Elecom Launches DEFT PRO Wireless Trackball

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 04/03/2018 08:13 AM | source: | 6 comment(s)

Trackballs come in two major styles, top ball and side (thumb) ball, this Deft Pro is the latter one. Admittedly I am still using trackballs! If you can remember them, the Trackball Explorer 1.0 from Microsoft to be precise.

And they are great to work with, Asia based Elecom will release a version that resembles that old Microsoft one a bit, the DEFT PRO.

Elecom's new trackball "DEFT PRO" has been redesigned and will be released this month. It is wireless over 2.4 GHz WIFI or Bluetooth and even wired connection by USB with an attached receiver. A rubber ring sits in the middle of the silver wheel providing a nice grip. The wheel functions as the middle mouse button as expected and also tilts up and down which would be left and right were it the traditional position on top of the body. The unit uses Omron switches with 10 million times endurance. There are 8 buttons including a "forward / back" button and a tilt wheel that supports left and right scroll, and the thumb operation area is substantial. DPI count can be switched in three stages 500/1000/1500 by a button.

The external dimension is W 91.4 × D 133.4 × H 57.3 mm, weighs about 162 g. When wireless, it operates on an AA battery and should work about 300 days (in low energy mode). The manufacturer's warranty period is three years.

More info here (you'd probably need to translate though).

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reix2x
Senior Member

Posts: 652
Joined: 2010-01-20

#5534695 Posted on: 04/04/2018 06:32 AM

I still have my Logitech TrackMan Trackball, old but very essential for my work

Noisiv
Senior Member

Posts: 8199
Joined: 2010-11-16

#5534698 Posted on: 04/04/2018 06:58 AM

Kensington Expert Wireless here... it's pretty sweet, but not essential for me.

So why did I buy it? Because I like to have options and its Kensington, so it should be indestructible

Rugburn
Senior Member

Posts: 133
Joined: 2003-03-09

#5536080 Posted on: 04/09/2018 05:27 AM

I'm a huge Trackball Explorer fan.. I have several that still work and are in use.. Where in the States can I get one of these DEFT Pro?

Humanoid_1
Senior Member

Posts: 959
Joined: 2009-10-14

#5536713 Posted on: 04/11/2018 03:58 PM

I love trackballs for use with my laptop, great for when on a sofa with PC/laptop connected to TV / projector.

My Logitech M570 is pretty good but missing more advanced features and cannot handle high speed movements as well as I'd hope.

I really like the look of this new trackball and prefer the ball in this position on top than the thumb design Logitch use, though both are ok for me.

Just the price feels too steep for my liking, that Deft Pro is about £126 and Logitech's new MX Ergo is still about £90 at it's cheapest online.
Waiting a little longer here I think for now...

knowom
Junior Member

Posts: 15
Joined: 2008-08-01

#5564761 Posted on: 07/13/2018 09:25 PM

I love my left/right Elecom EX-G thumb trackballs overall. I do however wish mouse assistant could be programmed separately for each, but it mirrors the programming to both which is a bummer. Elecom also has a new EX-G PRO thumb trackball as well. It would probably be a great upgrade to my right hand thumb trackball it's 1 more button and the angle and place of the trackball is improved plus it uses a red trackball that supposedly tracks better for the sensor itself and 3 DPI settings rather than 2 so more fine tuned control of it. I think the sensor itself is a higher quality one as well so maybe the polling rate has improved on it, but Elecom makes no mention of the polling rate the standard EX-G's do about 133-150Hz polling rate the wired version is marginally higher than wireless. It's also wired, wireless, and bluetooth.

The last part w/Bluetooth is important you might be able to program it separately via Bluetooth w/other software unlike the original EX-G's for twin trackball use and full independant programming on both of them rather than mirrored between both which is a HUGE deal. If I could I'd easily do away with a keyboard entirely outside of typing for chat which a headset remedies anyway. That's what I originally intended to do when I bought two thumb trackballs actually. In the few games where I don't need more than the programming of one however it works pretty damn nicely and having two trackballs helps immensely in both speed, ergonomics, and accuracy.

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