Orbit with Scroll Ring

I have a Logitech M570, Logitech Trackman Marble, Adesso Trackball, Kensington Expert, and the Kensington Orbit with scroll ring. Trackball experiences are very subjective because our hands are all different shapes and sizes, and we use different techniques. In my experience the Kensington Orbit with scroll ring is the overall winner. With regard to performance, the Kensington Expert is the best. It is also two to three times the price of all the other trackballs listed. Additionally, the Expert is tilted at a steep angle toward the user. This can put your wrist in an awkward and painful position. The Logitech Trackman Marble and the Orbit are both tilted slighty away from the user, and this is very comfortable. The scroll ring on the Orbit is also much smoother than the scratchtastic Expert. The Logitech Trackman Marble is the most like the Orbit. The trackballs are the same size and have a similar form. The shape of the Marble is more comfortable overall and has two additional programmable buttons. The Orbit has somewhat less comfortable button placement, and lacks the extra buttons. The Orbit can be programmed to emulate a middle click by pressing both buttons. However, the Logitech does not have any scroll wheel or scroll ring. That's an automatic disqualification in my book. The Orbit wins by default. The Adesso Trackball gets a number of negative reviews, and rightfully so. It has the most useless button placement I have ever seen. However, it does have a much larger ball than the Orbit and Marble, has a higher resolution (800dpi), has a scroll wheel, and is in the same price range. With a couple of modifications and the use of arm rest (I use a thick text book), it is a truly fantastic trackball. However, out of the box the Orbit and the Marble leave the Adesso in the dust. The M570 is a thumb controlled trackball. Many people love them, while others abhor them. (I happen to have no preference, and use both) If you have a predilection for a fingertip controlled ball, the Orbit and other trackballs win this round. Otherwise, the M570 is a top notch device. While the other trackballs may best the Orbit in one way or the other, it scores well in all areas. It gets my recommendation as the best overall affordable trackball. The rundown Pros: -affordable -comfortable shape -smooth rolling ball -the best scrolling apparatus -a good size Cons: -no extra buttons -no dedicated middle click button -slightly awkward button placement

I have been using this model of mouse for over 9 years now (Edit: 15 years? Who's counting). I first got one of these in high school as a present from my dad, who uses this himself. It's gotten me through undergrad, master's, and a couple years of working. I love it so much. I've bought multiple ones to use at home, office, and a spare in case they ever discontinue it. Not one has failed so far. I have attached photos of how I position my hand on it: thumb on left button, index finger on ball, middle finger on wheel, and ring finger on right button. My pinky sits off to the side and doesn't operate the mouse at all. This is just how I use it, YMMV depending on your hand size and whatever you find most comfortable. I find that my pinky just isn't strong enough to do a lot of clicking without getting tired after a while. My index finger is the most dextrous finger, so it's good for precise operation of the track ball. I tried some of the other hand positions described in other reviews, and I found them uncomfortable and awkward, so it's a very personal thing. Play around with it to find what works best for you. I don't use the included wrist rest. I think it's more comfortable to rest my wrist directly on the desk, based on the slope angle of the mouse (probably because my hands are small). Again, YMMV. Pros (why I love this mouse): - Very comfortable and ergonomic for extended use (for me at least). My hand and wrist rest on it in a neutral position. - Track ball allows fast and precise movements. A traditional mouse depends on moving the entire forearm/wrist, which is slower and less precise. - Left-clicking with my thumb is easier than a standard mouse because it's a stronger finger than my index finger and doesn't get tired as easily. - Large scroll wheel is easy to operate. I can either scroll a tiny bit or fling it to scroll a lot, and I don't have to bend my finger as much as a traditional mouse scroll wheel requires. There's another model of Kensington track ball mouse that has a scroll wheel like this (the one with 4 buttons) but I find that one awkward to position my hand on. Cons (only minor annoyances for me): - Coworkers have no idea how to use it when they come to my computer to show me something. - Larger than a traditional mouse, doesn't fit in a standard laptop case. - The area under the ball gets gross pretty quickly and is hard to clean because it has a lot of nooks and crannies. I usually just clean off the three supports to make the ball move more freely, about every other week. - No software support for Linux or Chromebook, so you can't customize buttons with those operating systems. - No middle-click, but this may be emulated by your OS as simultaneously clicking left+right buttons. - Probably hard to game with this. I don't game, so this is not an issue for me. Edit (2026): Yup, I still use this mouse! I've acquired one of the newer wireless ones with the red ball (which otherwise works the same as this item) and that one works great too. Still have my original wired ones too. One of them had some issues a few years ago but I opened it up and cleaned out some gunk with alcohol and that fixed it. I will probably keep using these until I die, or until AI makes computer input devices obsolete. :)

