Thank you. I appreciate the prompt response. I also like the fact that it is ambidextrous by design since things like the Logitech M570 is forcibly right handed.
After using the Slimblade for a few weeks, I can see what you mean about the concern for having so much exposed ball. I am starting to find that I get minor finger pains when using the ball, especially when using the twist scrolling. I think it is because you really need to leave your fingers extender high over the ball and buttons due to how much are is exposed. I've found using a beaded wrist rest with the Slimblade helps a lot too. A slimblade with a recessed ball would be perfect.
Some things are quite hard to do with a trackball, notably if you have to hold down a button to look down a gun's scope or do selection boxes it can be quite awkward. Having to move quickly from one side of the screen to another, either when moving your camera in 1st/3rd person or moving the cursor to the edge of the screen to push the view, can be quite difficult too. I use a mouse for gaming and a trackball for everything else. Switching between them is also good to give your hand a change.
When I first bought it the newest version of the software didn't work on 64 bit versions of Windows, but I was able to find an older version on Kensington's UK site that did work. However, now there is a properly working version, so it's not something that needs to be worried about. Without the software though, you can only use two of the buttons and the scrolling, as the other two buttons apparently send non-standard signals, at least in Windows, as in Ubuntu (Linux) they work fine naturally.
Hi there. I know you posted this video a little over a year ago, but your video was one of the few on here with a comparison among two trackball mice I'm looking at. In terms of button presses, which one would you say is "softer"? That is, it does not require as much strength to push into? I have sensitive nerves that flare up whenever I engage in button presses. Also, after a year of use, how is the Slimblade holding up? The large ball really appeals to me in terms of ergonomics.
I am thinking of making my own. I saw reviews of Expert Mouse, Slimblade and L-Trac. The Expert is old and the sensor is (apparently) dated and it's scroll wheel is inconsistent. I hate the Slimblade's scroll "gesture" so I wouldn't get one. The L-Trac has an interesting thing going for it with the audio-jack buttons and given the new Microsoft initiative for new controllers, we should start seeing compatible buttons, so you could use your feet or teeth or other parts of your body to perform left / right clicks, but i wouldn't really get it either. I actually really enjoyed a trackball from a keyboard by the name of Trust Adura Wireless keyboard (a rebrand of some Chinese manufacturer, it goes by many names), the ball was moving great and you could move it very fast very quickly (and with accuracy), but the buttons and their positions needed lots of improvements. The scroll was fine, but the keyboard layout was crap (and the lack of a keyboard left click key was horrible). That optical sensor broke after 4 months of use and I did not find a replacement and got my money back. The feel of that trackball really kinda proved me that the size of the ball isn't that important, as long as you got a good sensor, which is why I'm thinking of DIY-ing a trackball. I'm currently using a gesture-less touchpad ripped from an old laptop (works pretty well, but in Linux, it doesn't have acceleration - probably because of the PS/2 to USB converter I'm using).
I wish every trackball comparison video on UA-cam were as comprehensive as yours. This is the gold standard! And one of the few to include a CST unit. Although you favored the Kensington, I must say that after watching this it was the CST that seemed to have the sort of quality I'm looking for. I've burned out on Kensington's piss-poor quality!
I sold my L-Trac X awhile ago so sadly I can't give you a proper force comparison in terms of which is lighter to press down on. The Slimblade is still great and is to date still my favorite trackball. The only issue that I have with it at the moment is that I recently updated to Windows 8 and they don't have the trackball software available for it so I can't use buttons 3 and 4 in Windows.
i know this video isn't recent, but I just got the LTrac Glow and apparently it says you can "drag" using the middle button? I don't know what to do; it doesn't seem to be working?
@0Orion It's too hard to keep on target for too long and to hold up the iron sight while still moving the ball. Quickly looking back and forth can be a bit tough too. I know what you mean with the buttons being hard to press while continuing to aim. I have a trackman marble too and I think it is easier on that than on other styles of trackballs where you don't use your thumb to press left click, so it's probably harder here.
