Logitech MX ERGO Advanced Wireless Trackball: An Armor Review

Price:
$95 (Amazon)
$85 (Newegg)

Features:

• Wireless Functionality
• Battery life of up to 4 months (1 minute of charge can give up to 1 day of full use)
• Adjustable hinge, allowing for customization of the angle from 0 to 20 degrees
• Scroll Wheel, multiple additional buttons, precision mode button
• Up to 2 devices connected for input at one time

I’ll start off by being honest with you—trackball mice can be intimidating, and most users find them uncomfortable and hard to use. There’s a definite learning curve when switching to a non-traditional input device for your machine too, and a trackball is no exception. If you can get past the hurdle of learning a new input device, a trackball might be better for your physical health because of the ergonomic design, and it can lead you to becoming more efficient with your inputs. Trackball mice operate differently than regular mice, with your fingers moving the trackball to move the cursor, rather than moving your whole wrist to move the cursor. There are two main types of trackballs: top-mount and thumb-mount. Today, I’m going to be reviewing the Logitech MX ERGO Advance Wireless Thumb-Mount Trackball.

We’ve been using Logitech trackball mice in the office for as long as I’ve been here, and each of them has been a thumb-mount. As an avid user of a top-mount trackball for my personal computer, this switch was relatively easy for me, and one I’d make again if I could. When we upgraded to the MX ERGO, things changed again for the better. The MX ERGO is designed in such a way that it fits perfectly in medium to large sized hands, but it can also be used by someone with smaller hands. The ergonomic design of this mouse—especially with regard to the adjustable hinge, which allows for a pivot of 20 degrees on the mouse—is hard to beat. It’s comfortable, easy to use, and can be adjusted if the position gets uncomfortable. It was definitely an overall comfort increase to the last mice we were using, and this is one of the main reasons I’d recommend making the switch to the MX ERGO.

The MX ERGO boasts a battery life of up to 4 months and is rechargeable. This lifespan is crazy long, but makes sense considering the inputs aren’t data-intensive, and the battery inside this thing is massive. It charges by USB-B (micro-USB) and comes with a cable. With only 60 seconds on the charging cable, the MX ERGO will give you up to a full day’s worth of battery power—making this the perfect mouse for someone who might not be at a desk their whole day. I’ve had my mouse for about 2 months now, and I have only had to charge it once after the initial charge.

This trackball mouse also boasts a total of 8 multi-functional buttons. Besides the core left and right click inputs, it has 2 additional mouse buttons. The scroll wheel has directional inputs (left and right clicks) as well as a center click function. This leads us to the function-specific buttons: the MX ERGO ships with a precision-mode button, placed just above your thumb-mounted trackball. This button allows the user to change their cursor speed to account for very precise movements, like when editing an image or audio file. This function seemed unnecessary when we first got these mice, but as my time in Photoshop and Audacity increases, I don’t know where I’d be without it. The MX ERGO also ships with another function that is pretty unique: using Logitech’s Universal Dongles, the MX ERGO can connect to 2 separate devices and swap between them with the click of a button. This isn’t a function I’ve had much time to use, but for someone who might be working across multiple computers, it’s definitely a win in my book.

I’ve been recommending the switch to the MX ERGO to just about everyone I know—trackball-user or not. It’s one of the best peripherals I’ve ever had the opportunity to use, and I would buy it again if I needed to. With an $80-100 price point, it falls into the expensive category when it comes to mice, but the sacrifice is definitely worth it. If you’re looking for a similar peripheral, for a much lower price, the Logitech M570 is a very similar design, but without the additional scroll buttons, precision mode, or the ability to switch between 2 devices, and it costs about $30. If you’d like to browse for yourself, you can find the MX ERGO on Amazon here or on Newegg here. If you’d like to look into the M750, you can find that on Newegg here.