Logitech Wireless Optical TrackMan TrackballCarbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services

I work intensively with computers. In radiology, the number of data points to process quickly is multifarious: dictation software, PACS, and workstations, 4 screens, etc. Volume is also inherently high. I've used this product for two-years and am very satisfied.At times, I was finding wrist fatigue a bit of an issue with the classic two-button mouse with a center roller. My symptoms were nothing serious, just irritation at the end of each day from "clicking". I purchased this roller as a trial, to see if I get any relief. It worked just as I had hoped. I have no symptoms during or at the end of the day. I not will not go back to just a mouse.Build is very comfortable and solid.Ease of use. For me, it is a 5*, but you should know that it does have quite of bit of complexity. As you can see, it has any number of buttons--which I was specifically looking for. I find that these myriad buttons are very functional and easy to use in practice. You just have to map out what are high volume or repetitive motions/keystroke actions. Now I love Macs and their simplicity (and this trackball also works nicely with them), but their mouse is too stripped down for my needs.I am someone who uses keyboard shortcuts whenever possible to speed things up. And again, in my business, speed and accuracy are critical. I already was already maxed-out with mere two-button mouse. This trackball allows me to custom assign functions and keyboard assignments. For instance, page-up and down are assigned to arrow buttons on the trackball. Now when I'm on a website or scrolling through ultrasound exams, I just click rather than moving to the keyboard. To initiate a case dictation is typically alt-8: now this function is tasked to a button on the trackball. Clicking the middle mouse scroll wheel is now assigned to mini-scroll wheel on the trackball. And so on.I worried that the trackball would have trouble interfacing with the programs I used. It essentially had no problem. It was recognized across the board. There has been only one function that still requires a mouse: a shortcut I use for zooming on the PACS is to hold down the option key and spin the center wheel. For some reason I am unable to replicate this function. Because the zooming shortcut is something I use all the time, the mouse stays on my desktop next to the trackballWhich brings up another nice feature of this product: it can co-exist with a mouse. I plug the wireless transmitter into the front USB port and leave the mouse connected in back. I can use either device whenever I like. If a colleague comes over to review a case, they never know what to do with the trackball so I just move it out of the way and they use the mouse. If I move to a different workstation, I just unplug the transmitter and move and plug it into the next computer. The trackball will need to be configured as a first-time each time you start on a new computer, but done the profile will remain. There is logitech software that needs to be installed, but all of the mice are logitech, so the software for adjusting the trackball is for me already in place.My productivity is higher and I have less frustration thanks to this device. For not only does the device allowing me to short-circuit and subsume common tasks, but it it simply much faster than a mouse. You can adjust the speed of cursor tracking and you can also embellish cursor movement with an accelerator. With multiple large, high-resolution monitors, this is very rewarding. Everything is faster. When I have to review a case on a colleague's workstation with a mere mouse, I am given a glimpse of how I used to work: the mouse is sluggish and I have to do a lot of wrist movement. Sure, the conventional mouse can itself be accelerated, but you still have the basic fact that you have to keep moving your wrist to cover four screens and to scroll through hundreds of images. I appreciate afresh that I am using a trackball and not a mouse.Lastly, I do have to give high credit to logitech itself. 6-12 months into purchase, the buttons I had assigned to serve as "page-up" and "page-down" were not responding 100% of the time. Sometimes that signals that the AA batteries are wearing out, but even with new batteries the issue persisted. I called logitech and they switched out the device without any questions. Really top-flight service. The replacement is going on strong after 1 year.So in short, if you are considering a trackball, get one. This one is I think the top of the line. If you don't need to extreme functionality, consider the Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse which has fewer buttons but works on the same principle (I actually use the marble mouse at home, because my at-home use is much lighter).I have read about "review mills" that churn out praise or scorn. I find Amazon's reviews to be a great source for separating wheat from chaff. It has a critical mass of users and reviewers. That said, when I was looking for a trackball, however, I did not see a review that was on-point for my niche needs. Hopefully this review will fill that lacuna.

On the good side, this trackball has an excellent ergonomic design. It fits nicely into my palm and the buttons are well placed. It's not perfect. No item of this nature can be expected to fit more than a small percent of hands without something being off. But it does the job as well as can be expected and better than any other trackball I've used.Also, you can customize the buttons to do almost anything you're normally likely to use them for. My only complaint in this regard is that it left me wanting more buttons because I couldn't decide which functions to assign and which to forsake.You can set the scroll wheel to scroll as fast or slow as you're ever likely to need. But the scroll wheel moves with distinct clicks. Some people prefer this type of action but I find it inconvenient. If you adjust the scroll speed to a fast setting, you can't scroll short distances, making it impossible to navigate properly in, for example, a small text box (The text you want to read may jump out of view with a single click). But if you set the scroll speed slow, you have to spin the wheel a lot to navigate long pages. With an infinite (non-click) wheel, you could set the wheel to a fast speed while still retaining the ability to fine tune short-distance scrolling. I knocked half a star off for this feature failure.Most people buying this item will do so with the specific desire for a cordless model. I only chose it because they don't offer a corded model. Batteries are wasteful and costly and I fail to see the need for this feature in a mouse. But that's a personal choice, and one with which I'm sure most will disagree. I did not consider this as a factor in my rating.But I did knock a star off for the action of the ball, which is far beneath the standard I'd expected from Logitech. Gamers already know not to use a trackball for gaming. But you seriously do not want to use this one. You WILL die in battle. It's difficult to move the cursor to a point with accuracy, even if you do so slowly and deliberately. It's impossible to do so quickly. You also do not want to use it for drawing or any situation where you need to track along straight lines. It simply can't be done, no matter how carefully you move the ball. It took me weeks of use just to get a good feel for tracking in the direction I wanted.I also dropped half a star for the positively dismal performance of the wireless reception. Honestly, they couldn't have made it any worse. If the receiver is behind anything at all, it won't get the signal. It even fails if it falls over.In summary, if they'd implemented infinite scrolling, accurate tracking, and decent wireless reception, I would have given it 5 stars and grumbled silently that they don't offer a corded model. If you like the clicky scroll and don't mind the jerky ball action, and don't need to place the receiver behind anything, go for it. Personally, I've already ordered a new trackball. But I will definitely keep this one.