Kensington 72327 SlimBlade Trackball

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 14 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 9 stars

  Another Amazing Trackball from Kensington

  by ez4all on April 15, 2009

  Pros: The design of the mouse is amazing, works as advertised. The mouse software needs some work but I look forward to an updated software which I was told is due out this year. Very comfortable to use.

  Cons: Software needs to be revised

  Summary: Kensington does it again and deliver an amazing trackball for us enthusiasts!

  Summary: Kensington does it again and deliver an amazing trackball for us enthusiasts!

  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  how to Run mouseworks under Vista

  by webman003 on August 28, 2009

  Pros: hardeware rocks customer support sucks

  Cons: A Hack to Fix mouseworks under vista

  Summary: I have been a track ball customer for over 10 years. I have Track balls at least a dozen PCs kensington has made most of them Expensive TRASH. their refusal ...

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  Summary: I have been a track ball customer for over 10 years. I have Track balls at least a dozen PCs kensington has made most of them Expensive TRASH. their refusal to support devices with a 5 years grantee SUCKS. their refusal to support loyal clients on the Vista Platform is criminal and subject to legal tort as a failure to support your own Grantee. FIX IT!!!!! I found a fix on line A Hack, I shouldn?t have to hack a $100 track ball with a 5 YEAR GARONTEE. FIX IT!!! I will now post my Discussed with every on line service that will let me lash out at Kensingtons Selfish refusal to support their $100 products in an effort to make me buy more. Kensington used to be my favorite hardware manufacturer now Kensington, YOU SUCK!!!
  Signed Pissed off @ money Grubbing Kensington
  
  http://www.winxpcentral.comhas the answer that Kensington refuses to offer for your ?Kensington? track ball under vista
  direct link http://www.winxpcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=802691dd06f8bb82843327b7269cf67a&t=20530&page=2

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  Loves this mouse. The best trackball ever

  by gixxus on October 11, 2012

  Pros: The exagerated ball makes it less straining on the hands and wrist.

  Cons: Not wireless. mouse is ment to be stationary and not transported with laptop because of size.

  Summary: I've tried 64 types of mice and use it extensivly for my field of work, not IT. I have tried 14 diffrent trackballs and this one exceeds all of ...

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  Summary: I've tried 64 types of mice and use it extensivly for my field of work, not IT. I have tried 14 diffrent trackballs and this one exceeds all of them in the confort level. The only set back it's not wirless.

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• 3 stars

  Kensington has at the moment very poor service.

  by stefanradev on August 17, 2012

  Pros: No pro.Design is OK. And under Windows no problem, but a lot of problems under Mac OS X

  Cons: Poor service, no updates.

  Summary: My Slimblade Trackball works under Lion and Mountain Lion only like a normal mouse, no view mode, no media mode.I don't know what happens. I contacted the Kensington ...

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  Summary: My Slimblade Trackball works under Lion and Mountain Lion only like a normal mouse, no view mode, no media mode.I don't know what happens. I contacted the Kensington Support 4 times - and nothing!
  They have to change their drivers I think.
  Have somebody else similar problems?

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• 6 stars

  Not for all-day/ intensive/ professional work

  by shopperkhc on March 18, 2012

  Pros: The TrackballWorks software now lets you customize 3 of 4 buttons (the lower left is fixed as single click); cool looking shape and form factor; optical tracking; fun ball spinning for scrolling; nice large heavy ball.

  Cons: The ball slides on plastic pips! This makes it tight and sluggish and DOES NOT come close to the frictionless "gliding on air" feel of the old TurboMouse; the pointer speed and acceleration feel awkward and tiring at any setting; ball has no inertia.

  Summary: Newbies may think it's smooth, but the redesign was a huge trade off.
  
  Long gone are frictionless rollers that allowed the old TurboMouse to glide effortlessly... and a parabolic ...

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  Summary: Newbies may think it's smooth, but the redesign was a huge trade off.
  
  Long gone are frictionless rollers that allowed the old TurboMouse to glide effortlessly... and a parabolic curve adjustment for speed and acceleration. The older trackball was so airy smooth and natural that it quickly became an extension of the mind. I had to upgrade because of compatibility issues with Mac OS Lion.
  
  Now the Slimblade has an awkward tactile feel. Rolling the ball requires greater direct pressure. Placing the pointer precisely and quickly require some concentration. It jumps off inconsistently. Rapid and repetitive movements across multiple displays become taxing. Movements are not uniform when working fast. But then most people would not use this device for professional productive work.
  
  The advantage might be lateral spinning for scrolling that's integrated with the ball. However, this does not offset the tight and sluggish feel. Why would scrolling be a priority for large-ball trackball users?
  
