SlimBlade vs GameBall
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- Опубликовано: 23 фев 2024
- UPDATE I've been using the GameBall for gaming. The theory's correct, you do use it differently gaming vs productivity. I much prefer it when gaming!
Kensington SlimBlade Pro vs GameBall
SlimBlade amzn.to/49QGi1b ($120)
GameBall www.gamingtrackball.com/ ($150) 
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Thanks Tyler for the review and feedback. You are correct, most GameBall users will use the top of the ball and push downward. What also helps is using both the ring and middle finger on the ball. The GameBall Pro (once we can get it out) will have a larger ball and be a right handed design.
Thanks for replying! I was nervous to show the video because you've been sooo kind and generous through interactions; just made me want to give a glowing review. What I can say to those seeing this comment: I can definitely vouch for the company's character / customer service. Strikes me as in-tune with their users. Excited to see Gameball Pro's design!
I have been using the Slimblade for a couple of years and initially made a mistake. When the cursor started sticking, I carefully washed and degreased the ball. And after that, the ball/cursor began to stick even more. The trick is that the ball should be greased. If cursor starts sticking, you have to clean the bearings and rub the ball on your nose and forehead. Then it starts spinning like an well oiled wheel.
explained so much detail!! thank you
The position of the bearings impacts how much the ball will bounce around (spacing etc), other than the weight and type of bearing. If only there was an X-Keys-L-Track-inspired design that has more than 4 built-in buttons, slanted sides like the Slimblade (with slightly wider left/right click buttons), closer scrollwheel, was wireless and had dynamic (moving) roller bearings by default.
Oh and that it wouldn't be so high that it requires a wrist rest. Ideally, since the ball is so huge, having the trackball entirely dropped (countersunk) into the desk would be comfortable (like a deep removable tray in a kitchen) or else use a standing desk and raise the keyboard up to compensate. All of this to preserve the size of the ball and the security of the plastic ring..., but that's mostly done by the position of the bearings AFAIK in the L-Trac anyway.
Thanks for the video and discussion on your trackball experiences. I found it interesting and informative. If I may, I would like to share my experience with a thumb-based trackball (Logitech Ergo M575). I have been using versions of this mouse for many years now for work and productivity (still use a mouse for gaming). When this mouse gives out, I may upgrade to the more vertical oriented version you showed in your video.
You brushed past thumb-based trackballs very quickly dismissing them because of the risk of repetitive motion injury due to movement of the thumb. I am not a heavy trackball user for CAD, photo editing, or the like. I would say I am a moderate user. I also have no knowledge of thumb versus finger anatomy and what movements may be best for hand health. Intuitively, I feel that the thumb is made more for moving in multiple directions in the way a thumb-based trackball works.
If a person is using a finger trackball and not hovering, that would cause a lot of lateral finger movement, which fingers are not built to do. The thumb is great at moving laterally and vertically..
I find that my "grip" on the mouse is a semi-hover. Similar to typing on a keyboard, I do not rest my wrists on the desk or the mouse. My mouse hand lightly touches the trackball mouse near the base of the pinky just to give me an anchor point. My finger tips lightly rest on the buttons and upper shell of the mouse. My thumb lightly rests on the trackball. For larger movements, I can engage my forearm, and for finer movements, I can engage just my thumb. These techniques assure I never have too much tension in any of my body parts. I also play guitar, so I am very aware of tension in my body for finger and hand movements.
I hope this is helpful to someone. Let me know your thoughts!
I've been living wrong for decades. Somehow, hovering hands never occurred to me.
I'm telling you. I've gotten push-back in my videos about hover. I've tried wrist-rest, no rest-rest, and hover; and hover has definitely resulted in the least pain. It also allows better precision, since moving one part of your hand doesn't impact another part (eg clicking doesn't move the ball).
Hey Tyler, thanks for the recommendations. I am currently using a Logitech Trackball, and I do often catch myself palming the mouse as you mentioned. Additionally, I noticed you have a tenting mechanism on your Mistel split. Did you built it yourself, or could you share a link to where you purchased it? I have a Mistel and I am looking for bigger tenting
Team Mistel! Here's my tenting solution www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/10jtaf3/cheap_kick_stands_to_tent_keyboards/
“Hover hand” is literally the worst
I also had a Mistel keyboard too, but I really like the Glove 80, unfortunately they don't sell it in Viet Nam so it's hard to get. Will you get one of them? Would love to see how you feel about that keyboard.
