By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. The J-Tech Digital V628X and the Kensington SlimBlade Trackball are two very different mice, but they're both designed for office and productivity use. The trackball takes up less desk space than what is needed to operate a mouse and is more comfortable during extended use since it requires less arm and wrist movement.

The SlimBlade is an Ambidextrous trackball, meaning it has a symmetric design, practical for both left-handed as well as right-handed users. Because apparently people a lot smarter than me can monitor the wireless connections and capture some of your sensitive information, apparently even through your mouse. All Kensington Trackballs can be fully customised with Kensington TrackballWorks software to customise the functions of each of the buttons found on Kensington trackballs. The Kensington SlimBlade Trackball mouse has no scroll wheel; instead, you twist the trackball to scroll. The SlimBlade Pro feature a dark grey side with a connection button on the left and doesn’t have the cream colored Kensington flap that can be seen on the old SlimBlade.As I said, Kensington provides configuration and button remapping for the SlimBlade Pro via its configuration software, KensingtonWorks. The wireless keyboard is part of the Kensington SlimBlade Media Notebook Set and comes with a Numpad and USB dongle. The wireless dongle is dropping out of the socket when moving, which is annoying and you can lose it. Its low profile and slim design allow your wrist to rest directly on the surface you're working on for better support.

Some users online have reported unintentional cursor movements while twisting to scroll, but we didn't encounter this issue during our test. It also has three CPI presets, six additional buttons, and a conventional scroll wheel with L/R tilt inputs. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. According to Kensington, the SlimBlade Pro's battery will last for as much as four months on a charge, so you'll rarely need to plug it in if you don't want to.The SlimBlade trackball is made of high-quality materials, with a ‘metallic’ dark grey glossy plastic (the same material is even used at the bottom as well), and a shiny ‘chrome’ ring around the huge, ‘metallic’ dark red ball. After testing this more in-depth, I found that on my Apple Studio computer and MacBook Air laptop, in the Bluetooth and USB 2. Since you use the same ball to control the scrolling and moving the pointer, this is almost inevitable.

For other options, check out our recommendations for the best ergonomic mouse, the best wired mouse, and the best mouse.On the right is a Bluetooth pairing button that also lets you quickly swap among four preset cursor-speed settings. So for example the USB cable is plugged into your main desktop computer, while you connect the SlimBlade via Bluetooth to a laptop and place the USB Dongle receiver in a third computer.

The Expert Wireless doesn’t have this option of connecting via a cable, and I think it would be great if Kensington would add it as a feature on the Expert as well. These are strong improvements, but revisiting the SlimBlade design after many years reveals a few flaws that the update doesn't address. The SlimBlade Keyboard and Numpad are not sold anymore by Kensington, but the Wired original SlimBlade still has those features. The youtube video of Kensington shows someone twisting the ball with 2 fingers to scroll, which is a terrible way to use it most of the time.After all, what's the point of using a trackball to minimize your lateral wrist movement if you wind up flexing your wrist all day? It has four buttons on the top, and two additional inputs, all of which you can reprogram to perform a variety of office or media functions.