Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse (K64327F), Silver/Black

Having used the Logitech trackball for years, but when it was time to replace Logitech's prices went too high. So, recently tried the Kensington with the Ring and found it to be too wide for most hands here...to the point of being uncomfortable and clumsy. Decided to take a chance on this one without the "ring" and what a difference! The width is just right and the ball moves ever so smoothly and quickly and stops easy too! It is being used on a Linux O/S and absolutely no problems. Highly recommend this mouse. For those who need to know the size width: The narrowest part where your hand lies across the top (to click either left or right side of mouse) is approx. 2.25 inches. Compared to the same brand with "the ring" which is approx. 3 full inches. Also the highest height of the ball on the "ring" model is 2.50 inches and on THIS model it is a half inch lower. SO you can see by these measurements this model is much more suitable for smaller hands, or hurting/stiff hands. Additionally, other reviewers stated that the trackball is loose and falls out...I too noticed that my trackball was not seated all the way in. I took it out and examined it and saw that there is a clear piece of plastic that was stuck on the ball and had rolled to the under side of the ball. It was hard to see because it was clear and had black writing on it and the ball is a very dark gray. I think this piece of plastic had some warning on it -- maybe to remove before use...but it was difficult to see. Now that that is removed the only way I can remove the ball from its place is to turn the mouse over and it gently falls out so that you clean/dust it off. It never just falls out or pops out...unless something is in the way. Its a great little mouse...thinking about getting another one!

The first thing that impressed me was the thick cardboard packaging. Super protective. Opened it up, was surprised that the ball was so loose. I had been used to ones that held the ball in, even if dropped. Plugged it in to my 2004 Lenovo computer, heard that sound, you know what I mean, acknowledging it. Put my hand on it, rolled the ball around, and nothing happened on the screen. No matter what I did it just didn't work at all. I was disappointed. In the evening I took it to the bedroom, plugged it in my 2014 Acer laptop on the off chance it might work, and whaddaya know?! It worked perfectly! I'm very, very happy with it! It will live with the laptop and my other trackball will stay with the computer. Other than the looseness of the ball, which I can live with, I love this trackball!

I’ve been using trackballs since the Mac Plus was released in the 1980s, so I have plenty of experience with them. I find them easier to use than mice, and though I use a trackpad on my MacBook, I get cramps in my thumb and the trackball is a good alternative. I use it full-time on my iMac. I prefer wired because I don’t want to worry about batteries running out of power when I need to use my computer, and, anyway, I keep the trackball close to the laptop or desktop so the cable is not an inconvenience—it makes it easy to connect. I’ve basically stuck to two major brands over the years: Kensington (this one) and the Logitech Trackman, which has been my preference. However, the latter is about six times the cost of this Kensington Orbit, and they are somewhat equivalent. As I haven’t seen the high-end competitor’s lately, I don’t know if they’ve changed it, but this version of the Orbit definitely feels lighter and perhaps flimsier than earlier versions. The ball kind of clicks; it is not 100% smooth. It also seems very sensitive, which can be good or bad. But the ergonomics of the unit fits my hand just fine, and it makes scrolling and pointing intuitive and easy. The OSes on my two Macs are very outdated and they allow me to use old apps, so I haven’t upgraded them. This trackball is completely plug and play with both, without needing to download Kensington’s utility/app. I use the mouse setting of system preferences to configure speed and buttons on this. Kensington has been around for many years and, overall, they make good-quality peripherals. Perhaps the price point on this accounts for what I perceive as the lightweight feel, and the question is, then, how long this will last. But, for now, it works well for me.

In 20 years, I have only purchased two. You can set it up for a left/right handed person I use this for my carpal tunnel syndrome. Extremely. ergonomically. Has a great appearance and connects to the computer easily. The orbit track mouse cause user-friendly

Bought this almost two years ago. Still holding up well. Works on both windows and linux. I like that it's ambidexterous, I can switch it to my right or left hand. Wish it had something for scrolling though.

