Remember these WEIRD mice?? The Trackball is back!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,248 words · ~6 min read
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there are two types of Linus tech tips viewers
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the ones who can't remember trackball mice and the ones who are old
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like me that's right kids in the late 90s
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these bizarre pointing devices were
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almost as popular as a standard
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ball mouse you know the kind that had its balls
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down below but then fell into obscurity as optical
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and laser mice gained dominance but are trackballs bouncing back
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well logitech or well logie logitech
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is giving it a shot meet the mx ergo
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their first trackball in nearly a decade
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and the video is brought to you by tunnelbear which makes it easy to
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privately and securely browse a more open internet to try tunnelbear for free
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go to tunnelbear.com
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at 260 grams the ergo is twice as heavy as
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your typical mouse but that's fine
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like other trackballs it is not used by
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sliding it around the desktop instead you actually move the pointer by
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spinning this optically tracked ball with your right thumb
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the ergo is beautifully designed the soft touch rubber finish that covers the
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entire top of the mouse gives it a premium look and as for the feel
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well it can leave your hand a little hotter than you might be used to but
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we're inclined to overlook this because with the base set to its upright
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position reducing pronation or scissoring of the
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ARM bones it positions the user's hand similarly to a vertical mouse
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it is extremely comfortable i guess that's probably where the name
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comes from with that said what's good for the wrist
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isn't always good for the thumb moving the cursor especially a long distance
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downward feels kind of like doing thumb crunches unless you reposition
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your hand let's take a look at the buttons the
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left and right clicks are rated for 10 million and are otherwise
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pretty darn standard these back and forward buttons are both
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easily accessible with your index finger as long as you don't have child size
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hands like i do and the scroll wheel is rubberized moves smoothly and it
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comfortably tilts to either side
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now we've got a couple of more interesting buttons this one toggles precision mode which
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like a sniper button on a mouse shifts the sensitivity for precision pointing
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and this one is a logitech easy switch
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so that you can switch easily i see what you guys did there between
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devices with one of them using the included 2.4 gigahertz dongle and
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another one connected via bluetooth and you might actually find yourself
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doing just that trackballs are great for travel because
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they require very little area to use air go an airplane tray table or ARM
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rest will actually work nicely for much more comfortable mousing compared to
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trying to use a touchpad and thanks to the ergos four month battery
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you won't even need a charging cable with you fun fact though if it does die
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it boasts a full work day's worth of battery after just one minute of
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charging okay then Linus that's all well and good
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but what is it like to actually use it
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well if you've never used a trackball before
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you might actually be surprised at how easy it is to convert our writer james
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went into this thing with zero experience and after a few days reported
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it become second nature and some actions like middle click
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scrolling are actually even easier with a trackball
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with that said it's not like there wasn't a slight learning curve and it
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has some clear disadvantages if you use a multi-display setup or an
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ultra wide monitor for example you might find yourself having to crank the
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sensitivity just to cover all of that desktop real estate
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and while okay that's true of any mouse
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on the trackball in particular this really made accurate pointing on fine
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things a feat of concentration since it
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does tend to jump a bit when being turned very small
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amounts the solution as it turns out though is
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to turn on mouse acceleration which uh
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how about that it turns out that setting does have an actual use
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though you will want to disable it while you're gaming on your trackball
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wait gaming on a trackball
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yes that's right you can use a trackball for gaming and it actually doesn't suck
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either our resident cs go guru ed was
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actually up and pwning noobs in no time
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though he did say that he was a little disappointed in the ergo's tracking
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speed which may prove to be insufficient for players who like to whip their mouse
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for quick turnarounds okay then Linus i'm interested you got
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me but why should i buy then the 100 mx
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ergo over logitech's own competing wireless trackball the m570
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is the precision button easy switch and the smoother ball action
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really worth the extra 50 maybe not
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but they are nice to have and the 20 degree tilt
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really is a lot more comfortable and surely there is no solution that
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exists to prop up the m570
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okay but in all seriousness though does the mx are go belong in your future well
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there is still room to improve a stepless scrolling mode on the wheel
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a low latency light speed connection higher endurance switches and a
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dedicated dpi switch would all go a long way towards making this feel like a true
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flagship maybe a g series trackball is
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on the horizon but with that said
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it's really good if you're a trackballer it's easy to
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recommend as for if you're not well it is the kind
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of thing you do have to experience on your own but
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logitech has a 30-day return policy so
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if you're a little ball curious then there's nothing to lose from giving
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it a spin speaking of giving something a try
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thanks to crunchyroll for sponsoring today's video crunchyroll is the site
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premium for only 6.95 a month so head over to crunchyroll.com Linus and sign
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up today so thanks for watching guys if this
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