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41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but Imperfect, April 7, 2001
I bought the new trackball Intellimouse in one of those strange fits of upgraditis that come over techies such as I at unexpected moments. Several years ago I bought a Logitech thumb trackball to help me with a wrist problem. It served its purpose admirably. By the time my wrist was back to normal, I was a complete convert to this configuration.Now this old trackball was wearing out. The buttons, which rely on plastic 'springs,' were losing their bounce. They are also cut too close to the desktop, which meant that I was regularly taking the unit apart to remove something that had slipped in. It was a non-optical ball as well and the rollers, which are always getting mucked up, where getting harder to clean. It was time. On the surface, the Intellimouse looks very nice. The unit cradles my right hand perfectly and has a slightly rough surface that keeps my hand from slipping. All four buttons have excellent feel, and the center wheel but has a slight rubber coating for grip and a very nice graduated movement. The ball itself turns freely with no effort under light pressure, but is capable of good precision when pressure is increased to slow it down. Overall impression is that this is a superbly engineered pointing device. The IntelliPoint software is the usual high Microsoft standard. All the buttons are definable, pointers are customizable, and ball and wheel response is adjustable. Adjustments are also available for double-click speed, and to adjust orientation to your thumb. There is also a nifty option that lets you use a feature called ClickLock to make click and drag easier. For many, this is the ideal thumb trackball mouse. Unfortunately, for me, there is a slight design flaw that creates a source of irritation. The primary left and right mouse buttons are a tiny bit too narrow for my fingers! This means that I am perpetually hitting the outer buttons if my fingers are not perfectly placed. Under game pressure, or while engaged in heavy websurfing, this can make you crazy, fast! Since the software does not permit inner and outer buttons to be defined identically, the only corrective option is to turn the outer buttons off. Occasionally I manage to press only the outer button and find myself repeatedly hitting the button while nothing is happening -- until I realize what's going on. Gradually, I'm learning to be more precise about where I put my fingers, but I could just as well have done without the outer buttons in the first place. If you are a bit more adept than me, have the right kind of fingers or are already used to four button mice you will probably love this device. I find myself liking it more as I adapt to it. But there is no reason why Microsoft couldn't have simply made the primary buttons large enough to prevent the problem in the first place. Instead, an engineering oversight keeps this mouse from getting the full honors it otherwise deserves.
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