The Kensington Expert Mouse doesn’t have a hand-conforming shape, and thus gives no clue as to where your hand should park while using it. The wrist rest attachment plate, shown here already pegged onto the trackball body, holds the wrist rest with two plastic posts. Personally, I’m keeping my Wacom tablet handy for the fine details. Trackballs in general are not very accurate, but the Expert is precise enough that many people have reported being able to do pixel-perfect work with the thing. Most importantly for the Photoshopper set, the size of the Expert Mouse increases its potential for precision. If you have several large monitors, the ability of a trackball to spin infinitely – where a mouse would hit the edge of the pad and have to be reset – is nearly indispensable. If you have a large monitor, you’ll appreciate the ability of the Expert Mouse to cover ground with just a slight push of its large ball. These motions are not only expansive and easy to do, they’re also easy to change up while you work – helping to undermine the “repetitive” in Repetitive Strain Injury. In contrast, the large ball of the Expert can easily be driven with three fingers, your whole hand, or even your whole arm. I don’t know about you, but just thinking about it makes my finger hurt. To illustrate this, imagine trying to do CAD with a tiny, thumb-operated trackball or finger joystick such as the ones featured on early laptops. Generally speaking, input devices are considered more ergonomic when they can be driven with big motions of large muscle groups, and less ergonomic when they must be manipulated with minute movements of weaker muscles. The Kensington Expert Mouse trackball used in this review.

Kensington expert mouse reviews