Choosing Input Devices

Of keyboards, tablets, trackballs, mice, and men. When it comes to input devices, you should really focus on ergonomics as I've known many people who got injured from repetitive stress. I don't think it's worth sacrificing your body from working on computers long. For me, I like to use thinner keyboards with less travel, a trackball on the desktop, and nice smooth trackpads on laptops (meaning the built in type not the add-ons). Since comfort is a personal thing and your situational usage is different than mine, I cannot directly recommend something for you. We can just talk about various options out there.

Mice. This is probably the classic and most used input device for pointers. Some things to watch out for are resolution (and if adjustable), customizable buttons, and comfort as they come in various shapes and sizes. I'm going to ignore anything RGB for any device as that's more of a gaming feature. These combo with pads. You need a good pad for smooth movement and resolution. Something to watch out for here is if they clean up well as gunk may build up over time.

Trackpads. These are the built in option for laptops but some exist for desktop use either as built into keyboards or as standalone. Some things to watch out for are smoothness, sensitivity, tactile feedback (haptic vs mechanical), as well as zones which can be assigned for different tasks e.g. multitouch and scrolling.

Trackballs. This is my preferred choice for ergonomics because it doesn't require the hand to be more horizontal. Just like with mice, they may come in different shapes and sizes but there aren't many manufacturers and options.

Tablets. I've primarily used Wacom tablets as they have long been established but it's only one kind of tech. As I don't do as much editing nowadays, I use the tablet style built into laptops. Some tablets not only have touchscreens but the option to use stylus pen. These pens may use a few different competing tech/protocols so they are not all compatible with each other. Wacom uses EMR (of which there are a few generations), then there's MPP in some Microsoft products. Apple devices use their own kind of tech on iPads as they don't have touchscreen/stylus based laptops.

Keyboards. There are so many keyboards out there now and some are quite expensive. It's a matter of personal preference how you like your keys to feel and sound. Some are squishy, tactile, others loud/soft and with various travel distances. Some have customizable keys where you can change the keys out. And for certain programs there are dedicated keyboards.

Control Surfaces. If you need more customization and/or speed boost there are devices with sliders, knobs, and screens which let you interact in a more intuitive way. Some examples of this are StreamDecks, Loupe Decks, and for some particular software like Davinci Resolve for video editing, there are editing and color grading devices.