Logitech MX Ergo S Mini Review - The Premium Trackball

[@SinclairEngineering]

Decent video man 😊

[@Darkuni]

Thanks, it was a quick mid week throw together - but I didn't want to wait for the weekend to do it "better". :) I needed my replacement :P

[@Chris-hd4se]

When I bought my Ergo S, it took me about a day to figure out where the dongle was - I thought they forgot to put one in the box. At any rate, if you have any unifying devices, you can use a bolt and unifying receiver on the same PC - it'll just cost you an extra USB port.

[@Darkuni]

Yeah, I read somewhere there COULD be a conflict between them - but it is surmountable. I find it funny they changed it to another proprietary NAME (Bolt) when it is supposed to be a standard :D

[@RussellTrapp]

Pisses me off that Logitech stopped supporting Left Handed folks. I would love to get one of these.

[@kvnmlm]

Like we tell left handed guitar players. On day one you made a big mistake :-)

[@BLUESHIRT-METAL]

I wish they would add the free running scroll wheel to it. It’s the one thing I miss from my mouse.

[@Darkuni]

You mean the "quiet scroll" where there really isn't a click as you scroll? Or something else?

[@BLUESHIRT-METAL]

@ On my 903 I can set the mouse wheel to click or run freely with no clicks. I always have it in the run free mode aka infinite scrolling.

[@Darkuni]

@@BLUESHIRT-METAL Oh nice. I've never seen that! I had a "clickless scroll wheel" device once and I never quite got used to it. How did you turn it on and off?

[@AyKay00]

Same. I had a Logitech Marathon mouse and I loved that free-spinning metal scroll wheel.

[@Darkuni]

@@AyKay00 I wonder if you could "mod" one of these to do that ...

[@KnightCifer]

I'm not sure how a trackball makes a mouse better though, moving the arm just a little bit sounds easier to me than moving the trackball. I have a MX master 3S though and i must say that the actual shape of the mouse is no joke. Grabbing it it is actually very confortable, the only problem it has is, in scientific terms, that is heavy as shit so in the end i don't use it often except when i could use the horizontal scrolling :(

[@Darkuni]

You know how they say that once you use an ergo keyboard for a couple of weeks, you can never go back? Kinda the same thing here. From an ergo standpoint, what makes this trackball great is what I mentioned in the video. Your hands are naturally more at home at a 40 degree angle or so - not flat like a mouse. There ARE ergo mice that mimic this - but again - you're using those carpals to move it around. The trackball uses them a lot less (if at all). Like I said - for me? The proof is in the pudding. I'm surrounded by 20+ year IT veterans and they all use a mouse. They almost all have SOMETHING going on with their arms at this point.

[@kvnmlm]

You move your thumb fractions of an inch, you move your arm all over the place. If you type for a living which then means you are forced to use a pointing device, you seek out superior UI devices. The trackball is absolutely superior to a mouse. Use it for a week, you'll never go back. I'll add mice are a dime a dozen dumped out to be dirt cheap and most are too lazy to even find the best mice. Just the movement from the keyboard to the always stable in the same place trackball alone leaves mice in the dust.

[@kvnmlm]

So, they removed the 2.4GHz transmitter and swapped the 2.4ghz dongle for blue tooth ? AND raised the price ? When in 1 mode it is already configured to use the new dongle ? and the second mode the same as we've always had which is standard blue tooth functionality. Seems like we should have cost savings to the user here as the dongle is now a standard blue tooth dongle or even a dumber bluetooth dongle hard wired to play nice with the trackball in mode 1. They are sticking it to us here. That said, I curse it every time I have to plug a micro USB cable into it. The USB C change will be great.

[@Darkuni]

No, they swapped for different technology. Logitech "owned" the "Unifying" platform. The new platform is called "Bolt" and it is an "industry" standard. It was a "good thing". I'm not sure WHY we have to pay more. Maybe they have to license the Bolt functionality? Not sure. I'm hoping they will "phase out" the other one and make the "new one" the same price :D

[@kvnmlm]

@@Darkuni No, you are wrong. Bolt is another Logitech proprietary solution which happens to be using some BTLEnergy tech as a base. It makes zero sense to add a blue tooth technology to a device which is already 50% standard bluetooth for customers. They now don't need the 2.4GHZ TX/RX in the trackball. Cost savings. This is why they did it. In order to pacify those afraid of bluetooth or using trackball with devices which do not have bluetooth they implemented this silly "Bolt" thing. Their old implementation 2.4GHz worked great and allowed many input devices with their one dongle. I consider the new one a step backward other than USB C. Declaring I've not tried one yet maybe there is something else I don't see other than USB C. I've used these trackballs for 2 decades plus and normally I'd just buy the new one to kick the tires. There is nothing her to justify $100. Heck there is nothing here to justify $50.

[@Darkuni]

@@kvnmlm I was misinformed. Thanks for clarifying this. It isn't like Bluetooth has been removed here ... you can take that Bolt dongle and toss it in the trash. Outside of USBC, the only 'real benefit' is the soft click buttons which hopefully will last longer than the others. But only time will tell that.

[@kvnmlm]

@@Darkuni Ah, the soft clicks, I forgot these from the video. I would like this too. Just recently at the holiday I was clicking away self consciously in a quiet room with many others and thinking "man I never notice this thing makes all this noise". Suddenly my trusty companion was much louder than I'd ever noticed. Proves I don't need it but that might get me to bite......

[@Darkuni]

@@kvnmlm I won't lie ... I didn't like them at first. Have you ever had one of the buttons "go out" and it just doesn't click anymore...? It is closer to THAT feeling than a real click. Something a video just can't show. My brain kept clicking "there is something wrong, there is something wrong" ... now I'm dialed in and really like it. I know there is a lot of nonsense going on, but dammit, these things are so good - I'll keep buying the damn things as long as they make them. I'm an older guy and have NO carpal issues - most of my coworkers do - and I chalk it up to not using a mouse. :)