My current trackball has lost its smoothness and feels “sticky” no matter how well, or often I clean it.
So, I’m looking for a trackball (thumb controlled) with the following features:
- Bluetooth wireless with support for at least two connections (for laptop and PC media station).
- Uses AA or AAA batteries.
- Uses bearings.
- Set at a tilt/ergo angle.
- Repairability is also important, but not a total dealbreaker if the mouse is high-enough quality.
So far, most that I’ve found will lack one of those features, but I’d really like to have all of them, if possible.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who offered tips on getting my current trackball working better. Today, trying to roll the ball left became very difficult, like it didn’t want to move. I took it out, looked at the little white ball (bearing?) supports that the ball should be rolling on, and noticed that the left-most one was almost pushed in, and flush with the cup that the ball sits in. The other two are higher up, so the ball can “float” on those, but not this other one. The manufacturer is already sending a replacement mouse, so it should work better, but I’d still like to find my unicorn 😄
Every now and then my MX ergo would feel like that, I take it apart and place the plastic ball holder (just the actual plastic part, removing all electronics) in hot soapy water for a few minutes. It has 3 little ceramic bearings that even with regular cleanup end up gunking up. While wet, i use the ball to jog the bearings around, then rinse with isopropyl and let it dry. Feels as good as new.
As others have said, Logitech MX Ergo springs to mind. Lacks bearings and repairability, but is of decent quality.
If Logitech isn’t your thing, there’s also the ProtoArc EM01 - basically an MX Ergo clone with RGB and USB-C, but inferior tilt.
There’re also Elecom, whose EX-G is also decent but on a personal level, Im not a fan of the right click - too light. Sanwa – Amazon Link – and Perixx are competitors to/similar to the Elecom offerings.
Ploopy might be your best bet in terms of repairability, though their offering is a little rough around the edges (figuratively and literally, they’re a 3d-printed startup but seem to have a decent following).
Links with the exception of Sanwa are to the manufacturer’s pages.
The EM01 is what I’m using :) Maybe my expectations are too high, but this just feels bad, especially when trying to move the cursor just a little. And it’s only like 2-3 months old.
I’ve got a standard Perixx mouse, but might have a look at their trackball mice.
Ploopy has been on my radar, but misses too many points on my feature list, namely wireless connectivity.
Elecom is hard to get here, apparently (Canada), but I’ve been looking at their mice, too.
Goddammit, Logitech! I’d be totally happy adding another Logitech product to my life, but they miss too many features.
My partner uses a Logitech MX Ergo. It doesn’t match all your specs, but it’s a very nice mouse. The initially purchased mouse was refurbished from Amazon and it was having problems connecting to multiple devices. Logitech sent a completely new mouse no questions asked!
I’ve not seen one that meets all of those. Best one I’ve ever used is the Logictech MX Ergo
- Wireless with multi-device support
- Internal rechargeable battery
- Plastic roller style bearings
- Tiltable
- Not repairable, and the mouse button click sensors fail at a fairly high rate. I blow threw one of these about once every 18-24 months. I know you can repair this, but I’m not willing to dust off my soldering skills after decades of disuse.
I love my mx570 but it is rf not bluetooth. The MX ergo is nice too, but that’s internal not aa batteries.
