Kensington Slimblade Trackball is a Winner!
Our friends at Kensington sent one of their new Slimblade Trackballs over for me to test out. I know that lots of folks love the mouse, but I much prefer trackballs: for me, they are more accurate, and easier on the wrists than mice, plus I don’t have to keep a space for mousing clear of papers, pens, paperclips etc., which invariably clutter my desk.
I have been using the excellent Kensington Expert Mouse 7.0 for many years, and it has been some time since Kensington has even attempted to improve on the design and functionality of this trackball. The Slimblade is flatter than the expert mouse, the ball is about an inch lower, and the buttons are flatter and larger than the original.
The Expert Mouse utilizes a rubber ring which acts like a mouse’s scroll wheel. The new Slimblade scrolls by actually spinning the ball horizontally. It actually works a bit better than the ring, and requires very little effort or control to scroll through large documents.
The Slimblade’s top two buttons perform special tasks, the upper left hand button puts the trackball in “Media Mode” allowing you to adjust the volume, change the track, play/pause, and stop the music. The upper right hand button puts the trackball in “Document View Mode” allowing you to control the zoom, horizontal and vertical pan, reset to 100% view, and adjust zoom to fit display. The media mode only works for iTunes and Windows Media Player, and the view mode only works for specific applications, but is a real time saver for sure.