Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical (Silver)
by Logitech
|
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 |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical (Silver)
Customer Review: Easy on the wrist but...crashes my laptop
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this mouse because I do some freelance work as a software developer and sitting in front of a computer all day long can really slaughter a wrist. After having my fingers go numb and gaining a wrist that sounds like cement truck, I opted for the Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical.
It installs easily, just...plug it in, wait for the driver to install, and presto your mouse is working. It takes all of five seconds. Great plus on my end. There is software included but I haven't installed it as the package directions stated to install the software if you want to change certain aspects of how the mouse operates -- which may be a plus for other people -- I was fine with it straight out of the box.
It's fits perfectly in my hand and my fingers naturally find the keys. Very simple to use though it did take some getting used to as I've never used a trackball mouse before (which, for those who don't know, involves "rotating" the pictured red ball around in order to maneuver the on-screen pointer, as opposed to the traditional physical moving of the mouse.) but after ten minutes of using it, I got the hang of it.
Now for my negative. This mouse crashes my computer, constantly. It works fine, at first; however, I use a laptop, when I close the screen of my laptop and it goes into "sleep" mode, then reopen the laptop to use, the mouse stops working. Then about five minutes later, my computer will completely crash. It doesn't matter if I unplug and replug the mouse's cord, it does the same thing and crashes my computer.
I used to have a Bamboo tablet and used the mouse that came with it. When I closed my laptop with it in sleep mode, it would automatically work again on reopening my laptop and I've never experienced this problem with any of my other mice I've used in the past. Only this one.
If I shut down my computer, as I probably should do, this problem doesn't occur. But as I'm an impatient person and don't like to wait for it to boot up all the time, I prefer to let it sleep and then use it. For me, the constant crashing when pulling my computer out of sleep-mode with the mouse plugged in (and in many cases, if I attempt to plug the mouse in after waking the computer -- the same problem arises) is quite an inconvenience for me.
So do I want wrist pain or a dead computer?
Those with laptops may want to beware.
Customer Review: Tracballs not for everyone
Summary: 1 Stars
I do CAD work and was wanting to see what others felt were good input devices. I saw quite a few posts from users who highly regarded trackballs. After reading the many positive reviews for the Trackman Wheel I decided to give it a try. It didn't take more than a minute for me to realize the reason why you don't find trackball devices dominating the mouse displays in retail outlets. Getting the cursor to traverse the display requires two to four movements of the ball with the thumb. Analyzing the mechanics involved, it is more efficient to have the ball roll on the desk than to have to move it with your fingers. One sweep of the hand can give several rotations of the ball when it rolls on the desk whereas with the ball inverted, the fingers are required to provide all the rotation of the ball which obviously requires much more physical input from the user. Combine those manipulations of the trackball with your other fingers for the buttons and scroll wheel and you will quickly feel stress in your hand as the fingers and thumb strain to coordinate the cursor movements.
CAD users commonly use 2 or more monitors. For me to get the cursor to traverse between two monitors required several thumb movements on the trackball, in contrast to a single sweep my wrist with a conventional mouse. To pan in the drawing window I have to press and hold the scroll wheel while moving the mouse cursor. To zoom the view in or out requires rolling the scroll wheel. With the trackball these movements require rolling or holding the scroll wheel button down with the middle or index finger while moving the trackball with the thumb. This is an unnatural and awkward movement for the hand and quickly leads to fatigue. Also to draw lines I have to hold down the left mouse button while moving the cursor with my thumb and at the same time pressing or rolling the middle scroll wheel to pan and zoom to place the end point of the line. Coordinating all those manipulations between the thumb and fingers is stressful to the hand. With a conventional mouse the cursor movement is controlled by the wrist, leaving the thumb naturally relaxed and the fingers free to manipulate the buttons and scroll wheel.
I am not criticizing the quality or functionality of the Trackman Wheel mouse but I do not recommend a trackball for CAD work.
Customer Review: Loved it so much I bought a second one
Summary: 5 Stars
A couple of years ago, I bought a Logitech Trackman Wheel to replace a Kensington trackball model that had finally died. That first Trackman that I bought was exactly what I wanted:
Affordable - under thirty bucks at the time.
Easy to install - just plug and play (Windows Vista Home Basic). Even though I didn't need it, the included adapter is great for people with PS/2 ports (versus the USB ports that my system uses).
Features - the Trackman doesn't offer much in the way of extras beyond a scroll wheel, but that's the only feature that I really want or need. I've owned mice with programmable buttons before, but found that they weren't worth the extra money that I paid for them. I didn't use the buttons often at all.
Long lasting - other than popping out the track wheel every now and then in order to clean the mouse (the trackball will get dirty because of oils in our hands along with the usual, microscopic stuff in our homes and offices), I didn't have any problems with this mouse.
