The Best Trackballs

Before joining Wirecutter, I spent six years at Lifehacker writing about technology. For this guide, I used each style of trackball for a week before assessing individual models. During this research, I laid hands on almost every available trackball.

To learn who might benefit from switching from a traditional mouse or trackpad to a trackball, we also spoke with Alan Hedge, the director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University at the time of our interview, and one of the country's foremost ergonomicists.

The Kensington Expert Mouse Wireless Trackball is the best finger-operated trackball because its large ball is responsive and smooth, the design is comfortable for both right- and left-handed people, and its four buttons are easy to customize with Kensington's software. It connects via either a 2.4 GHz wireless dongle or Bluetooth, and the included AA batteries provide long battery life. It usually costs between $60 and $90, but the premium build quality, well-crafted ball, and number of buttons make it worth the price. If you don’t want wireless, consider the slightly cheaper but otherwise identical wired version of the Expert Mouse.

The Kensington Expert Mouse’s 55 mm ball (nearly the size of a pool ball) moves freely and smoothly. Compared with the smaller balls of the Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse with Scroll Ring and the Logitech Ergo M575, the large Expert Mouse ball makes it easier to move your cursor across a high-resolution display or across multiple monitors. To remove the ball, just pull it out or flip the Expert Mouse over. Dead-skin gunk accumulates underneath the ball, as it does with every trackball, so we recommend doing this every couple of weeks.

The Expert Mouse’s four large buttons offer a crisp click that doesn’t feel mushy or hollow, unlike the buttons on our budget pick, the Kensington Orbit with Scroll Ring. By default, the Expert Mouse’s two bottom buttons are left- and right-click, while the two top buttons are middle-click and back.

Instead of a scroll wheel, the Expert Mouse has a scroll ring around the ball. But the scroll ring felt gritty when we turned it, as if two pieces of metal were skimming across each other. Some owners report the same problem, and Wirecutter’s Dan Frakes experienced it, too: “It’s a shame the trackball itself works so smoothly, but the scroll ring feels so jerky and janky.” Kensington representatives told us that “this goes away with some use,” after which “the scroll ring becomes very smooth and usable without any noise.” After about a week, I modified my scrolling technique to have a lighter touch and minimize the resistance, but it was still just as gritty. Our budget pick, the Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse with Scroll Ring, doesn’t suffer from this problem. If you love the Expert Mouse but can’t deal with the gritty scroll ring, you can take it apart, remove a magnet, and add some lubricant yourself.

The finger-operated Expert Mouse doesn’t force your hand into one position like a thumb-operated trackball does, so you can use your palm or whichever fingers you'd like to control the ball. The ball’s size and location allow for broad arm movements, which are surprisingly fun to do and helpful for ergonomics if you have trouble bending your wrist. The ambidextrous design works for both right- and left-handed people.

The Expert Mouse’s slope, with the back higher than the front, can make it difficult to operate ergonomically. To correct for this, the Expert Mouse comes with a detachable leatherette-covered wrist rest to prop the hand in a neutral position. This accessory makes the Expert Mouse over 9 inches deep, so it might be too big for some work spaces. It’s also quite heavy, weighing 396 g without the wrist rest; it stays put on a desk but is a poor choice for portable use.

The accompanying KensingtonWorks software allows you to customize button behavior, scroll speed, and pointer speed, as well as to set shortcuts for pushing two buttons at the same time. You can also set up a keystroke to initiate a precision mode that slows down the cursor, and you can customize button behavior per application. The pointer-acceleration slider is useful if you have multiple monitors, and it’s a feature that Logitech’s Options software lacks. Otherwise, the Kensington software has the same basic features as Logitech Options and is equally easy to use.

We didn’t have the time to test battery life, but Kensington told us you can get around six to eight months of use out of two AA batteries with Bluetooth, or up to a year if you’re using the USB dongle. (In contrast, the Logitech Ergo M575 is the best of the bunch we tested, with up to 24 months of life on a single AA battery.) The Expert Mouse has a power switch on the bottom but can also trigger a sleep mode automatically after inactivity to save battery life. We didn’t have any connection issues with the Expert Mouse via the dongle or Bluetooth.

