xyzio

I bought the Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse after finding the Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX to be too small for my long fingers.  Excessive use was causing my fingers to cramp up which is not fun after a long day at work.  It is too bad because I loved the Anywhere Mouse and found it to one of the best mice I’ve ever used.  A co-worker suggested the Trackman because it was ambi-dexterous and it accommodates long fingers.  I bought the mouse from Amazon.com for $23.

Looks
The trackball is very unassuming, there is a red ball at the top you manipulate with your fingers and two buttons on each side.  One side is meant to be clicked with your thumb and the other side by your ring or pinkie finger.  The top is made of a slightly textured plastic that doesn’t get

Logitech TrackMan Marble Mouse

uncomfortably hot with use.  The bottom is the standard mouse black plastic with three anti-slip pads spread around it.  The entire unit is sheathed in shades of an unassuming gray that exudes a sense of boredom.

Feel
The trackball feels like what you’d expect from a device made from cheap plastic. If feels decently comfortable in my hands, I can rest the palm of my hand on the base and stretch my fingers around it to reach the ball and buttons.  The buttons are typical Logitech, the have a linear feel and click with very little drama.  Each click is accompanied by a precise ‘snick’ that provides auditory feedback of the action’s execution.  I can tell that these buttons are well made and that I can count on them to perform reliably for years.

The ball is smooth but is a little heavy and has quite a bit of friction.  I have to put in more effort necessary to move it around, I can’t just flip the ball and move the mouse all the way across the screen.  The ball is removable and this is a good thing because gunk tends to build up on the supporting pegs.

Usage
Becoming proficient in using the mouse takes a day or so, precise pointing takes some practice but you can go from opening the box to clicking links in Google in a couple minutes.  The main left and right click buttons are easy to find and click.  The 2nd set of buttons, meant to be used for back/forward while browsing the web, are useless.  Clicking the buttons requires me to contort my hand beyond a comfortable level that is intolerable for any amount of time.

Logitech TrackMan Marble Mouse Separated

The ball is heavy and has a lot if friction.  This makes it hard to scroll rapidly across the screen during regular use and I can feel fatigue in my fingers towards the end of the day.  A big issue is that gunk from your fingers builds up in the ball supports which further impede progress.  I find myself cleaning the ball supports at least once a day.  The heavy ball becomes aggravating after a while and I feel like Logitech should have put more work in this part of the design.

Thoughts
Overall the Trackman Marble Mouse is a decent trackball considering the price.  It has no fancy features and it does the work of the equivalent two button mouse.  Having a sealed sensor means that the buttons or the ball will wear out before the sensor breaks.  it also means that we’ll have precise sensing for the life of the product.

Annoyances include the extra buttons are useless and I think they were put there just for marketing reasons.  Gunk tends to build up in the ball supports which requires frequent cleaning.  The base doesn’t fit well in my hand – It would have been nicer if the base had been wider or had a slight dip for the base of my hand.

Pros:
Cheap
Ergonomic

Cons:
Useless forward and back buttons
Heavy track ball
Tendency to build up gunk in the ball supports
No scroll-wheel