Comfortable - I spend lots of time on my PC every single day, so having a mouse that conforms nicely to my hand and doesn't require much movement on my part is a huge plus.
Finally, that Trackman was too worn to continue comfortably using. The silver body was worn smooth where my hand had rested on it for those couple of years or so. The scroll wheel audibly clicked when I used it. Tracking wasn't as smooth as it had been before even though I was still thoroughly cleaning the mouse. The mouse is still fully functional, so it's in storage at the moment in case I need a backup. Really, though, I could have continued using it for a while longer - I just wanted a shiny, new one that wasn't slightly annoying to use, that's all.
Because I was so happy with the product, I bought another one just like it. This one is exactly what I remember my previous Trackman being right out of the box, so I'm glad that I didn't decide to try something new.
Also, if you're thinking that two or so years isn't very long for a mouse to last, please keep in mind that I spend a few hours every day using mine - more on weekends. If you're a more-casual user, you should reasonably expect longer life from your Trackman.
Customer Review: Best Trackball - fixed RSI problems - great for Mac or PC
Summary: 5 Stars
I originally bought this because I was getting a lot of wrist pain from mousing. It took just a very short while to get used to having the "marble' under my right thumb instead of pushing the entire mouse around the desktop, but it was ok. As I used it more, I realized that this puts my wrist at a natural angle. Wonderful! No more RSI/Carpel Tunnel pain. I really love the scroll wheel, and both mouse buttons work perfectly ok even without any driver software (Mac OS X). However, you can install the Logitech mouse driver software if you want the buttons to work differently.
After using mine for several years, I bought one for my Dad, and he likes it too. :-) For Dad, I installed the mouse driver software (Mac OS X) so we could disable his right mouse button. He's used to a 1 button mouse, and the pop up menus were annoying him when he accidentally "leaned on" the right mouse button. So it's all good.
Almost secret feature: in Mac OS X (10.3.9 at least) even w/o any Logitech driver software, if you click the scroll wheel (its also a button) the mouse pointer changes to a circle with arrows pointing up & down. You may then scroll by waving the trackball up and down. Sort of cool, if you know about it. Pushing the scroll wheel button again turns it back off.
If you're not already used to a 2 button mouse, you should know that the right button is really handy to bring up the spell checker for any misspelled underlined word. One right click, and the word is corrected! Even in FireFox as I type this! I just love it! That is a feature I use several times a minute! :-)
Being an "optical" means that it just never gets "bumpy" if dusty. Just use it for years and don't worry about cleaning it.
In addition to the nice features of this mouse itself, I also like that my screen saver isn't affected when I bump the desk. It's a trackball, not a mouse. It also takes less desk space since it doesn't need to move around. It's just better at everything. Oh, and even though Amazon has a greyscale photo, this product really has a red mouse ball. I totally love using this Logitech Trackman wheel optical, and it's easy on my body. I expect you will love it too.
Customer Review: Still the best, but not as good as it used to be
Summary: 4 Stars
Unlike "most Logitech trackball users", I'm not new to trackballs. Prior to this one, I've had two Trackman Wheels over the course of about 6 years or so.The old white one was great in that it was very comfortable on the hand. It fit what I'd call the "3 finger" style of button pushing where the middle three fingers never moved horizontally. The ring finger rests on the right button and stays there, while the middle finger rests on the wheel and stays there. This new style one seems to stray from that feel and cramps things up. It seems to assume more of a "roaming middle finger" style where the middle finger handles both right-click and wheel duties. My hands are quite small, and I still have a hard time holding it in a three finger style on this thing.
I don't know, it just seems most mice, as well as the old Trackman and the MS counterpart to this, all feel pretty comfortable in the three finger style.
Positives:
-Thumb trackball moves well under most conditions unlike the Microsoft version.
-Still curvier than MS's, which conform well to the curvature of my hand in a resting position.
-Seems more accurate and less flimsy than Microsoft's thumb trackball.
-No wrist movement whatsoever. And, IMHO, my thumb seems to be able to work trackballs better than my finger on the finger trackballs from Kensington and Logitech. Plus, those non-thumb trackballs are totally different than any mouse out there. They just seem very tough to use for precision work like Photoshop. I feel like I should be playing Missile Command or Marble Madness with them!
-And seriously, it's just as easy to play games once you're used to it. No problems with getting smoked in Call of Duty or other shooters and RTS games!
Negatives:
-You need "piano fingers" to do a three finger style of clicking around. Otherwise, people with double duty middle fingers will feel very comfortable with this one.
-Would love at least one more little button somewhere, for double-clicking or whatever, to relieve wear on the left button. Microsoft has two extra buttons. Most Logitech mice have extra buttons.