4 1/2 stars from me. This isn't quite comfortable as my favorite little track mouse which is no longer made. However, Kensington includes a really nice little ergonomic pad that attaches to the back of the body of the mouse. That helps immensely. The track ball moves really freely and feels very nice and easy to manipulate. The left click is slightly weird as when I utilize that ergo pad, my reach isn't quite perfect for the left side of the unit. Overall, this looks and feels like a good quality trackball. I'm pleased with my purchase. Edit to add: I just purchased a second one to use with my other PC. I miss the old track marble (side ball) but this is a very decent mouse, especially for the money

I’ve been using the Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse with Scroll Ring since 2018, and it’s been a journey. I liked it from the start, but after a while one got a little gunked up and the scroll ring wasn’t smooth, so I switched to a vertical mouse for a bit. That worked fine until Windows 11 came along. After that, the vertical mice didn’t respond as well, especially across different PCs. I pulled my trackballs back out and installed KensingtonWorks, and that changed everything. I instantly had full control of the pointer again, with a near-perfect balance between speed and accuracy (thanks to the software's adjustibility and options). On my main PC, I run six monitors using very precise software, and the trackball handles it beautifully. The software also let me assign a middle-click button, something the unit doesn’t have natively, which made my old vertical mice completely obsolete. While it worked great with one PC, I still had the second trackball that was gunked up. I took it apart, cleaned the sticky scroll ring with a little alcohol, and it works like new again. Now I’m officially converted. I’ve got Kensington trackball mice on all three of my desktop PCs, plus a smaller travel version for my laptop. Even without a dedicated back button, the comfort and customization have completely won me over. I’m especially glad mine is the wired model. I really think the direct connection gives the best signal and response. No lag, no hiccups, just smooth, precise scrolling 10-14 hours a day. Trackballs are here to stay for me.

Solved my problem. New laptop, touchpad was interfering with typing. I bought an optical mouse at Microcenter. Made the mistake of buying a cheap mouse. I went there specifically thinking trackball but came back with a cheap optical mouse. Decided to go with this device because it's well rated. Ordered it. Received within a few days with standard shipping. Plugged it in using Ubuntu 15.04 no problem. I did not anticipate the adjustment required for drag and drop. I'm left handed. After switching the buttons I can click and hold my primary mouse button, drag and drop, no prob. I did spend some time looking for an app to provide click to drag because system mouse settings do not provide it. I found that switching the mouse buttons makes it easy to hold down the primary button and drag back and forth, up and down to my heart's content then release the button when I get to where I want to be. I actually like drag and drop with the trackball more than the mouse now that I've used it a bit because with a mouse you're still holding the mouse when you release the button which can incur additional unintended movement. With the trackball, once you lift your finger off the ball the cursor stays put. The scrollring is awesome. With a 13" laptop there are concessions with the keyboard that required a function key to scroll with the keyboard. The cheap optical mouse had a scrollwheel which was tedious to use. The scrollring on the trackball is precise, zippy and easy to use. I was thinking I might be missing something with two buttons instead of three but a third button to paste doesn't matter. With my setup I can select text with the trackball, release my primary button, click again and drag to a new location while holding the button, release to paste text at the cursor location. Most likely drag and drop 101 but I'm very pleased. I decided on the wired trackball because any device, wireless or not, will occupy a usb port. My conclusion is, can't beat it for the money. Great value. Does everything I need it to straight out of the box. I hope my review saves someone else who may be moving over to a trackball some of the time I put into looking for click lock to drag solutions. You don't need 'em. Just configure the device so you can comfortably hold your primary button while articulating the ball. 9/7/2015 Update. I bought my trackball used. After using it for awhile I noticed that it would sometimes catch inside its cradle causing the cursor to jump. The ball had a small scratch in the plastic. Using a fingernail emery board I smoothed it out then polished with metal polish. Now it's perfect.

