Kensington Slimblade Trackball is a Winner!

ByMike Moffit

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.

To order from Small Dog for $109.99, click here.

Similar Posts

  • M-Audio AV-40 Review

    I’ve put off buying new speakers for months. I just could not justify the expense of them, and did not want to waste money on cheap speakers with poor quality. There had, however, been a set of speakers I’ve listened to and sold extensively in-store that interested me. After moving into my new apartment, I decided my bedroom would not be complete without them.

    I realized that when buying my computer, I put a huge amount of effort into making sure my operation of it went unburdened, but scrutinizing monitors, keyboards, mice and mousepads. But I never considered my ears as important in being one of the senses that uses the computer. Boy was I wrong.

    The Studiophile AV 40s are a set of studio reference monitors sold by M-Audio. As studio monitors, they have a very precise sound that most home computer speakers can’t match, and the clarity is generally botched by cheaper hardware. They also, being more precise, don’t fill a room in the same manner other 2.1 subwoofer/satellite speaker combos do. As M-Audio outlines right in their included comic-book style instructions, there is a very specific way to configure them on your desk based on your room and sitting position. This said, cranking them is certainly capable of filling my entire house with clean, crisp music and decent bass. The AV 40s also sound fabulous on their quietest setting, for listening to podcasts at 7AM when your housemate is asleep.

    Their precision has also led me to turn off my iTunes EQ entirely, I don’t think I’ll ever use it again. Lastly, because they’re so precise, I’m finding that they’re incredibly great for gaming, as they convey the virtual world your mind is struggling to become a part of so well. Sounds like rifle shots are far different than grenades, or a peaceful flowing waterfall, which other speakers can’t put such a space between.

    The packaging is pretty basic, but does the job. I like the minimal, wasteless packaging. M-Audio was also good enough to include rubber pads to adhere to the bottom of them, so they don’t slide on my glass desk. The enclosures are a soft black, with pretty solid mesh protection over the cones. On the front of the left speaker are two jacks, one for aux-in and one for headphones. This way I can conveniently connect a laptop or iPad to them when I want to switch computers. Of course, they’re classy enough to include a blue LED on the volume knob, so they’re a perfect match for my monitor, keyboard and mouse!

    I give these a huge thumbs up.

    $149.99. For more information, “click here”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/73166 to check them out!

  • FileVault or Vile Fault?

    Starting in OS X 10.7 Lion Apple introduced a new version of FileVault, referred to as FileVault 2. FileVault 2 is Apple’s answer…

  • Full iPhone OS 3.0 Software Review

    Apple released the much-anticipated iPhone OS 3.0 software on Wednesday, and since then, we have been busy over here testing what’s new. With…