SpaceNavigator Sheds Weight for Notebooks

3Dconnexion's SpaceNavigator for Notebooks retains all the same 3D-navigating features of the original six-axis controller, but with half the weight.

3Dconnexion’s SpaceNavigator has already earned a healthy reputation among engineers, Google Earth explorers and others as an easy way to navigate 3D worlds, but its clunky weight of over a pound has always made it less than ideal for anywhere but a desktop. The company aims to fix that with a new notebook edition of the device, which cuts the weight by half for mobile use.

The SpaceNavigator for Notebooks weighs just 0.55 pounds and adopts slightly smaller dimensions to make it more appropriate for use with laptops. It also sports a new cap design and a travel case to keep it safe in transit. Like the original, users can push, pull, slide and rotate its knob-like interface to navigate through every 3D axis easily.

Both devices support more than 120 applications, including Google Earth, Google SketchUp, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and Acrobat 3D, Maya Blender, 3ds Max, AutoCAD, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and a range of other 3D-oriented programs.

Unlike the original SpaceNavigator, which retails for $59 with a personal license or $99 with a professional license, SpaceNavigator for Notebooks sells in just one $129 package. It has already gone on sale through 3Dconnexion’s online store.