I used an external trackpad for a while before going to a vertical mouse, then trackballs. I liked the external trackpad better than the fixed position of a laptop but that's the best thing I can say about it — it didn't alleviate wrist pain and it didn't add much flexibility to how or where I work.

When I absolutely need gestures, the laptop's trackpad is still there.

As for accuracy, after using a Logitech trackball for about 6 months, I'd replaced my gaming mouse with it for FPS games. The only thing that had a significant learning curve was precise placement of click-and-drag operations, and that was mostly training myself to let my thumb off the ball before releasing the click.

> Do you prefer large trackball over large trackpad?

I've never used an external trackpad. I have used the excellent Macbook trackpads.

I'd think e.g. "hold button + drag" is slightly more difficult on a trackpad than a mouse or a trackball.

Rather, I'd say that a trackball feels just as intuitive as a mouse does, whereas a trackpad doesn't feel the same as a mouse.

> How is accuracy?

As one of the replies to my comment points out, the particular model I got isn't very good at small movement. (Many people say they swap out the ball bearings & this helps a lot).

Practically, I found I was able to play games with it without affecting how well I did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_N_XB5XeDA (I haven't tried gaming on a trackpad; my impression is mouse/trackball are better suited).

I haven't replaced the ruby bearings with the ceramic bearings yet.

But, I agree that the out of the box experience, moving only a small distance is very 'sticky'. (Whereas, precisely moving to something isn't difficult).