Sculpted to Almost-Perfection - Logitech Trackman Marble FX Review
Up next in my little trackball deep dive is an offering from Logitech that's held in very high esteem by the community thanks to it's radical shape, but it also has been absent from the market for roughly two decades at this point. What the hell happened to it? And is it even any good? Let's take a look.
This is of course; the Trackman Marble FX. Released in 1997, it one of Logitech's gazillion or so trackball offerings they cranked out over the course of the decade, and one of their earliest to use then fledgling optical mouse tracking. It sports what's still Logitech's largest ball at 52.5 mm and probably the most extremely sculpted body you'll ever see on a device of this type.
The Marble FX has a damn near vertical profile, with the palm rest surface canted at what visually looks like an angle greater than 45 degrees. This of course, relieves tension in your wrist since you're not twisting it completely parallel to the desk surface. The prominent surface area for your thumb effectively means you're "gripping" the device as much as just resting your hand on it like most trackballs.
The shape of body also "wraps" around the ball somewhat, making it the focal holding point of the device. Logitech even opened a cutout on the left side of the device so you can use your thumb to help manipulate the ball. The four buttons on the trackball are also placed to minimize the amount of movement your hand needs to press them. They feel great too; with a nice, deep click and just the right amount of weighting.
It's a very well built, albeit very weird looking package - but that latter opinion might change once you rest your hand on it.
This is - by and large, the most natural feeling pointing device I've ever set my hands on.
My hand just feels incredibly relaxed while holding this thing. I have plenty of palm and wrist support, and my fingers don't feel like they're being splayed apart like on the Elecom Huge. Also, despite the Marble FX having a ball that's just as big as the Huge and a natural grip that similarly puts my fingers over the top of it; I don't feel anywhere near as crowded while using it.
This is because Logitech smartly contoured the body and buttons of the device away from the ball, so you're less likely to hit anything while quickly swiping despite the ball not even protruding out very much. I feel like I have a greater range of motion with my hand because of this, so my fingertips completely overshooting the ball doesn't feel anywhere remotely unnatural - unlike the Huge.
The ball is also just really nice to use in general. It has Logitech's signature dot pattern and it rides on three static bearings. I can't find a reliable source on specs - they're apparently ceramic, which appears to be the case based on appearance and how little wear they have despite the age of the device, but they're also on the smaller side - perhaps 1.5 or 2.0 mm, or somewhere in between.
Either way, it rolls very smoothly, coasts decently well, and stiction is minimal. The thumb hole is surprisingly pretty handy if you need a little extra precision for certain tasks like text selection or image cropping. I don't really even think about it - I just stick my thumb on it if I find myself needing the extra drag for whatever reason.
For a nearly three decade old trackball, this is all extremely good. Unfortunately - it still is a nearly three decade old trackball.
On top of requiring a PS/2 port or adaptor to even use it, the optical sensor in the Marble FX is just slow. It's only capable of a paltry 300 DPI, which makes using it in raw input on a modern high resolution display a painful experience. It's somewhat forgivable since this mouse came out at a time when full HD displays were practically a fantasy, so this wouldn't have been as big of an issue. Even then, flicking the ball to quickly move the cursor across my ultrawide 3440 x 1440 monitor just causes it to stutter in place until friction slows the ball down enough for the sensor to be able to read it.
Turning up the pointer speed is an effective workaround for desktop use and point and click style games (I run mine at 13/20 in Windows 11), but trying play fast paced games without that sluggish sensor stalling out during twitch motions is a real chore. I applaud anybody who managed to play Quake with one of these things back in the day and didn't feel like ripping their hair out afterwards.
Not having a scroll wheel is also a pretty terrible thing in actual practice. Unlike the more well known ambidextrous Trackman Marble that came out around the same time as this, Logitech was gracious enough to make one of the two auxiliary buttons function as "middle click", so quickly scrolling through pages isn't completely impossible on the Marble FX - it's just not a universal solution.
That said, the lack of buttons is another glaring drawback the Marble FX has versus modern trackballs. While the mouse's buttons are capable of being reprogrammed via it's configurator, the software is so old that it Windows 11 flat out refuses to install it. This means the red auxiliary button is completely useless on a modern system, severely limiting the versatility of this already pretty hamstrung device.
