Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical (Silver)
by Logitech
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Our Price: $343.76 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $65.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical (Silver)
Customer Review: Better than a mouse!
Summary: 5 Stars
I see that I'm hardly unique here. Like others who've posted reviews already, I bought my Logitech Trackman Marble back in 1995 or so when I bought my first Windows PC.
So when I went GUI, like many of you, it seemed to me like a totally dumb idea to move a mouse around a desktop. It made much more sense to me to keep your hand on a stationary peripheral.
At the time, the Logitech Trackman Marble was the only game in town if you wanted a trackball. This simple inexpensive little peripheral has outlived countless computers and has served me well for over ten years! Wow!
So I was beside myself when some books on the shelf above my computer slipped and knocked a cup of Pepsi over my keyboard and Trackman last week. The keyboard? Eh! Keyboards are the proverbial dime a dozen these days. Big whoop. But my Trackman! I was frozen in terror. Do they still make trackballs? Or have mice totally won over? Or are they all ambidextrous now with the ball in the middle to appease lefties? I'm so used to using my thumb to roll the ball that I don't think I could get used to an ambidextrous trackball (and contrary to what others have said, I'm so comfortable using this type of trackball that I can frag in Unreal with the best of 'em using my thumb to aim with)!
Amazon.com to the rescue! Much to my relief, Logitech still sells a Trackman trackball. The styling is a little more modern and "swoopy," but the design is essentially unchanged in 10+ years--and that's a GOOD thing! I ordered it from Amazon last week and find it fits me as well as my prior Trackman Marble. The Trackman Wheel is a wee bit smaller than the Marble and the mouse buttons are a little closer together--not enough to see, but my hand feels the difference. But that's no big deal, I got used to it after just a few minutes. Also, it comes with a driver CD, but Windows recognized it out of the box without having to install the CD--even the wheel. That's a good thing too because I don't like installing unnecessary software onto my PC if I don't have to. I can't praise Logitech enough! Highly recommended for anyone addicted to a thumb type trackball!
Incidentally, after my new Trackman arrived and I breathed a sigh of relief that it is essentially the same design, I performed a little "surgery" on my dead Trackman. Removing the four little screws from underneath it, I disassembled it. Before you read on, don't try this on any working device--this was a shot in the dark on a device that I had given up for dead anyway. With the ball out and the screws removed, the shell pops apart easily and the tiny circuit board lifts right out--no prying necessary or risking snapping little prongs off to lift it out. Being careful not to break any of the delicate wire jumpers, I wiped the circuit board down with a damp cloth to get all the Pepsi gunk off. Then after it dried, I wiped it down again with a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to remove any residual moisture. The top and bottom plastic shell, as well as the ball, I ran under the hot water faucet for a few minutes (there's no metal parts). Letting it all dry out overnight (the slightest moisture on any electronic circuit will totally fry it upon giving it power), I reassembled it the next morning. Guess what? I plugged it back into the USB port, and it works perfectly! Better, actually, than it had worked for a long time. Being optical, the Trackman Marble never lost its precision over the years the way ordinary mice do after a year or so, but I was never really able to clean those little metal prongs in the ball socket very well, and the ball sometimes felt "sticky" even after cleaning the ball socket out. Picking the gunk off those little metal prongs in the ball socket with my fingernails never got it as clean as the "overhaul" it just received. So now I have two working Trackmans, both seemingly in brand new condition!
So I'm going to go back to using my old Trackman Marble and put the new Trackman back in its box and save it for when my old one does eventually wear out.
Customer Review: Comfortable alternative to a mouse
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a trackball to give myself a more space-efficient alternative to a mouse. After deciding against most of Kensington's trackballs because of cost and against a Microsft trackball because of my smaller hand size, I settled on the Logitech Trackman.
I had never used a trackball for even a short amount of time, so adjusting to the feel of the Trackman took several days but was definitely worth it.
-Ball movement. The ball glides smoothly on several mini ball bearings and is a comfortable size for me to operate with my thumb. Plus, it is also optical and thus has less parts to clean.
-Familiar mouse-like shape. The Logitech Trackman is more mouse-shaped than many trackballs, and the buttons/scroll wheel can be used with the usual fingers. Unlike a mouse, of course, you don't have to worry much about desktop space and don't need to move the entire device around.
-Simple buttons. If you don't like mice/trackballs that are loaded with buttons, this is for you. This trackball only has the standard left/right buttons, plus a clickable scroll wheel. The main buttons aren't too stiff, and the wheel moves easily and has a muted click when you scroll (pretty much the same as a Logitech optical mouse).
