Blåhaj PieFedKeyboard giant Keychron unveils new Nape Pro trackball with programmable buttons — low profile design promotes ergonomic scrolling without leaving your keyboard
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QuentinCallaghanwww.tomshardware.com/peripherals/mice/keyboard-…
Doesn’t look that ergonomic to me.
Would like to see some other angles of this, but no matter how you look at it, that does not look comfortable.
Here it is being held horizontally against a keyboard, and that way it makes more sense: your hands can use the trackball without ever leaving the keyboard. If the trackball is held and located in a position that one can expect from a trackball or mouse, it doesn’t look really ergonomic.
https://www.yankodesign.com/2026/01/08/keychrons-nape-pro-turns-your-mechanical-keyboard-into-a-laptop-style-trackball-rig-hands-on-at-ces-2026/
I feel like that still only works for people with larger hands. You need to be able to reach it without stretching or moving from home row or else or kind of defeats the purpose I think.
That’s not an angle that looks natural to hit with your thumb for most people.
As a diehard Vi user who rarely leaves the home row; I also care how far my hand travels from the home row, and back - so this trackball would still an upgrade for me.
Fair point. I use my keyboard right at the edge of my desk, I’m thinking a trackball embedded in the wood right before the spacebar, facing out, might be the way to go.
Yeah. The images of this thing next to the spacebar are tempting me (in spite of my past preference for the keyboard corner). Maybe I’ll get one of these when it releases.
(Nape non-pro)
Thanks. I envisioned something that went to the right of the num pad.
Prob better for the less than 100% keeblers (no num pad).
We had these in the 90s. They were fantastic.
We’re long overdue to bring back keyboard attached trackballs.
This seems like the next best thing, except they paid no attention to prior art.
The trackball belongs in the upper corner of the keyboard on the side of the dominant hand.
The young engineers these days don’t even know how to attach a trackball to a keyboard correctly…
If anyone needs me, I will be outside yelling at the Cloud. (Because I am old and things were better back in my day.)
Edit: I gotta admit, those shots of it next to the spacebar look promising, actually…now that I’ve had my Werther’s original to bring my blood sugar up.
I don’t care for the trackball that much, but I wouldn’t mind a laptop nipple on my keyboard.
I do not see why you could not place it where you want it.
Hmmm…. Maybe…. But no. It’s the youth who are wrong.
Exciting times!