Kensington SlimBlade Mouse - Wired Ergonomic TrackBall Mouse for PC, Mac and Windows with Scroll Ring, Ambidextrous Design and Optical Tracking - Red (K72327EU)

Product Information

You can reprogram all its four buttons to perform several office-related tasks using its companion software, which is compatible with Windows and macOS. Although trackball mice can take some time to get used to, its low profile provides good ergonomic support by allowing your wrist to rest on the surface you're working on. To be able to work wirelessly, Kensington had to squeeze a rechargeable battery into the low-profile body shape and they have done an excellent job. Turn it to the right to scroll down, and turn it to the left to scroll up (although you can change this in the TrackballWorks settings if you like). On the other hand, the Kensington connects with a braided USB cable has a free-scrolling scroll ring.

It also has three CPI presets, six additional buttons, and a conventional scroll wheel with L/R tilt inputs. Based on my limited testing, I am finding that the DPI seems to be approximately the same regardless of connection when moving the trackball.

After admiring this beautifully shaped trackball for a while, I started thinking slightly more rationally. m Cables Included 1 x USB cable - integrated OS Required Microsoft Windows 7 or later, Apple MacOS X 10.

For other options, check out our recommendations for the best ergonomic mouse, the best wired mouse, and the best mouse. If you have read more reviews on this site you might know I am a big fan of Kensington’s scroll rings on the Kensington Expert, Kensington Orbit Fusion Wireless Trackball and Orbit With Scroll Ring and the CST / L-Keys scroll bar. It's not enough to overcome the trackball's natural limitations—I wouldn't recommend any trackball for precise tasks like gaming or image editing—but I was impressed by how quickly I adjusted from using a mouse to feeling comfortable with the trackball for everyday productivity and web browsing.

Hopefully, however, Kensington won't wait another decade to take a bigger swing with a new compact trackball design. The SlimBlade Keyboard and Numpad are not sold anymore by Kensington, but the Wired original SlimBlade still has those features. For example, while browsing I might want to assign the top buttons for back and forward, and while using my CAD application I would like to assign them to some function in that application. What I miss in the TrackballWorks configuration utility is the ability to configure different functions for the buttons based on what application has the focus. After all, what's the point of using a trackball to minimize your lateral wrist movement if you wind up flexing your wrist all day?

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The SlimBlade Pro comes with a USB to USB-C converter, so you can plug the USB cable or the dongle into a USB-C port on more modern devices. UPDATE 2022: there is a new, updated, wireless version of this trackball, the SlimBlade Pro, read more here. I claim that it’s in fact impossible to move the cursor and scroll at the same time (although it of course possible to inadvertently alternate between the two, but this is not happening to me). It wasn’t an all new experience since I have been using the wired version for many years but now the bluetooth is icing on the cake.

Behind the cream rubber, there are some magnets that also help to keep the devices connected to each other. Fortunately I have an old powered USB1 hub handy and when I connect through that to the mouse port, it works beautifully. The SlimBlade trackball is made of high-quality materials, with a ‘metallic’ dark grey glossy plastic (the same material is even used at the bottom as well), and a shiny ‘chrome’ ring around the huge, ‘metallic’ dark red ball. While the look is sleek and professional, fingerprints tend to collect and show up easily on the plastic shell. When you press the round button for a few seconds it puts the SlimBlade Pro in Bluetooth pairing mode and you can connect it to your computer or laptop.Thanks to Kensington for sending me this Kensington SlimBlade Pro Trackball in advance so I was able to use it for a few months before the launch on 29 November 2022. Some users online have reported unintentional cursor movements while twisting to scroll, but we didn't encounter this issue during our test. The ELECOM HUGE M-HT1DRBK is a better stationary trackball mouse than the Kensington SlimBlade Trackball.