Kensington Expert Mouse - current build quality and alternatives

Question

After messing around with a few mice and the trackpads of various laptops, it's time to get back to using a proper input device: A trackball. I used to be very happy with my old Logitech Marble trackball (PS/2, three buttons, "white"). But that's really showing it's age, USB converters are a bit flaky and I think it would be better not to operate the ball with my thumb.

And as Kensington just has a mail-in rebate offer, I thought about buying a Kensington Expert Mouse. This used to be a pretty good model, and I dimly remember admiring the feel of its OS 2 / ADB predecessor. But the stories one hears about the current crop are pretty mixed. Apparently the build quality has been steadily going down since the '90s.

So, did anyone buy one of those within the last 18 months?

If the old adage "they don't build 'em like they used to" is true in this case, I'd be interested in alternatives. At least three buttons (X, Smalltalk), a ball that spins for quite a while and it should work at least in Linux and OS X (10.6), Windows 7 wouldn't be bad, but not required.

Answer 1

I use the same one and wouldn't be without it. Mine is a few years old by now but I have no complaints (I can't say whether a new one of this same model would be different). Being optical, it needs a lot less cleaning than my previous ones that had mechanical bearings and encoders. Kensington have always been responsive when I had any issues (none with this one).