy. Like driving your car on a cobblestone street. All in all, I liked the Trackman enough to ask (okay, demand) that I be given one for my computer at work. It's taken a few weeks to forget how smoothly I could use my old A4 but I'm gradually getting up to speed with the new unit. All in all, it's pretty good, although I'd be happy to help Logitech design their next one. Why anyone would want a mouse is beyond me (two buttons and a wheel???, whoopeee!). But then, everyone I know thinks I'm nuts for using "one of those things". And it's cordless, too!

This is the best pointing device I've ever used, hands-down. This is the second one I've purchased since I've managed to run out the last one in 4-5 years of very heavy usage. Here's what I like about it. The real centerpiece of this trackball is the off-center ball. Now, this does make this definitely a right-handed trackball and lefties will probably feel left out, but putting the ball off-center matches the general distribution of your fingers over your hand. It's been to be maneuvered with your index through ring finger, and it is perfectly positioned to roll to any of those fingers as you need to use the scroll wheel or the right mouse button. Compared to a more omni-handed Kensington and the comfort difference is astounding. Likewise, for me, this is infinitely more comfortable than using my thumb for the trackball. The trackball pointing devices that use the thumb inevitably make my hand and thumb joint feel jammed up. Also compared to Kensington, having a proper vertical scroll wheel is infinitely better than their "orbit ring" in my mind. The index finger quite naturally lines up with the wheel. The overall shape fits my hand comfortably and makes for easy long hours working or gaming. Construction is solid and it's durable with good maintenance. As noted I used the previous one for at least 4 years, and used it quite heavily for general computer tasking, through EDA tools (Modelsim), through heavy gaming (including FPS and MMORPGs). If you are a button hog, then you might run out, but there's more than enough for me to use and i'm quite pleased with what I've been able to make it do. Defictis: There are few. As noted, if you are a left handed computer pointer... you'll have to go with a mouse or a Kensington. If you've trained your right hand to point this may work for you. The wireless aspect of the device is not it's strongest feature and there have been a few rare moments when it seems to lose its connection with the base station. And wireless range is probably a little limited, though I've used it successfully several feet away from the base. It does have a few dropouts in motion further away though, so don't use this for a large presentation room or TV gaming. But that's pretty much it. The sad thing is that Logitech doesn't seem to push this product into stores, so it's a bit hard to find on the shelf where you can do a touch fit. They've used this form factor for awhile though, so hopefully it'll continue to be useful in Amazon sales and make a comeback in a new product again soon. I"m tempted to buy another though to have in reserve in 4-5 years though!

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 15, 2013 I recently started using this mouse with a Mac and some of the forward/back keys on the trackpad aren't working how they normally do on a PC. When I click the "page back" button...if I have the mouse over an active link, it opens that link in a new tab. I tried messing with the Mac mouse settings but that was of no help. Kinda bummed that I can't get it to work but it could just be me forgetting a critical step or maybe just time to get a new mouse. Still loving this trackman! My thumb gets stuck when using a regular mouse so I thought I'd try my luck with a trackman mouse. I now own two of these. The first one I purchased about 5 years ago, the second around 2 years ago (to use at work). Not good for gaming (I am told) but I like that I am able to go back/forward a page with one click, do click lock scroll and rapid mouse movement. I find it allows me to navigate on a computer faster. It's also great that it's wireless and I don't need to replace the batteries often. UPDATE: FEBRUARY 17, 2015 I still own and use both of these trackman MICE and have had absolutely no complaints. Logitech did a good job with this one in my opinion, based on my obviously awesome experience so far. UPDATE: NOVEMBER 22, 2019 It has been over nine years now. I still both have both of these mice. They still work. The rubbery parts have gotten somewhat sticky in a not so pleasant way And trying to clean it with some kind of wipe seems to make it worse. However, it’s not enough of an issue to justify me paying over five times what I paid for these originally. When I bought my first one, it was for home use. The second one I bought for use at work. After leaving that job, I’ve kept both at home. I have a new job now, And I was delighted to find that they had one in the box there, so I’m using that at work. I have three of them total that I use. My thumb problems no longer exist for the most part. And eventually, I will probably cave in and buy a brand new one at the ridiculous price that is 5x what I paid for it because of how hard they are to find nowadays. My only complaint is that the features on the phone to click to go forward or backward a page don’t seem to work with chrome on my windows PC. The driver installed is from the website and I don’t know for sure, but it seems as though the software is not fully supported by the new computer systems. I am not a computer or technical expert so I have no idea whether or not that is accurate. All I do know is that I love this trackball mouse.

