I'm a fan of some of the original but outdated thumb trackballs by Logitech, so I thought I'd give their new one a try.



The appeal of the new one is better resolution, extra buttons and a wireless connection:







The wireless connection works perfectly and causes no delays. I took the trackball to a friend once, and there I had to plug it in one of the USB ports in front of the computer, because the back was too far away or there was too much interference. Other than that I have noted no difficulties. Some people will dislike the fact it isn't bluetooth, but USB. I don't really care. The tiny USB receiver does the job, and can be used to unify Logitech devices I think (I don't need that).

At first the ball action didn't seem smooth, but that quickly went away after half an hour of usage. It's very smooth. It's also very easy to clean inside, which I have to do once or twice a week to keep the action smooth. You poke your pink in the hole at the back to pop out the ball.

As for a thumb trackball, the mouse movement is good and the ergonomic thumb ball action is very good, better than a mouse or other trackballs because there is no hand movement. However, I have tried many pointing devices and in general I think any modern ordinary mouse is still better as in faster and more precise than any trackball, and this trackball is no exception. It's difficult to find the right speed/acceleration while remaining precise and not overshoot your target like a small icon. I purely like it for ergonomic reasons.

If you use one of Logitech's older thumb trackballs, you will welcome the extra buttons, which I use for back/forward in the browser. I like those. All buttons though are designed in such a way, with tiny gaps and such, that crud will accumulate, you can already see some of that in the pictures.

The main failure of this trackball is its scroll wheel (which also is the middle button), which fails in two ways. First, unlike the modern Logitech mice, it's a one speed wheel with little bumps when you scroll it. Nice for some stuff, but for other stuff you like to switch to the smooth scroll wheel mode as sported by the mice. I'm not sure why they put an outdated scroll wheel in there.

Second, compare the placement of the scroll wheel on the M570 to the first picture. There is no dedicated finger for it! You have to move your index finger to the right from its resting position, or your middle finger to the left. I do more scroll action than right mouse button action, and this is a big fail for me because my fingers are not in an ergonomic position when I scroll. My ring finger is not used. I could move all my fingers one button position to the left, but then it gets crowded on the top of the mouse. Ergo design fail. I still like the trackball, but it is not as good as it could have been.

Pros:
Wireless (for what it is worth), good reception on small distances, tiny receiver
Very good battery life
Smooth trackball action, very good for thumb trackball
Easy to clean the ball and pearls
Extra buttons compared to older models

Cons:
Gets dirty around the buttons
Simple, outdated scroll wheel
Scroll wheel placement between two fingers, no dedicated finger
No bluetooth

Rating:
6/10 (mainly because of the scroll wheel issues)

I am actually considering to buy a trackball some time soon. More and more people post about them and tempt me. I am eying one of the Kensington ones.. they are quite pricey for experiments though.

Excellent review!

Good review.. they use alltime these plastic ball bearings, i don't like them.

The worst part is that they limit the lifetime.. unless you are into ball bearing replacements. However, at this price level they all have this.

sixty wrote:I am actually considering to buy a trackball some time soon. More and more people post about them and tempt me. I am eying one of the Kensington ones.. they are quite pricey for experiments though.

The Orbit is kind of nice. Too bad that it's two button only though...

Just want to add that this Trackball works out of the box on GNU/Linux (Ubuntu maverick here), including the forward/backward buttons (they're mapped to button 8 and 9). It comes already paired with the receiver and works with Xorg in auto mode, i.e. without an xorg.conf. Nice.

I am already used to having the middle finger on the wheel and ring finger on right button all the time from the "Cordless TrackMan Wheel". Might not work for really fat people.

webwit wrote:At first the ball action didn't seem smooth, but that quickly went away after half an hour of usage. It's very smooth. It's also very easy to clean inside, which I have to do once or twice a week to keep the action smooth. You poke your pink in the hole at the back to pop out the ball.

As a sidenote, some GH member hinted that rubbing the ball on your nose will make it a tiny bit greasy, just enough to get that smooth feeling from the start.

I've actually tried it once for one of those MX-1800 trackballs and it worked fine...

Your nose, huh? What about your fingers?

I got one of those! DPI is AT LEAST 3 times the Microsoft Trackball Explorer but not sure the MTO. If you have a MTO try this test.

webwit wrote:Your nose, huh? What about your fingers?

Slimblade's manual suggests holding the ball for 30 seconds (IIRC), which should lubricate it.
Since it's hot summer and my hands sweat too much, I found that most effective greasing is by rubbing the ball in your hair.
Funny, but works like charm.

woody wrote:Funny, but works like charm.

