Customer Reviews

Kensington Slimblade Trackball USB 2.0 for PC and Mac, K72327US

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

UPDATE (16 October 2010): Kensington released their TrackballWorks in June of this year, which release enables users to customize the Slimblade Trackball's four buttons, adjust pointer speed/acceleration/function, and other features. The pointer sensitivity is much improved, though still not as good as the pointer sensitivity module found in the venerable MouseWorks software.

On the other hand, the ability to customize the four buttons of the Slimblade Trackball is a welcome (and much needed) improvement. This device should have shipped with this software.

The advent of programmable buttons places the Slimblade Trackball in a category of its own. It surpasses by a wide margin the ergonomics and aesthetics of the Expert Mouse. The scrolling function is superb, a perfect complement to a trackpad device. I am surprised by how much the Slimblade Trackball just "disappears" while I am working with it.

My only complaint is that the buttons are sometimes too sensitive, something that can be avoided by adjusting how much resting pressure one places on the device's surface.

Those of us looking for an attractive and elegant multifunction pointing device need look no further. The Slimblade Trackball now has software worthy of its stunning good looks.

(The previous version of this review rated the Slimblade Trackball at 2 stars, was found helpful by 190 of 201 people, and was titled "Missed Opportunity".)

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(Amazon's system was not properly updating my review, so I deleted and reposted. At the time I did this, only 1 of 4 people found my review helpful. Even so.)

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UPDATE (9 March 2009): After 4 days of continuous use. I am packing it in and reverting back to the Expert Mouse. If one needs either precise cursor control, programmable buttons or application-sensitive behavior, the Slimblade Trackball is unusable with the supplied software.

I've been using trackballs (mainly Kensington) since 1993 and am no stranger to change. This trackball simply was not designed with an expert user in mind, and I hope those who read my review will consider that it is written from this perspective. It is meant to inform professionals and expert users whose software and hardware demands are unusually high.

If you are an expert user who needs a pointing device to be application-aware, or if you need high-precision cursor control, this device is not one you should consider.

Tempting as this device may be for people frustrated with the terrible hardware design of the Expert Mouse, the Slimblade Trackball cannot replace the Expert Mouse.

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The Slimblade Trackball is really a missed opportunity for Kensington. This device has so much potential but the software limitations make this device just barely usable.

The two major components of the Slimblade Trackball are the hardware design and the software affordances. Let's start with the good.

THE HARDWARE
==========

In order to understand what is amazing about the Kensington Slimblade Trackball, one should be aware of the last redesign of the Expert Mouse. That design is quite horrendous. The steep angle of the plastic housing strained the wrist tendons so badly that the device shipped with a faux leather pad that attached to the trackball to elevate the wrist. Besides being ugly, the pad kludge didn't work very well. Strained wrists are a common symptom among users of the Expert Mouse Trackball.

The Slimblade Trackball rectifies this situation. Big Time.

The low profile of the trackball housing is not only aesthetically pleasing, it also allows users to use the device with hand and wrist only moderately angled. The ball rolls smoothly (though it is an ugly color) and the buttons are very sleek as they are cut out of the housing. Clicks are unfortunately hollow-sounding, but the tactile response is superb, the buttons requiring a firm but shallow press for activation. The new device is a pleasure to handle physically.

The engineering of the trackball well is clever. Plastic bearings similar to those in the Expert Mouse Trackball keep the ball gliding smoothly, with the difference that these bearings are sealed in their sockets with only a portion of the bearing visible. The holes which contain the electronics that register ball movement do not appear to emit light. When the ball is rotated around its Y-axis (running through the top and bottom of the device), the electronics make an audible clicking noise. Think iPod scrollwheel sound. The faint sound could be a problem in quiet office environments, especially for users who do quite a bit of scrolling or zooming.

In all, the hardware of the device is excellent. The thought and care which went into the engineering shows, and if look and feel were all that mattered, Kensington would have produced a pointing device worthy of admiration and celebration.

Unfortunately for Kensington, there's also the bad and the ugly. Namely . . .

THE SOFTWARE
==========

(I'm testing the Slimblade Trackball software on a PowerMac G5 2 x 2.5 GHz running Mac OS X v. 10.5.6. Windows users may have an experience different than mine.)