Pros and cons of this trackball mouse. Pros: Scroll ring 10 stars. This is the first mouse I've had with a scroll ring and it's excellent. I haven't found other brands with the ring, they typically have a scroll wheel, which I don't care for, so this scroll ring is great. Trackball 5 stars. It's located at the top/center, which is where I like so it can be easily moved with your 3 center fingers while holding the sides of the mouse with thumb and pinkie. I don't like the ones where the ball is in the thumb position, so this one with it top/center is in an ideal position for me. The ball moves smoothly and the reaction on screen has zero delay. Cons: Housing/body 3 stars. It's too wide and flat, so you have to hold a finger/thumb on the opposite side to the button you want to click so you can get some grip. The silicone pieces on the bottom do not grip the surface, so it slides around. The length is both too long and too short for comfort. It's too long to rest your hand on the desk and use the ball with your finger tips because you have to grip the sides when using the buttons so you have to slide your hand forward to do that. It's too short because if you rest your hand over the top where you can use the buttons easier, then the ball is under your palm. It comes with a triangle shaped extension piece, which is needed to make it better for resting your hand at the bottom end, but it does not attach to the mouse body at all, so it moves around independently. The surface is too smooth/slick, so your hand just slides down it. It would be nice if the surface had some texture or even silicone patches, so your hand wouldn't slide so easily. Buttons left 5 stars, right zero stars. The #1 con/negative, the right-mouse button has failed after just 8 months of daily use. When I click it either it does nothing or it pops up a submenu for a second and goes away, or if I push it firmly at the very top corner and hold it, then the submenu eventually may come up, but it takes several clicks/tries to happen. The right button used to work fine and only needed a soft tap, but over the last week it started not reacting and I'd have to click it numerous times to try to get it to work right, and today, it's pretty much not working at all. So, with all that said, solely due to the scroll ring feature, I'm buying another one of these to replace it, but I think it's a newer model. If it weren't for the scroll ring and how much I love that feature, I would not buy another one. For almost 20 years I would get only the Logitech trackball mouse (center ball), but it's become harder to find and insanely expensive, which is why I had to find a new mouse. If this Kensington orbit was a better quality (shouldn't fail so quickly), it would be my new go-to. But, until I find another brand with the scroll ring and center track ball, I'll stick with this one, even with all of the negative aspects.

I've been an avid trackball user since the 1990s and have used quite a few of them. I've been trying to replace my favorite discontinued model for years, and of the many I've tried I would say this is the best. Pros: Overall feel is very nice in my hand. It was broken-in within minutes (by this I mean the ease of rolling the ball in it's socket; there is typically a bit of drag or stiffness with most of the trackballs I've tried. This usually gets better over a few days' use). The scroll ring also feels nice. I would call the build quality mid-grade. It doesn't feel high end, but it also doesn't feel like junk. The wrist-rest is just a tiny bit lesser quality plastic, and I didn't expect to use it, but after trying it out it really does improve overall comfort of use. The software is simple, although there is room for improvement. Another pro for me is the ball being in the index-finger position. I really dislike models with the ball in the thumb position, but that is really a matter of personal preference. Cons: Not enough cons to impact overall rating. I would like more buttons, although that is probably a limitation of being a low-cost model, as the more expensive Kensingtons do have more. The ability to chord (press both buttons simultaneously to function as a third button) would be nice. I don't know if that is a limitation of the software, hardware, or both. The scroll ring is a tiny bit too sensitive for my liking. In summary, this is an excellent trackball for the price, and is significantly better than more expensive trackballs I have tried (I got this one for $17 during a Black Friday sale). I wish I bought a few of these at that price, because it seems like once a model becomes discontinued, the after market prices get crazy. For example, my all-time favorite is the Microsoft Trackball Explorer, which was perfect in every way. Long discontinued, they can still be found on Ebay for several hundred dollars. I may give one of the higher end Kensington models a try. I briefly tested one in a store years ago and didn't like the ergonomics, so the only reason I tried this one was because it was insanely cheap. I'm very glad I did.

