Elecom DEFT Trackball Mouse, Wireless 2.4GHz, Finger Control, 8 Button Function, Ergonomic 34mm Smooth Ball, PC/Laptop, Windows11/ MacOS, M-DT2DRBK

Excellent office trackball.- It's easy to use- It has plenty of buttons for customisation and software to remap them- Small enough to not get in the way but still comfortable- Accurate with very little lift-off (better than the huge trackball in this aspect)- Very useful scroll wheel. Trackballs without a scroll wheel are annoying.- Lightweight and easy to carry- Wireless, so no cables to deal with.- Sufficiently sturdy plastics and no sticky rubber.- Good price for a trackball.The only downsides are- The back and forward buttons don't work on a Mac- The polling rate isn't high enough for gaming (you get aliasing problems).

First of all I'm writing this about the DEFT version of this trackball with the smallest of the 3 balls (M-DT2DRBK).I'm a time user of trackballs including the classic but sadly departed Microsoft Trackball Explorer 1.0 (I own 3), and the Logitech Trackman Marble FX (even rarer and more worshipped than the MTE).Is this an MTE replacement?Maybe.Overall build quality seems much better than the MTE. I've seen teardowns of the HUGE model, and if this model is similar, then build quality surpasses the MTE especially on the inside!Ergonomics wise.... the DEFT I find is not quite as comfortable as the MTE. The ball size (34mm) is noticeably smaller than the MTE (44mm). But for me at least the hand fit is very similar. This results in skittery accuracy for me.In terms of smoothness, those ruby bearings are just as good as the ceramic bearings I've fitted in my MTEs.(No nose grease was needed to get the ball spinning smoothly)Buttons feel is OK, perhaps a bit heavy. I'd prefer 2 buttons on the right like the MTE for backward & forward. Like others have said the 3 function buttons on the top are hard to get to, so use them for rarely used functions.I did try the HUGE size too. This too is built very well, but I found that for my hand size (22cm spread tip to tip from thumb to little finger) it was simply too big & so quickly became uncomfortable. The big ball (54mm) was nice though.Ideally I think I'd prefer the size of the Pro (44mm)...but as I write this, it's more than 3x the cost!!!!!The moral of the story is...if they fit your hand size the Elecom Trackballs are very good. If one size is wrong for you, do try another.I'll probably keep this one as a nice wireless ball, but so long as I can keep gluing them together again, it probably won't replace my MTEs full time.....

After suffering a scaphoid injury 10 years ago I have recurring wrist pain around my thumb area which can get worse or better depending on how I take care of my wrist.I work on a PC for 8 hours a day, and was starting to feel the pain ramping up. I could feel the movement of a normal mouse wasn't helping the issue so started reading into alternatives.A lot of trackball mice these days use the thumb for the trackball, which wasn't an option for me and I eventually settled on this one.It took quite a lot of getting used to to be able to use this accurately and efficiently, I have had this mouse for just short of a year now and using it is second nature.At first the ball doesn't really roll smoothly in it's cup, that improves with time. DO NOT use alcohol or any solvent to clean the ball/cup, the oil from your skin actually helps the ball roll smoothly so don't remove this if it can be helped, just wipe any dust away with a cloth.I feel I've had it long enough to confidently comment on it, the quality is brilliant, this thing feels like it'll still be going strong in 10 years easily.There is some Elecom software you can use with this mouse that lets you customise it to the nth degree. I have my 3 custom buttons at the top as cut, copy and paste, my left thumb buttons are forward and back. There are endless options for customising this and the software is great once you get it into English mode as it starts in Japanese.It seems to go through batteries quite quickly (needs changing every month) but I do have to have it on the higher power mode because of the distance from my PC. It only takes 1x AA battery though so it's no hardship.My one gripe and this is only really a personal problem (hence no star reduction) is that I would've preferred a trackball with the scroll wheel around the trackball as it is on some other mice. Having it thumb operated can sometimes cause me some pain, but I'll generally avoid scrolling this way if it's anything over a couple of pages.

The most important part of a trackball is how smooth it is and this just isn’t, there’s lots and lots of stickion, the ball just can’t make very fine movements at all. Aside from that pretty big issue it’s good, very comfortable for my small hands and doesn’t feel overly cheap and nasty. The switches aren’t anything special mind, just standard switches you’d get in a basic office mouse but they’re not bad and work well. I will say the right click button is quite narrow, I don’t mind it but some might.Overall nice and comfortable but not very smooth a ball at all

I had a centre trackball mouse for years before, and couldn't belive how little there are on the market these days, this is a great mouse, and play sized, where others I've read reviews on are quite larger. It still has scroll, left and right click as well as customisable buttons, so all good