First off, I want to say that the software seems also to have received quite a bit of attention from the designers at Kensington. Unfortunately, what those designers produced seems to be the victim of poor market analysis.

Some Slimblade Trackball users have forgiven Kensington for omitting the ability to program the buttons. I am not one of these users. The inability to reprogram the buttons is arrogance at its worst. When Steve Jobs and Jon Ives give users an extra-strength dose of designerly arrogance, they often succeed in curing ailments users didn't even realize they had (hockey puck mouse excepted). I'm here to assure you that the software designers at Kensington are neither Steve Jobs nor Jon Ives.

At all.

First, the drivers for the Slimblade Trackball do not have any user-accessible interface. Period. OK, that's not entirely true. The installer places a pointer-shaped item in the menubar. Clicking on that item reveals two items. 1) A dimmed line reporting that the Kensington Slimblade Trackball is active, and 2) a link to Kensington's online tutorial. As we all know (as of 5 March 2009), that online tutorial is not yet available. So, the link sends users to the promotional microsite for the Slimblade Trackball as if advertising will convince them that nothing's wrong. I suppose one can navigate one's way to the sparse FAQ which contains 8 items as of this writing.

If you can't read the sign that says Things are Not Good(tm) then look over yonder. Yup. That's the milestone for Here Comes Ugly(tm)

THE UGLY
======

Users not only cannot program the device's buttons, but they also cannot customize the speed and acceleration of the device outside of the operating system software provided by Apple or a piece of third-party software.* This is a problem of gargantuan proportions and has been documented at length in this TidBITS article: [...].

I have a 23" Cinema Display and a 17" Studio Display hooked together in a single extended desktop. I need my pointing device tracking to be set high. Setting the mouse tracking to high is possible with Apple's "Keyboard & Mouse" System Preference. The problem comes when moving the device slowly, as one might do when selecting text. The differences in slow and fast cursor tracking in Apple's Keyboard & Mouse System Preference settings render the Slimblade trackball practically unusable on medium-to-large desktops.

By removing the ability of users to customize slow and fast tracking speed--something that the Expert Mouse Trackball software does provide--Kensington has effectively turned what should have been a magnificent product into something only a mother could love, or at least a committee of marketroids who got their way over the tearful objections of old-skool Kensington software devs. Don't worry devs, having bought this device I feel your pain and then some.

At present, Kensington has no plans to offer programmable buttons for this device. One can only hope future software releases will enable users to customize the acceleration settings for the Slimblade Trackball just as users of the Expert Mouse Trackball are able to customize their settings.

CONCLUSION
========

The hardware engineers at Kensington deserve raises and your first-born. This is a beautiful device.

On the other hand, the managers of the software design team should have their computers confiscated and other really awful things like getting raisins for dessert.

The Kensington Slimblade Trackball is like a gorgeous date with a bland personality. You don't mind hanging out awhile but you hope something better will come along soon.

* My limited testing of USB Overdrive as a third-party driver has been unable to access the media buttons (the upper ones) at all, suggesting to me that the upper buttons are not regular mouse buttons at all.

PROS: This is a BEAUTIFUL mouse, I've had issues with past larger Kensington trackballs because of their steep rake, this one fits in the hand fantastically. The scrolling action is ok (done by twisting the ball), sometimes I accidentally trigger it when mousing around.

CONS: The software ruin's this wonderful hardware. ZERO customizability. I was trying to "upgrade" from a Logitech Cordless Trackman and worse than being unable to program the top two buttons is being unable to set my vertical axis. For their premier mouse, Kensington decided that they would prioritize navigating my iTunes over navigating the web. It's been nearly 10 years since I have not had a back button on my mouse and now I'm left wanting.

BOTTOM LINE: I would take this up to a 5 star if I could customize the buttons and the vertical axis. Until then it seems like Kensington was targeting the casual user with this mouse as opposed to a power user. To me this would appear to be a mistake, since I would not imagine that a casual user would trade up to a $130 trackball. The only people I have ever heard of using trackballs are power users or people with carpal tunnel.

***Update***
Ended up having to return this trackball. I stand by my review that it's an average device, but seems mismatched to its price point. The features may be useful to some users but once the price goes beyond the century point my standards become much higher. I'd pay maybe 1/3 of the price for this device. Not being able to edit the buttons was a nuisance but not being able to set the vertical axis was a deal breaker.

