February 21, 2011 at 11:04Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball Review
Logitech, well known for its good keyboards and mice, released a curious gadget a few months ago - the wireless trackball M570 . Since I have long been interested in various ergonomic manipulators, I began to look forward to the appearance of new items in Russian retail.
My patience was not enough for a while, and I, bracing myself, ordered a coveted gadget on eBay. The order cost me $ 83.90 ($ 64.70 plus $ 19.20 for delivery from Hong Kong), and I received my New Year's gift 20 days after payment. Today I want to present to my respected habrasociety my review of this device.
Logitech M570 packaging is standard for all products of the company and is a small cardboard box with a plastic window through which the manipulator itself and a tiny dongle receiver are visible.
To my surprise, in addition to the trackball and the receiver, it was possible to find only a bag with a warranty leaflet and paper instructions in several languages (naturally, there was no Russian among them).
For some reason, the eminent manufacturer decided that the M570 buyers did not deserve a carrying case, or even a driver disk. Well, okay, we'll figure it out somehow later, but now is the time to start studying the contents of the box.
If someone does not know, then modern trackballs in their structure are “a ball mouse on the contrary,” that is, their body is a box for the palm of your hand, and the cursor moves using a ball that you can twist with your fingers or palm.
Designers at Logitech did not come up with a bicycle and continued the tradition of the Trackman line of devices , which is very popular in the West. Like its wired “ancestors”, the M570 looks like a solid ergonomic mouse, on the left side of which magically grew a shiny blue roundabout that can be rotated with your thumb.
With the exception of the ball, all other controls are traditionally “mouse” - the user has at his disposal a gentleman's set of four buttons (left, right, “forward”, “back”) and a pressed scroll wheel.
The indicator with the battery icon, located next to the left button, gives the wireless character of the manipulator - when the M570 “wakes up” after a long period of inactivity, the indicator lights up in green, and when the battery is low, it turns red.
The case of the device is made of reliable, but boring gray matte plastic, which does not look as elegant as in the official photos from Logitech.
The ball, apparently, is also made of plastic, but bright blue and fervently shiny.
On the underside of the trackball, you can find four rubber pads that prevent sliding on the work surface (because at first you will probably try to drag it around the table), the battery cover, the power switch, as well as the mysterious hole through which the ball itself is visible.
Having opened a small hatch, we notice one finger-type battery, which the caring guys from Logitech have already put, as well as a small groove in which you can put the receiver so that it does not get lost when transporting the manipulator.
By the way, about the receiver - it is so small that, being connected to the USB port, it protrudes by only a couple of millimeters and does not interfere at all when carrying the laptop.
“Baby” is not as simple as it seems - it supports proprietary Unifying technology, which provides simultaneous operation of up to six wireless devices through a single receiver.
Finally, a quick inspection is over, it's time to try out the Logitech M570 in action. Turning on the trackball, insert the receiver into a free USB port, and after a few seconds we hear a familiar sound, indicating that Windows 7 recognized a standard mouse in the new device.
Using the manipulator turned out to be surprisingly comfortable - a hand fell on its body like a glove (which is quite expected, because the guys from Logitech have been grinding the ergonomics of their products for many years). The thumb was exactly above the ball, and the rest of the fingers comfortably placed in special recesses. The overall dimensions of the case to me, as the owner of a small palm, quite fit.
Since I already scoured the entire English-language Internet on the subject of trackballs, I didn’t have a desire to drag a manipulator around the table. True, I couldn’t boast of the accuracy of cursor positioning either - I was not always able to get into the buttons of the interface of my native operating system the first time. Having gotten a little accustomed, I ventured to run Quake 3, which had long been gathering dust on the hard drive. In battle, the trackball proved far from the best way - even at the lightest difficulty level the bots carried me as a child.
It is worth mentioning one feature of the use of this type of manipulators - the inertia of the ball. The fact is that at high sensitivity (well, or at a high cursor speed set in the OS settings), the trackball cannot provide high positioning accuracy, and at low sensitivity you have to wield too much with your thumb. And here a simple and intuitively accessible principle comes to the rescue: spin the ball harder so that it rotates by inertia for some time, and at the moment when the cursor reaches the desired area, “intercept” it and bring it to the desired button with a gentle movement of the finger. or links. Having adapted to this method, after a couple of days of using the M570, I began to hit all the interface elements in a split second without a miss, and the cursor was in that place on the screen, where i wanted. The owners of huge monitors or those who are used to a little sensitivity will especially appreciate this “chip” of trackballs.
