Kensington Expert Mouse TB800 EQ is a multi-function trackball mouse

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Kensington may be planning to launch a new version of its Expert Mouse wireless trackball that keeps many of the features of the current model, while adding a few bells and whistles that could make for a more versatile computer input device.

The company recently won an IF Design Guide award for a previously unannounced product called the Expert Mouse TB800 EQ Multi-Connection TrackBall.

Kensington's design shows a wireless trackball mouse with a large ball in the center that you can move to manipulate an on-screen cursor, a scroll wheel surrounding the ball that functions as a scroll wheel, and four buttons that can be mapped for right-click, left-click, center-click, and other functions.

Those features are all available on the existing Kensington Expert Mouse. But the new TB800 EQ model also shows:

Support for multi-device Bluetooth pairing, allowing you to use the mouse with up to three devices (two via Bluetooth and one more via a USB dongle)

A status indicator to show connection information

Four more small buttons plus a fifth that (I think) allows you to switch devices

Rollers on the left and right sides that would give you another way to navigate without lifting your hand from the trackball

Personally I still prefer using a mouse for tasks that require precise input (like editing audio, video, or images). But after experiencing some wrist and arm pain a few years ago I tried out a few different trackballs and the current-gen Expert Mouse is my go-to device for most day-to-day computing tasks.

While I'm ambivalent about the extra buttons and roller, I can see how they could come in handy for folks that like to program macros into their mice for quick access to frequently used shortcuts or actions. I'm much more excited about the multi-device capabilities, as one of the biggest shortcomings of the current model is that it only supports Bluetooth pairing with a single device at a time.

It's unclear if or when Kensington will actually release the Expert Mouse TB800. While some of the products that win IF Design  awards have little to no chance of ever seeing the light of day, others are real products like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i laptop with an under-display camera (IF Design Award page, Liliputing coverage).

Since this appear to be an updated version of an existing product, and Kensington has brought previous IF Design Award-winning devices to market, I'd say there's a decent chance that Kensington does actually plan to bring it launch the Expert Mouse TB800 at some point. But there's no guarantee.

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