I bought one of these just after the supporting TrackBall Works software became available which makes the SlimBlade pretty much a superior replacement for the much clunkier Expert mouse. I've used it a few days, but already love the lower/slimmer ergonomics and the all-optical sensing without the roller bearings that can get clogged and stuck. My only nits are the cable and the scrolling. The cable is stiff and covered with a cloth braid that reminds me of model trains made in the 40's. It is wired directly into the trackball case and is not user replaceable. A stand-alone USB cable would have been better. The scrolling mechanism is very cool, but even with the new TrackBall Works software, the right combination of resolution and scroll-rate is not there. The granularity cannot be set fine enough to scroll one row at a time in Excel, yet when set as fine as possible the scrolling is too slow. Scrolling needs to be finer and use acceleration like the X-Y positioning does. Still, this is my 6th or so trackball and it's easily the best.
I bought this unit in early June 2010 and was annoyed to discover just a few days later that it was no longer available directly from Amazon via Amazon Prime. Also, don't be taken in by the third-party 3-year warranty offer: the product comes with a 5 year manufacturer's warranty.

Too bad. Nice design, but usless for me without speed control or programmable buttons. Kensingtons response below:

"Thank you for contacting Kensington Technical Support.

We appreciate your interest in Kensington Products.

We are glad to know that you are interested in purchase Slimblade Trackball(72327).
Yes, it is true the buttons are not programmable.
We completely understand how critical programmability of trackball could be for you. However, there are no plans to update the existing software to allow programmability on Windows or MAC platform. There is no software/driver to enable programming of buttons of trackball.

We regret any inconvenience caused due to lack of programmability feature

For any further assistance please feel free to reply back to this email or you may want to call us on our toll-free hotline number 1800-535-4242, Mon - Fri 07:30 am to 04:30 pm PST."

I read all of the reviews of this product before buying this product. I didn't think that the fact that the buttons weren't programmable would be an issue, because I do word-processing, Photoshop, and Powerpoint, and I never play video games. I bought it because I was having problems with my wrist and I thought the low, sloped design would eliminate the need to arch my hand to reach the bottons. It didn't work out that way. The ball is very large, heavy, and high. Compared to the Logitech roller-balls, it actually requires an effort to move the ball. Then, the real problem for me is that the basic left and right click buttons are the two closest to the user. In order to move the ball and click buttons, you have to keep your hand flexed upward. It's not comfortable at all and my fingers end up stiff at the end of a long day. If only it was possible to program the other two buttons to work as left and right click buttons, I could rest my hand on the ball and that might actually be comfortable. I agree with the more computer savvy and proficient reviewers here who wanted to program their mouse: this product could be fine, but, as currently designed, it sucks and it's ridiculously expensive. I didn't return mine, but I went out and bought a cordless nano mouse and I'm hoping it will help with my wrist condition.

This is by far the highest quality trackball I've ever used. I loved the original grey beast of a trackball Kensington put out in the 90's, but the roller sensors just don't compare the smoothness of the optical version.

For certain uses I prefer a mouse or a tablet, but I find a trackball very comfortable for general use due to the minimal motion required and the many ways to move the device (digits, palm, forearm [oh yes, forearm!], etc).

I use my computer for a broad range of tasks (games, graphics, programming, audio / visual editing, etc) and to be productive I configure my inputs on a per-use basis. The fact that Kensington used to have highly configurable drivers that are no longer supported by more modern versions of their products is absolutely asinine. To slice off a section of the market, indeed the initial adopters of this type of product, due to analysis of the least-common-denominator is, at minimum, a poor choice.

There's a huge difference between intuitive or usable design and intentional dumbing-down. Minimalism works best when it's a surface aesthetic, not the foundation for functionality.

Kensington, if you're taking the time to read the words of your customers, please do yourself and us a favor and step up the drivers to old MouseWorks standards. This would be a 10-star product if you did.

UPDATE 10/21/09: Slimblade Buttons Programmable in Snow Leopard via USB Overdrive 3.0.1!

