there are two types of Linus tech tips viewers
the ones who can't remember trackball mice and the ones who are old
like me that's right kids in the late 90s
these bizarre pointing devices were
almost as popular as a standard
ball mouse you know the kind that had its balls
down below but then fell into obscurity as optical
and laser mice gained dominance but are trackballs bouncing back
well logitech or well logie logitech
is giving it a shot meet the mx ergo
their first trackball in nearly a decade
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at 260 grams the ergo is twice as heavy as
your typical mouse but that's fine
like other trackballs it is not used by
sliding it around the desktop instead you actually move the pointer by
spinning this optically tracked ball with your right thumb
the ergo is beautifully designed the soft touch rubber finish that covers the
entire top of the mouse gives it a premium look and as for the feel
well it can leave your hand a little hotter than you might be used to but
we're inclined to overlook this because with the base set to its upright
position reducing pronation or scissoring of the
ARM bones it positions the user's hand similarly to a vertical mouse
it is extremely comfortable i guess that's probably where the name
comes from with that said what's good for the wrist
isn't always good for the thumb moving the cursor especially a long distance
downward feels kind of like doing thumb crunches unless you reposition
your hand let's take a look at the buttons the
left and right clicks are rated for 10 million and are otherwise
pretty darn standard these back and forward buttons are both
easily accessible with your index finger as long as you don't have child size
hands like i do and the scroll wheel is rubberized moves smoothly and it
comfortably tilts to either side
now we've got a couple of more interesting buttons this one toggles precision mode which
like a sniper button on a mouse shifts the sensitivity for precision pointing
and this one is a logitech easy switch
so that you can switch easily i see what you guys did there between
devices with one of them using the included 2.4 gigahertz dongle and
another one connected via bluetooth and you might actually find yourself
doing just that trackballs are great for travel because
they require very little area to use air go an airplane tray table or ARM
rest will actually work nicely for much more comfortable mousing compared to
trying to use a touchpad and thanks to the ergos four month battery
you won't even need a charging cable with you fun fact though if it does die
it boasts a full work day's worth of battery after just one minute of
charging okay then Linus that's all well and good
but what is it like to actually use it
well if you've never used a trackball before
you might actually be surprised at how easy it is to convert our writer james
went into this thing with zero experience and after a few days reported
it become second nature and some actions like middle click
scrolling are actually even easier with a trackball
with that said it's not like there wasn't a slight learning curve and it
has some clear disadvantages if you use a multi-display setup or an
ultra wide monitor for example you might find yourself having to crank the
sensitivity just to cover all of that desktop real estate
and while okay that's true of any mouse
on the trackball in particular this really made accurate pointing on fine
things a feat of concentration since it
does tend to jump a bit when being turned very small
amounts the solution as it turns out though is
to turn on mouse acceleration which uh
how about that it turns out that setting does have an actual use
though you will want to disable it while you're gaming on your trackball
wait gaming on a trackball
yes that's right you can use a trackball for gaming and it actually doesn't suck
either our resident cs go guru ed was
actually up and pwning noobs in no time
though he did say that he was a little disappointed in the ergo's tracking
speed which may prove to be insufficient for players who like to whip their mouse
for quick turnarounds okay then Linus i'm interested you got
me but why should i buy then the 100 mx
ergo over logitech's own competing wireless trackball the m570
is the precision button easy switch and the smoother ball action
really worth the extra 50 maybe not
but they are nice to have and the 20 degree tilt
really is a lot more comfortable and surely there is no solution that
exists to prop up the m570
okay but in all seriousness though does the mx are go belong in your future well
there is still room to improve a stepless scrolling mode on the wheel
a low latency light speed connection higher endurance switches and a
dedicated dpi switch would all go a long way towards making this feel like a true
flagship maybe a g series trackball is
on the horizon but with that said
it's really good if you're a trackballer it's easy to
recommend as for if you're not well it is the kind
of thing you do have to experience on your own but
logitech has a 30-day return policy so
if you're a little ball curious then there's nothing to lose from giving
it a spin speaking of giving something a try
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