  My suggestion to Kensington would be swapping the friction pips for smoother FRICTIONLESS rollers. Bring back the parabolic curve adjustment for speed and acceleration. Keep the optical tracking. Do something else minor for scrolling. The taxing torture of pushing this large heavy tight sluggish ball with inconsistent acceleration for hours every day is almost unacceptable. Except there's hardly anything else like it on the planet!
  
  They've got to at least improve the software for a more intuitive acceleration curve. Can you say Trackball Works version 2? Kensington developers are you reading?!

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• 4 stars

  Good idea killed by poor execution.

  by dansk59 on September 5, 2010

  Pros: The ball is hefty and the scrolling works surprisingly well.

  Cons: The build quality is atrocious, the buttons are flimsy and easy to press by accident.

  Summary: I bought this expecting more. Much more. It cost five times as much as my old Logitech Marble Mouse, so I was expecting a five-fold improvement in quality and useability. ...

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  Summary: I bought this expecting more. Much more. It cost five times as much as my old Logitech Marble Mouse, so I was expecting a five-fold improvement in quality and useability. In the end, I think I might actually prefer the Marble Mouse. The buttons are flimsy sheets of plastic that are badly laid out, I often hit one of them by accident while scrolling. It feels like it came from a dollar store. Lots of shiny plastic and poor fitting parts; mine doesn't even sit flat on my desk, it rocks back and forth because the bottom isn't level. Everything about it exudes cheapness and a strict focus on form over function. It looks pretty, but it's hell to use.
  
  I am sorely disappointed, I expected a lot more from a $150 product.

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• 9 stars

  The software has arrived

  by 1dcagney on July 4, 2010

  Pros: Good and comfortable design, scrolling accomplished with trackball alone, positive and precise, nice tactile feel. I don?t get the rubber tag, though

  Cons: Minor, and unimportant to most users

  Summary: Let?s face it, at over $100 a pop, the SlimBlade trackball not for every user. Perfectly good laser wireless mice can be had for under $20. However, considering the ...

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  Summary: Let?s face it, at over $100 a pop, the SlimBlade trackball not for every user. Perfectly good laser wireless mice can be had for under $20. However, considering the amount of time you spend with a computer, a well made, and elegant input device with a natural feel and the right interface features can make your experience better, and worth it. Some reviews indicate trackballs are only for those with hand and/or wrist problems, or perhaps a Graphic Artist or CAD jockey, but anyone that has been unhappy or uncomfortable moving a mouse around their desktop is a candidate. As a long time user of trackballs (both Kensington and Logitech), the SlimBlade design is the best yet, with excellent control, great tactile feel, and the scrolling integrated into the trackball itself, rather than an outside ring, like the Expert Mouse (or consigned to buttons or a separate scroll wheel on other trackball and mouse models). It is also significantly thinner (than the Expert Mouse, which offers a wrist pad to offset its greater height), and so far, this has been comfortable for the hand and wrist. It is also easy to keep clean and functional. A+ to the designers of this elegant, solid unit. Personal experience indicates the issue of lack of Bluetooth (cordless) is moot. On a regular mouse wireless makes sense, because a cord can get in the way of mouse movement. The whole idea of a trackball is to let your fingers and the trackball do the work ? the base stays still, along with your wrist. No battery to replace is a bonus.
  
  The software interface (1.03) was horrible. Kensington stated that they did an ?extensive marketing study of what users wanted?, but ended up with a kludge of program with dubious utility (Media and View Modes!), that did not allow the 4 keys to be remapped, or control other basic cursor functions that even Microsoft generic drivers have. Yes, Microsoft generic drivers work with the SlimBlade. However, the two upper buttons don?t function. Who wants a $100 input device without a back button? What do lefties do? I used the SlimBlade Trackball software for a few days, but found it to be worse than useless. The marketing wizards behind this software ?gem? should take early retirement, or at least find out what users do in the real world. Did they bother to figure out forward and back buttons work in iTunes? That volume can be set many other ways, more convenient than by trackball? It is program specific, too. It is a solution in search of a ?problem? that only a few have. I used the Microsoft generic driver for a few weeks; but with no back or forward buttons available, I boxed the unit up to return (but never did), and went back to the Expert Mouse (yea, the cordless discontinued version).
  
  In the past, Kensington had one of the best customer service units in the business. They were customer-centric, always helpful, and were able to communicate to my satisfaction and delight, even after they outsourced to India. On the matter of the SlimBlade software, it was not the case; just a lot of boilerplate declarative statements that made me feel stupid I didn?t see their fabulous vision. Worse, they gave no indication they were addressing the obvious software issue in any correspondence or call, even though there were hints on the web they were. I wonder how many SlimBlades were returned, and competitive units bought, because of this stumble.
  