@unusualfashion Thank you for your reply Why with Battlefield the trckball was not a good replacement? Is it the sensitivity as in you can't aim fast enough? How is the aiming precision? Did you use the mouse buttons? Did you find that when you click the fire button you lost aim with the trackball? I have this problem wth lgitech Trackman Marble My solution to the aim problem when clicking, is to not use buttons.
If you were concerned about pain and are planning to use this while standing up, I think that the scroll ring of an expert mouse would probably be better since you could use a single finger pointing straight forward and spin it in a circle around the ball rather than having to twist two fingers on the ball of a slimblade.
I find it easier to make both small aiming adjustments and very large ones. I find sniping quite difficult on a trackball because it's hard to get the ball to move just the little bit you need without overdoing it and then it's also harder to keep it steady in one place as the ball doesn't stay put as well as a mouse that you're resting your hand on. In TF2 I had a hard time doing 180 spins to make sure I wasn't going to be back-stabbed as it takes a lot more work to roll the ball back and forth
hey great video review man. this was the only video on youtube that hit all the relevant points about this product. I have a question for you regarding the scrolling for the slimblade. Do you feel that the constant turning of the ball to scroll causes any finger pain or strain. I'm torn between this and the Kensington expert mouse due to the scroll wheel vs the twist scrolling. Also how is the button feel/resistance. I also plan on using this standing up for a kitchen pc.
Kensington expert with the scroll wheel eventually hurt my finger quite bad, switched to Slimblade and now it s hurting my hand in a different position; I'm switching to Elecom or gameball more ergonomic
I just took a peek now and you can bind a button to "scroll up" or "scroll down" and then click it to do so, but holding it down doesn't continuously scroll, which is somewhat annoying (you have to repeatedly click). By default, middle clicking in some programs (web browsers and word processors usually) enables an auto scrolling mode where mouse movement is used for scrolling until you middle click again, and that words fine with the slimblade, but that's not a behavior you can expect everywhere
also is it possible to program a button for auto scroll so I can use the ball to scroll up and down without twisting. and do you have any driver/compatibility issues with win 7 x64. No place around me sells this so I can't look at it in person. Thanks in advance!
@unusualfashion Thanks for the reply. Based on what you said, it might be more interesting for me to try to mod a trackball marble with parts from a higher DPI mouse. The nice thing about the marble is that the ball can keep rolling for a while which allows turning back quick. There are some cheap 2000 or 2400dpi mouse on ebay, I might give that a try some time in the future... (yet another project heheh)
Interesting. I've been playing with a Logitech Marble Mouse for a couple of years no, and I cannot go back to a mouse. I've been thinking of getting the Ltrack to game, although it is expensive, I like the fact it has higher DPI and has a scroll wheel. I bought the Kensington Orbit last year but I couldn't use for gaming: it has some really weird acceleration that cannot be fixed by software. Anyway, just wondering, why would you not recommend the Ltrac for gaming?
Nice to a see a video that deals with using the Trackballs, rather than reading off a spec sheet. Having said that, I have a couple comments (you knew that was coming, didn't you? LOL) Firstly a minor note, the button clicks on the video aren't really indicative of the product (which I received today). They're nowhere near as loud when it's sitting your room. Secondly the whole dpi thing. You do an experiment rolling the ball to see how far the cursor moves - but I think it's misleading. It infers the Slimblade doesn't move as much, but in fact it's down the settings in the (free) trackball software. Adjust those, and the cursor will easily move from one side of the screen to the other in a single roll. I suppose you could argue that you're comparing like-for-like, but that's not real-world, imo. I think it's a pointless exercise - simply adjust the movement as it suits. One other thing - scrolling without moving the cursor is very easy to do. In fact, I've only had the device for a couple hours, and I've got it down. You place your finger half on the silver ring, and half on the ball, and roll the ball. Cursor is still, and scrolling works perfectly (well, almost perfectly, I did adjust its speed in the software). I'll keep using this, but as it stands those are the areas I'd point out. :)
Thanks for the comment! I've actually been tempted to take this video down for some of the reasons you noted; the DPI comparison in particular is kind of iffy. But since there really aren't any other videos of this kind of thing, I figured people could enjoy it more than nothing. However, DPI does become an issue for some people as if the DPI is abysmally low, maybe even changing the mouse sensitivity settings can't raise it high enough. There's also the problem where using a non-standard mouse sensitivity setting causes the pointer to skip some pixels. This is more a problem with some really old PS2 only trackballs I've tried. I've had one that had less than half the DPI of the slimblade, which is low compared to the L-Trac. My cheap microphone seems to make sounds quite a bit louder. I have the same problem on some of my other videos with the particularly loud sounds. I sold my L-Trac and have my Slimblade sitting here right beside, which is still my favorite trackball out of the half dozen or so that I've tried.
