is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.
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Canadian-based Ploopy announced the Nano 2 on Friday. It’s an update to the ultra-compact Nano trackball featuring a new button, improved performance, and a USB-C port that replaces the original’s chunky USB-B port. The company made a similar upgrade with its Classic 2 trackball mouse earlier this year.
The Nano 2 is still designed to offer a “pure cursor experience” and complement a split keyboard setup or a small macro pad. But the new button could potentially turn it into a tiny trackball mouse.
Ploopy has upgraded the Nano with a USB-C port, but as with the original version, you can customize or mod all of its components yourself. Image: Ploopy
The Nano 2’s single button is pre-programmed to trigger drag scrolling mode so you can temporarily switch the trackball from controlling your cursor to scrolling long documents or websites. As with Ploopy’s other peripherals, the Nano 2 runs the open-source QMK firmware. You customize the button’s functionality using the VIA web app, including making it function as a primary mouse click.
Ploopy has upgraded the Nano 2’s trackball performance with a new PAW-3222 sensor that supports a polling rate of over 1,000Hz, but as with all of the company’s hardware, you can upgrade or mod any of the components using the full documentation it shares on its GitHub. Unlike many of its other products, which are also available as discounted DIY kits, Ploopy is only selling the Nano 2 fully assembled and tested for $59.99 CAD, or around $43.