Having dealt with the unusual principle of control, I began to pay attention to how the buttons of the trackball work. And if there were no surprises on the left and right (they were pressed with the usual effort, issuing quite standard quiet clicks), then the additional buttons “back” and “forward” ... uh ... in general, they also pressed well, though, get it it turned out to be very difficult. Their location suggests that I will press them with my index finger, which in practice turned out to be a very uncomfortable operation - I had to pull the entire brush to get to them.
Logitech engineers didn’t do anything with the middle button-wheel either - it’s very flimsy, it rotates with the opposite crunch, and it is pressed with excessive force. By the way, I still did not understand why the device did not have a new-fangled wheel with two scroll modes, which is present in many mice of the company. Apparently, the trackball got such a simple scroller solely for reasons of economy.
The manipulator communicates with the computer using the Logitech® Advanced 2.4 GHz proprietary wireless protocol. Oddly enough, there is nothing special to talk about him - during the operation of the "rodent" there were no glitches or delays.
But the battery life of the device is worth mentioning separately - according to the official Logitech website, the M570 can last up to a year and a half from one finger battery. I hope to find out how this statement is true, I can, at least in 2012 (smiley). By the way, the energy-saving functions work perfectly - when the inactivity is inactive, the trackball “falls asleep” (I did not manage to detect the time necessary for this), and it starts up in a split second when it starts.
But the branded M570 drivers really surprised me. The Logitech mouse that I once used was equipped with monstrous multi-megabyte software, which didn’t even burn discs or make espresso. Sad memories were dispelled by the latest SetPoint package version 6.20, which has a lot of really useful features, but it weighs less than 35 megabytes after installation. Here are some of its features:
It just so happened that the writing of this review was delayed and only now, after a month of active use, can I talk about the pitfalls of the new Logitech product.
As it turned out, not the most successful implementation of the middle button does not affect the comfort of using the device at all - everything turns, is pressed and performs its functions well. I don’t use additional buttons due to their inconvenient location (thanks to the Opera browser forour happy childhood gesture control). There are also no complaints about the radio path of the manipulator - everything works as intended.
To my surprise, the problem (or rather, small troubles) were observed in most of the ball - it turned out that the three slippery bulge, on which it relies, and due to which rotates, tend to become clogged, because of which all operations with the ball starting to demand used to lshih effort. Yes, the manipulator will have to be cleaned periodically, as in the good old days. However, this does not cause much trouble - the kruglyash is pulled out without problems if you press it with your finger through the hole at the bottom of the trackball, and the “spikes” on which the ball rests are easily cleaned with a cotton swab or, at worst, with a fingernail.
In order for everyone to decide for themselves the usefulness of such a device in the household, I will list all its strengths and weaknesses. Just in case, I’ll clarify that they all refer not to the trackballs in general, but to the specific Logitech M570 model.
+ convenient form
+ long battery life
+ functional software
- untrustworthy scroll button
- unsuccessful arrangement of additional keys
- suitable only for righties
At the end of the review I would like to say that in general, my acquaintance with the world of trackballs was very pleasant, and, more in addition, I wanted to order another M570 for myself to work, where the SteelSeries Ikari Laser works in sweat of theface of the tail.
Using a trackball, I kill two birds with one stone - on the one hand, a sea of free space was freed up on the table (because now there are no carpets and wires), and on the other - now I’m not afraid of the tunnel syndrome , which began to bother me after a long work with the usual one ( albeit ergonomic) mouse.
As a bonus, I am applying the Logitech M570 family photo in the company with SteelSeries Ikari Laser - in my opinion, one of the most convenient mouse-type manipulators for right-handed people. More manipulators, good and different! PS My desktop asked me to say hello to Bumburum
My patience was not enough for a while, and I, bracing myself, ordered a coveted gadget on eBay. The order cost me $ 83.90 ($ 64.70 plus $ 19.20 for delivery from Hong Kong), and I received my New Year's gift 20 days after payment. Today I want to present to my respected habrasociety my review of this device.