  I am pleased to report the software issue is solved with Trackball Works. The software, recently available as a download on the Kensington website, finally gets the interface as it should be. No, you will not be able to chord (at least in the present version, v1-01), but all the basics are covered: 4 buttons can be remapped; cursor speed and acceleration set; direction and speed of scrolling; along with the standard cursor behaviors. Trackball Works software is the Kensington answer to all four of their current trackball products. I believe the Slimblade is electronically different than the other three trackballs, which could explain why chording is not available. This is minor to most users. Kensington should be following up with their SlimBlade user base on this software, and let them know the software has finally realized the Slimblade for what it is; the iPod of its class.

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• 8 stars

  Underrated trackball

  by YimRS13 on February 20, 2010

  Pros: Fast setup, requiring only the multifunction driver to be installed. Multifunction buttons are very handy, and work out-of-the-box with most popular apps on OS X. Smooth control over cursor with the weighty and ergonomically friendly ball.

  Cons: Price needs to come down a bit for the quality. Noisy scrolling. Lack of button programmability will keep experts looking for more (read: Kensington's own ExpertMouse). Could use more aluminum, of course.

  Summary: When looking for a pointing interface that works for my injured wrist, I had reconsidered trackballs. It has been about 15 years since I had used one last, a Kensington ...

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  Summary: When looking for a pointing interface that works for my injured wrist, I had reconsidered trackballs. It has been about 15 years since I had used one last, a Kensington TurboMouse, and it was time to check it out again. The new SlimBlade has that same basic design, but brings a lot of modern functionality to the table. The ability to manipulate the most common functions in popular applications is huge, and you don't have to dream up the particular scripts or key combinations to make it work through the software. It is a drawback for the power users that simply must have maximum control over all features, but for 99% of the user base that needs an alternative to the mouse won't mind.
  
  So, after just purchasing it and setting it up (took about 2 minutes total between hooking it up and installing the software driver), I'm very happy with the outcome. It works just as advertised, and without any gripes. The lanolin finish is decent, but the ruby bearings could use a bit more smoothness to them. Scrolling is a touch noisy, but it hopefully will go away with use. The ball and bearings rely on natural oils from your hand to keep the lubrication going, and they warn against using any solvent to clean it. I can say that coming from using a mouse, it is supremely easy to transition, much like switching to a comfortable pair of slippers. The overall design isn't as pretty as most of Apple's own gear, but even with the lack of aluminum and shiny bits, it's still very handsome. It doesn't look out of place next to the aluminum keyboard.
  
  It's not all perfect, but it's as good as I can imagine from any pointing device. To the naysayers about the lack of programmable functionality, wait till they make available the next software release. They're announcing a software package that will allow all of the functions to be programmable. To put it simply, I'm liking it the more I use it. Great job Kensington!

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• 1 stars

  Great hardware, horrible drivers

  by Wadess on May 18, 2009

  Pros: Good ergonomics and great feel

  Cons: Drivers are HORRIBLE!

  Summary: The drivers for this device stink badly. The view mode doesn't work in all apps, do I'm often left with no ability to scroll. The scroll wheel on ...

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  Summary: The drivers for this device stink badly. The view mode doesn't work in all apps, do I'm often left with no ability to scroll. The scroll wheel on my old trackball explorer worked everywhere. You can't remap any buttons. At work, I have no need for a media button so it's just wasted space. There's still plenty of hope for this trackball, but I wouldn't advise anyone to buy it until you check out the drivers. The latest released ones are from February and offer no customization.

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• 7 stars

  Flash, little dash in over-priced corded (!) Trackball

  by lodave on April 16, 2009

  Pros: Extra-large ball makes precision movement easier and generous 5-year warranty is a definite plus! As a piece of modern art, it makes a pretty desk accessory.

  Cons: It is grossly expensive for its paltry features, and ought be cordless. Trackball development is regressing, with fewer features in recent models, (lacking "chorded" buttons and extra buttons to program to your specifications).

  Summary: A beautiful design, but lacking the previously-included features of the Expert Mouse and other older Trackball models. It seems that they are emulating the beleaguered BMW iDrive multi-tasking. Kensington warranty ...

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  Summary: A beautiful design, but lacking the previously-included features of the Expert Mouse and other older Trackball models. It seems that they are emulating the beleaguered BMW iDrive multi-tasking. Kensington warranty is a definite plus, but Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman has double the features and buttons for half the price.

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