It'd be a shame if you took it down, since there are very few reviews of the Slimblade on UA-cam, and those that there are include some really poor ones, such as people reading off the back of the box. I watched your video before my Slimblade had arrived, so was well prepped when it arrived this morning. I actually came across an Expert Trackball for a reasonable price secondhand, and got that too. Woudn't you know, they both arrived on the same day. Since I'm not a reviewer, the Expert will now sit in the bottom draw. I have one of each of the four Kensington Trackballs now, and to be honest, all of them are excellent. I'm a little confused as to the differences between the Expert and the Slimblade, other than cosmetic things such as the scroll wheel..... Anyway, my comments about your video were certainly meant in all good humor, I wasn't trying to be super-critical. It's just that when I plugged mine in I was expecting loud clicking buttons, and trouble having it move from the left of the screen to the right..... and when it wasn't there I thought I'd post. Now I think of it - what's the relationship between screen pixels and dpi? I run at 1920X1080, surely that is what defines the DPI? Is there really a benefit to having a higher DPI for your mouse than your monitor/video driver is able to display? Hmmmm.
Don't worry, I certainly wasn't offended. :) If you want to get more technical, the correct term is CPI, which is counts per inch. This means that if you roll an inch of surface past the trackball's sensor, this is how many times it can sense movement (higher CPI = higher precision). For a computer, these counts are translated into pixels (but you could have this sensor attached to something amusing, and have each count fire a nuclear missile or something, in which case it wouldn't be DPI, but NPI = nukes per inch ;). So let's say you have a ball with a circumference of 10 inches and a sensor with 10 CPI. If you spun this ball one full rotation it would cause your cursor on your monitor to move 100 pixels (in a perfect world). You can adjust the mouse sensitivity in your computer settings so that it's twice as sensitive, turning each count to be equal to 2 pixels of movement rather than 1, but that means that you skip over some pixels sometimes, which means you won't have pixel perfect precision if you need it. This could matter for digital artists but is most commonly talked about in terms of having precise control in video games. Most of the time you probably don't want to spin your trackball full circle though, as that would be tiresome. So you want to get a good CPI rating for your particular monitor's resolution which is why old trackballs are a bit more awkward to use on modern computers as the CPI of their sensors is really low.
Thanks for that. Kensington seem to be silent on the entire issue, which is strange. I did have a high DPI mouse, but for all the extra accuracy, it didn't stop the dog chewing it up (as it did the ball from my first Trackball - ever try using a Trackball modeled on the shape of the Moon's surface?!?!) Actually, come top think of it - my one complaint about all these Trackballs is that getting a replacement ball is near impossible, and VERY expensive.....
@@unusualfashion Why would you take down such a great review? You've helped so many people with this video. Thank you for sharing your experience with these trackballs.
Is the ball on the L-Trac able to free roll? How much resistance does it have? If you roll it fast, does it keep rolling for a while? I suspect the L-Trac could make a great FPS trackball when combined with an analogue joystick which can improve when aiming with strafe... Have you played an First Person Shooter with the L-Trac?
@0Orion No, it's not able to free roll. It will stop pretty quick if you give it a quick roll. I've used it to play Team Fortress 2 and it works there, but the game is much more forgiving with all the explosive weapons and the casual level of play. In Battlefield 3 it was not really a good replacement for a mouse, which I keep around to play more serious games. Trackballs are very good for casual computer use and for some casual games though.
