welspo Wireless USB Handheld Finger Trackball(Black) Mouse with Laser Pointer

UPDATE (9/2022): I reached out to the manufacturer and they sent me a replacement even though it was almost a year since I'd purchased it. I'm updating my review based on my happiness with the mouse (which was always very high) as well as the fact that I'm extremely impressed that the manufacturer was willing to take responsibility and stand behind their product.------------------------------------It's very convenient to have a mouse you don't need to rest on any surface, and I loved this mouse while it functioned correctly. Unfortunately, after less than a year of very light use (at most once every few weeks) it stopped working. Specifically, when I'd plug the small dongle into the PC I'd get the error "A request for the USB device descriptor failed. Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)", and no amount of finagling would resolve the problem. I'd have thought the dongle would be bulletproof since it has no moving parts, but apparently just inserting and removing it a few times over the past year put it out of commission.At this point I'm left with an expensive laser pointer, and it's frustrating to know that the mouse itself is probably fine and the only thing preventing me from using it is a bad dongle. I'm now using an old wireless Microsoft laser mouse that's still going strong after 15 years, dongle and all.Maybe I just got a bad unit and you'll be luckier than I was, but as it stands I can't recommend this mouse.

I use a laptop that has a touchpad (which I hate), and also has a trackpoint (the "eraser" thing) which can be fatiguing and painful if I'm doing a lot of mousing. When I'm working at a desk, I can use a regular mouse. But when I'm working elsewhere, a mouse doesn't work well at all.I hate a true trackball - tried them many times and they just never work well for me. This concept looked intriguing so I decided to give it a try.First off, my comments would apply to any of a number of models of handheld mouse out there.The concept is interesting - you hold the mouse in your hand, don't have to be right by the machine, don't have to have room for a mouse to move.After several days of using it, my thoughts are:- It's a bit disrupting to have to put the mouse down when you have to use the keyboard. So for someone doing a lot of keyboarding, with the occasional mouse click, this isn't the best choice. It's usable, just a bit intrusive.- The thumb-sized trackball is better than a full-sized trackball for precision, but still can be tougher to get the pointer in just the right spot. I wish there were a version that had a little thumb-sized touchpad (or better yet, a trackpoint!).- The two buttons which serve for "right-clicking" are below the trackball, on either side of the scroll wheel. It requires a bit of thought when you need to right-click. Presumably that will become more automatic with a bit more practice.- The laser pointer would be useful if you were doing a presentation. It's controlled by the left-hand of the two buttons above the trackball. The righthand button does nothing in this model. Other versions of this device have those buttons working for page-up/down scrolling and double-clicking. The laser pointer is fun (sure wish I had a cat to tease with it) but for me, not terribly useful. Another version (no laser pointer/paintbrush) would have been a better choice for me.Durability: can't really comment as I've just had it a few days. The thing does seem to be holding up well, charge-wise, since its initial charge the day I got it.The documentation is useless. There's a diagram showing the various buttons and what they mean for the different versions, but no instructions. Fortunately it was pretty self-explanatory - I just plugged in the little wireless USB thingy to install the drivers, then plugged in the separate USB cable and let it charge.

It has so much potential. I love it... when it works. I have a podcast and spend a ton of time editing and I wanted something I could use in my right hand alone while I program all my shortcut keys to be easily reached by my left hand. And... when it is working, this is a great solution, allowing me to easily edit without fussing with the touch pad or having to sit at a desk with a surface for a mouse (I prefer to sit on the couch or outside when I can). But... it disconnects randomly and it isn't always easy to get it to reconnect. I've never had a dongle connected device disconnect so frequently. I also wish it had a power light to tell me when it was turned on and even better if it would warn me that the battery is getting low. And the battery door is awful, it's so hard to get open and even harder to get to close (I just changed the battery and it took me a solid 4 minutes of fussing with the battery door to close it again). The battery life isn't super great since it only uses a single AAA battery. I'd love this in a rechargable version with a dongle that wasn't so prone to disconnecting. This is so close to being a great product but it's just not quite there yet. I find myself often falling back to my touch pad when it disconnects because I get frustrated when it won't stay connected and don't want to fidget with it anymore. I hope a better version is available soon that resolves these problems because this is exactly what I was looking for.