I'll definitely get one. Gotta save up though
I'm using the HUGE and I like it. I've never faced any issues with it. I've used it for at least 3 years now. I like the wrist rest for the HUGE.
I like the Slimblade. I had one. It was a great until the left main button failed. I think the Slimblade pro might be good as long as it is using the same omron switches as the Expert.
The Ploopy is basically an open source or enthusiasts remake of the Microsoft Explorer - which many touted as the best trackball. The HUGE pays homage to the Explorer in some form, but has more buttons, functionality and a built in cushion wrist rest.
You haven't experienced stiction on HUGE? That's the biggest gripe I see, leading people to replace the bearings. You've definitely seen your share of trackballs, so I trust your take on the stiction comparison.
@@lefnire One of the things that I do is remove the ball and clean the bearings. I do this once a week. I've got cats and so cleaning is pretty much a full time thing.
Nice review. I wasn't aware of the static vs dynamic barings in the different products. I just did the finger ball challenge between the Slimblade, Expert, and Huge. IMHO, which one works for you will depend on your particular ergonomic needs (anatomy of your arms and hands and how you sit) and use case. For instance I settled on the Kensington Expert for my home office use where I work in VR from an Eckorness Stressless recliner. It works with the length of my arms and how my table sits. The Experts and Slimblade can be used ambidexterously.I find the Huge design nice and honestly plan on pairing it with the Expert as needed. I see the Huge as being nice for gaming as well as applications benefiting from the many customizable buttons. The materials in the Elecom product arent as nice as Kensington however the design is excellent and is serviceable with the baring swap.FYI you could pay an electronics repair shop to do the baring upgrade if not wanting the DIY trouble. Finally the Slimblade is excellent too. But it is better suited for a more traditional sitting at a desk setup. I love the design too though I find the chording and button press nicer on the Expert. Long story short, I'm keeping all of em. I love them big balls! And you will too😂
Really good insights around different body positions for different mice. I thought about (and still think about) Huge for gaming as well. And holy crap, why didn't I think of paying a computer repair shop for the bearings swap?? Wow. Now that you mentioned that, I think I'll call and see if they can build split keyboards too, DIY is what's held me back from experimenting more. Glad you replied, got me noodling now
is the materal of the bearing eventually wear out? if yes, how fast does it wear out? great video!
Not that I know of. I use my SlimBlade around 10-12hrs / day, for 2.5 years now, and there's no sign of bearing wear. And that's for a static-bearings device; the dynamic bearings devices (GameBall, Ploopy, etc) will be even better. Either way, the material they use are like.. gemstones, or synthetic versions of them, and are intended not to degrade. I think something will go wrong with the device (eg the switches or electrical issues) long before bearings break down.
@@lefnire thank you for your reply!!
Would love to see some videos on the MTE shape you find with the Nulea M505
Alright that's it, enough people mentioning Nulea, I'm gonna buy one and review!
Yeah budddaayyy@@lefnire
I'm on the same trackball journey as you and pretty much on the same path. I have Slimblade and it is my main daily driver both for productivity as well as gaming. I manage with it just fine in pretty much any type games, including FPS. I'm not hardcore by any stretch of imagination but it serves me just fine. I also have the gameball track ball as well and it sits in my closet collecting dust. I don't like it's ergonomics and its smaller ball. I had L-track back in the day, before it was acquired by x-keys, I don't know it's current quality level but it was pretty good. The only downside was it's scroll wheel placement which was abysmal for the trackball.
I have Ploopy and I also bought this new Chienese trackball on Amazon that is the same shape, about 30-40. That one from Amazon had the same level of smoothness as with the gameball at a fraction of the price, but I wasn't a fan of it's button arrangement, and most importantly, it's sensor swan's squared, which mean that the X / Y travel wasn't the same.
I like Ploopy and a big fan of his Nano, but it not having any buttons is not really usable for me currently without a split keyboard with dedicated mouse buttons on it.
So far Slimblade wins on everything, ergonomics, precision, quality of build, ball size and the scrolling.
