Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse (K64327F), Silver/Black

Having used the Logitech trackball for years, but when it was time to replace Logitech's prices went too high. So, recently tried the Kensington with the Ring and found it to be too wide for most hands here...to the point of being uncomfortable and clumsy. Decided to take a chance on this one without the "ring" and what a difference! The width is just right and the ball moves ever so smoothly and quickly and stops easy too! It is being used on a Linux O/S and absolutely no problems. Highly recommend this mouse. For those who need to know the size width: The narrowest part where your hand lies across the top (to click either left or right side of mouse) is approx. 2.25 inches. Compared to the same brand with "the ring" which is approx. 3 full inches. Also the highest height of the ball on the "ring" model is 2.50 inches and on THIS model it is a half inch lower. SO you can see by these measurements this model is much more suitable for smaller hands, or hurting/stiff hands. Additionally, other reviewers stated that the trackball is loose and falls out...I too noticed that my trackball was not seated all the way in. I took it out and examined it and saw that there is a clear piece of plastic that was stuck on the ball and had rolled to the under side of the ball. It was hard to see because it was clear and had black writing on it and the ball is a very dark gray. I think this piece of plastic had some warning on it -- maybe to remove before use...but it was difficult to see. Now that that is removed the only way I can remove the ball from its place is to turn the mouse over and it gently falls out so that you clean/dust it off. It never just falls out or pops out...unless something is in the way. Its a great little mouse...thinking about getting another one!

The first thing that impressed me was the thick cardboard packaging. Super protective. Opened it up, was surprised that the ball was so loose. I had been used to ones that held the ball in, even if dropped. Plugged it in to my 2004 Lenovo computer, heard that sound, you know what I mean, acknowledging it. Put my hand on it, rolled the ball around, and nothing happened on the screen. No matter what I did it just didn't work at all. I was disappointed. In the evening I took it to the bedroom, plugged it in my 2014 Acer laptop on the off chance it might work, and whaddaya know?! It worked perfectly! I'm very, very happy with it! It will live with the laptop and my other trackball will stay with the computer. Other than the looseness of the ball, which I can live with, I love this trackball!

I’ve been using trackballs since the Mac Plus was released in the 1980s, so I have plenty of experience with them. I find them easier to use than mice, and though I use a trackpad on my MacBook, I get cramps in my thumb and the trackball is a good alternative. I use it full-time on my iMac. I prefer wired because I don’t want to worry about batteries running out of power when I need to use my computer, and, anyway, I keep the trackball close to the laptop or desktop so the cable is not an inconvenience—it makes it easy to connect. I’ve basically stuck to two major brands over the years: Kensington (this one) and the Logitech Trackman, which has been my preference. However, the latter is about six times the cost of this Kensington Orbit, and they are somewhat equivalent. As I haven’t seen the high-end competitor’s lately, I don’t know if they’ve changed it, but this version of the Orbit definitely feels lighter and perhaps flimsier than earlier versions. The ball kind of clicks; it is not 100% smooth. It also seems very sensitive, which can be good or bad. But the ergonomics of the unit fits my hand just fine, and it makes scrolling and pointing intuitive and easy. The OSes on my two Macs are very outdated and they allow me to use old apps, so I haven’t upgraded them. This trackball is completely plug and play with both, without needing to download Kensington’s utility/app. I use the mouse setting of system preferences to configure speed and buttons on this. Kensington has been around for many years and, overall, they make good-quality peripherals. Perhaps the price point on this accounts for what I perceive as the lightweight feel, and the question is, then, how long this will last. But, for now, it works well for me.

Once you try out a trackball and get used to the feel of it, you'll never want to go back to using a mouse. I've tried other brands of trackballs, but this one has the smoothest operation (plus this manufacturer makes good quality accessories). If you do a lot of graphic design or image editing, definitely get one of these trackballs, and eliminate the guesswork and errors that come with using a mouse.

