I have been building out a mobile workstation for writing using the NuPhy Air60 V2 (review pending!) and an iPad mini, but I knew I’d need a mouse for that setup. I knew I’d want it for a mobile development setup too, which would require also using it with my MacBook. My first thought was a small trackball, and, once again, Elecom had almost exactly what I wanted, the Bitra Thumb trackball. A small thumb trackball with five buttons. I nabbed it for my mobile setup and hit the road. Or, tracks, rather, as I took a train.
Over the next few weeks, I tested my Elecom Bitra Thumb trackball both on the go and at home. It’s a capable but small trackball, with a few glaring flaws.
In This Article:
Comfort 5.5/10
That said, I’m glad it’s not my only trackball.
It’s difficult to explain all the things just slightly wrong with the ergonomics of this trackball, at least for me. First, a common complaint about Elecom trackballs is that larger hands won’t find some of the models comfortable. The Elecom Huge is often cited as, ironically, not being huge enough to accommodate larger hand sizes. Some of them, like my Elecom EX-G Pro, actually fit nicely in my larger hands. The Bitra is certainly a bad shape for someone with large hands.
Now, you might say, Danielle, it’s a small trackball, what did you expect? And that’s fair. However, the entire trackball is made to fit under a part of your hand, not your whole hand, like other mice may be. It’s a piece of the overall shape. Best I can tell, your palm might be able to go along the bottom, with your thumb reaching the trackball and fingers reaching the end of the buttons. But my hand would have to be half its size for that. A child’s hands, not an adult’s small hands. I could use it with my knuckles towards the palm spot, but if I do this, the thumb portion is too far away while the fingers line up perfectly. It’s like it’s disproportional. My solution has been a kind of floating grip with lots of finger overhang on the front when doing longer sessions or mouse use, during photo editing, for example.
If you have very small hands, think glove size Small or Extra Small, then you might find it perfectly comfortable. I’m more glove size Medium to Large. Glove sizing is kind of weird. For reference, from the tip of my middle finger to the base of my wrist, it’s about 18.5cm, or 7.28in. It’s not wildly uncomfortable for me to use this mouse, but had it been the same size, just with the thumb portion further back, it would work very well for large hands. As it is, it’s primarily for small hands.
You can get creative with your grip to find something that’s comfortable enough for short periods, but an entire work day might be a bother. I had some thumb pain after trying to use this as my primary trackball for the first time since I had that Kensington trackball. I might keep it by my coffee table for use with my iPad when I’m on the couch, or for quickly grabbing and going out to a cafe or trip.
Buttons
The buttons have a quiet click feature. They work quite well, you can barely hear them in a quiet room. Perfect for the quiet car on trains or during meetings. However, two buttons I take issue with. The first is the middle click under the mouse wheel. It’s a surprisingly firm button, more than any of the other buttons. When you’re shifting your grip around, it can be uncomfortable to press it.
The second, and much larger (pun intended) issue is the large button behind the thumb trackball. First, this could have easily been two buttons. In fact, it should have been. This is a huge touch surface for just one button. They could have added more functionality to this mouse by making this two buttons. It could have comfortably been three! Secondly, the actual click area, the part that makes contact with the button on the circuit board, is towards the top. You have to press it in surprisingly hard to make contact if you’re pressing the bottom. It’s just another indicator that the button should have been two.
Small Ball
A trackball has many benefits. One is momentum. You can sort of flick the ball with your thumb and it’ll carry momentum. This allows you to move the cursor a greater distance with less movement and effort. However, this is a small 1-inch ball with very little weight to it. In fact, it almost feels hollow. As a result, you’ll have to move your thumb a lot more to move around. This can create cramps or fatigue over time. Mind you, that’ll be something that will bother you over days. In the short term, it’ll just be a little less comfortable.
Smoothness and Break-In Period
When I was testing my first trackball, I was frustrated with something I called “stiction.” This is “static friction.” It’s the force required to start the ball moving when it’s at rest. A ball can sometimes become sort of stuck, making movements less smooth. It was a Kensington thumb trackball, and I was able to get a 34mm ball from Perixx that was much smoother. When I traded in my Kensington for the Elecom EX-G Pro that will never leave my desk, the Perixx came along for the ride. That’s because both use a common ball size of 34mm.
The Bitra does not.
The Bitra Thumb uses a 25mm trackball. It’s a little larger than an inch in diameter. I couldn’t find a single replacement for it. That was a shame because the Bitra also has some stickiness and I can certainly feel the vibrations from those bearings right through the incredibly lightweight, hollow-feeling ball.