Yeah our journeys definitely align. Next I wanna try Ploopy Adept, similar to SlimBlade but with the gaming bells and whistles (DPI, dynamic bearings).
Best trackball video I've seen so far. Something extra is actually being said besides "this is ball, this ball is small. it's good for your wrist".
I'm still looking for scrolling experience. Any chance to record the movement & screen? Wondering how the different solutions perform.
Thanks a million! I'll see about recording scrolling at some point. I haven't found any scrolling better or worse across mice, except the Orbit Fusion and Expert. I really don't like their scroll rings, they're grindy and jerky. I like the concept of a scroll ring, I just don't think they executed the hardware well. Past that these mice are quite similar scrolling experiences, but with SlimBlade & GameBall's unusual methodology (which grows on you) being more ergonomic (avoiding thumb-scroll). None of these mice have smooth scroll, they're all in increments (you know what I mean; like ticks vs Mac-style). There's one exception that I haven't had a chance to try: Ploopy Adept. Evidently their firmware lets you map a button to toggle ball scrolling, so you can scroll all axes and smoothly. I'm eager to try that.
@@lefnire
> but with SlimBlade & GameBall's unusual methodology
GameBall has the touch sensitive ring, and SlimBlade ring is touch sensitive as well? That's one of the confusions I've had. People say that on SlimBlade you "rotate" the ball to scroll, but that doesn't make much sense. What is detecting that? If you rotate the ball, without touching the ring, it probably won't scroll?
Seems that your other video is answering my question. 😃
@@kbudaj exactly. GameBall is touch, so you "wipe" your finger across the ring. SlimBlade is indeed ball-rotation. I don't know how it works either, there's something at the firmware that detects a static-axis rotation (rather than free rotation) and flips into scroll-mode. Whatever they have going on works really well, since there's no latency between when that thing picks up the static-axis rotation, and when it starts scrolling; it's immediate. I actually love SlimeBlade's scrolling style, but it takes getting used to. What you do is place your middle finger on the top of the ball to stabilize it onto a static axis, and you wipe your ring finger across the ball to rotate it. Click my channel, I have another video on more trackballs - there's a part in there where I describe SlimBlade scrolling. The weird thing is that I personally find the SlimBlade's scrolling more responsive / less latency than GameBall's; which I didn't expect, since GameBall wouldn't need that extra axis check. But I've chalked it up to something I'm not doing correctly with the GameBall; maybe I need to configure it via X-Mouse in a certain way.
@@kbudaj ok good you found it
I’ve been using a thumball for over 30 years. No RSI. However I don’t use it with the tip of my thumb in an arc position, I use it with the bottom of my thumb in a flat position.
I've seen a lot of this sentiment in the comments, focusing on only using the thumb pad. I plan to give it a shot in coming weeks. Will take some brain-rewiring not to use muscle memory.
would you mind posting a video? I can't wrap my head around this for vertical movement
I own a Kensington Trackball Expert over the slimblade because I wanted a better scroll. I also got XKeys L-Trac. Both of those are very nice. The XKeys probably is a bit smoother moving and more accurate, the Expert having more buttons, connectivity (Bluetooth or wired) and better configuration software.
L-Trac has dynamic bearings & laser sensor; will definitely be smoother. But yeah, I need them buttons. I had a hard time with Expert's scroll-wheel; I like the concept, but I find the actual scroll-wheel a bit rough (grainy, with a sort of latency before it kicks in). Have you not had any trouble with it?
@@lefnire I use the L-Track more now. I heard in reviews the slimblade’s (maybe only the pro) rotation of the ball sometimes fails to scroll so I avoided it. The Expert’s wheel is decent, not butter smooth but it shouldn’t make you feel uneasy. I prefer its positioning.
Do the gameball and l-trac have scroll wheels?
GameBall has a "virtual" scroll wheel around the ball. It's a surface which senses your finger swiping around it (no physical scroll wheel). L-Trac has a physical scroll wheel.
I want a bowling ball sized trackball so I can cosplay as Saron
SlimBlade is the largest. 55,". I want a proper bowling ball
All of Ploopy’s trackballs are optical and use the real bearings
Right, I didn't give it justice, but I mention it at 16:00. Will buy one when I can. EDIT: oh I just realized you were answering the question I pose there. Thanks for answering!