Not always

The Solutor wrote:Not always

I will let itlnstln answer this one. He's the expert on special equipments.

noctua wrote:Good review.. they use alltime these plastic ball bearings, i don't like them.

Not plastic. Zirconium Dioxide.


I may be the author of the world's only Trackball Wiki but am too embarrassed about it to lay claim to the "Number One Trackball Expert On The Planet" moniker.

webwit wrote:Your nose, huh? What about your fingers?

Fingers work too, obviously, but most of the time they're less greasy because you wash your hands during the day.

I always keep my nose clean.

webwit wrote:I always keep my nose clean.

I agree. If I don't, I tend to develop a brown tinge over the course of a work day.

FYI, I've been using this trackball for a couple of hours each day for half a year now, and the top surface has gone shiny, and what's left of the logo is barely visible. Trackball itself still performs well.

It has a nice DPI but I'm hoping to get DPI measurements for this one.


Although not my type the gentle scrolling near the scrotum area I found a bit erotic.

Stupid Trackball manufacturers know the DPI numbers but won't tell anyone.

I found my Trackman Wheel a few days ago - basically the wired version of this trackball, without the two small buttons beside the left click button, and probably using optical instead of laser. I don't have issues with the scrollwheel, but the gunk-up ball becomes a big pain in the arse once you've grown accustomed to the largely maintenance-free CST Lasertrack.

However, from my point of view, its the perfect mouse to throw in your bag and use with a work/college computer. It's a shame that they got rid of the wired version, not least because it was cheaper...

The trackball market is pretty boring these days. There's the Kensington Orbit, which looks nice, but lacks a third mouse button and consequently is a bit useless to me. There's also those old Microsoft Trackballs which attract SSK-like prices on eBay. The cynic in me wonders just how good they are...

I actually think I'm going to open my Logitech M570 to replace the Mouse 3 button switch. It's hard to press as hell

After 2 years of use I've been used to not press it but I miss that button too much. Going to ty to put on there an Omron switch I have from a broken Ikari Optical.

Will make pics if I decide to do it.

I have a few spare mouse buttons from a MX11900 if you want them?

HzFaq wrote:I have a few spare mouse buttons from a MX11900 if you want them?

I opened it after writing my post yesterday and I saw that none of my switches are compatible because the wheel switch is a different one that feels horrible.





In case anyone is intereted there are 5 screws. One is visible on the bottom case, 3 are hidden under the pads and the last one is under the sticker on the battery placement.

Also the scroll wheel system is really simple and has nothing to do with other mice wheel systems, that's the reason why it feels not good at all. I was thinking about transplanting a wheel from an old Logitech G9 but seems impossible.

That appears to be a button like this (from here (56k warning)), only yours appears to have the button piece stick out a little less.
How exactly does it feel horrible? Might be worth hopping to your local diy-electronics store to grab a few of those to compare- if any feel better, replace
Ofcourse that is assuming it's not the mechanism that makes that button feel bad; those buttons are supposed to be quite clicky afaik, perhaps too stiff for the way it's used in there, your call after you've spent 50c on a few.

off wrote:How exactly does it feel horrible?

It's very stiff and/or heavy. Middle clicking is way more annoying than it needs to be.

Yep. After the CST ANY scroll wheel is painful but that one especially so.

Actually my BEST scroll is on what I'm typing on right now. My iPad. I can scroll overly long Wikis with just a few flicks.

I find it perplexing that they screwed up the scroll wheel so bad, given how otherwise excellent the ergonomics are.

I can understand why the switches are laid out that way, though. Look how it's done in the Deathadder below: two Omron switches stacked side-by-side, one for the scrollwheel, one for the right button. In the M570, there's only barely enough space for one switch on the right side, and the area behind the scroll wheel is very cramped. Somebody had to decide between expanding the front-right side of the shell significantly, or just using a smaller switch.

Daniel Beaver wrote:

off wrote:How exactly does it feel horrible?

It's very stiff and/or heavy. Middle clicking is way more annoying than it needs to be.

I have the same issue with my logitech mx500 mouse. You almost can't push the scrollwheel button without accidentally scrolling.

Icarium wrote:

Daniel Beaver wrote:It's very stiff and/or heavy. Middle clicking is way more annoying than it needs to be.

I have the same issue with my logitech mx500 mouse. You almost can't push the scrollwheel button without accidentally scrolling.

OT, @icarium re: MX500
MX500 middleclick was never an issue, but frankly I do have that click-without-roll-is-awkward-issue on my new storm spawn..

Ah, sorry got my mice confused the one with the annoying scrollwheel click is the G5!