Acquaintance
Logitech M570 packaging is standard for all products of the company and is a small cardboard box with a plastic window through which the manipulator itself and a tiny dongle receiver are visible.
To my surprise, in addition to the trackball and the receiver, it was possible to find only a bag with a warranty leaflet and paper instructions in several languages (naturally, there was no Russian among them).
For some reason, the eminent manufacturer decided that the M570 buyers did not deserve a carrying case, or even a driver disk. Well, okay, we'll figure it out somehow later, but now is the time to start studying the contents of the box.
Appearance
If someone does not know, then modern trackballs in their structure are “a ball mouse on the contrary,” that is, their body is a box for the palm of your hand, and the cursor moves using a ball that you can twist with your fingers or palm.
Designers at Logitech did not come up with a bicycle and continued the tradition of the Trackman line of devices , which is very popular in the West. Like its wired “ancestors”, the M570 looks like a solid ergonomic mouse, on the left side of which magically grew a shiny blue roundabout that can be rotated with your thumb.
With the exception of the ball, all other controls are traditionally “mouse” - the user has at his disposal a gentleman's set of four buttons (left, right, “forward”, “back”) and a pressed scroll wheel.
The indicator with the battery icon, located next to the left button, gives the wireless character of the manipulator - when the M570 “wakes up” after a long period of inactivity, the indicator lights up in green, and when the battery is low, it turns red.
The case of the device is made of reliable, but boring gray matte plastic, which does not look as elegant as in the official photos from Logitech.
The ball, apparently, is also made of plastic, but bright blue and fervently shiny.
On the underside of the trackball, you can find four rubber pads that prevent sliding on the work surface (because at first you will probably try to drag it around the table), the battery cover, the power switch, as well as the mysterious hole through which the ball itself is visible.
Having opened a small hatch, we notice one finger-type battery, which the caring guys from Logitech have already put, as well as a small groove in which you can put the receiver so that it does not get lost when transporting the manipulator.
By the way, about the receiver - it is so small that, being connected to the USB port, it protrudes by only a couple of millimeters and does not interfere at all when carrying the laptop.
“Baby” is not as simple as it seems - it supports proprietary Unifying technology, which provides simultaneous operation of up to six wireless devices through a single receiver.
Ease of use
Finally, a quick inspection is over, it's time to try out the Logitech M570 in action. Turning on the trackball, insert the receiver into a free USB port, and after a few seconds we hear a familiar sound, indicating that Windows 7 recognized a standard mouse in the new device.
Using the manipulator turned out to be surprisingly comfortable - a hand fell on its body like a glove (which is quite expected, because the guys from Logitech have been grinding the ergonomics of their products for many years). The thumb was exactly above the ball, and the rest of the fingers comfortably placed in special recesses. The overall dimensions of the case to me, as the owner of a small palm, quite fit.
Since I already scoured the entire English-language Internet on the subject of trackballs, I didn’t have a desire to drag a manipulator around the table. True, I couldn’t boast of the accuracy of cursor positioning either - I was not always able to get into the buttons of the interface of my native operating system the first time. Having gotten a little accustomed, I ventured to run Quake 3, which had long been gathering dust on the hard drive. In battle, the trackball proved far from the best way - even at the lightest difficulty level the bots carried me as a child.
It is worth mentioning one feature of the use of this type of manipulators - the inertia of the ball. The fact is that at high sensitivity (well, or at a high cursor speed set in the OS settings), the trackball cannot provide high positioning accuracy, and at low sensitivity you have to wield too much with your thumb. And here a simple and intuitively accessible principle comes to the rescue: spin the ball harder so that it rotates by inertia for some time, and at the moment when the cursor reaches the desired area, “intercept” it and bring it to the desired button with a gentle movement of the finger. or links. Having adapted to this method, after a couple of days of using the M570, I began to hit all the interface elements in a split second without a miss, and the cursor was in that place on the screen, where i wanted. The owners of huge monitors or those who are used to a little sensitivity will especially appreciate this “chip” of trackballs.