The Expert Mouse is expensive, but its build quality and its four programmable buttons make it worth the price over the Kensington Orbit with Scroll Wheel, which has only two buttons and is available exclusively as a wired model.

Kensington offers a three-year warranty for the Expert Mouse, in contrast to the one-year limited warranty Logitech provides for the Ergo M575. That said, we’ve found that most issues arise in the first year, so although it’s useful to know that you can contact Kensington about any complaints three years after purchase, most people probably won’t need to.

The Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse with Scroll Ring typically costs a little over a third as much as Kensington’s Expert Mouse but has a smaller ball and offers just two buttons instead of four. It uses only a wired connection, not wireless, so you don’t have to worry about battery-life problems or connection issues. It’s flatter than the Expert Mouse, which can be more comfortable, and the scroll ring moves more slowly. If you have never used a trackball before and are unsure about them, the Orbit with Scroll Ring is a good model to start with because it’s affordable and easy to use.

At 40 mm, the ball is smaller than that of the Expert Mouse (55 mm) but bigger than the one in the Logitech Ergo M575 (34 mm). As a result, you can use it on multiple-monitor setups, but you may have to bump up the sensitivity more than on the Expert Mouse. In our tests, the Orbit with Scroll Ring wasn’t as fun to use as the Expert Mouse because it didn’t facilitate similarly broad arm movements, and the smaller ball was a bit less precise. You can clean this model the same way as the Expert Mouse—just pop the ball out and wipe any gunk inside.

In our tests, the left- and right-click buttons felt hollow and cheap—like those on a freebie mouse included with a computer—in contrast to the Expert Mouse’s sturdy, crisp buttons. Although the scroll ring is chintzy plastic, it felt much smoother to scroll than the gritty wheel of the Expert Mouse. The soft plastic exterior felt hollow; at a weight of 144 g, the Orbit with Scroll Ring lacks the Expert Mouse’s heft, but it stays put on a desk.

The Orbit with Scroll Ring is comfortable to use right- or left-handed, and the two buttons on either side of the trackball are easy to reach. Because it lacks the Expert Mouse’s steep slope, it sits flatter on a desk. Kensington includes a detachable wrist rest, but that piece is thinner than the wrist rest for the Expert Mouse and isn’t as useful given this device’s flatter profile.

The Orbit with Scroll Ring comes with a five-year limited warranty. It uses the same KensingtonWorks software as the Expert Mouse.

If you prefer a thumb-operated trackball, we recommend the Logitech Ergo M575. The ball is smooth and easy to use, and the button layout makes it easier to transition from mouse to trackball than the design of the Kensington Expert Mouse does. Logitech’s Options software has most of the settings you need to customize the Ergo M575 and three of its five buttons. Logitech claims the AA battery will last up to 24 months, and the Ergo M575 can connect wirelessly via Bluetooth or a USB dongle.

The 34 mm ball in the Ergo M575 is smaller than those of both the Expert Mouse and the Orbit with Scroll Ring. With this smaller ball you need to put in more effort to move the cursor across the screen: Using the Kensington Expert Mouse, you can move a cursor across a 4K monitor with a small swipe, but on the Ergo M575 it takes a couple of turns of the ball, even if you have the pointer speed set to maximum. To remove the ball, you need to shove a thin stick (such as a pen) through a hole underneath the device. As with the Expert Mouse, you should do this every couple of weeks to clear out dead-skin bits and other gunk.

The Ergo M575 has five buttons, three of which are programmable, as well as one non-programmable button on the bottom to switch between connecting with Bluetooth or the USB dongle. Its gummy scroll wheel can’t tilt, but the click is responsive and quiet. Like every other trackball we tested, the Ergo M575 lacks fast scrolling.

Made of molded hard plastic with a section on the bottom right molded to fit a pinky, the Ergo M575 is comfortable to hold, and in my tests all the buttons were easy to reach. At a weight of 158 g, the Ergo M575 is heavy enough not to slide around on a desk during use. It’s available in either black or white. We’re worried about how the rubber on the scroll wheel will wear over time, particularly on the white model, which could easily look gross after a year without proper cleaning.