As mentioned in my review below, I had tried earlier versions of USB Overdrive as a means of programming the Slimblade under Mac OS X without success. However, Alessandro has updated USB Overdrive and it now supports programming the Slimblade buttons (and is compatible with Mac OS 10.6).

I'm not particularly happy that I had to buy a separate piece of software to support this device, and the reports all over the web that Kensington isn't updating MouseWorks for Snow Leopard lend more credence to the idea that the company is moving away from support of its Mac customers. Kensington gets a big fat "FAIL" here for not just idiotic product decisions but for customer support as well.

Beyond that, the Slimblade + USB Overdrive is undoubtedly much stronger than MouseWorks ever was, and this combination is easily the best mouse input support I've ever used. If you're dying to use a Slimblade trackball on a Mac and don't want to give up programmability, this combination got me there. If you're in the same boat, you'll want to plan the extra $20 beyond just the device for a working Mac OS X driver. Thanks, Alessandro!

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I've been using the Slimblade now for a week and the hardware compares favorably to prior devices, even if the missing functionality in the driver seems like a "New Coke" style marketing decision.

The good news is the device itself is mechanically and aesthetically everything a long-time Kensington trackball user could ask for. I'm at the computer most of the day, and have been using Kensington trackballs for at least three generations of the product line. The Expert Mouse has been a staple for me, and I even travel with one in my laptop bag when away from the desktop.

The Slimblade is simply much more comfortable than the Expert Mouse. The ball sits lower to the desk and the pitch of the device housing allows your hand to address the ball with less wrist tilt. My forearm now rests on my desk as opposed to hovering slightly above it while using the Expert Mouse. My impression immediately was that the device simply "felt better" than the older device.

The fit and finish is also superior to earlier generation devices. Much attention has been paid to the ball well and an opening at the bottom seems to be intended to prevent build up of "gunk" that gets caught in the bearings and sensors over long term use. The sensors are located higher up in the well probably for similar reasons, and the bearing points appear to be designed better.

The housing itself has a more consistent design. The mix of colored plastics, textures and the confounded wrist pad are gratefully replaced with a consistent and elegant finish. It is a little bit of a finger-print magnet, but the plastic has enough subtle sparkle that it's not terribly noticeable. The nylon braided USB cable is a nice finishing touch.

The device doesn't have a scroll wheel, and you instead rotate the ball in the plane of your desk to simulate scroll wheel behavior. Some people have complained that the setup creates an unnatural hand motion, but you can turn the ball this way with one finger after a tiny bit of practice and it's not any more ergonomically challenging than a conventional scroll wheel. The simulated mechanical clicking noise the device emits when doing scroll wheel activities wasn't any more offensive than a mouse click to me.

Some people have objected to the red ball, but it grows on you. Kensington indicated in their support forums that the ball's finish is used to track the movement so you have to use it in lieu of a billiard ball, but it is similar to the dark silver finish on the Expert Mouse ball and that ball works fine if you're recycling an older device and want to go with a more sedate color scheme.

As others have commented here, the device itself is outstanding and the Kensington hardware folks should be proud of their efforts.

So, the bad news. Yeah, I know I'm not the target market for this product. I really thought I wouldn't miss programmable buttons, but the reality is I've had "copy" and "paste" wired into the top two buttons of my trackball for eons and I simply didn't realize how extensively I used that until it was gone. In my case, I've traded improved comfort in my right hand for the return of "Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V cramp" in my left. I read the reviews here and kinda knew what I was getting into, but living through it now... Well, it's irritating to say the least.

It doesn't seem to me that any of the new "media" functionality the Slimblade provides couldn't have been implemented easily in the old MouseWorks software, perhaps as a default to appease the marketeers. That said, removing long established core functionality from a new generation product is simply stupid. It's like someone at BMW thinking cruise control was too complex for the masses, so they pulled it out of their 2010 models. Long time Kensington users are right to be appalled. It may well be that the company is targeting a different market segment with this device, but that also implies they're leaving their established customer base (and potential new "advanced users" or however you label them) out in the cold.

Here's hoping that Graye's review here is correct and that Kensington is soon releasing updated Slimblade software with programmable buttons restored. If they do, Kensington deserves praise for having listened to a loyal customer base and I'm sure this device will enjoy well deserved success in all segments of the market.