Having dealt with the unusual principle of control, I began to pay attention to how the buttons of the trackball work. And if there were no surprises on the left and right (they were pressed with the usual effort, issuing quite standard quiet clicks), then the additional buttons “back” and “forward” ... uh ... in general, they also pressed well, though, get it it turned out to be very difficult. Their location suggests that I will press them with my index finger, which in practice turned out to be a very uncomfortable operation - I had to pull the entire brush to get to them.
Logitech engineers didn’t do anything with the middle button-wheel either - it’s very flimsy, it rotates with the opposite crunch, and it is pressed with excessive force. By the way, I still did not understand why the device did not have a new-fangled wheel with two scroll modes, which is present in many mice of the company. Apparently, the trackball got such a simple scroller solely for reasons of economy.
PC connectivity and battery life
The manipulator communicates with the computer using the Logitech® Advanced 2.4 GHz proprietary wireless protocol. Oddly enough, there is nothing special to talk about him - during the operation of the "rodent" there were no glitches or delays.
But the battery life of the device is worth mentioning separately - according to the official Logitech website, the M570 can last up to a year and a half from one finger battery. I hope to find out how this statement is true, I can, at least in 2012 (smiley). By the way, the energy-saving functions work perfectly - when the inactivity is inactive, the trackball “falls asleep” (I did not manage to detect the time necessary for this), and it starts up in a split second when it starts.
Proprietary software
But the branded M570 drivers really surprised me. The Logitech mouse that I once used was equipped with monstrous multi-megabyte software, which didn’t even burn discs or make espresso. Sad memories were dispelled by the latest SetPoint package version 6.20, which has a lot of really useful features, but it weighs less than 35 megabytes after installation. Here are some of its features:
- Displays the status of the batteries in days or percent (supports several devices running on the same Unifying receiver), as well as a warning about low batteries
- Connect and disconnect wireless devices to this Unifying receiver
- Calibration of the orientation of the ball (this means that you can configure in which direction you want to rotate the ball so that the operating system understands this as “Up”)
- Assigning functions to all buttons and scroll wheel
- Change acceleration and scrolling speed settings (separately for different applications, separately for games)
Conclusion
It just so happened that the writing of this review was delayed and only now, after a month of active use, can I talk about the pitfalls of the new Logitech product.
As it turned out, not the most successful implementation of the middle button does not affect the comfort of using the device at all - everything turns, is pressed and performs its functions well. I don’t use additional buttons due to their inconvenient location (thanks to the Opera browser for
To my surprise, the problem (or rather, small troubles) were observed in most of the ball - it turned out that the three slippery bulge, on which it relies, and due to which rotates, tend to become clogged, because of which all operations with the ball starting to demand used to lshih effort. Yes, the manipulator will have to be cleaned periodically, as in the good old days. However, this does not cause much trouble - the kruglyash is pulled out without problems if you press it with your finger through the hole at the bottom of the trackball, and the “spikes” on which the ball rests are easily cleaned with a cotton swab or, at worst, with a fingernail.
In order for everyone to decide for themselves the usefulness of such a device in the household, I will list all its strengths and weaknesses. Just in case, I’ll clarify that they all refer not to the trackballs in general, but to the specific Logitech M570 model.
+ convenient form
+ long battery life
+ functional software
- untrustworthy scroll button
- unsuccessful arrangement of additional keys
- suitable only for righties
At the end of the review I would like to say that in general, my acquaintance with the world of trackballs was very pleasant, and, more in addition, I wanted to order another M570 for myself to work, where the SteelSeries Ikari Laser works in sweat of the
Using a trackball, I kill two birds with one stone - on the one hand, a sea of free space was freed up on the table (because now there are no carpets and wires), and on the other - now I’m not afraid of the tunnel syndrome , which began to bother me after a long work with the usual one ( albeit ergonomic) mouse.
As a bonus, I am applying the Logitech M570 family photo in the company with SteelSeries Ikari Laser - in my opinion, one of the most convenient mouse-type manipulators for right-handed people. More manipulators, good and different! PS My desktop asked me to say hello to Bumburum