Elecom uses synthetic ruby bearings. Users often swap them out, even though the process is an annoyance, for ceramic bearings. Ceramic bearings are smoother, allowing for more precise movements. That’s important, especially with such a small ball. I took apart my Bitra and replaced the ruby bearings with ceramic, and they are a lot smoother, but it’s clear this isn’t the trackball’s only issue with smooth operation.
I also found the plastic ball release button presses up into the ball slightly. One of the first things I did was use a glass nail file to shave this down slightly. Just enough that I can still eject the ball, but it doesn’t poke the ball while it’s rolling.
I don’t recommend you try any of these options unless you’re willing to assume responsibility for breaking your mouse. You should likely only do it if you’re experienced with electronics and have the tools necessary for electronics repair. I do. There are instructions you can find online, make sure you watch a video or two and have all the tools and experience necessary if you’re going to do it.
I can still feel some vibration and stiction. I tried cleaning the ball, rolling it in wax paper, using my hand’s natural oils, it just hasn’t broken in yet. It’s hard to use it because it’s made for travel and is less comfortable, so breaking it in will take longer than it should. The lightweight ball definitely won’t help either.
I’ve done some extensive hardware tinkering to get this working better, but it’s still not perfect. I think that it’ll be comfortable to use on trips, but won’t sit on my desk.
I’ll update this section if it eventually breaks in enough to feel smooth.
Travel Capabilities 8/10
The battery life seems to be incredible. A single AAA battery has lasted me weeks. I do recommend rechargeable batteries. You’ll likely have to replace them more often, but they’ll create less waste.
The case looms over this tiny trackball
When you take off the battery door, you’ll find yet another perplexing design choice. The spot to store the dongle is under the battery door. They made the battery door longer just to cover up the dongle slot. Why? This isn’t covered on most devices so you can easily unplug it. On a device made for travel, this is especially important. You don’t want to be fiddling around with a bunch of things in a small space like on a train. I’ll never understand why they hid the dongle away. They didn’t do this on the EX-G Pro, so why did they do it on the more travel-specific trackball?
All complaints aside, it is a small trackball. It fits well on a coffee table, train seat tray, or small desk. It’s certainly portable, even if some aspects aren’t perfect.
Wireless Security 0/10
Fortunately, the EX-G Pro uses Bluetooth, so I don’t have to worry about Elecom’s lax security
There are two versions of this, and I picked the wrong one. I initially chose the version that has a wireless dongle because I envisioned using it with multiple devices. This is the case, and this works. On one trip I used it for both my iPad mini and my MacBook. Bluetooth requires re-syncing every time you want to do that, and it’s a real pain. With the dongle, I can just swap it over. Easy!
However, a USB mouse dongle also adds other problems. If the dongle is not encrypted, a hacker could use it to take over your mouse or even inject commands by acting like a keyboard. A mouse dongle could be used to quickly inject commands into your machine, not just mouse movements, but literally open the door to malware. It’s the trojan horse of hardware. That’s why many major brands ensure these dongles use encryption.
Elecom is not encrypting their wireless dongles.
I was silly and trusted that any company in 2023, when I bought this, wouldn’t be so incredibly irresponsible. Ridiculously irresponsible. Nothing should be unencrypted anymore. Nothing. A Dolphin Zero with an RF adapter can easily sniff 2.4GHz signals and inject movement or commands. A tiny pocketable tool could broadcast commands to your device. The receiving range of these wireless dongles is often larger than consumers realize. Their mice and keyboards may not broadcast a signal strong enough to reach across a crowded cafe or airport terminal, but a hacker’s machine could. It’s an unnecessary risk, AES encryption is already standard in the industry. This isn’t a large ask, and slams the door shut on hackers.
Other companies, direct competitors like Kensington, feature 128-bit AES encryption, enough to protect your devices from sniffers. Elecom messed up. I messed up too. I’m so mad at myself for making this mistake that I’m making sure you don’t too. Do not buy this trackball. If you’re going to buy A Bitra, get the Bluetooth model. The Bluetooth model would use an encrypted signal.
Elecom knowingly decided to release this trackball with a massive security vulnerability. Unfortunately, many irresponsible companies do the same. They likely, and, admittedly, probably correctly, assumed it’s not exploited much in the wild. Still, it’s both an easy exploit and an easy fix. Therefore, you should protect against it. I hope they’re at least not accepting keypresses. Some unencrypted tools will at least prevent the dongle from accepting keypresses, limiting a hacker to mouse actions like moving the mouse and clicking. However, many don’t even do this, and without breaking into it myself, I can’t be sure what—if any—precautions Elecom is taking. But I do know it’s unencrypted, and that’s dangerous.