3 month Update - From 4 star to 1 star At this point, I pretty much have to give this a solid "thumbs down". The mouse "snaps" or clicks every time you move your finger from front to back. Repeatable, every time. As I mentioned earlier, either the unit's plastic collar for the ball has expanded, or maybe there's a spring behind the rear tab that failed. This mouse allows just WAY too much excessive movement, to the point where every "down" effort causes the mouse to snap or pop. It's not single movement, either. It's a backwards and then upward movement, every, single, time. It' annoying, though it doesn't appear to impact the actual function, e.g. the movement of the mouse on the screen appears faithful. Add to that, every once in a while, the mouse freezes, and loses touch with it's software driver. I have to unplug the USB and replug it. It's an "OK" mouse, and could have been great. Someone in engineering design just cheaped out with materials, to save 50 cents, I suppose. I won't buy another. I'll try something else. Who knows, maybe with the chance in the tariff environment, someone will start making quality computer mice in the USA again. (Just use the Logitech trackball as the design, clone it, build it with original METAL switches, and you'll sell a million of 'em.) --------------- Original review It took a bit of time to adapt from the old Logitech Marble Mouse (MM) I've been using for 20 or 30 years. For one, it's shorter and broader. My large hand fingers don't naturally drop to the L/R keys the way they did on the MM. I have to reach back and wider to find them, but that's mostly a retraining issue. Technically, this is a VERY good mouse. Extremely smooth rolling ball, but at a cost. Where as the MM has multiple metal points suspending the ball in a relative snug fit, this trackball just kind of sits loosely in a cradle. And, that's where this mouse, after a couple of month's use, is probably a "fail". I can't tell for certain, I'd probably have to have a new one to evaluate side-by-side, but the cradle appears to have a plastic tab in the back, which limits the forward to backwards movement of the ball. It's not doing that anymore. There is now SIGNFICANT movement of the ball, front to back. The impact is that whenever you're finger is moving from slightly top center to rear, the ball "snaps" backward or forwards. It doesn't remain snugly in place. It's still mostly an annoyance, but it does impact control of the mouse movement to some extent. Again, I'm not sure if this is "as originally delivered", or if it's become damaged with use. Would I buy this again? Well, it's the best Logitech mouse replacement I've seen. Maybe. Not certain. I need a couple of more replacement mouses, so I may give this a second try. What's really a shame, is that some "big political boss" in the new Logitech ownership "somewhere in Asia" decided from an ego perspective, to ignore the wide and deep market for the MM, and discontinued manufacturing them. In fact, since they bought out Logitech some decades ago, their newly designed version was a cheap piece of crap, anyhow. The original had metal contact points in the switches for the mouse keys. Their new ones, plastic, which wore out in about 6 months. They saved 5 cents on a 20 cent part, and destroyed the original reliability. (Had the original mouses for 10 years before they failed.) So, on the plus side Kensington (ACCO Brands in San Mateo) appears to be making products in response to consumer demand. I hope they build and improve on this mouse design.

Addresses a need, but an obvious downgrade from my previous trackball. It's just a matter of time before this ball falls out completely, and I miss my scroll wheel.

I had bought and used a trackball in the past for a pc and a Mac. The old Win 98 pc bit the dust long ago and I graduated to a newer desktop. It came with a mouse of course and I used it for several years up until recently. It was when my boss at work talked about her wrist bothering her so much that it got me to thinking. Maybe it was time to look into getting another trackball again. I've been using this particular model for a couple of months now and it brought back the good memories of how good it feels to be able to fling the cursor quickly from one place to another on the screen. The only thing that I occasionally miss is not having the 'scroll wheel'. You have to move the cursor all the way to the right side of the screen and click and hold onto the slider to move the page up and down. With the scroll wheel you can just roll it up and down without clicking anything. It's not a big deal to me though as I can move the trackball marble about 160 degrees to get from the far left side of the screen to the other and then click and roll. I picked Kensington as that is the brand of trackballs I had bought before and their products are built well and look good also. One commenter mentioned that there is a slight dead spot when rolling the marble. I found this to be true. He had gave the technical reason why this happens. I believe it was from the way the ball is designed but again, it's not a big deal and you can easily get used to it. I now anticipate it happening and when it does I only have to move the marble a bit more to get where I want to go. My end statement here is that this model was a good budget price. I did not want to spend the $79 again for the deluxe model I had bought for the Mac many years ago as I felt it was overkill at this time. The deluxe or better priced model had a very fine movement to it with no dead spots that I recall and was very well suited for the desk top publishing I was doing at the time. Keep in mind another reason for getting a trackball is not having to pick up a mouse every once in awhile to get more cord. Try one, you'll wonder why you never did before.

My old Logitech trackball had worn out and wouldn't work well. I tried to find another one like it but evidently Logitech doesn't make that one anymore. I found a couple online for sale but they were priced way too high so I searched for something similar. I found this one made by Kensington and it turned out to be as comfortable and work as well as my old Logitech. I would purchase this Trackball again and would recommend it to anyone looking for something like this.