I've been a long time fan of trackballs - most especially and specifically those made by Logitech. About five years ago I started having pain in my wrists from the constant side-to-side motion of using a mouse. I picked up a Logitech Marble Mouse and loved it for years. It instantly helped by wrist issues and I didn't get so strained and hardly ever got soreness. The only thing I didn't like was that there weren't enough buttons. I envied things like a scroll wheel found on regular mice. The thumb trackball was horrid in my thought (all that stress where your thumb meets the wrist; Ouch!) but had the extra buttons I longed for. Then this one came along. Wow. I saw it in the store and I'll admit, I was a bit intimidated at first. Did I need a cordless? Could I get used to moving it with my hand in a slightly different position? And I know I wanted buttons, but woah, there's a LOT of buttons on it! I played with it and daydreamed about it. I finally ended up getting it for my birthday in May 2003. It honestly did take me a few days to adjust to the change (even from one Logitech trackball to another), but now I can't imagine ever going back. The sheer convenience of being able to not only left-click/right-click, but scroll AND easily go Forward and Backward through webpages with a click of a button amazes me everytime. Trackballs already cut down the amount of round-about pointing you need to do by making it much smoother and easier because of less motion required, but this cuts it down way more then that. Some thoughts from other reviews: *Lefties -- I'm sorry, but it really is designed for a right-hander. Like most mice/trackballs on the market today, they aim for the majority. It's usable on short term for lefties (my boyfriend's a southpaw and he can maneuver it, but couldn't really use it every day, day-in/day-out). HOWEVER, a nice option is the Logitech Marble Mouse since it is neither left nor right hand specific. * Cordless issues -- I've had ZERO interference with it and I have a USB Wacom tablet as well as digital camera hookups and other usb items in my usb hub. NEVER a problem. The manual recommends that if you have problems, move the receiver away from the monitor. Mine sits two or so feet away and works perfectly. * Battery life -- WONDERFUL. Mine went for about five months or so on the original batteries it came with. And I am a hard-core user, driving my trackball way over ten hours a day. The program even warns you on-screen that your batteries are getting low. How cool is that? You don't have to wait until things die leaving you without a mouse, wondering what went wrong - it tells you! * Weight of ball -- I have to say that one of the best aspects of the Logitech trackballs is that the ball spins VERY smoothly and easily. It's also not heavy. This sounds weird until you try one of the HORRID Kensington ones which has such a heavy ball that you literally get fatigued fingers from trying to push the darned thing around the screen. It's such a battle with inferior ones whereas, with the Logitech ones, it's easy. I can zoom around the screen as fast as I wish with the slightest touch of my fingertips (*note: the speed and such can also be edited if you like a slower cursor, but it still will have the lightweight Logitech is known for) * Range of Use -- I agree with another user here - this thing has a range that's far more then you'd need. I sometimes use it on my lap and can stand up and control it from several feet away. * Cleaning -- IMPORATANT. Every now and then, pop the ball out (by pushing from underneath) and clean the gunk which gets on the points the ball rests on. It will help keep your ball rolling smoothly. In sum: ergonomic, comfortable, works great and a real Logitech winner. Well worth the cost.

I've been using trackballs for most of my life and this is definitely one of the best. It fits your hand perfectly and has a good number of buttons you can customize to your need. I use this at home and since I bought it for my work environment I have no more pain in my right palm due to the constant mouse usage. If you're having hand problems due to excessive computer work I recommend you to test this device. It comes with Logitech software which can further help you customize it to your needs. I give it a 5 star rating because it's the best "mouse" ever but there are people for who this device just doesn't click so if you have an option try it in your hand before buying.

Cette sourie est parfaite pour surfer le net et copier/coller des dossiers. La main ne bouge pas et la précision de la boule est excellente. Je suis vraiment triste que le fabriquant est cesser la fabrication, c'est la meilleur sourie que j'ai jamais eu... Et je ne suis pas un ''gamer''

Excellent produit pour ceux qui ont des problèmes d'épaules. Je possède ce trackman depuis 2007, dommage qu'il soit programmé pour mourir à ses 5 ans.... d'où mon nouvel achat.

aucun problème, livraison rapide, produit correspondant aux attentes a recommander pour tout usage en remplacement d'une souris "classique" quand on a des problème de poignet

My Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan Or as I call it my mouse, is my favorite mouse and I have tried the alternatives including the one on my laptop.The best quality for me is you don't have to move it to achieve,simply roll the ball.Sit it on the arm of the chesterfield or even on your lap.Relax with no bending forward.I sure hope you continue to carry these,Thanks for producing them,although I bought two just in case.. Marilyn .