Ahhh, the trackball. Once the darlings of ergonomics-minded computer users, people often assume they’ve gone the way of those weird kneeling chairs from the 1980s. But like many other relics of the era—Eddie Murphy’s career, spandex, and Bon Jovi come to mind—the trackball is still alive. But trackballs have actually gotten better with time. Logitech’s M570 trackball combines the best aspects of the device you already know, with some new technology to make it even easier to use.
It’s like a giant mouse flipped on its back.
The M570 fit our hand perfectly and prevented some of the wrist pain we associate with standard mousing. Unfortunately for left-handers, the M570 is shaped for right hands only. Departing from Apple’s “less is more” approach, the Logitech is a five-button affair. You can configure the standard left and right mouse buttons, as well as the scroll wheel and small forward and back buttons near your index finger. In addition to various commands (Eject CD, Quick Look, and so on) or click sequences, you can program the buttons to open a particular document or execute a keystroke. The latter option is powerful, especially when used with your Mac’s Keyboard Shortcuts settings, allowing you to perform nearly any Mac command at the twitch of a finger.
Logitech promises 18 months of battery life on a single AA battery. Since we lack the ability to bend the space-time continuum, we haven’t yet been able to test that claim. But readings from the battery gauge are in line with this sucker taking us well into 2012. Still, we’d love it if Logitech provided the option to plug in and recharge the battery via a cable, the way its Performance MX mouse does. And speaking of cables, there isn’t one. The M570 trackball uses Logitech’s tiny Unifying receiver, which plugs into a USB port and can connect multiple devices simultaneously, a great argument for using Logitech input devices exclusively.
The bottom line. If your mouse hand could use a break, Logitech’s trackball can reduce the strain on your wrist and goose your productivity with the right custom button setup.
M570 Trackball
Mac OS 10.5 or later, USB port
Comfortable, even under heavy use. Good software customization options. Long battery life. Vertical scroll wheel.
No corded option. Left-handed users are out of luck.
Zoidbert
September 10, 2012 at 9:03am
This is my go-to trackball after buying and using many others for a long time. Trackpads just don't cut it for me for page layout work, and mice need too much real estate. I'm on my second or third (they last a while, but with heavy use, you'll want to either recondition the ball supports (yeah, I know) or just replace it after a while; I've noticed dragging after using it about a year and a half. Its cheap entry point (nearly half the SRP noted in the article) makes this relatively painless.
I wouldn't mind if Microsoft got back into the trackball game -- they made some stellar products in the early part of the 2000s -- but until then, I'll stick with the M570.