Update: July 20, 2009

I followed up with Kensington technical support to see if there might be any information about an updated version MouseWorks to support the SlimBlade. I basically got the same reply that other reviewers here mentioned... An emphatic denial that the SlimBlade will ever support programmable buttons. I asked if there was any way to provide feedback to the product people at Kensington, and they suggested writing a letter to...

Kensington Computer Products Group
333 Twin Dolphin Drive
Sixth Floor
Redwood Shores, CA 94065

...which I did. If you are a SlimBlade or potential SlimBlade user, I'd encourage you do the same.

I also downloaded and installed USB Overdrive in attempt to gain access to the buttons. No luck there.

[...]

...and he's replied in the comments to this review that his discussions with staff at Kensington included assurances that MouseWorks would in fact be updated for Mac OS X, but it didn't sound like this necessarily included SlimBlade support.

I'm still using my SlimBlade, but even after several weeks find myself reaching for those dead upper buttons and its driving me nuts. I'll be switching back to my ExpertMouse until either MouseWorks or USB Overdrive provides access to those buttons. Too bad, because this is an outstanding bit of hardware.

My experience with the Slimblade began after migrating to a 64bit Vista PC.

I am a professional Graphic Designer, so programmability and fine control are everything to me. I have used and loved my Expert Mouse for years, so I was crushed to discover that although it moved the cursor and sent basic mouse clicks in Vista, the Mouseworks software would not install. I had lost all my programmed buttons!

Frustrated, I emailed Kensington's tech support asking when a new Mouseworks version would be available. Their answer? "Never."

Then I received an eblast from Kensington showing the new Slimblade. It looked really cool, and had 64bit Vista support, so I checked it out here on Amazon. After reading reviews by experienced Expert Mouse users, I knew the Slimblade would be a sad alternative.

I again contacted Kensington, suggesting that they made an error when they chose to abandon the *best Human Interface Device on the planet* (the Expert Mouse) in favor of the pretty but brain dead Slimblade. They assured me that their marketing mavens had done extensive research into which features users really want in a trackball, and that the Slimblade is the answer to our dreams.

I'm not sure which "users" Kensington surveyed, but I'm willing to bet they weren't Expert Mouse users! They never asked me, anyway.

I assured them they were making a big mistake and suggested they read the reviews on Amazon. I'm sure glad I read them; otherwise I might have been excited when the box arrived.

Yeah, I caved! I figured better ergonomics would be of some comfort to me, since my old friend no longer worked right anyway. So, I now have a really pretty Slimblade sitting pretentiously where a really useful trackball used to be. I did not bother to install the driver for the Slimblade. It does its 2-button blind-mouse thing just as well without it. The other "functions" would only annoy me.

On the positive side, it is more comfortable, ergonomically, and looks great on my desk. And these days, it is all about looks, isn't it?

Anyone considering buying this for the Mac should use USB overdrive (currently at rev 3.0.1) to, e.g., override the settings of the upper two buttons (lower 2 are already click and right click). With this shareware utility (need to pay the $20 if you want to avoid the delay upon its startup), you can reprogram click operations for any 4 buttons from among (click, right click, double click, triple click, click lock, or nochange). Similarly, you can set buttons to do any of your favorite shortcuts (instead of click operations), via the "keyboard shortcut" menu choice (and not "type charcter" or "press key"). So I have the top left button set to copy, the top right button set to paste, and the bottom two buttons unchanged, i.e., left bottom set to click, and right bottom set to right click. You can also reprogram the clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation of the ball for scrolling to be horizontal or vertical in varying amounts with some speed adjustment. So get USB overdrive from [...] and make this device work as it should. You can download and install it to see all the options, and even try it with an existing mouse or other pointing device. You can disable it from its system preferences menu, and it also has an uninstaller. I am running this on Mac OS 10.5.8 and have not tried 10.6.X yet. Happy slimblading....

Top buttons aren't programmable? At $100?? That's absolutely ridiculous. Got an email back from Technical Support over at Kensington yesterday stating that they had no plans on releasing any update so that the buttons may be programmed. I really hope that's not the case. It's stubbornness to the extreme. I'll try calling tomorrow, but if I get another "absolutely not" then I'm returning this otherwise great trackball. Get with it, Kensington.