3 month Update - From 4 star to 1 star At this point, I pretty much have to give this a solid "thumbs down". The mouse "snaps" or clicks every time you move your finger from front to back. Repeatable, every time. As I mentioned earlier, either the unit's plastic collar for the ball has expanded, or maybe there's a spring behind the rear tab that failed. This mouse allows just WAY too much excessive movement, to the point where every "down" effort causes the mouse to snap or pop. It's not single movement, either. It's a backwards and then upward movement, every, single, time. It' annoying, though it doesn't appear to impact the actual function, e.g. the movement of the mouse on the screen appears faithful. Add to that, every once in a while, the mouse freezes, and loses touch with it's software driver. I have to unplug the USB and replug it. It's an "OK" mouse, and could have been great. Someone in engineering design just cheaped out with materials, to save 50 cents, I suppose. I won't buy another. I'll try something else. Who knows, maybe with the chance in the tariff environment, someone will start making quality computer mice in the USA again. (Just use the Logitech trackball as the design, clone it, build it with original METAL switches, and you'll sell a million of 'em.) --------------- Original review It took a bit of time to adapt from the old Logitech Marble Mouse (MM) I've been using for 20 or 30 years. For one, it's shorter and broader. My large hand fingers don't naturally drop to the L/R keys the way they did on the MM. I have to reach back and wider to find them, but that's mostly a retraining issue. Technically, this is a VERY good mouse. Extremely smooth rolling ball, but at a cost. Where as the MM has multiple metal points suspending the ball in a relative snug fit, this trackball just kind of sits loosely in a cradle. And, that's where this mouse, after a couple of month's use, is probably a "fail". I can't tell for certain, I'd probably have to have a new one to evaluate side-by-side, but the cradle appears to have a plastic tab in the back, which limits the forward to backwards movement of the ball. It's not doing that anymore. There is now SIGNFICANT movement of the ball, front to back. The impact is that whenever you're finger is moving from slightly top center to rear, the ball "snaps" backward or forwards. It doesn't remain snugly in place. It's still mostly an annoyance, but it does impact control of the mouse movement to some extent. Again, I'm not sure if this is "as originally delivered", or if it's become damaged with use. Would I buy this again? Well, it's the best Logitech mouse replacement I've seen. Maybe. Not certain. I need a couple of more replacement mouses, so I may give this a second try. What's really a shame, is that some "big political boss" in the new Logitech ownership "somewhere in Asia" decided from an ego perspective, to ignore the wide and deep market for the MM, and discontinued manufacturing them. In fact, since they bought out Logitech some decades ago, their newly designed version was a cheap piece of crap, anyhow. The original had metal contact points in the switches for the mouse keys. Their new ones, plastic, which wore out in about 6 months. They saved 5 cents on a 20 cent part, and destroyed the original reliability. (Had the original mouses for 10 years before they failed.) So, on the plus side Kensington (ACCO Brands in San Mateo) appears to be making products in response to consumer demand. I hope they build and improve on this mouse design.

This orbit-style trackball mouse definitely serves a very specific niche purpose, and for the right user it can still be useful once you adapt to the different control style. The stationary trackball design is unique and can reduce the amount of physical desk movement needed compared to a traditional mouse. The biggest downside for me was scrolling and general navigation efficiency. Since there is no standard scroll wheel, basic scrolling tasks become much more awkward than they should be. A lot of the time I found myself needing to click-and-drag scroll bars manually or use less intuitive methods just to navigate pages comfortably. In modern everyday computer use, scrolling is such a constant action that the lack of a smoother built-in solution became a major annoyance over time. It honestly feels like a feature that should have been incorporated more effectively into the design. That said, the trackball itself was responsive enough once I became familiar with it, and the mouse did still serve the specialized purpose I originally purchased it for. It just came with more usability tradeoffs than I expected during normal daily use. Overall, this is a very niche input device that may work well for certain users or specialized preferences, but people should understand that the unusual scrolling experience can become a significant frustration depending on how they use their computer.

Excellent. All I have to do is maneuver around with my fingers not the entire mouse

Fits the hand well. Easy to set up. I have been using a well known marble mouse for years, but it appears to be obsolete now. Any on the secondary market are horrendously overpriced, so finding this as a replacement is great.