Customization 7/10
Because of previous headaches with Elecom’s software, which hasn’t significantly updated in the year that I was using it, I decided to exclusively use Steermouse. That worked so well that I’ve been using it for my Kensington as well, even though Kensington software is nice enough for most people. Love the chording options in Steermouse though, which allows you to set buttons to both function as part of a chord or on release, not press. It takes the 5 buttons on this mouse and makes it easy to use it as a 10-button mouse. I love it. I added dual functionality to the side buttons by the trackball so they can operate Mission Control on my Mac if I press and release them, or if I hold one in and use either of the primary left or right click, it can perform back and forward or space switching.
I was even able to do some customization on the iPad, but it doesn’t work very well. Apple, frustratingly, forces users to turn off the Assistive Touch accessibility feature if they want to customize their mouse buttons. This means you have a floating button with accessibility controls at all times you don’t have the mouse in. I also found Assistive Touch breaks scrolling behavior, making it harder to scroll on pages with or without the mouse. Apple is often at the forefront of accessible technology, but breaking scrolling, forcing a GUI button on-screen for touch control, and not allowing mouse customization without accessibility features does not make their devices as versatile and accessible as they should be. Apple needs to fix this for people who have motor control issues, vision issues, and people who want to add a mouse to their setup.
This trackball won’t save your settings on-device, especially if you use Steermouse. Still, Steermouse lets you easily back up and import profiles, so it’s not a huge drawback.
Hardware Customization
You cannot find a replaceable trackball for this. I have found that Perixx maxes incredible trackballs, and replaced the stock trackball on my EX-G Pro with one of theirs. I had hoped to do that here, but they don’t make a 25mm trackball. Turns out, no one does. I could not find one anywhere. I found a POM ball that was around 25.5mm, but this was just a little too large to use. That means I’m stuck with Elecom’s ball which isn’t bad, but it’s not as smooth as the Perixx ones I’ve used.
The bearings could have been easier to replace as well. There were a few anti-consumer items there. First is getting to the screws. Now, on this, unlike some of Elecom’s other models, they at least didn’t put any screws under the paper label. You cannot get those paper labels off without heat, Goo Gone, or 99% rubbing alcohol. Usually, you just poke a hole through it. I did need my hair dryer to peel back the rubber feet, but that wasn’t too bad. However, once I finally got in, moved everything around, took apart everything, and got to the trackball holder, I found that the rubies are sealed in. I had to break out the Dremel tool, score the back with an ‘X’ and then weaken the center just enough to poke my pointed tweezers through, pushing the synthetic ruby static bearing out. I didn’t want to scratch the ruby, in case my ceramic ones weren’t much better. Then, I pressed in my new ceramic bearings and re-assembled the device.
The entire process takes only about half an hour, at most, but it’s never fun to break out the Dremel and put holes in your electronics. It would have been so simple to put a small hole here from the factory in case you need to replace these bearings. Chances are, over years of use, you would have to replace them maybe a decade in the future anyway. Just make it easy to service your tech, especially for such a niche product as a trackball mouse that does have a large following of modders.
Battery Life 10/10
Connection Reliability 10/10
You could use this with a clear line of sight from about two meters or six to seven feet away. It’s a stable connection. I noticed some stuttering in the beginning, but this was more due to the actual ball stuttering. Once it broke in better, and once I replaced those bearings with ceramic bearings, I was able to get a much smoother experience.
Sustainability 1/10
I don’t always bring this up for all products I review. Sometimes, a product comes in all cardboard and I forget to mention it. However, I think it’s inexcusable to ship a product with large amounts of plastic. Much of it, even when placed in recycling, just ends up in a landfill. Recycling is a scam to make you feel better about buying more plastic. No, really. We absolutely have no excuse for continuing to make such use of single-use plastic. As a tech reviewer, I have to think about this a lot, and, wow, does it suck to get a product that is just coated in plastic, especially when it doesn’t have an identification label, meaning the chances of it getting recycled are slim to none.
The Elecom Bitra, much like the EX-G Pro, came in a display shelf-ready box. The box is pretty, glossy, and it has a little flap that you can open to reveal a big window into the inside of the box, where, of course, hard plastic keeps the mouse mounted in view.