The Ergo M575 supports the easy-to-use Logitech Options software for Windows and macOS. You can reprogram three of the Ergo M575’s buttons and set them to behave differently based on the application you’re using. Logitech Options lacks the pointer-acceleration slider that KensingtonWorks includes, a feature that’s especially useful for trackballs on multiple-monitor setups; instead, you have to set up acceleration for the Ergo M575 in the operating system’s settings. In addition, the software doesn’t offer a way to increase the speed of the scroll wheel on the M575, which is an odd exclusion considering that it’s an option on most Logitech mice, as well as on Logitech’s own MX Ergo trackball.

Logitech claims the Ergo M575’s single AA battery will last up to 24 months with the USB dongle (or up to 20 months when the trackball is connected via Bluetooth)—about twice as long as Kensington’s estimated battery life for the Expert Mouse.

You can connect the Ergo M575 to two devices simultaneously via Bluetooth or a Logitech Unifying dongle; using a button on the bottom of the Ergo M575, you can swap between the computers. We didn’t run into any connection issues, and when I pressed the button, the Ergo M575 swapped quickly between a MacBook and a Windows computer. However, the Ergo M575 doesn’t support Logitech Flow, a feature that lets you move the cursor between multiple computers.

Typically priced around $50, the Ergo M575 is usually half the price of Kensington’s Expert Mouse and its closest thumb-controlled premium alternative, Logitech’s MX Ergo. The MX Ergo is a great but expensive model that has a few more buttons and supports Logitech Flow.

Logitech backs the Ergo M575 with a one-year limited warranty—shorter coverage than Kensington’s three-year warranty for the Expert Mouse and five-year warranty for the Orbit with Scroll Ring—but we’ve found that most of the defects the warranty covers usually appear within the first year. The most common issue we’ve seen reported in both Reddit threads and Amazon reviews is the same issue we’ve run across with mice: double-click failure. This problem is typically covered by the warranty, so if you encounter it, contact Logitech for a replacement.

One Wirecutter editor, who has owned three Kensington Expert Mouse trackballs over the past decade, notes that the wireless one she bought a year ago has a much smoother scroll ring than previous, wired versions did. Though the battery life has been unremarkable—and slightly better when the trackball is using rechargeables—the Bluetooth tends to cut out for a few seconds every other week or so.

Another staffer (and trackball devotee) has been using our budget finger-operated pick, the Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse with Scroll Ring, comfortably and without problems, even when gaming.

We’ve experienced and heard complaints about problems with both the Kensington and Logitech software, particularly on Macs. We’ve run into quirks such as Kensington trackballs recognizing only one mouse click at a time. In Logitech Options, using any button for Mission Control for Mac didn’t work about 10% of the time during our testing. To fix the issue, instead of using the built-in Mission Control option in Logitech Options, we had to select a keystroke through System Preferences (F12 in our case) and then bind the button to that function in Logitech Options.

For Mac, we’ve found the $20 SteerMouse to be a much more robust and reliable utility than either manufacturer’s software, but it is an expensive addition. The software does offer a 30-day trial, so it’s worth testing to see if it addresses any issues you’ve had with either trackball maker’s software.

In a survey published by trackball maker Kensington, respondents listed their top three reasons for switching to a trackball: speed and accuracy, ergonomics, and a lack of mouse space.

Trackballs can be useful for people with a repetitive strain injury in their shoulder or wrist because using one of these devices requires different muscles than using a mouse. Ergonomicist Alan Hedge pointed out to us that a trackball is most useful if it helps you keep your hand in the correct position: “The key to safely using either a trackball (or a mouse) is to operate the device with the hand in a neutral posture (this means the hand is straight and level, not bent up, down, left or right, or twisted).” This neutral position is easier to maintain with a trackball because unlike a mouse, a trackball doesn’t move. Hedge continued, “Rather than extending the hand upwards to allow the fingers to move the ball, it is better to use flat fingers or the palm of the hand to rotate the ball.”

Trackballs come in two variations: finger-operated and thumb-operated. Finger-operated trackballs place the ball in the center, so you can use them right- or left-handed. And they often have a larger ball, which makes it easier to fling the cursor across a larger space, such as on a 4K monitor or across multiple monitors. Thumb-operated models look more like traditional mice but typically have a trackball on the left side, so they’re comfortable only for people who mouse right-handed (which is almost everyone). Since thumb-operated trackballs look and feel more like a traditional mouse, with a scroll wheel set between two top buttons, they’re easier to get the hang of. But their smaller ball requires more effort to move the cursor across the screen, so they’re better suited for use on single monitors or low-resolution displays.