And another, more personal gripe; I really don't like the rather sharp edges on the cutouts for the ball. They kind of chafe my fingertips when I occasionally come into contact with them; especially when I use my thumb or swipe the ball upwards. It wouldn't have hurt Logitech to just smooth them out with a fillet or chamfer.
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To me, all these downsides more or less restrict the Marble FX to a browsing or light productivity device, with maybe a tiny bit of slow paced gaming in the mix. But what do you expect? It's old as dirt, and I'm honestly surprised it's still as functional as it is. The unique shape is really the only reason these are even still highly desired in this day and age. Now that I've used one, I get it.
But if people still want them - where the hell did the Marble FX go?
They did release a cordless version in the early 2000s but it doesn't seem to solve many of the issues of the original trackball. Plus I think it's design with the (often missing) detachable wrist rest isn't as nice looking as the original Marble FX. But that was the last gasp of this device and it's legendary design.
Apparently, Logitech got hit with a patent infringement suit launched by one Samuel Gart - who challenged that Logitech used elements of an ergonomic pointing device design he patented back in 1989 without his permission. Logitech lost the suit in 2001 and the result appears to have forced them to either redesign much of their pointing device offerings, or drop them entirely. The Marble FX unfortunately ended up being a part of that latter group.
Now, I'm not an expert in patent law, but what surprises me about the result of this litigation is how little Gart's patented device resembles any of the trackball devices specified in the lawsuit. Gart's patent specifies two buttons operated by the thumb and index finger, resting surfaces for the remaining three fingers, slick feet, and a bottom mounted sensor. It's a modern day ergo mouse. The shape even bears a striking resemblance to modern mice like the Logitech MX Master or Razer Basilisk - but it doesn't use a trackball. One isn't even specified in the patent description.
The claim in the litigation seems to focus more on the ergonomic focused principals of the device which would certainly give it some clout to challenge the Mouseman offerings of the time period, but grouping the Trackman devices into that claim when the patented device appears to have dramatically different means of operation, seems like it's quite the stretch in my opinion.
Eventually Gart's patent unceremoniously expired in 2008. He doesn't appear to have produced anything material with it, apart from a licensing deal with Mousetrak Inc. in 1993 for a Colani Mouse (which again, bears almost zero resemblance to the Trackmen devices - or even his own patented device, really). Apparently, Gart was more interested in collecting royalties off being a patent troll than he was in developing an idea that seemed to be genuinely ahead of it's time - and an entire sector of the industry suffered for it.
Now Logitech seems to be free to do whatever they want regarding the challenged designs, but for whatever reason - they haven't. I'm assuming the demand just isn't there for the company to reinvest so heavily into fingertip operated trackballs, especially not when companies like Kensington and Elecom have effectively eaten up the market-share that Logitech vacated when they finally discontinued the ancient ambidextrous T-BC21 Trackman Marble at the start of this decade. Considering their only present options are relatively mundane thumb-balls, I can't imagine they're all that interested anymore.
On the other hand, they're sitting on a design which, frankly blows away the competition in terms of comfort and people have expressed for years they'd like to buy one again. Apart from the initial gut punch of retooling equipment, it couldn't possibly be that difficult for Logitech to update the electronics of the Marble FX and add 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth at this point. A hobbyist could do it in an afternoon with an off the shelf microcontroller and a pack of sensors off Adafruit.
Unfortunately, the latter seems to be the only viable path to getting one of these with modern amenities. The Marble FX is still usable on today's machines - it's just utterly inconvenient, and the feeling is made even worse by just how nice this thing is to handle. I'll probably end up tearing into this one myself to see if I can't make it any better, but for now; it's relegated to the junk drawer - which is probably where it was before I got my hands on it.
What's Good
- Very natural feeling in the hand and exquisitely comfortable to use.
- Oversized and smooth rolling trackball with very little stiction.
- Novel thumb grip allows for more guided precision.
- Sleek design that still looks futuristic and feels sturdy.
- Low DPI sensor makes it sluggish and jittery on modern high resolution displays.
- Driver support is non-existent on modern operating systems.
- No built in scrolling capability.
- Requires a PS/2 port or adaptor.
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