Mechanically, Kensington hit the nail on the head with this design. Overall the feel of the unit is solid and smooth. Others complain about the extension piece slippoing off... I attached it with the ridges interlocking and it stays on fairly well for me (though I would have preferred it to be more solid, or even a one-piece design). I could not find any other decent trackball in this price range with a scroll feature that also had the ball at the top tracking with your fingers and not with your thumb. I prefer this orientation in general, but I'm also a lefty. Like others, I do wish that the scroll ring was detented ("click-feel"), like a scroll wheel is on a typical mouse. The feel of the scroll ring is kind of "cheesy", like a plastic-on-plastic bearing, quite out of place on this otherwise-solid unit. The TrackballWorx software for it is "OK", but I could not find acceleration settings that gave me the right combination of pointing accuracy when moving slow, but also cursor movements large enough to traverse all the way across my dual-screen setup without multiple swipes of the ball. I may try to see if I can default back to the Win7 mouse driver [edit: see my update below]. Also, since I am a lefty, I prefer to have the buttons reversed. Unfortunately, the button reversal sometimes doesn't work for lower-level "Yes/No/Cancel" types of dialog boxes, which can be a little aggravating at times. Edit: An update... The unit works great for me now with just the mouse driver built into Windows! I can adjust the pointer speed perfectly to my liking: go into the Control Panel, Mouse applet, Pointer Options tab and adjust the Pointer Speed. The Wheel tab adjusts the scrolling speed. For you lefties like me, the Buttons tab lets you switch the buttons, AND IT JUST WORKS for all windows, all the time! If you want to reverse the direction of the scrolling, then regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Enum > HID > VID_047D&PID_2048 > ...(some weird code)... > DeviceParameters, then change the data field for FlipFlopWheel from 0 (the default) to 1. [Note: Only edit the registry if you know what you are doing, and be sure to make a registry backup first!] So, the builtin funtionality in Windows lets me do everything that I needed TrackballWorx for, only better. I have now very happily uninstalled TrackballWorx from my system. (BTW, if you do the registry edit, you will want to do that uninstall first, to avoid possible confusion with the registry entries.) So now, other than the basic hardware-related gripes, I am very happy with this trackball.

Review of Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse (silver) with Scroll ring. Wired version. Mac OS Mojave (also compatible with Windows). I've never used a Trackball before but was getting fed up with hand cramp on the standard mouse. This trackball comes with a wrist rest which is how I use it. It works straight out of the box. Because the Trackball doesn't move on the desk I didn't see much need for a wireless version. Also, you know a wired version works as soon as you plug it in. The rubber pads keep it quite firmly on my desk. Intuitive to learn. Clicking with the left mouse and dragging with the ball was easy. Nice smooth action. I chose the version with the mechanical scroll ring as I wanted to be able to skim quickly through documents, and I'm glad I did as it works easily. More functionality can be added with 'Trackballworks' which is now called 'Kensingtonworks'. I didn't really need it, but decided to download the software anyway. This required two installations and several restarts before the software recognised the trackball: you have to ensure via 'Security and Privacy' in System Preferences that the OS doesn't stop elements of Kensingtonworks from operating. Once the software was operating successfully I was able to increase the speed of the scroll ring, but that was all I bothered with. I should have bought a trackball years ago. Delivery from Amazon was staggeringly quick.

Superb product and worth of money. I would like thanks Kensington for this trackball.it’s amazing,attractive,precise.ergonomic and very soothing to my finger. Now I can take full control of my laptop with finger controls. Before this I was suffering wrist fatigue vague pain and discomfort from using Logitech mouse.Thank to this Kensington trackball now my wrist worries is gone. Bye Bye mouse.

They say these things have a learning curve, but that's nonsense. It's instantly a massive improvement over using the mouse. Much more comfortable, much more accurate.

Es el primer trackball que tengo y es muy cómodo y fundamental la rueda de scroll para una buena experiencia, con una mano muy pequeña quizá sea un poco grande, pero la mía para ser hombre es pequeña y me va bien.

Great to use for both hands. Very useful wheel to scroll The removable Little wrist extension ramp means there is no need to use extra padding and supports the wrist