I don't imagine that this would be specific to the trackball itself, as it's the program that would control that. Using auto scroll with a mouse should be the same as using auto scroll with this trackball. I can't say that I personally find it to be choppy though. This method of using middle click to enable scrolling isn't universal though, so it wouldn't work in all programs, which could be problematic depending on what programs you normally use.
I'm having the same problem. I can't reach the scroll wheel without lifting my hand off the trackball, raising it up 2 inches and putting it back down.
I would not recommend it for any precision shooter, like Counter-Strike or Battlefield, I do however use the Slimblade for Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament 3 and it's very amusing to play with, and I can play at around the same skill level with it. But if you're intending to play to your highest skill level, I'd stay with a mouse. I keep a mouse around for when I want to play games seriously.
that scroll test was not a fair comparison. contrary to your thought that a greater exposed surface from a larger ball should yield farther reach, it's actually the opposite. the closer to origin you are, the greater distance or revolutions you can cover.
There could be a few reasons. It doesn't need as much desk space as a mouse since you don't need space to move it around. It could perhaps be ergonomic if you have certain problems. It could be nostalgic for some people who grew up using one. Or it could just be fun to use, which is why I use it. When I play video games I use a mouse for the precision, but when using my computer for anything else I use a trackball.
Thank you. I appreciate the prompt response. I also like the fact that it is ambidextrous by design since things like the Logitech M570 is forcibly right handed.
After using the Slimblade for a few weeks, I can see what you mean about the concern for having so much exposed ball. I am starting to find that I get minor finger pains when using the ball, especially when using the twist scrolling. I think it is because you really need to leave your fingers extender high over the ball and buttons due to how much are is exposed.
I've found using a beaded wrist rest with the Slimblade helps a lot too. A slimblade with a recessed ball would be perfect.
SlimBLADE IS HURTING MY hand
Hey in 2021 the Slimblade still rocks!
Some things are quite hard to do with a trackball, notably if you have to hold down a button to look down a gun's scope or do selection boxes it can be quite awkward. Having to move quickly from one side of the screen to another, either when moving your camera in 1st/3rd person or moving the cursor to the edge of the screen to push the view, can be quite difficult too. I use a mouse for gaming and a trackball for everything else. Switching between them is also good to give your hand a change.
Very detailed comparison; thank you very much.
beautifully well done comparison
When I first bought it the newest version of the software didn't work on 64 bit versions of Windows, but I was able to find an older version on Kensington's UK site that did work. However, now there is a properly working version, so it's not something that needs to be worried about. Without the software though, you can only use two of the buttons and the scrolling, as the other two buttons apparently send non-standard signals, at least in Windows, as in Ubuntu (Linux) they work fine naturally.
Hi there. I know you posted this video a little over a year ago, but your video was one of the few on here with a comparison among two trackball mice I'm looking at. In terms of button presses, which one would you say is "softer"? That is, it does not require as much strength to push into? I have sensitive nerves that flare up whenever I engage in button presses. Also, after a year of use, how is the Slimblade holding up? The large ball really appeals to me in terms of ergonomics.
Great review, thanks!
I am thinking of making my own. I saw reviews of Expert Mouse, Slimblade and L-Trac. The Expert is old and the sensor is (apparently) dated and it's scroll wheel is inconsistent. I hate the Slimblade's scroll "gesture" so I wouldn't get one. The L-Trac has an interesting thing going for it with the audio-jack buttons and given the new Microsoft initiative for new controllers, we should start seeing compatible buttons, so you could use your feet or teeth or other parts of your body to perform left / right clicks, but i wouldn't really get it either.
