Nice trackball, when it works, that is.....
Written: Jan 06 '02 (Updated Jul 03 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great trackball feel, presice cursor control, excellent customizability
Cons: reliability is dicey
The Bottom Line: I really hope i got a lemon here, if this is the quality that Kensington is making now, i'll pass....
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| mactechg4's Full Review: ACCO Brands Expert Mouse Pro (K64245) Trackball |
First off, i have been a longtime supporter of Kensington input devices, they were very innovative and high quality, the Thinking Mouse (4 button ADB mouse), the Turbo Mouse series of trackballs, etc... all built like the proverbial tank, and would probably outlast the computer they were attached to
all of that has changed, it started back a couple of years ago, Apple released the Pro mouse, and i wanted an optical mouse, but i was not willing to pay $60 for a one-button mouse, up until the time i bought my G4, i had always used the Kensington Turbo Mouse series, and going from a 4 button trackball back to a one button mouse seemed rather daft
so, i saw that Kensington (a brand i had so far had complete faith in) had come out with a 4 button mouse, with scroll wheel (something i had wanted for a while anyway), and it was only $30, i bought it, and for a week or so, i loved it, optical performance, 4 buttons, and a scroll wheel, it couldn't get any better
(how wrong i was)
after the newness had worn off, (and i got a Pro mouse for free, one of the benefits of being a tech) i started to realize a few disturbing things about the mouse, first, even though it had more buttons than the Apple Pro, and was taller and wider, it seemed to be *lighter*, it just didn't track as well,
also, the *genius* who put buttons on the *sides* of the mouse neglected to take into account that due to the light weight of the mouse, when you pushed the left side button, oftentimes, the resulting action pushed the mouse to the right, so i ended up *moving* the icon i wanted to *click* on, very annoying, so i turned the side buttons off, so my 4 button mouse was now down to 2....
about a month and a half later, i started noticing that when i was using the mouse to drag an icon , occasionally the mouse would *drop* the icon, as if i had released the mouse button, even though the button was *still pressed*, and the mouse would occasionally lose tracking, it was going schitzo.....
unfortunately, i had lost my sales slip, so i couldn't return the frelling thing (it was outside the store's return policy anyway), so i just put it in a drawer with all my spare input devices and forgot about it
When Kensington finally released the Expert Mouse Pro (Turbo Mouse) with a USB connection, i was sold, i had to get one, my previous experience with Turbo Mice had been unfailingly positive, the TM had *never* failed me, the occasional cleaning was all it needed to keep working well
heck, i had even spilled a *glass of water* in it once, and after i had dissasembled it, dried it out, and reassembled it, it worked perfectly, no damage at all (in fact it worked a little *better* since it's impromptu bath
i had one connected to my G4 thru a ADB to USB adapter pod, and it worked perfectly, the only caveat being that the MouseWorks software didn't recognize the additional buttons
i purchased this $99 mouse, expecting the *same* level of functionality, and for about a year, it's been okay.......
until now......
about 10 minutes ago, in a game of The Sims, the horizontal roller just stopped working, i could move the pointer up and down, but not side to side, so, i cleaned the rollers, nothing, tried it on my iBook, nothing, reset the Open Firmware in the G4, nothing, disassemble it and clean the gunk hiding on the inside of the casing, nothing, this $99 mouse has just become a paperweight
and since i went on a cleaning binge, i don't have the sales slip for *this one* either, and Kensington apparently needs to have it for warranty repair......
i'll call 'em on Monday, after all, the Expert Mouse Pro has a 5 year warranty, and it has'nt been out for 5 years, heck it's only been out for barely 2 years, so in theory, they *shouldn't* need a proof-of-purchase for a warranty repair/replacement
it's just dissapointing to me that a formerly great company is now turning out crap, i spent $99 on this thing, i expect more than a *year* of service out of it! looks like i won't be buying Kensington product anymore
posted 01-06-2002 09:37 AM
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as a side note, i picked up a Logitech Marble Mouse trackball, primarily to keep with my iBook (try playing AvP with a Contour MiniPro mouse, it's not fun, the mouse is too frelling small for that), and i have been very impressed, it's got the good, solid feel and accurate tracking that i had come to expect from my Turbo Mouse.
since it's optical, i don't have to deal with mechanical rollers and cleaning the gunk out of the mouse, the only drawback to the MM, aside from only having 2 buttons (big whoop), and the fact it has no scrollwheel, is that it's a little smaller than the TM, and once you are used to the pool cue-ball sized trackball in the TM, it's hard to go back to the golf-ball sized ball in the MM
i'm on the Logitech website, and the Cordless TrackMan FX seems to be more of what i'm looking for, large, oversized ball. ergonomic shape, only problem is no scrollwheel
and, truth be told, i *did* look at the m$ Trackball Explorer (what is it with m$'s fixation with the word "Explorer", almost as strange as Apple's fixation with the "iSeries" names ) and it does (choking back bile at having to say this) look kinda' nice, the light up trackball well is cool looking, but i'm somewhat unsure of the ergonomics, but at least itdoes have a scrollwheel....
the downside to the m$ trackball seems to be;
1; it's a m$ product, so i'm dubious about reliability (c'mon, you knew this was coming, right ) and i hate financially supporting the collective
2; m$ seems to have no plans to write Mac OS X drivers for this trackball (yes, i know that 2 button mice and scrollwheels are supported natively in X now, it's just the principle of the thing......)
so, any suggestions out there, so far i'm satisfied with the Logitech, how do they hold up in the long run, it *looks* and *feels* to be put together quite solidly
Update;
Kensington replaced the EMP under warranty, and the replacement is running flawlessly, i'm upgrading the rating accordingly.......
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $99.00
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Epinions.com ID:
mactechg4
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Reviews written: 6
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