REVIEWS / MICE / OWNER INSIGHTS
🦉 WE READ 72 OWNER COMMENTS
Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball: what owners actually say
Owners are fiercely loyal for decades, but button reliability and durability concerns temper the enthusiasm
What owners complain about
- Button click failures SOME
Owners report that buttons, particularly button #1, frequently fail to register clicks and require fiddling with the exact push to work. Others report buttons losing their assigned functions after updates, requiring re-running the installation repair option.
- Premature device death SOME
Multiple owners report their units dying, with one going through two identical replacements before switching brands entirely.
- Production paused over reported defect FEW
A owner notes Kensington has paused production on this model while investigating an unspecified issue reported on Reddit, suggesting a known hardware problem.
- Button remapping differences vs. other mice FEW
The trackball emits different button signals than standard mice (middle mouse button and button 4 instead of back/forward), requiring third-party software like X-Mouse Button Control to fix.
- Limited buttons and no scroll wheel concern SOME
Prospective buyers moving from other devices express wariness about the lack of a scroll wheel and limited button count compared to gaming mice.
What owners love
- Decades-long loyalty
Multiple owners report 15-30 years of continuous use, some owning 5+ units simultaneously across home and work. One user calls it irreplaceable since 1996.
- Significant wrist pain relief
Owners report switching cured chronic searing wrist pain, stiffness, and dropping things. One says 30 minutes with a regular mouse left their wrist 'burning hot and stiff as a board.'
- Large ball and scroll ring design
The big ball and easy scroll ring are frequently highlighted. Being optical means no rollers to gunk up, requiring far less cleaning than older mechanical models.
- Excellent for specialized workflows
Owners praise it specifically for CAD/CAM software, 3D modeling (Blender), and gaming (UT2004, Diablo). Left-handed users note it works well for 3D navigation alongside a tablet.
Surprising patterns
- Owners recommend a specific maintenance ritual: clean the ball and apply a tiny drop of LaBelle 106 PTFE grease on the three internal jewels to make rolling 'unbelievably smooth.'
- Some owners ditch the included wrist rest entirely and place the device on a neoprene mouse pad, finding it more comfortable that way.
- The third button enables an X-Y scrolling mode where displacement speed controls scroll speed, which some prefer over the scroll ring.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Buyers who need many programmable buttons, a traditional scroll wheel, or high DPI for large displays — and those wary of recent production-quality issues — should look elsewhere based on owner reports.
Synthesised from 72 real owner comments across 3 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →