Elecom Huge Trackball

Elecom Huge Trackball

In one of my first fulltime jobs, I started experiencing shoulder and neck pain, and after talking to some medical people and older IT people, I realised that the cause was my mouse. The crappy little mice that come free with your computer are an ergonomic disaster. There’s plenty of research that goes in to what makes a good mouse, but I came to the conclusion that I needed to move away from a mouse, and that’s when I discovered the world of trackballs, and the flame wars that happen in there.

Trackballs come in 2 main types, ones with a big ball on top that you move with your pointer/middle/ring finger(s), and ones with the ball under your thumb. I’m very much in the big-ball-on top category. As someone lacking fine motor skills, the thumb trackballs are a nightmare for me to use. Moving a mouse to a precise pixel on the screen using a tiny bit of my thumb is impossible, I also find the position you hold your thumb in to be very uncomfortable. If you love the thumb trackballs, good for you, I don’t, let’s move on.

After picking up a cheap trackball for around $20, I knew it was something I wanted, but I missed the extra functions that I had on a mouse: forward and back buttons for web navigation and a scroll wheel. So I went searching, and found the Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman.

This has been my main work mouse for over 12 years. It was used for so long that the left mouse button wore out, and I fixed it with a mixture of tape, cardboard and aluminum foil (get in touch if you want instructions). I had never had such a comfortable mouse. The angle was great to just sit your hand on top. The buttons under my thumb were so convenient. The ball rolled smoothly and accurately. It was amazing. But it finally died. The wireless connection would regularly disconnect. For the last month I used it, the wireless connection sat so close to the Trackman that it might as well have been connected. And then finally it gave up completely.

I knew this was coming, so looked into buying a new Trackman, but these aren’t made anymore. There is no replacement from Logitech. There is no future of the big ball-on-top trackball from Logitech, they don’t have one in their product line up, and I’m not holding my breath of one appearing anytime soon. I don’t understand why not, there’s a market for it. These are so popular that used ones are selling on Amazon for over $200, a new one will set you back around US$450, but that doesn’t ship to Australia (and I can’t justify spending that much money on a trackball). Ebay has this one going for US$140. That’s more than I paid for my original one over a decade ago. I guess this one does include years of grime for you to wash off before you use it (I’m not sure if it’s a bio-security issue when I import that to Australia).

I knew I wasn’t going to every own another Logitech Optical Trackman, so went searching for something new. After months of searching, I finally came across something that looked like it might work for me, the Huge Trackball (affiliate link) from Elecom.

Their website isn’t great in English, it seems to be using a service that translates from Japanese to English. I’m happy to say, that’s on me for not learning Japanese in year 8, but it makes it hard to decide if I should purchase one or not. There are limited reviews out on the internet, and after looking at some reviews, and thinking about it for a long time, I finally took the plunge and purchased one from Amazon. The Elecom comes in both wired and wireless version, and after a decade of worrying about batteries, I decided to get the corded version.

I can confidently say, this is the best mouse I have ever used. The ball rolls freely, the buttons are conveniently located right where you want them, you can change how precise it is at the touch of a button, you can customise gestures, so that when you hold a button and move the trackball in a certain direction, it plays your music, or opens your email. The padding on the trackball is comfortable for hours of use, it is heavy enough that it won’t slide around on the table.

How does it compare to the Logitech Trackman? Great question! I’m sure it’s partly because it’s brand new, but the quality of the Elecom feels better. My old Logitech Optical Trackman feels like cheap plastic in comparison. The ball rolls more smoothly, the scroll wheel turns more freely. All of those could be because I’m comparing something that’s a couple of months out of the box vs something that has had years and years of use.

The scroll wheel has moved to under my thumb instead of next to the ball. This took me a few days to get use to, as my pointer finger has been scrolling for years, but it feels natural. The scroll wheel moves easily and precisely, but needs enough force that you won’t unintentionally scroll if you bump it.

The only thing I miss about the Logitech is that it had a bit more of a slant to it which was a little bit more comfortable. The Logitech was controlled with a middle finger and pointer or ring finger, where the Elecom is definitely a pointer and middle finger ball.

The only other downside I can see for some is that the Elecom Huge is huge. I thought the Logitech was a big trackball, but it’s tiny compared to this. As someone with a big hand I love the size of it, but when I see it in my kids hands, I can see that they wouldn’t be comfortable. Elecom does have trackballs for smaller hands, including the Deft, Deft Pro, and the relatively tiny Bitra

So after more than a decade, I’ve finally moved on to a new Trackball. It’s comfortable to use, looks great on the desk and costs less than the one covered in someone’s gunk.