Logitech Trackman Marble Mouse
Posted by admin | Posted in Computer | Posted on 13-04-2010
5
Product Description
The Logitech TrackMan Marble gives you superior comfort – for either hand. Ambidextrous design provides long-lasting comfort for right- and left-handed people. Convenient button controls let you easily move forward and backward when you’re surfing the Web. Click the large buttons together and use the ball for auto-scrolling. Fingertip-based control enables fast, accurate cursor movements. Patented Marble optical technology ensures smooth tracking.Left handed? Right … More >>
I bought two of these at the same time. One had a rough patch right out of the box; when I hit that spot (I assume an imperfection on the ball) the trackball would resist and often stop dead. The other worked fine for a few months, then developed the same problem.
Logitech customer service is a joke. I, at least, can’t figure out how to contact them to complain without knowing both the product number and the serial number, which of course are on a sticker on the bottom of the device, and all scratched up from use.
At $25, not a good buy. You have been warned.
Rating: 3 / 5
Pros: smooth trackball action
good ergonomics
Con: I thought the lack of a scroll wheel could be overcome – wasn’t possible for me, too inconvenient – I’ll be returning the Marble
Rating: 2 / 5
This is my first trackball mouse and I’m never going back. It takes up less space and is more responsive than any other mouse I’ve ever used. It took a few days to get used to the quick action and the location of the scrolling buttons other than that I have had no issues with the mouse and I would definitely recommend it to a friend.
Rating: 3 / 5
I used to have an FX for a long time on my home PC until a switch went bad and I didn’t want to pay another $80 for a new device. Since then I’ve lived with regular wheel mice at home and work. But in recent months I noticed some discomfort due to the large amount of time I was spending on PC’s so I revisited Logitech’s offerings. Unfortunately, the FX is dead and has been replaced by devices that are not as good (IMHO), but after some research I decided to give the Trackman Marble a try.
Physically, it’s fine … if it’s not as comfortable or easy to use as the FX, it is definitely more comfortable than using a wheel mouse.
However, there is no dedicated scrolling feature on the unit (excuse me? in 2009?) and their SetPoint software will not allow me to change the settings of the buttons to take advantage of a work-around that supposedly exists. My PC is a pretty basic (albeit older) XP Pro engineering workstation, so it’s not like I have anything fancy. Logitech’s e-mail support was responsive and seemed genuinely interested in helping me resolve the problem, but to no avail. In the end, they suggested that I call in, which I have not yet done but will when I get a free hour or so.
Bottom line: it was worth the money, if only as temporary relief for my hand, but I’m not overly impressed by the product’s design or software and will probably switch as soon as I find something better.
[Update: I did finally spend some quality time on the phone with a tech support guy ... very friendly, and like the e-mail folks he seemed interested in helping me ... I'll spare the details, but in the end the guy finally said that it just wasn't going to work with my PC.]
Rating: 3 / 5
Love this trackball. Have to keep one at the office, in my home office, and in my travel bag.
Rating: 5 / 5