I actually really enjoyed a trackball from a keyboard by the name of Trust Adura Wireless keyboard (a rebrand of some Chinese manufacturer, it goes by many names), the ball was moving great and you could move it very fast very quickly (and with accuracy), but the buttons and their positions needed lots of improvements. The scroll was fine, but the keyboard layout was crap (and the lack of a keyboard left click key was horrible). That optical sensor broke after 4 months of use and I did not find a replacement and got my money back. The feel of that trackball really kinda proved me that the size of the ball isn't that important, as long as you got a good sensor, which is why I'm thinking of DIY-ing a trackball. I'm currently using a gesture-less touchpad ripped from an old laptop (works pretty well, but in Linux, it doesn't have acceleration - probably because of the PS/2 to USB converter I'm using).
I agree with your conclusions here and would fund the indiegogo
I wish every trackball comparison video on UA-cam were as comprehensive as yours. This is the gold standard! And one of the few to include a CST unit. Although you favored the Kensington, I must say that after watching this it was the CST that seemed to have the sort of quality I'm looking for. I've burned out on Kensington's piss-poor quality!
thanks for this!
I sold my L-Trac X awhile ago so sadly I can't give you a proper force comparison in terms of which is lighter to press down on. The Slimblade is still great and is to date still my favorite trackball. The only issue that I have with it at the moment is that I recently updated to Windows 8 and they don't have the trackball software available for it so I can't use buttons 3 and 4 in Windows.
i know this video isn't recent, but I just got the LTrac Glow and apparently it says you can "drag" using the middle button? I don't know what to do; it doesn't seem to be working?
@0Orion It's too hard to keep on target for too long and to hold up the iron sight while still moving the ball. Quickly looking back and forth can be a bit tough too.
I know what you mean with the buttons being hard to press while continuing to aim. I have a trackman marble too and I think it is easier on that than on other styles of trackballs where you don't use your thumb to press left click, so it's probably harder here.
Did you use their trackballworks software to max Slimblade's sensitivity?
Nice review!
Smaller distance on the screen in relation to the full spin means the dpi resolution is higher not lower.
@unusualfashion
Thank you for your reply
Why with Battlefield the trckball was not a good replacement?
Is it the sensitivity as in you can't aim fast enough?
How is the aiming precision?
Did you use the mouse buttons? Did you find that when you click the fire button you lost aim with the trackball? I have this problem wth lgitech Trackman Marble
My solution to the aim problem when clicking, is to not use buttons.
What reasons do you favor a mouse for FPS gaming?
If you were concerned about pain and are planning to use this while standing up, I think that the scroll ring of an expert mouse would probably be better since you could use a single finger pointing straight forward and spin it in a circle around the ball rather than having to twist two fingers on the ball of a slimblade.
I find it easier to make both small aiming adjustments and very large ones. I find sniping quite difficult on a trackball because it's hard to get the ball to move just the little bit you need without overdoing it and then it's also harder to keep it steady in one place as the ball doesn't stay put as well as a mouse that you're resting your hand on. In TF2 I had a hard time doing 180 spins to make sure I wasn't going to be back-stabbed as it takes a lot more work to roll the ball back and forth
hey great video review man. this was the only video on youtube that hit all the relevant points about this product. I have a question for you regarding the scrolling for the slimblade. Do you feel that the constant turning of the ball to scroll causes any finger pain or strain. I'm torn between this and the Kensington expert mouse due to the scroll wheel vs the twist scrolling. Also how is the button feel/resistance. I also plan on using this standing up for a kitchen pc.
Kensington expert with the scroll wheel eventually hurt my finger quite bad, switched to Slimblade and now it s hurting my hand in a different position; I'm switching to Elecom or gameball more ergonomic
Good review
I just took a peek now and you can bind a button to "scroll up" or "scroll down" and then click it to do so, but holding it down doesn't continuously scroll, which is somewhat annoying (you have to repeatedly click). By default, middle clicking in some programs (web browsers and word processors usually) enables an auto scrolling mode where mouse movement is used for scrolling until you middle click again, and that words fine with the slimblade, but that's not a behavior you can expect everywhere
also is it possible to program a button for auto scroll so I can use the ball to scroll up and down without twisting. and do you have any driver/compatibility issues with win 7 x64. No place around me sells this so I can't look at it in person. Thanks in advance!
