Trackballs used to be a far more common alternative to conventional computer mice, but they’ve all but disappeared lately. One of the only options from a major brand is the Kensington Expert Mouse, which has remain unchanged for a decade or so—until now, as Kensington has just revealed a new design. But when (or if) you can get it isn’t clear.
The new Expert Mouse TB800 EQ is a trackball and not a mouse. (That’s a legacy name that goes back to the 1980s.) It appears to have debuted on the iF Design Awards page, where it won a 2025 award (spotted by Liliputing). The basic layout looks similar to the latest iteration of the Expert Mouse, with the massive central trackball nestled in a scroll wheel and surrounded by four primary “mouse” buttons.
Improvements include scroll bars on both sides for ambidextrous operation, DPI switches, and multi-device Bluetooth/dongle wireless. The paragraph of promo material on the page mentions “customizable buttons”—I’m assuming those textured ones up top—that can be bound to up to 16 customizable tasks. A USB connection appears to be on the front, and I would guess it’s using a rechargeable battery upgrade instead of AA. (But again, that’s just a guess.)
Kensington
The page says the new Expert Mouse was launched in 2024, which I’m going to interpret as when it was submitted to iF Design since Kensington obviously hasn’t launched it yet. In fact, there’s no indication of when Kensington will do so, or even if the launch is still planned. Those photos look like retail promo shots to me, but something could have happened during the development process to delay it all.
Honestly, I’m having a hard time distinguishing the hundreds of pages of iF Design Award winners (and that’s just 2025!) from, say, regular press releases. While many of the winners are commercial products, there are also one-off designs and concepts that will never hit store shelves.
Kensington
But I know at least one person will be waiting in line when/if the Expert Mouse TB800 EQ (or possibly just the tautological “Expert Mouse Pro,” as seen on the product shots) arrives: “I’ve been a Kensington Expert trackball user since 2009,” said PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray, “and have always been dumbfounded by how they haven’t updated it. The new one looks awesome and I want it so bad.”
You hear that, Kensington? Get it out the door. Your public is waiting!