And if a glass of water or can of soda encroaches on that space, you’re asking for trouble.Ĭompletely stationary, a trackball lets you dial in a comfortable, relaxed hand position and keep it all day every day while simultaneously freeing up your desk for mugs, post-its, chargers - whatever you want. Unless your sensitivity is through the roof, you’ll always need a decent amount of room to slide the dang thing around, lift it up, set it down and then slide it around again. But, like a regular mouse, a vertical mouse requires precious acreage on your desk. One solution to this problem is a vertical mouse which holds your wrist in a better position like the Logitech MX Vertical. Also, you may not have it (yet), but “ mouse elbow” is real. Twisting your wrist to the left or right as you point and click can cause further stress. Worse yet, standard mouse posture, with your palm parallel to the desk, keeps your forearm in a perpetually twisted state. If you hold your mouse with a so-called “ claw” grip, muscles on the back of your hand are too. It might feel like you are in a resting state, but various parts of your hand and arm are actually tense. Do you ever get pain in your wrist after a long stint at the computer? I know I used to. Trackball vs mouseįor all their popularity, there are a ton of reasons not to use a traditional mouse. Alternative pointing devices take work to get used to! Lefties will also appreciate that although many mice are molded for righties, the popular Apple Magic Mouse is ambidextrous in design.Īll that said, let me be clear: I'm 1000% team trackball. Though they aren't necessarily more accurate than other devices, you'll probably have a much easier time executing demanding tasks (like gaming), due to familiarity. Mice are plentiful and cheap, and odds are that you happen to just have one lying around. While the mouse hardly needs a vigorous defense since it's such a comfortable default, it's worth briefly touching on its key advantages. But that's not your only option! And, in fact, there are a number of terrific reasons to be using a trackball instead. When you sit at a desk, you use a keyboard for typing in words and you use a mouse to point and click things. For decades, the standard set of tools for computing has been more or less set in stone.