Logitech Optical Marble Mouse (USB/PS2)

Rating:
Summary: Love it!
Review: I loved my Marble Mouse by Logitech. I bought the older version with only the two large buttons. I think a standard mouse is better for playing games but for everything else on the computer it is the only way to go. I have recently upgraded to the Logitech cordless mouse....it too is nice. But if the Optical Marble Mouse came cordless I would plunk my money down and buy it again in a second. I now use my Marble mouse at work and have the cordless at home.

Rating:
Summary: Trackball Virgin
Review: I have to say this is the greatest thing since sliced bread (shows how old I am)the setup took all of 3 minutes and I was up and running it's so much easier than the old mouse.No more moving the mouse all over the table just sit it in one place use the smooth as glass big red ball with my forefinger and my thumb & pinkie on the buttons my word how great!! Just one other thing about Amazon shipping ordered on a sunday night came via UPS on tuesday is that fast or what!! thank's for reading rambelings.

Rating:
Summary: Best thing since sliced bread!
Review: Having been diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel, I looked for a trackball as an alternative to a mouse. What I didn't expect to find was something better than any mouse that I've ever used. I'm hooked on this trackball! This is the best "mouse" I've ever used. I find it very easy to control the cursor, and I'm now able to move the cursor much more quickly across the screen by just spinning the trackball--no extended arm or wrist movements.

Even better yet, it's relatively inexpensive! I've been using it for a few weeks now and I've had absolutely no problems with it. It seems well constructed.

This product gets my highest recommendation!

Rating:
Summary: Loved it so much I just bought a 2nd one
Review: I won't go into the specifications of the Marble Mouse because other reviews here have done a very thorough job. What few reviewers have mentioned, however, is how useful the Marble Mouse is for applications that require a lot of precisely controlled cursor movement. If you work a lot with Powerpoint, or Adobe Photoshop, basically any application which requires you to frequently click and drag items to specific locations on the screen, this is the mouse for you. Unlike a regular mouse, whose motion is registered by your hand dragging the entire unit over a surface, the marble mouse lets you move the cursor with a fingertip, allowing much more sensitivity and control of the cursor on screen. And as an added bonus, you can work for much longer without muscle fatigue. I've resorted to wrist braces several times after a couple of very long weekends doing this kind of work with a standard optical mouse, but after purchasing my first marble mouse, I've never had that problem again. I just purchased a 2nd mouse for the laptop, and since the "mouse" doesnt actually move over a surface, it works beatifully perched on a sofa armrest when my laptop is sitting in my lap. Ive also found that gaining experience with a trackball has made it much easier to adjust to using the touchpad on the laptop when necessary. Even if you think you could never adjust to a trackball, I'd suggest giving this one a test run for at least a week. Youll be surprised just how easy it is to use and how much you wont want to go back to anything else.

Rating:
Summary: Great product, awful ergonomics
Review: I bought one of these but had to return it in favor of the Trackman. The motion was smooth and easily controlled, but the ergonomics were all wrong for me. I simply could not get the hang of moving the ball with fingers that were used to clicking mouse buttons, and clicking mouse buttons that were used to moving the mouse. Before you buy this I recommend you go to a store and try the display model, so you can determine if you'll be comfortable working with it.

Rating:
Summary: Best track ball at 1/4 the price
Review: I have tried several trackballs over the past 10 years. The Marble Mouse beats the big expensive brand in both smooth handling and longevity -- and it costs about 75% less. The older, bigger track ball used a mechanical system, and the rollers on mine got rusty and gummed up. They also developed slop in the movement. Not with the Marble Mouse. The only maintenance involves cleaning a miniscule amount of gunk from the small support points on the base, which pick up some skin oil from the ball. However, the smooth operation gradually develops more friction, perhaps as the support points wear down. However, I am less concerned since it has a replacement cost of only $15-$20. To reduce stress on the wrist, I have found that I can easily use the Marble Mouse with either hand. When one wrist gets fatiqued, I put the Marble Mouse on the other side of the key-board. The transition is easy.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST mouse EVER!
Review: This mouse is so much easier to use than the one you have to drag all over the place. It uses less room and no mouse pad! You use your index and middle finger to navigate and click with your thumb while leaving your hand resting on the mouse itself. Both my husband and I would never switch back.
My sister has an optical mouse and hates my mouse, but I hate her optical mouse as well.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but gamers may have to be careful
Review: This is a very high quality functional product from Logitech, with good ergonomics and configurable buttons. Most concerns about this product have been mentioned already but I would like to identify a few caveats:

1. Gunk that gets on the trackball will accumulate in the ball "socket," so clean it out every once in a while.

2. You are using a completely different set of muscles and movements compared to a mouse. This may be good for some people and bad for others.