-Curves. The entire device is curved to fit the right hand. There are grooves on the two "mouse" buttons to give your fingers a place to rest, and there are additional grooves for your ring and little fingers to rest on. There's also a bit of rubber along the right edge, presumably for comfort reasons.
-Size. One of the reasons I've bought Logitech mice instead of the equivalent Microsoft products is that the MS mice feel large, chunky and unwieldy in my hand. This trackball is no exception; my palm, thumb, and fingers rest exactly where they should be. If you like the size of Logitech's optical scroll mice, you will probably like this trackball as well; if you have larger hands or generally prefer the larger size of Microsoft's mice, it would be a good idea to try this out in a store before buying.
-Long cord. If your only free USB ports are several feet away, under a desk, etc., hooking the Trackman up shouldn't be a problem. It's a bit more cumbersome if you have it plugged directly into your keyboard and have lots of extra cord left over, but it's nothing a simple twist tie can't fix.
-Construction. The Trackman is available for less than $30, but it has the usual Logitech quality. Three rubber feet keep the Trackman from slipping around. The bottom is held together with four screws and can easily be opened using a Philips head screwdriver if necessary; the ball can be popped out from above by grabbing it between your thumb/forefinger and giving it a good tug. All in all, much easier to open up and clean than, for instance, an Apple peripheral, but at the same time it won't come apart by accident during regular use.
-OS X compatibility. The two mouse buttons and scroll wheel work fine without any Logitech drivers installed, though the trackball is a bit slow. Installing the Logitech Control Center allows you to bump the tracking speed up further and program the middle (scroll wheel) button, among other things. If you already have installed it (for use with a Logitech keyboard or mouse, for example), the Control Center should detect the Trackman and allow you to program it without installing any trackball-specific software (you can even leave your mouse connected without any real problems).
**If you use OS 10.3, download the latest drivers! Earlier Logitech drivers (such as the one included in the box) caused several kernel panics on my Mac when used under recent versions of OS 10.3.**
Customer Review: Better than Logitech Optical Marble trackball, but..
Summary: 3 Stars
Well, most reviewers of Logitech trackballs seem to be new trackball users.I've used kensington's large ball trackballs, and orbit ( mechanical ) trackballs.
So, IMHO, I think my opinion can be more accurate than others.
Before reviewing this device, I'd like to state that trackballs are, unlike mice, should fit your hand. If not, a trackball which is very comfortable to one's hand, can be inconvenient to others' hands.
And I'm not biased to any companies.
Trackman wheel optical mouse is more comfortable than its optical marble trackball. The problem of the marble trackball is that it's too nannow, and the buttons are located higher position than it should be. Probably people with small hand, for example, kids, can be satisfied with the trackball, but to others, it may not be. I don't have big hands, but my thumbs located comfortably on the lower portion of the left button and far right side of the right button.
However, this trackball, trackman wheel optical, is different.
It's more comfortable.
However this also has some defects.
First, it's too much curved. To be comfortable, the curve should be lesser when it approaches to the end of fingers. it should be more rounded on the palm side and less on the finger portion. However it's too much curved on the finger portion.
Most comfortable one is just to put your hand relaxed. However this trackball doesn't allow it.
Second, the mouse control panel software is another problem.
It doesn't allow pressing two button at the same time.
For example, Kensington's one allows it. So, you can set left and right buttons as usual. And pressing two buttons can work as click-and-lock. However with Logitech's program, you can assign it only with left or right button.
So, you should give up one of the two buttons if you want to use
"click-and-lock" feature.
OK. You can use the scroll wheel as a thrid button, though.
However, it's not so convenient.
With trackballs, click-and-lock is very important, I think.
It's a little harder to click and move mouse cursor than you do
with mice. So, good "click-and-lock" feature is a must, IMHO.
And I doubt if the scroll wheel is convenient. As I said above, it's too rounded on the finger portion. So, scrolling is not so convenient.
Some people mentioned that Kensington's trackball doesn't have scroll whell.
However, you know, the trackball itself can work as a wheel, and it's more convenient. With kensington's software, the trackball itself can work as a scroll wheel very conveniently.
I've also read that the Kensington's Optical orbit is not so resistant to dirt.
So, I can't judge how convenient it is.
However its orbit mouse ( not optical ) is much better choice than any trackballs from the Logitech. ( I'm sorry. Logitech's mices are great, but their trackball is not so good as Kensington's. )
Well, problem with Kensingon is that their products are somewhat expensive, and is not as widely available as Logitech's. Most retail stores have Logitech's but not Kensington's.
I recommend this Logitech's trackball more than its marble trackbal.
And if you are more more hardcore user of a trackball, the Kensington's one will be yours.
