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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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical (Silver)
Customer Review: carpal-tunnel-friendly, immune to desk clutter, awkward for left-handers
Summary: 5 Stars
Logictech Trackman Wheels steer all computers on which I spend time. This model, the Logictech Trackman Wheel Optical, steers four of them. The Cordless Trackman Wheel, whose wireless connection is powered by one AA battery, steers the fifth.
Because this unit doesn't need to move around, it uses a much smaller footprint on your desk. No need for a mouse pad. For that matter, it can be perched on top of desk clutter.
The tiny black dots that freckle its red thumb ball enable one to steer the cursor with unerring accuracy, ease, and responsiveness. The underside of the thumb ball rides on three little metal balls, each like the end of an over-sized ball-point pen. Every 2-3 months, depending on the dustiness of the environment, enough lint accumulates around these three little balls to noticeably brake the thumb ball. Whenever this happens, it takes me 30 seconds to pop the thumb ball out, flick off the offending lint, and reinsert the thumb ball. If I'm being super neat, I'll do it with tissue paper, also wiping the thumb ball.
Mouse users who are new to the thumb ball will soon discover that their old habits need adjustment. That adjustment comes in a few hours, but momentary visitors are likely to struggle. Trackball users are familiar with the basic idea; but they, too, must learn to rest their palm over the device, as though it were a mouse, then employ the thumb of their right hand to guide it. So far as I know, Logitech does not produce a left-handed version of this device. That's too bad. It's obviously awkward for left-handed users, even after years of practice.
Customer Review: Well worth loosing two buttons
Summary: 5 Stars
a year ago I went to purchase a trackball mouse, I wanted Logitech since I have always had a good track record with them, all I could find was the Microsoft D67-00001 Trackball Optical Mouse locally, so I purchased it, one trackball works as well as the next right? NOOOO I spend 90% of my working day on my computer, and the MS mouse drove me nuts! (see review posted on MS mouse for the details of the nightmare I endured) I finally treated myself to the trackball I wanted in the first place, I deserve it darn it! I received it today, ripped it out of the box and plugged it into my machine and away I went. Of course it plugged in and worked immediately with XP. I went to use the trackball and zoom across the page, it is smooth as silk. You may think, it's a trackball, what's all the excitement about? It is a huge improvement on what I have been dealing with for a year now. The action is smooth, it feels comfortable in my hand, much improvement over the last mouse hell I had to deal with. Yes, I lost two buttons, and I do miss the ease of backing out of a webpage with one click. The tradeoff I accepted for that was the smooth scrolling, the clean mechanism, the not needing to clean out the ball five times a day, I didn't need to alter this mouse to work right out of the box, and it is actually less bulky and forms to the hand much better than the MS mouse it replaced. If you are looking at the above picture be warned, this mouse has a red ball, not grey... so if you are buying it only for the cute grey ball you will be disappointed ;p So, all in all, great price, great trackball, great investment. I am a happy camper.Customer Review: Works better after you clean it
Summary: 4 Stars
There have been some comments posted here that "you don't need to clean it" or that "it works great without being cleaned". It DOES need to be cleaned, or the friction keeps going up. The good news is that this takes only about 15 seconds to do, and is nothing like digging cat hair out of mechanical gears with a long thin knife, which I've had to do before. There's a hole in the bottom. Stick a pencil eraser in there and push up. The ball will pop out. Clean the three support points by wiping them with a finger and stick the ball back.
Once cleaned, while in motion it is almost frictionless, and it is easy to very quickly move where you want and to stop almost exactly. Once stopped, the static friction is higher, and with the shorter movement distance of the trackball, it is, as has been pointed out, harder to move just a few pixels accurately than with the longer distance traveled of a regular mouse, but this should only be a real issue where you need single pixel precision.
I find that it works better than a regular mouse for almost all normal tasks, including games, but where single pixel precision is required, it is a bad choice.
The buttons are well placed and easy to use, after a couple days to get used to them.
It's very nice to not have to worry about having a mouse-pad space available. I've knocked it down to 4 stars principally due to missing having 2 extra buttons. This has a standard right/left button plus a clickable scroll wheel as the middle button.
It is basically unusable with the left-hand.
Overall, I'm very happy with it.
Customer Review: Always on Track...
Summary: 5 Stars
My first pointing device was the original Logitech TrackMan--a product that still serves me well on a VERY OLD computer in my home. To this day, I still hate the "traditional" mouse pointing device, and all of our home computers are equipped with at least one Logitech TrackMan device.As has been mentioned by another individual, I do prefer the previous incarnations of the TrackMan Marble Wheel (M/N: T-CH11, P/N: 804122-3000 and M/N: T-BB13, P/N: 804335-0000) pointing devices; however, there isn't anything that makes this particular model (M/N: T-BB18, P/N: 804360-0000) inferior to the quality products normally sold by Logitech.
My preference is merely a matter of style and color.
Software/driver (MouseWare) support for win-whatever platforms is excellent, and the device is solidly supported under recent and contemporary iterations of Linux distros--across the board. Personally, I don't care for the WebWheel software component (for win platforms) at all, but it can be removed if you so desire.
The device is wired for USB interface, but comes with a USB to PS/2 adapter. This allows one to use two pointing devices on the same computer; one with minimum sensitivity and acceleration characteristics--perfect for precision graphics editing--and one with "normal" sensitivity and acceleration characteristics--more appropriate for text editing and pushing icons around in a GUI environment. The convenience is worth more than the purchase price of two TrackMan Wheel devices.
All in all, this is a solid and value-priced product, built for years of service. No computer should be without one.
Customer Review: Marvel of Engineering
Summary: 5 Stars
If you've never used a trackball, you owe it to yourself to try one out. I think this is one of the best computer accessories ever.
The Trackman is ergonomically designed so that if fits in your palm perfectly and the trackball is at just the right place for your thumb. You wrist never gets tired because it never moves. The only thing that moves is your thumb.
The trackball is extremely precise and it took me only a couple of minutes to get used to it. I'm now on my fifth Trackman because my I've bought one for just about everyone in my family.
There are a couple of other advantages to having the trackball.
First, I can use it as a gaming mouse because of the precise movements it gives me.
Second, if you ever need to use a mouse on an uneven surfaces the fact that there is no laser or IR on the bottom as in traditional mice makes the Trackma extremely useful. Often, I will set it down on a pile of papers on my desk or use it when I'm sitting on my couch.
Finally, you don't need a lot of space since you never have to move the trackball like you would a traditional mouse.
One thing you need to do is occasionally pop out the track ball and clean the rollers inside. This is a simple and easy task and cleaning only takes a few seconds.
Oh and one last thing, it always cracks me up when someone who has never used a trackball tries to move it around on the desk like they would a traditional mouse when they don't realize that they have to move the ball and get confused for a split second.