Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Kensington drops an egg, January 10, 2001
Bought my first Kensington trackball in Dec'86 to go with a FatMac-512. Since then have literally worn out three ADB TurboMice driving a succession of Macs, 50-60 hrs each week: SE/SE-30/Quadra840/9600-233/G3-300. Tried out other trackballs along the way (StingRay, Abaton, MacAlly) but none even came close in the heat of battle. So, when this stunning-looking USB TurboRing became available in New Zealand it seemed the logical choice for the new PowerBook G3/500. The first few days using the TurboRing were sheer delight -- so much so that I ran out and bought another one for my wife's iMac DV/SE. Bad call: within a week both units became unresponsive and sticky/jumpy. The Kensington help-bot offered no relevant comments about this type of behavior. Cleaning the ball with water and detergent would help for a little while, but soon it would be right back to stick-slip frustration. Disappointing, but hardly surprising. Compared with the rugged (and trouble-free) mechanism inside the Turbo Mouse, the TurboRing suspension seems, in a word, flimsy. Both our glamorous TurboRings are now gathering dust right next to an equally disappointing MacAlly iBall. Curiously, Kensington's ads on the back page of MacWorld, where the TurboRing reigned supreme for several months, now only feature their 'retro' models: TurboMouse, Orbit, Mouse-in-a-Box. Wonder why that is. The TurboRing looks and feels great at first sight, but if you mouse around for a living don't go near this Turkey (there must be a pun in there somewhere, but why bother). We're now using the new Apple optical mouse on all USB Macs in our shop. Totally problem free and ploddingly dependable but we sorely miss the trackball advantages: tiny footprint, fingertip micro-control, less arm fatigue. On balance, we're probably going to forgive Kensington their folly and phase in the USB version of the ancient TurboMouse, even if it's starting to look pretty boxy after all those years. There must be some reason why they don't engineer industrial-grade guts into an ergonomic design :-(
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good idea, flawed implementation :-(, February 6, 2001
Kensington has a long history of making outstanding trackballs. With this in mind -- and having just killed my venerable 2 button Kensginton "Turbomouse" -- I looked over the choices and selected the funky looking Turboring. I can't recommend it, unless you're using the even worse Macally iBall.The scrollring is a neat idea which could use a little fine-tuning. It's the trackball answer to the scrollwheel in a mouse: a rubberized ring around the ball which you can rotate clockwise or counter to produce a scrolling effect. It appears to function by telling the current app that the scroll buttons have been pressed. With Mac system sounds turned on, this means odd clicking sounds from the speakers accompanying jerky scrolling. Microsoft's Intellimice implement scrolling much more nicely. The ring could require a bit less force to operate, and is quite jerky. Likewise, the trackball requires more force than the ultra-smooth, ultra-nimble Turbomouse ball I'm used to using -- I have to make heavier contact to ensure a roll, which translates to less precision at near distances and low speeds. Worse -- it scrolls mostly smoothly up, down, and left, but very intermittantly to the right. This renders the Turborung useless for gaming and frustrating the rest of the time. Under normal use, I'm constantly overshooting and correcting. PROS: perfectly positioned under the right hand, well positioned buttons which click along the axis of pressure (amazing how often this is neglected), excellent Scrollring concept, outstanding "Mouseworks" software for customization, very pretty. CONS: Scrollring needs work, tracks badly on the horizontal axis, users with small hands might find it a bit wide, button junkies may feel cheated with only three buttons (I don't!) VERDICT: Good idea, flawed implementation. :-( Unless your current trackball is awful or broken, you may find yourself frustrated by the trackball's poor tracking.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Trackball, November 24, 2001
I have been using my TurboRing for over a year now, and it is by far the best trackball out there. Ergonomical shape, button location and the ring are perfect. I also have Logitech FX Cordless Optical, and to my surprise the ball/cursor movement is not nearly as smooth as in TurboRing. Logitech is also not as comfortable. I recently bought two more TurboRing trackball for our office and I noticed that the ring in new ones is not as crisp as in my "original" one. As for improvements, if it was optical (with two separate sensors) and cordless it would be absolutely perfect.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Saving...