First of all, have you ever even seen a trackball display section in Best Buy? There’s maybe a Logitech mouse there. Maybe. I tried to find a retailer in my area, which happens to be one of the largest cities in the world, and could not find a single place that had more than a one or two Logitech models. These things aren’t on shelves, you don’t have to worry about how they look on a shelf. Secondly, an electronics retailer large enough to have them would likely have a display model. It’s a niche product, I assume the kind of place that would carry it would know that trackballs need to be held. Finally, well, trackballs need to be held. Looking at the thing behind plastic will not tell you much more about it than a website picture could. You can get your hand in there, but the rest of the cardboard is in the way. It’s just not helpful. They traded a pointless marketing gimmick for consumer trust. They’ve made me feel guilty about ever buying an Elecom product again because I know the thing will come with a mess of plastic. I’m going to feel awful if I get another Elecom product and have to throw away more plastic.
I had my eyes on the Elecom Deft Pro, and one reason I decided to make the Kensington Slimblade my next mouse was the fact that I know Kensington’s packaging is extremely simple cardboard without even complicated dyes. It’s highly recyclable. I love that about them. I might eventually get Kensington’s Orbit Fusion instead of the Elecom’s Deft Pro, and the primary reason is that plastic packaging. I just feel so guilty buying the Deft Pro knowing it’s going to be loaded with plastic waste.
Elecom, get your shit together.
Then there’s the batteries situation. I actually like that they’re using replaceable AAA batteries. You can use rechargeable AAA batteries to ensure you’re not creating waste. I do wish it came with a rechargeable AAA battery and the ability to use this mouse in a wired mode with charging for that battery, but that might be asking a bit much for this price. Regardless, you can make the right choice and use a rechargeable battery, recycling it when it can’t hold much of a charge. Remember, you can recycle your old batteries at any store that sells lithium-ion batteries in most states. I know Best Buy often has drop-off areas right in the front of the store. This means you can easily buy and recycle batteries for this device, keeping the mouse in good form for many years. Hardwired batteries just don’t offer that. Replacing the battery in my Kensington Slimblade one day may be more difficult.
Overall 6/10
- Encrypt that dongle!
- No more plastic packaging!
- Move the dongle out of the battery compartment!
- Small complaint: either include a rechargeable battery or no battery at all.
- Even smaller complaint: wired functionality and battery charging.
Honestly, encryption and plastic packaging alone would move it up to at least an 8/10. It would be a “must buy” mobile trackball if it was secure and didn’t ship with so much plastic waste.
The reason it can’t be a 10/10, even with those changes, is the ergonomics issue. This is small, but the shape could change without changing its footprint. They could make this work better for medium-sized hands. As it is, you’d need some short fingers to comfortably keep your thumb on the ball and limit overhang over the buttons. Most people will need some kind of modified claw grip to prevent putting their finger tips on their desk with their palm on this. The ball could come back a little or the bump could be more rounded, either could help. Still, I get it’s tough to make something tiny and portable and work for all hand sizes. I just think a slightly larger hand size would be preferable, closer to average sizes.
This is great for travel, though I do wish the included case was more travel-friendly. It’s not great for everyday use, and the travel case it came with is far large than the mouse it protects.
This is a great travel companion. It’s imperfect, but if you need a trackball on the go, it’ll be your best option because there just aren’t many options in the market. Elecom took a great trackball design and shrunk it down, and you’re just not going to find that elsewhere. It’s a great travel trackball, it’s just not a great trackball for your desk at home or the office. A bunch of small complaints add up to a mediocre trackball. But it does have one killer feature: it fits in a tight bag (without the case). That’s what I bought it for, and for that, I like it.
Now just encrypt the damn thing, Elecom. I want to love this thing, but so many tiny issues just break what is otherwise a fantastic trackball experience, and the biggest is its complete lack of security. If you want someone using this in a cafe or while traveling—key places for hackers to strike—you need to make it secure! Because of vulnerabilities like this, you could never use Elecom’s trackballs for government or other highly secure work.
I’ll be careful with my Bitra Thumb trackball, may even use it for parts if I decide to get a Bluetooth one after all. It’s a shame though. This shows such great potential, for such a silly flaw to completely ruin a product is unfortunate. I’ll use it in a pinch, especially with my iPad, which won’t have the same vulnerabilities as a computer, but I’m disappointed in Elecom for not protecting their devices—and their users—better.
You can find the Elecom Bitra Thumb Trackball on their website and Amazon. I recommend getting the Bluetooth version, as, unlike the wireless version, it is encrypted, as part of the Bluetooth standard. Headaches with Bluetooth syncing are better than security flaws.