Just a few months ago I took a look at the TourBox NEO, an input peripheral designed to sit on your desk, typically in close proximity to your keyboard, mouse, or drawing tablet. I really enjoyed working with the NEO at the time, and it has found a permanent place on my desk as part of my toolkit when I am editing videos. Naturally, when TourBox reached out to see if I would be interested in taking a look the TourBox Lite, I jumped at the opportunity. As you might have guessed, the TourBox Lite is a slimmed down version of the TourBox NEO, in both size and functionality. The TourBox Lite represents an opportunity to get into more advanced content creation tools at a lower price, but with many of the same features that the larger models offer.
Special thanks to TourBox for providing the TourBox Lite review sample!
Specifications
Features
With the addition of the Lite, there are now three versions of the TourBox available, the NEO,the Elite, and the Lite. And while they all offer a very similar feature set, there are a few differences that separate the three, and I want to highlight some of the major features found on the Lite, as this is a product type that we don’t typically take a look at here at ThinkComputers.
Multi-Dimensional Input Actions – Many content creation tools and devices have a “flat” layout that might include a few buttons or knobs for control surfaces. The Lite offers the option to click, scroll, twist, single-click, double-click, and create button combinations to meet your editing needs.
Tactile Touch – The unique button shapes found on the Lite help you differentiate between them, without having to look down at what you are doing. Many other devices have similar shaped buttons that can cause you to become lost in a sea of identical feeling buttons. The shape, size and placement of the controls on the Lite are designed with ease of use and identification in mind.
Accessible Layout – The Lite’s shape and control layout lends itself to using multiple buttons at once to enable easy combinations for expanded access to software features. The smaller sizing of the Lite brings all of the control surfaces that much closer to a single center point, which can help reduce the need to reposition or use uncomfortable positions with your hand.
Packaging
The TourBox Lite comes packed in a stylish black box with a lot more color than the NEO. The colorful shapes that are found on the box represent the multiple input options found on the Lite, which I think is a pretty cool touch. Aside from that, it is a pretty standard box, with no other real information about the Lite, other than a list of some of the software applications that the Lite natively supports.
Accessories
Just like the NEO, the TourBox Lite comes with a physical user manual and safety instructions booklet.
There is also a braided USB Type-C cable for connecting the TourBox Lite to your device of choice, as well as a Type-C to Type-A adapter. The Lite-side of the cable offers a 90-degree connection to assist with routing the cable to the left or right on the back side of the device – thank goodness for USB Type-C’s reversible connector!