Customer Review: The Best Mouse Killer Out There
Summary: 5 Stars
Computer interfaces, like recreational drugs, have to keep on getting more and more immediately satisfying no matter what they do to your body. The most dreadful change was from the "white on black" scheme of old terminals to today's "black on white" screens--vastly increasing the amount of light coming from the screen and hence our inability to turn away from it. The second was the use of "pointing devices" which has led to the development of a generation of people who have such asymmetry in their hands that they look like lobsters.
The conventional mouse was crafted through great engineering and marketing research to be compelling and hard to let go of, even though it leads your ligaments to freeze in a terrible position. The logitech handed trackball (I can't recommend the more symmetric types) is the only pointing device that works with the construction of the hand of most members of homo sapiens. The only part that is moving repetitively is the base of the thumb which is one of the stronger parts of the hand.
You will notice this if you try this trackball under normal circumstances. But it is in tense circumstances that it comes into its own. Grip a normal mouse the way you would if you were upset--say, you were just clicking open an email that you correctly guessed told you that you were fired. Your hand is almost certainly twisted into a grip that will make you a natural Appalachian banjo player, but useless for pretty much everything else. Now do the same thing with the trackman. It actually relaxes your hand as you grab harder! Thankfully, most of us don't get fired regularly, but we do have stress and lots of the stress comes precisely when we are using our pointing device--opening and selecting things. Those of us with stressful jobs and trackmen will be beating all the other folks in the old age home at tiddlywinks, I can tell you that.
Further--and this is a bit disgusting but true--mice get dirty from hand sweat, and the more tension in your life, the more hand sweat. For some reason computer manufacturers went for this dental-equipment beige color that really shows the dirt. I sit down at someone's computer who has the original mouse and I don't want to touch it. I'd rather wear their dirty underwear. At least I can't see the grossness. The scum that does build up over the years on the trackball is easy to remove--just pop out the ball (the newer versions don't have the retaining ring so just give the unit a smart tap upside down and out it comes like a glass eye!).
Finally, and maybe this is just me, but sometimes if you've been working late, the typical mouse DOES start to look like a real mouse. Or a rat, since (thank G-d) there aren't many mice that big. Like most of us, I've killed my share of mice and don't really like the idea of having to reach over and put my hand on their big brother.
The trackman, in contrast, looks a little bit like the face of a beluga whale seen from the side. That's calming! And if you're like me, when you're using a computer, you can use all the calm you can get. [39]
Customer Review: Great mouse, but more cheaply made than previous
Summary: 4 Stars
After an intense gaming experience using a regular mouse, I was nearly crippled from the resulting pain and had to find an alternative. I'd had shoulder surgery and although I was recovering nicely, apparently still had weaker muscles than I realized because the next day I couldn't move my arm at all. Even though that cleared up with the help of PT, I decided I needed to try a trackball mouse for future computer activity and instantly fell in love with my new Logitech TrackMan Wheel mouse. I've never been interested in going back to a standard mouse even though my shoulder has long since healed.
After several years, though, that first Logitech trackball began having problems. It seemed I was perpetually having to remove the ball for cleaning. Although I never saw the 'crumbs' that must have become lodged, I sure felt them, as the ball movement would become jerky until I'd cleaned both the ball and the 'holder'. Even though the difference was slight, it felt like I was driving over a boulder and was very annoying.
Finally, I decided to spring for a new mouse of the same type and am very pleased with a couple of things. First, the ball movement is so smooth and quick I'm very glad I decided to start anew. The old ball had grown a bit sluggish even after cleaning, so I suppose the contact points were worn (and for good reason :). I didn't realize that the movement felt a bit heavy until I had installed this new mouse, which is much quicker, lighter feeling and more responsive. Secondly, since my desktop PC is several years old I have old connection ports. The PC works fine and doesn't need to be replaced, but doesn't have any more USB ports available and almost all accessories now attach via USB port. I am delighted that this mouse still provides the ability to install in PS2 mode via a supplied adapter. Hurray. That saves me having to buy a powered hub to add more USB ports.
On the downside, the construction on this mouse is not as good as the previous model. Although it looks identical but for being a slightly darker color, the wheel action on the new mouse is raspy rather than completely smooth as it was on the old model. I can actually hear the wheel move and can feel resistance. Although the ball is fine (even better than my old mouse) the wheel isn't as good. I can only hope it will deliver smoother action with use.
Still, I love this mouse. It causes no fatigue in either my hand or arm even after hours of use whether gaming or doing extensive photo editing where I have more precise control than with a regular mouse. I have arthritis in my thumbs, but have no pain whatsoever from using the ball and greatly appreciate that. All in all, I find this the best ergonomic mouse and very reliable. I highly recommend it even though the construction quality is not quite as high as my previous model.