Kensington K72337US Orbit Trackball with Scroll Ring for PC or Mac
by Kensington
List Price:
Our Price: $25.53
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Category: CE
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: KensingtonAudio: English (Original Language)
Format: CD-ROM
Platform: Windows
Model: K72337US
Color: black
Product features:
- Scroll ring allows fast, easy scrolling of web pages and documents
- Uses far less desk space than a mouse
- Optical technology for precise tracking - no cleaning required
- Click-free scrolling
- USB connectivity
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable (3.3 Feet/1.0 Meter)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Braided Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)[Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel][OLD MODEL]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kensington K72337US Orbit Trackball with Scroll Ring for PC or Mac
Customer Review: Fairly good trackball
Summary: 4 Stars
I was looking for a trackball to use with my laptop. Something not too big that could easily be stowed in my laptop case and would replace having to use a mouse and mouse pad or the laptops trackpad. I didn't want to spend a small fortune on the Kensington Expert Trackball. It was my first choice as my cousin has been using variants of the expert for 12+ years, but a little overkill for simple laptop use.
I narrowed my search down to 2 choices: The Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical and this, the Kensington K72337US Orbit Trackball with Scroll Ring. Other options such as the Kensington Orbit Optical (Which I owned the older ADB Mac version of 10 years ago and did not care for) and the Logitech Trackman Marble were axed due to lack of DEDICATED scrolling options.
The Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical appealed to me because it had a very familiar button and wheel placement. The thumb ball seemed to be a pretty good idea, however after using my cousins Kensington Experts over the years one thing a reviewer said really stuck with me, moving the trackball with your fingers as opposed to your thumb is a little easier and accurate. The more I thought about it, the more I felt they were right. Your thumb is shorter, limited motion and you cannot bring in the use of nearby fingers to help steady or aim the trackball. With the Kensington Orbit Trackball with Scroll Ring, I felt as if it would be a little more intuitive and easier to control. Luckily my research was rewarded.
PROS:
- I control the ball with my index/pointer finger and bring in my middle finger and even my ring finger for precise or steady operations.
- The scroll ring is great and really is bloody brilliant. A lot of people say "it is plastic on plastic" as opposed to being on some more weighted complicated wheeled track. Basically, it is EXACTLY like any standard mouse wheel. Maybe they were thinking it would be a weighted, free flicking, heavier metal contraption on rails like scroll wheels on high quality mice like my Logitech G9 I use on my work computer. No such luck. But for this price, seriously, adjust your superfluous expectations.
- The two buttons and scroll ring perform identically to your average mouse.
- The placement of the ball, buttons and scroll ring are easy to adapt to and constantly use. Having not used a trackball for any substantial amount of time in years, it took me one hour of web browsing to adjust to the layout and familiarize my brain to the different placement. The scroll ring was the weirdest thing to get used to as I had never encountered anything like it before. Needless to say it performs equally/exactly like a scroll wheel in overall function when used and is quite fun and novel to use in and of itself.
- Plug and play. I plugged it in, everything worked but the right click, I clicked it a few more times, the computer recognized it and everything has worked perfectly from then on. No software or drivers needed whatsoever.
- Has hole in bottom of unit so you can stick your finger through bottom, pop out the ball and blow all the dust/hair/gunk out. (The old ones had a solid bottom so when you blew to get dust and stuff out, close your eyes! Not sure if the Expert and Slim have holes from the top to the bottom, would be nice if they did)
CONS:
- Kensington TOTALLY missed an opportunity to have 4-6 buttons on this puppy. The two buttons it has are huge, you cannot miss them! That being said, Kensington could have easily used half or even a third of the existing buttons space for two additional buttons which would be great for clicking forward and back in browsers and windows. Or, they could have kept the majority of the space for the two large buttons and used a third of the space for two small buttons, one above the other so you would have the forward and back functions together like on normal mice. Technically you could EASILY have a 6 button ambidextrous trackball. There is so much wasted button space not only on the two large buttons but even in front of them they could put two more buttons. It is not what I would list as a huge con unless you really love your forward and back buttons and use them extensively. But it just seemed like a really sad missed opportunity that would literally make this thing utter perfection for its price range. I would gladly pay 10$+ more for two little buttons in front of the current large ones as my fingers could easily move from the trackball and hit them and also two small buttons stacked on top of each other using the latter 1/3 of the two large buttons space that could be used for forward/back or macro'd. It would be sweet if Kensington made a laser gaming version with braided cord, on the fly dpi change and a 6-8 button fully macro config. Yeah I know the braided chord would be silly as it is a trackball but they do tangle and mess less and such a trackball could be used for most games out there. (I am still not sure the average trackball user could rock FPS but some report they can)
TIP: It was weird getting used to using a trackball. I would accidentally move the ball from time to time and my hand was a little too jumpy wiggling the cursor. I turned down the mouse cursor speed pretty low in the Windows Control Panel which lets me gets used to moving the trackball and how it rolls and feels. As I am getting use to the trackball and getting more accurate, I have turned the cursor speed back up little by little. This is akin to the principle, walk before you run. Otherwise it can be frustrating trying a totally new way of computing that may seem too fast, unusual or out of control. Get used to it first, then ramp it up. This greatly helped ease me in.
No regrets. Got it for my laptop. The size is right, the price is right, the features are right. Only downside is they could easily take a great concept and trick it out to make it even better.
Description of Kensington K72337US Orbit Trackball with Scroll Ring for PC or Mac
Comfort meets control! All-day comfort and scrolling come together in the Kensington Orbit(TM) Trackball with Scroll Ring. Kensington has been a world leader in trackball innovation, and this model is part of that heritage. The scroll ring allows you to fly through web pages and documents. And all while delivering comfort and space savings no mouse can match. Ambidextrous for either left or right handed users. Compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS XDigital Cameras & Photo Categories
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