Thumb-operated trackballs don’t work for everyone. “Overuse of the thumb can result in de Quervain’s tenosynovitis, where extending the thumb becomes a painful movement,” Hedge told us. “A finger-operated trackball allows for the finger to be flat and for it to slide back and forth over the ball to move the ball, which will reduce injury risk.” That notion tracks with our testing experience: We found that finger-operated trackballs encouraged better ergonomics—full arm movements and neutral wrist posture—compared with thumb-operated models. We’ve also seen complaints online about thumb pain from using thumb-operated trackballs, but we didn't experience any pain in our testing. And many people have used thumb-operated trackballs for years or even decades with no problems.

After suffering from repetitive strain injury (RSI) nearly 20 years ago, Wirecutter’s Dan Frakes switched to Kensington’s big trackballs on the advice of a doctor, and he has used various iterations of the Expert Mouse—from the early ADB Turbo Mouse through the current wireless model—ever since. He told us that making larger pointer movements with the entire arm and making smaller movements by rotating the arm and wrist (instead of bending the wrist) helped him avoid hand and wrist pain. “Plus, it’s just fun to fling the pointer across two displays by spinning the ball,” Dan added. But RSI is dependent on the type of work you do and your desk setup. There’s no universal solution, so talk with your doctor to see if a trackball could be useful.

In the Kensington survey, participants who used trackballs over mice said they found them easier to control for accurate movements. We found trackballs more precise than trackpads and more usable for design work or anything else that required accuracy. Since trackballs often have four (or more) buttons, they’re easier to customize than trackpads, which rely on gestures for basic actions. Even with the sensitivity cranked up, trackballs don’t move the cursor as fast as high-dots-per-inch (high-DPI) mice, but a good one can fling a cursor across a high-resolution screen nearly as quickly. Most trackballs use optical sensors, just as most mice do, but their DPI is often unpublished, or so low (typically around 400) that it’s not an important factor to consider. Comparing the DPI of a trackball with that of a traditional mouse isn’t helpful, either, because the two types of devices control so differently.

Since trackballs don’t move on your desk, they don’t require as much space as a mouse. This factor makes them a good choice for use on small desks, on the go, or when you need a pointing device but don’t have a hard surface available, such as on a couch. Unlike with a mouse, which eventually hits the edge of a desk, it’s impossible to run out of space with a trackball since it rotates infinitely.

We did not test other mouse alternatives—such as trackpads or vertical mice—for this guide, but depending on your needs they may be worth investigating if a trackball doesn’t work for you.

We’ve found the following features to be the most important in our research and testing:

• Ball: A trackball should rotate smoothly, without gritty-feeling friction. A low-quality ball can ruin the experience of using a trackball. The bigger the trackball, the less rotation you need to employ to move the cursor across the screen.
• Buttons: We look for the same amount of buttons as we do on wireless mice—a trackball should have at least left- and right-click buttons, but we prefer models with at least two additional buttons for back and forward.
• Comfort: A trackball should be comfortable for any size hand and not require wrist extension or deviation to operate.
• Software: If your trackball mouse has four or more buttons, you’ll likely want to customize how they work with manufacturer software. Great software also lets you change the pointer speed, acceleration, and scrolling speed.
• Battery life: If you opt for a wireless trackball, you can expect anywhere from six months to 24 months of battery life. Some trackballs use AA batteries, while others have a rechargeable battery.
• Connection: Some wireless options support a 2.4 GHz USB wireless receiver (a dongle), Bluetooth, or both. Each connection type provides a strong signal that doesn’t cut out over short distances.
• Price: The most recent models with modern software and better build quality tend to cost $50 to $100. Older trackballs with aging software, fewer buttons, and wired connections are available for $20 to $40.
• Warranty: Most problems with trackballs arise from quality-control quirks and surface in the first year (if not in the first week) of use, so we expect to see at least a one-year warranty. Longer warranties are nice but not required.

