Review on 🖱️ Kensington SlimBlade Trackball Mouse (K72327U): Effortless Cursor Precision and Sleek Design by Bud Crabtree

After using the Kensington Expert Mouse for over a year, I finally tried the Slimblade and found that it had a major problem. At least I keep pressing the Expert Mouse's scroll ring, which causes it to scroll down when I don't want it to, which is pretty annoying at times. I was hoping that the Slimblade would have all the benefits of the Expert Mouse, except for one major issue I had with the Expert Mouse: the damn scroll ring. Unfortunately it isn't. While the Expert Mouse had one major flaw, the Slimblade has a few minor flaws. Or so it was for me. Your mileage may vary. Cons: The Slimblade requires more force to activate the ball and buttons than the Expert mouse. Even so, I occasionally accidentally press the buttons. The Slimblade's buttons are larger, so there's no room around the edges of the trackball to place your fingers. I didn't have this problem with Expert Mouse. While the Expert Mouse's scroll ring was a major issue, using a trackball (or ball) on the Slimblade isn't ideal. If you're not careful, the mouse pointer will jump around the first time you spin the scrollball. Sometimes this means you stop scrolling the window you were trying to scroll because the cursor is no longer over that window. I got better at it over time. The trick for me was learning how to press my finger against the ball and the ring that surrounds it in one motion. THEN spin the ball with your finger. But it's clumsier than turning the scroll wheel, dare I say it, the scroll rings on the Expert Mouse. Therefore, none of them are perfect. At least for my hands. If you're switching from an Expert mouse to a Slimblade, you'll need to reinstall Trackball Works, Kensington's software, to use the trackballs. Upon restarting you will find that the Trackball Works Slimblade version cannot be set to rollover. In other words, if you want to use a combination of keys to launch something, Slimblade doesn't let you do that while using Trackball Works. I have no idea why. You can do this with an experienced mouse. It seems strange, but that's how it is. As I found in my expert mouse test, the Trackball Works software is useless for games that require fast button presses. Like first person shooter. This is still the case when using the Slimblade. I recommend anyone using a trackball to try XBMC to solve this problem. You need to install Trackball Works and then prevent Trackball Works from loading at Windows startup. Otherwise the programs interfere with each other. XBMC can also be programmed to use multiple button presses with the Slimblade. So if you want to press button 1 and button 2 on the Slimblade, for example to run a program, XBMC can do it, although Trackball Works cannot work with the Slimblade. So you solve both problems by using XBMC instead of Trackball Works. Please note that XBMC requires Kensington drivers, so you need to install both. Pros: The Slimblade is slimmer than the Expert mouse, even more than I expected. It also looks a bit better than the Expert Mouse in my opinion and has a smaller profile due to the lack of a wrist pad. The Slimblade appears to have a higher DPI than the Expert Mouse. When using the Expert mouse with XMBC, I turned the sensitivity up to the maximum, but it still turned out to be a bit slow. With the Slimblade, I actually had to turn down a few settings to get what I wanted. The noises that the Slimblade makes when pressing buttons and scrolling aren't as clumsy as those of the Expert Mouse. This worries some people at Expert Mouse. Even after a year, when I use the scroll ring on the Expert mouse, it still makes an annoying scratchy noise. The Slimblade just clicks softly. The rubber feet on the bottom of the Slimblade keep it in place better than the Expert Mouse. If you have trouble with the Expert Mouse slipping away from you, the Slimblade likely doesn't have that problem. Conclusion In my opinion, the Expert mouse is generally better. If only the rolling ring wasn't so annoying. I don't know anyone complaining about the spiral ring, so maybe it has something to do with my technique. I tend to use my fingertips more when spinning the ball on both trackballs than others who have posted videos of it on YouTube. I've tried adjusting my technique, but so far it hasn't worked. Others seem to keep their fingers on the trackball instead of using their fingertips. And they seem to have more fingers on the ball. If I could learn how to do this, it might fix my expert mouse problems. So far, the moment I've stopped thinking about it, I seem to have gone back to my fingertips. Overall, the switch to the Slimblade was a disappointment. I'll probably return it and switch back to an expert mouse at this point. I hope my review was helpful to you.