3. The fundamental difference is that a mouse is primarily a wrist-controlled device, while is is a finger-controlled devices. Generally, the response and control with your wrist is greater, which MAY lead to problems for gamers. How you choose to adapt to one or the other is up to you, much like how some console gamers prefer joysticks versus control pads. Switching to a trackball will get you a huge drop in precision until you get used to it.

Rating:
Summary: Hint: Flip the Button Assignments
Review: This is a great product. It takes up very little space, it is ambidextrous, it is ergonomic, and it works very smoothly. I use it almost exclusively now -- I have one for my desk at home, one for my personal laptop, and three for my work laptop (one for home, one for the office docking station, and one to travel around the office building). After a pretty short learning period, my family had no issues using it.

I wish there was a more portable model with a shorter cable.

My big recommendation: flip the primary button assignments. This will allow you to rest your palm against the table with your wrist and arm in a NEUTRAL position. Use your index or middle finger to navigate with the ball, and your middle or ring finger to "left" click. Use your thumb to "right" click.

Rating:
Summary: Solves one problem area by creating (multiple) new ones
Review: I got this trackball to relieve my ever-worsening case of carpal tunnel. In my case, I get pains in the back of my hand as soon as I lay it flat, palm face down. I've used this thing for several months now.

GOOD POINTS:
#1 - I love the buttons, no joke. I have mine set to L/R click, page forward, page back, and Universal Scroll (L+R click together), mainly because I'm used to having webpage scrolling buttons and to avoid redundancy. The default settings have page up and page down buttons, but why do that if you have universal scroll?

#2 - This is ambidextrous, so you can switch sides whenever you feel the strain.

#3 - You're not using your thumb to move the ball around. Doing so puts a lot of strain on the thumb joint.

BAD POINTS - and there are a LOT of them:
- Poorly designed casing and ball causes strain on fingers, palm, and knuckles.

Aside from the buttons, this trackball is poorly designed. Instead of eliminating RSI completely, it just shifts the strain on your hand from your wrists to your fingers, and it does it pretty quickly.

Depending on how you view it, the ball is placed way too high or the casing is built way too low. The Logitech Marble Mouse leaves your entire palm suspended in the air, making it very difficult to use..

With this Logitech Marble mouse, every time you move the ball, your entire palm moves up and down resulting in two things: (a) your motions are exaggerated, decreasing accuracy; and (b) you develop tension in your fingers and the upper part of the palm. In essence, you're shifting the strain from your wrist to your fingers. I've got pretty skinny fingers and I do a lot of hobbies requiring a lot of manual dexterity and fingerwork, so I can definitely feel the difference. It's like i'm always fighting the ball to keep it from overshooting. One solution I've tried is to turn down the sensitivity, but it is a pain in the ass AND it also means I have to do more spinning to move the cursor around. More motion, more overshoots, not worth it.

If I try to rest the suspended section of my fingers against the plastic, my fingers curl up over the ball uncomfortably and it puts tension on the tendons on the back of my hand.

Compare/contrast the control you have with a Cordless Logitech Trackman - your entire palm is at rest and supported by the casing, so only your fingers are twitching to control the ball. I have significantly better control with the Cordless Trackman than this thing.

#2 - Ambidextrous design means my hand is still pronated. It's not really getting rid of the problem, but the strain is reduced since I'm not moving my whole arm. But that's about it.

#3 - It's not Cordless. There's no reason for a trackball to NOT be cordless. If you're concerned about mousing ergonomics, one of the best things you can do is to cut down on the amount of weight you're pushing around. That's why all the super-serious ergonomic mice (3M Renaissance, Evoluent VerticalMouse) have cords - cordless mice need batteries. With trackballs, you're not pushing the entire unit, you're just twiddling a ball. Battery weight doesn't even factor into this equation.

I would recommend dedicated righties looking into this trackball to seriously consider coughing up the extra money to get the Cordless Optical Trackman. I dont' know if Logitech makes a lefty version.

I'd also recommend getting a side-neutral mouse like the Whale Mouse and learning how to mouse with your other hand. I'm currently using a cordless optical trackman for my right hand and switching to a crappy $5 wheelmouse for my left hand whenever the need arises.