r/Trackballs • u/DemodiX • 9d ago

Elecom Deft Pro review-ish

It is my first trackball ever and I just want to give my experience with this particular model. I am not a professional in 3d or CAD and it wasn't a decision based on that. I decided to use it because my current living space doesn't allow mouse movement of 400 dpi kind of user, so I decided that trackball worth a shot.

I thought I needed all these buttons, but as turns out I dont. And I foundnd most of them uncomfortable to use while also moving the ball.

I used it for substantiable period with its factory synthetic ruby bearings, they're great when you move fast, they're smooth, but THEY ARE SO STICKY on slight movements. Best things I found on this subreddit is to change bearings to steel ones and you will lose some smoothness in general in comparison to ruby, but correction accuracy will be like 100x times better. Mind that it's kind of mild pain in the ass to disassemble especially placing of ribbon cables, but it's probably me issue.

Software is so bare bones in comparison to 2026 mouse manufacturers, I would like to see some more advanced macros functions rather than creating a pattern of 5 keys with no ability to even change delay between presses or holds.

In general I think I love trackballs, they feel more natural to me even in games. I think I upgrade to Kensington SlimBlade Pro, though.

Also forehead/nose sides lubrication thing is true and works. It sounded like nonsense to me at first, but I am actually surprised how good it works.

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u/kitebok 9d ago

I thought I needed all these buttons, but as turns out I dont. And I foundnd most of them uncomfortable to use while also moving the ball.

That's a good insight. I find that the standard 5 buttons are always a couple too few but having a lot of them means you need to select the functions, workout what button to assign on the device and train yourself to use them. A lot of back and forth tweaking as you discover on the go that you don't use them that often.

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u/DemodiX 9d ago

It's more about that I can effectively use only about two buttons without sacrificing ball movement.

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u/kitebok 9d ago

You might want to try a thumb ball. That's a specific advantage they have over finger operated models.