In Kensington’s trackball survey, more than three-quarters of respondents said they took around a week to get accustomed to using a trackball, so we spent a week with each style of trackball. We then used each contender for at least eight hours of work before eliminating models that were awkward to use, suffered from build-quality issues, or had confusing software. Then we used the remaining trackballs for several days of work, paying attention to the build quality, accuracy, and general comfort. For wireless models, we made sure the signal didn’t cut out.

The Logitech MX Ergo was our previous pick for a thumb trackball in this guide, and it’s still a great trackball. But in comparison with the Ergo M575, it doesn’t offer enough for most people to make it worth spending nearly twice as much. The MX Ergo’s scroll wheel is smoother than the M575’s (and it can also click left or right). In addition, this model can pair with two computers through Logitech’s Flow feature, and it has a magnetic tilt function in the base that allows you to angle the trackball to 20 degrees. Depending on your needs, the tilted angle of the MX Ergo may be more comfortable than the neutral position of the M575.

Logitech’s M570 is the Ergo M575’s predecessor. It’s still a good thumb-controlled trackball, but it’s old, and the M575 outshines it in build quality and design. As long as it’s available, it’s worth considering if you can find it for under $30; otherwise, get the M575.

The Kensington Expert Mouse Wired Trackball is nearly identical to our finger-operated pick, the wireless Expert Mouse, aside from its wired connection and different colors. We didn’t test this version, but owner reviews suggest it has the same grittiness in the scroll ring. If you don’t need wireless connectivity, you can usually save a little money by going with the wired version.

Kensington released a new model of its SlimBlade that adds wireless functionality. At CES 2023, the company announced two new thumb-operated trackballs launching the second quarter of 2023.

The GameBall is a finger-controlled trackball made specifically for gaming. The design is different from any of the trackballs we’ve seen recently.

The Sanwa Gravi is designed to look and feel like the old Microsoft Trackball Explorer, with the left and right-click buttons on the left side of the trackball along with a scroll wheel.

Instead of using a hardware scroll ring as on Kensington’s Expert Mouse and Orbit with Scroll Ring, on the Kensington SlimBlade Trackball Mouse you have to rotate the ball to scroll, which is tough to do without bouncing the cursor around the screen. The SlimBlade’s buttons feel hollow compared with the Expert Mouse’s, and its shiny plastic and metal surfaces attract fingerprints.

The Kensington Orbit Fusion Wireless Trackball is a finger-controlled trackball that’s about the size of a thumb-controlled trackball. Our tester experienced the same problems noted in a number of Amazon reviews, namely connection issues and erratic tracking. It also works only with a USB dongle—there’s no Bluetooth support, which should be a given for any trackball over $50.

Kensington’s Pro Fit Ergo Vertical Wireless Trackball is similar in design to the Logitech MX Ergo but has a more extreme vertical tilt. We encountered issues with the left-click working reliably, and the forward and back buttons felt awkwardly placed. If the tilt is comfortable for you, it might be worth dealing with the quirks.

In our tests, the Kensington Orbit Trackball Mouse felt cheap and tended to slide around on a desk because it was light and its rubber feet weren’t sticky enough. It doesn’t give you a way to scroll aside from pressing the Scroll Lock key on your keyboard and moving the ball, which requires some significant rewiring in your brain to get the hang of.

Although the Logitech TrackMan Marble lacks a scroll wheel or ring, it has buttons for paging up and down. The TrackMan Marble bears a shape similar to that of the Kensington Orbit with Scroll Ring, but the button placement makes accidentally hitting the page-up and page-down buttons too easy; even after a few days of use, we never got comfortable with that placement.

The Elecom M-HT1DRBK is a cult favorite, but we never acclimated to the button location or trackball position. It’s packed with eight keys and even has a DPI switch and a scroll wheel on the side. It’s also huge, taking up even more desk space than the Kensington Expert Mouse. We were unable to get the software working on a Mac, and the Windows software isn’t translated well into English, which makes it awkward to use. Because of those software quirks, as well as some middling Amazon reviews that mention quality-control problems, we didn’t test the rest of Elecom’s trackball line. They’re popular in enthusiast circles, though, and if you don’t mind dealing with awkward software, Elecom is the only company that makes a left-handed thumb-operated trackball.

We also declined to test boutique trackballs from Ploopy and X-keys, as they’re not widely available. But trackball enthusiasts like them, and they’re worth a look if you’re interested in something more customizable or unusual.