Which brand first comes to mind when you think of trackball computer mice? Likely, it is Microsoft, Logitech or Kensington. They are not the only mice in town, however. Other brands such as Perixx, Elecom and Sanwa, are also making them these days. After using Logitech and Microsoft trackball mice for years, but being rather disappointed with faulty microswitches in the Logitech M570 and getting tired or putting new batteries in it since it was wireless, I decided to give a new brand a try. I spent a long time researching wired trackball mice before choosing the Perixx Permice – 520.
First, you may be wondering what a trackball mouse is and why you would want one. Most computer mice move the mouse arrow on the computer screen when the user moves the entire mouse around on a mouse pad. Originally, the mouse knew where to move the arrow based upon how a hard rubber ball inside the bottom of the mouse was rolled around on a surface. Today, most computer mice no longer have the ball and use a laser light to keep track of the mouse’s position relative to where it was before it was moved.
A trackball mouse turns this concept almost literally on its head by putting the ball on top of the mouse. The body of the mouse remains stationary while a laser light tracks changes in the ball’s rotation as the user moves only the ball with the light touch of a finger. Trackball mice take up much less room than a traditional mouse. They also allow the user to make very precise mouse arrow movements, which is very handy for programs such as sound editing, photo editing, drawing and many video games in which precision is the key to victory. I love using trackball mice to play real-time strategy and first person shooter games, for example, and have seen noticeable improvements in scoring points and winning matches by switching from a traditional mouse to a trackball. Finally, because you don’t have to move your whole mouse around, you also don’t have to move your elbow and wrist around as much, nor do you have to grip the mouse body while using it. This reduces strain from repetitive movement in the ligaments of your arm and hand. This is especially the case with trackball mice that position the ball on the side so that you can rest your hand on the mouse body while moving the ball with your thumb.
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The Perixx Permice – 520 is a good example of what to look for in a trackball mouse. It feels solidly built and just heavy enough to keep the body from moving around while you are moving the trackball. It also had five rubbery ‘feet’ on the bottom to hold it still on slick desk surfaces. I prefer to use trackballs on mouse pads that have wrist rests for extra comfort though a mouse pad is not necessary for a trackball.
The left and right mouse buttons are large and easy to reach from a variety of hand positions. Even someone with small hands will have no trouble reaching all of the six buttons on this mouse. There is a small button located above the scroll wheel and between the left and right mouse buttons that is a bit small, but it is raised up enough that it is easy to find with your middle finger without you having to take your eyes off the screen. The other buttons are raised as well and bigger than this center button making them even easier to reach with your index finger.
The scroll wheel is rather large and easy to use with a good feel to it. Some may think that the scroll wheel is too noisy because it has the sound of a rotating cog when you move it, but I find the movement to feel more precise than smooth rotating scroll wheels. You can also press down, left and right on the scroll wheel as well – making it possible to have up to eight different functions programmed to the mouse’s six buttons. All of the Perixx Permice 520 buttons have a satisfying ‘click’ to them that contributes to the overall solid feel. The whole mouse is made of a good quality plastic with a satin finish that is neither too slick nor too rough to the touch.
The trackball itself is of medium size. A bit smaller than the Logitech Trackman Mouse that I first used when I started buying trackball mice, but bigger than the ones on the portable hand-held trackball mice (I’ve tried those in the past and while the concept of not needing a desk for it at all seemed interesting, they gave me a hand cramp after a few minutes of use). The ball is purple by default, but you can order other colors of balls for an additional charge if you aren’t a fan of purple.
The sensor that tracks the ball is quite sensitive, which is both good and bad. Good because it gives you very precise control, especially if you flip the switch on the bottom of the mouse from high (h) to low (l) DPI. Hight DPI (or dots per inch) is good for general use, while low is better for very precise mouse arrow movements, such as when you are trying to move something on the screen just a very short distance, or trying to make shapes in a drawing program match up perfectly. The high sensitivity is a bit bad though because you have to clean the ball frequently. If oils from your hand get on the ball too much, it causes the mouse arrow to skip around on the screen. I especially notice it when trying to select text in editing or trying to movie multiple files from one folder to another. When that happens, you pop the ball out of the socket with something blunt that will fit in a little hole in the bottom of the mouse. I prefer to use the eraser end of a pencil. You then wash the ball with rubbing alcohol to get the oils off. I also try to keep my hands as clean as possible when using the mouse – which is a good idea when using any electronic device anyway.
In addition to the switch on the Perixx Permice 520 mouse’s bottom, you can also adjust the settings with software that can be downloaded from the Perixx.com website. The mouse will work without it right out of the box, but chances are you’ll want to adjust the settings and change what some of the buttons do. It’s rather easy to use except for one thing. It’s all in shades of gray with dark gray dots and lines running from each button on the graphic depicting the mouse over to a drop down arrow selection box. It isn’t always easy to tell which line is going to which button, so you have to look at the diagram very closely. The software version I used for this review was FW: 1.00 SW 1.0.0.3, so there is a chance that improvements may be made to it if you download the software after the time this review was written.
The software version I downloaded can be read in English, German, Japanese, Chinese or Simplified Chinese (likely Mandarin). Each button on the mouse can be reprogrammed to do a wide variety of things. You can even program a button to repeat the command you set it to over and over at any frequency you like. This is handy in video games for giving you an ‘auto fire’ button rather than having to try to click a button as fast as you can and it can really reduce hand strain from playing first person shooters for a long time. You can also fine tune the scroll wheel and trackball in this program. After a bit of research and trial and error, I found that setting the high DPI to 800 and the low DPI to 400 was best for me when adjusting the trackball.
The Perixx Permice 520 is a wired mouse, so you don’t have to recharge it nor replace batteries in it. It plugs into your computer with a long USB-A cable (as opposed to the new USB-C connector that can be inserted into a USB socket either direction). I place my mouse on a TV tray in front of my computer’s ATX tower and plug it into the back of the tower, yet there’s still plenty of length for moving the mouse around when I need to clean my desk and TV tray. The cord is thick and seems to be rather solidly attached to the mouse. When I plugged the mouse in, it began working right away on my Windows 8.1 PC. Perixx lists the mouse as compatible with Windows 7, 8, and 10.
The Perixx Permice – 520 package includes two stands that adjust the angle of the whole mouse either ten or twenty degrees to the left. These stands attach to the bottom of the mouse with magnets so that they don’t fall off if you pick the mouse up by the ridge that runs along the bottom of the main body rather than by the stand. My arm is thin enough that I don’t find these stands useful and they make my wrist flex upward too much. However, other people who have thicker arms may find that one of these stands will make using the mouse more comfortable since they allow your arm to rest in a more natural position when you hold the mouse. When you rest your arm on something without consciously focusing on how you are doing it, your arm usually rests with your palm pointed towards your body rather than flat on the surface. Anything you can do to allow your body to rest in natural positions reduces tendon strain which is the goal of good ergonomics.
The Perixx Permice 520 is a good value when you consider all that it comes with while the mouse is less expensive at this time than many other wired trackball mice, and especially less than most of the wireless ones. It is much less expensive than mice that are marketed specifically for gaming, yet it has most of the features that those expensive mice have. It even comes with a paper manual which is something you don’t get often today.
This is a well-made, quite useful and comfortable mouse that feels and performs better than the price might suggest. I highly recommend it for productivity programs, surfing the web and playing video games.