I, at last, bought a trackball. I was torn between a vertical mouse and a trackball. My main concern was to reduce wrist pain. Since it turned out to be very hard to find a decent vertical mouse in my country I went with the easiest solution which was a Logitech TrackMan Wheel. It actually was my first choice among trackballs because it has a scroll wheel and it's cheap. For people who don't care about scroll wheel, the right choice may be the Logitech Marble because it's a little easier to control trackball owing to ability to use middle fingers instead of your thumb because the ball is on the middle.
Lets cut to the review.
Construction and Looks
Logitech TrackMan Wheel is very light thus giving it a cheap feel when you first hold it but it's not an important criteria when it comes to the trackballs because you don't have to move it around like a mouse.
The top plastic parts surface texture feels really good. It's resistive, stays clean and avoids your hand to get sweaty. The small soft plastic part is stylish and it won't let your pinky slip down. Also at the bottom of the product there are 3 small plastic parts which won't let it slide on the table (which is a very good thing for people who are used to move their mouse hand a lot)
Overall the design, looks and the feel of the trackball is very professional except the weight.
Performance
Let me first say that this product works! It reduced my wrist pain quite bit but not all the way. It also made me realize how much extra effort I'm making while moving a mouse around. I certainly fatigue less while using a trackball.
My linux machine recognized it out of the box. I guess it's not a surprise since it works just like a mouse. The sensitivity is very good. One thing I'm not too fond of is that the ball sometimes feels like stuck (very very little) thus making the pointer move more than you want it to. To see what may cause it I removed the ball (which is very easy, just pull it up). There are 3 plastic ball joints in the socket. I'll try to apply some lubricants to the joints to see if it helps.
For gamers it's not the best product but my short Urban Terror experience convinced me that it can be used very efficiently once you get used to it. I hear there are FPS clans that use strictly trackballs, so...
Conclusion
Quality made product with a good performance. Considering that it's dirt cheap, you can't go wrong with this.
PS: Sorry no pictures, I don't have a camera.