Le trackball Kensington Orbit Optical est un très bon trackball d'entrée de gamme, il peut se révéler un excellent choix pour qui veut découvrir à moindre coût le monde des trackballs, et le plaisir d'utiliser pareil périphérique. Les principales critiques que l'on entend au sujet des trackballs sont leur manque d'ergonomie, dépendamment que la boule soit centrale (pour une utilisation ambidextre), ou déportée (généralement dédiés aux droitiers) et l'absence de roulette. L'ergonomie est un facteur à prendre bien entendu en considération, mais celle-ci par définition est liée à la morphologie et aux attentes parfois très spécifiques de chacun, certains trouveront toujours ce trackball trop grand, d'autres trop petit, certains trouveront la boule trop petite, voire mal positionnée. Personnellement je trouve la taille de ce trackball plutôt modeste, il ne conviendra pas aux (très) grandes mains. Pour être objectif, je l'ai comparé au Kensington Slimblade, ainsi qu'au Logitech Trackman Marble... il est sensiblement plus petit que ces derniers. L'ergonomie étant quelque chose de très subjectif, ce sera à chacun de juger, mais après plusieurs heures d'utilisation intensive, je dois admettre que le profil choisi par Kensington n'est pas désagréable, il ne provoque aucune sensation désagréable ni de gêne particulière. Mais où est donc la roulette ? Je ne compte plus les remarques à ce sujet, certains n'hésitant pas à établir un lien direct entre l'absence de roulette et la possibilité d'effectuer un défilement (scrolling). Si il est vrai que la roulette est un confort indéniable pour effectuer un défilement, il ne faut pas perdre de vue qu'un trackball, par définition, permet d'effectuer nativement cette action, et ce au contraire d'une souris classique (sans roulette). En effet, avec un trackball, le défilement (scrolling) peut s'opérer très simplement en pointant la barre de défilement avec le clic gauche et, tout en maintenant le clic gauche enfoncé, vous utilisez la boule comme une énorme roulette... c'est silencieux, précis, bref... un vrai plaisir ! Vous pouvez même vous écarter de la barre de défilement tout en effectuant un "scrolling", attention toutefois de ne pas trop s'en écarter car au-delà de quelques centimètres la fonction de défilement s'interrompt. Il est important de préciser que Kensington propose, tout comme Logitech, un logiciel de contrôle pour ses périphériques, permettant, entre autres, de (re)programmer les boutons voire pour ce qui nous occupe, affecter une fonction particulière au clic simultané (clic gauche + clic droit). Il est donc très aisé d'affecter la fonction "clic du milieu" au clic simultané et de bénéficier dès lors d'un "scrolling" logiciel. Pour les personnes intéressées, vous devez télécharger le logiciel TrackballWorks 1.1.18 for Windows (32-bit,64-bit) sur le site du fabricant. Comme indiqué dans les instructions d'installation, le processus requiert les droits d'administrateur, pour ce faire, sous Windows 7, clic droit sur l'exécutable que vous aurez téléchargé et "Run as Administrator" (Exécuter en tant qu'Administrateur). Une fois installé, le logiciel demandera un redémarrage du système et proposera une interface en français. A toutes fins utiles j'ai posté une capture d'écran sur cette page. En résumé, je trouve que ce trackball mérite ses 5 étoiles car à mon sens : - il présente un excellent rapport qualité / prix - il permet, outre un "scrolling" natif, un "scrolling" logiciel grâce à TrackballWorks - il présente un "design" toujours d'actualité - il est compatible PS/2 - USB (adaptateur USB vers PS/2 fourni) - il dispose d'une longueur de câble appréciable (160 cm)

Love this mouse a lot better than others on the market, it a quick reaction mouse gamers could easily use this mouse

Uso este dispositivo desde hace unos 6 años en régimen profesional en mi trabajo. Es el mejor track ball que he manejado y he comprado este como repuesto por si se deja de fabricar `porque Kesingstone está sacando nuevos modelos con mas funciones pero menos robustos. El producto lo he comprado reacondicionado con defectos en embalaje pero debo decir que el defecto ha sido el embalaje ligeramente abollado. Si trabajas con track balls de media precisión, no lo dudes es un producto inigrualable en calidad/precio.

Objet permet à des personnes qui sont atteints du tremblement essentiel de pouvoir cliquer sur un ordinateur sans utiliser une souris trop compliqué