@unusualfashion Thanks for the reply. Based on what you said, it might be more interesting for me to try to mod a trackball marble with parts from a higher DPI mouse. The nice thing about the marble is that the ball can keep rolling for a while which allows turning back quick. There are some cheap 2000 or 2400dpi mouse on ebay, I might give that a try some time in the future... (yet another project heheh)
Interesting. I've been playing with a Logitech Marble Mouse for a couple of years no, and I cannot go back to a mouse. I've been thinking of getting the Ltrack to game, although it is expensive, I like the fact it has higher DPI and has a scroll wheel.
I bought the Kensington Orbit last year but I couldn't use for gaming: it has some really weird acceleration that cannot be fixed by software.
Anyway, just wondering, why would you not recommend the Ltrac for gaming?
cumanzor I’m sure you figured it out by now but what are you sing now and have you ever tried using a Kensington orbit for gaming I suggest it.
Nice to a see a video that deals with using the Trackballs, rather than reading off a spec sheet.
Having said that, I have a couple comments (you knew that was coming, didn't you? LOL)
Firstly a minor note, the button clicks on the video aren't really indicative of the product (which I received today). They're nowhere near as loud when it's sitting your room.
Secondly the whole dpi thing. You do an experiment rolling the ball to see how far the cursor moves - but I think it's misleading. It infers the Slimblade doesn't move as much, but in fact it's down the settings in the (free) trackball software. Adjust those, and the cursor will easily move from one side of the screen to the other in a single roll. I suppose you could argue that you're comparing like-for-like, but that's not real-world, imo. I think it's a pointless exercise - simply adjust the movement as it suits.
One other thing - scrolling without moving the cursor is very easy to do. In fact, I've only had the device for a couple hours, and I've got it down. You place your finger half on the silver ring, and half on the ball, and roll the ball. Cursor is still, and scrolling works perfectly (well, almost perfectly, I did adjust its speed in the software).
I'll keep using this, but as it stands those are the areas I'd point out. :)
Thanks for the comment! I've actually been tempted to take this video down for some of the reasons you noted; the DPI comparison in particular is kind of iffy. But since there really aren't any other videos of this kind of thing, I figured people could enjoy it more than nothing. However, DPI does become an issue for some people as if the DPI is abysmally low, maybe even changing the mouse sensitivity settings can't raise it high enough. There's also the problem where using a non-standard mouse sensitivity setting causes the pointer to skip some pixels. This is more a problem with some really old PS2 only trackballs I've tried. I've had one that had less than half the DPI of the slimblade, which is low compared to the L-Trac.
My cheap microphone seems to make sounds quite a bit louder. I have the same problem on some of my other videos with the particularly loud sounds.
I sold my L-Trac and have my Slimblade sitting here right beside, which is still my favorite trackball out of the half dozen or so that I've tried.
It'd be a shame if you took it down, since there are very few reviews of the Slimblade on UA-cam, and those that there are include some really poor ones, such as people reading off the back of the box.
I watched your video before my Slimblade had arrived, so was well prepped when it arrived this morning. I actually came across an Expert Trackball for a reasonable price secondhand, and got that too. Woudn't you know, they both arrived on the same day. Since I'm not a reviewer, the Expert will now sit in the bottom draw. I have one of each of the four Kensington Trackballs now, and to be honest, all of them are excellent. I'm a little confused as to the differences between the Expert and the Slimblade, other than cosmetic things such as the scroll wheel.....
Anyway, my comments about your video were certainly meant in all good humor, I wasn't trying to be super-critical. It's just that when I plugged mine in I was expecting loud clicking buttons, and trouble having it move from the left of the screen to the right..... and when it wasn't there I thought I'd post.
Now I think of it - what's the relationship between screen pixels and dpi? I run at 1920X1080, surely that is what defines the DPI? Is there really a benefit to having a higher DPI for your mouse than your monitor/video driver is able to display? Hmmmm.
Don't worry, I certainly wasn't offended. :)
If you want to get more technical, the correct term is CPI, which is counts per inch. This means that if you roll an inch of surface past the trackball's sensor, this is how many times it can sense movement (higher CPI = higher precision). For a computer, these counts are translated into pixels (but you could have this sensor attached to something amusing, and have each count fire a nuclear missile or something, in which case it wouldn't be DPI, but NPI = nukes per inch ;).
So let's say you have a ball with a circumference of 10 inches and a sensor with 10 CPI. If you spun this ball one full rotation it would cause your cursor on your monitor to move 100 pixels (in a perfect world).
You can adjust the mouse sensitivity in your computer settings so that it's twice as sensitive, turning each count to be equal to 2 pixels of movement rather than 1, but that means that you skip over some pixels sometimes, which means you won't have pixel perfect precision if you need it. This could matter for digital artists but is most commonly talked about in terms of having precise control in video games.
Most of the time you probably don't want to spin your trackball full circle though, as that would be tiresome. So you want to get a good CPI rating for your particular monitor's resolution which is why old trackballs are a bit more awkward to use on modern computers as the CPI of their sensors is really low.
Thanks for that.
Kensington seem to be silent on the entire issue, which is strange. I did have a high DPI mouse, but for all the extra accuracy, it didn't stop the dog chewing it up (as it did the ball from my first Trackball - ever try using a Trackball modeled on the shape of the Moon's surface?!?!)
Actually, come top think of it - my one complaint about all these Trackballs is that getting a replacement ball is near impossible, and VERY expensive.....
@@unusualfashion Why would you take down such a great review? You've helped so many people with this video.
Thank you for sharing your experience with these trackballs.
Is the ball on the L-Trac able to free roll? How much resistance does it have? If you roll it fast, does it keep rolling for a while?
I suspect the L-Trac could make a great FPS trackball when combined with an analogue joystick which can improve when aiming with strafe...
Have you played an First Person Shooter with the L-Trac?
@0Orion No, it's not able to free roll. It will stop pretty quick if you give it a quick roll.
I've used it to play Team Fortress 2 and it works there, but the game is much more forgiving with all the explosive weapons and the casual level of play. In Battlefield 3 it was not really a good replacement for a mouse, which I keep around to play more serious games.
Trackballs are very good for casual computer use and for some casual games though.
I don't imagine that this would be specific to the trackball itself, as it's the program that would control that. Using auto scroll with a mouse should be the same as using auto scroll with this trackball. I can't say that I personally find it to be choppy though. This method of using middle click to enable scrolling isn't universal though, so it wouldn't work in all programs, which could be problematic depending on what programs you normally use.
I'm having the same problem. I can't reach the scroll wheel without lifting my hand off the trackball, raising it up 2 inches and putting it back down.
I would not recommend it for any precision shooter, like Counter-Strike or Battlefield, I do however use the Slimblade for Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament 3 and it's very amusing to play with, and I can play at around the same skill level with it. But if you're intending to play to your highest skill level, I'd stay with a mouse. I keep a mouse around for when I want to play games seriously.
that scroll test was not a fair comparison. contrary to your thought that a greater exposed surface from a larger ball should yield farther reach, it's actually the opposite. the closer to origin you are, the greater distance or revolutions you can cover.
Is this CST2545-5W ?
I don't own it anymore, but looking at clearlysuperiortech.com/ltracproductchart.html I believe that's right.
Starcraft Citizen READY! (just when they figure out how to separate two trackballs from hardconnected one device as Winshit handles it)
Why would you want to use this over a regular mouse?
There could be a few reasons. It doesn't need as much desk space as a mouse since you don't need space to move it around. It could perhaps be ergonomic if you have certain problems. It could be nostalgic for some people who grew up using one. Or it could just be fun to use, which is why I use it. When I play video games I use a mouse for the precision, but when using my computer for anything else I use a trackball.
Ball surface ^^ 5:03
dafuq is this
Flawed review.. Many operating systems use "acceleration". Ensure a flat acceleration curve is set by the driver.