Mixed bag
Written: May 04 '04 (Updated Aug 31 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Good for occasional users who want cleaner desktops; good battery life
Cons: Frustrating changes to keyboard layout make adapting hard
The Bottom Line: If you need wireless, consider this: but beware the layout changes.
|
|
|
| quango's Full Review: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop (K51-00061) Key... |
When building a new system I wanted a keyboard to match and the best I could see was this keyboard with the matching optical wireless mouse.
What I didn't notice when chosing this model was the modified keyboard layout: the function keys are grouped in threes, not fours, and the Home/End/Ins/Del/pgup/dn group has been modified.
For the occassional home user these are no great issue, and if you're prepared to adapt, then you too may find you like them in the long term. I'm an IT pro however, which means I often have to use other machines and keyboards. Other than laptops, the vast majority of keyboards use the old 102 style layout so it's easier to handle the change.
For example I still use Shift-Insert and Control-Insert for cut/copy/paste, and with the Insert key moved off elsewhere and the large delete key I keep getting it wrong.
The wireless part works ok but there are often problems with my speed of typeing: holding Alt or Shift isn't always recognised when hitting combinatins, e.g. Alt-F1.
Another pain: my headphones are picking up the waireless signals and I can hear clicks on these when typing. The wireless mouse seems not to do this so maybe its just the keyboard.
The special key layout is nice but nothing fantastic; at least all the keys are programmable. It's a shame MS decided to move all the keys around. My older MS keyboard had email centre, web on the left. This one has mail & web on the right. Again, there was no value I could see to reorganise, so again I'm finding it difficult to migrate.
The scroll wheel on the left is a nice feature but I rarely use it. Maybe after another month I will, but so far it's been hard to adapt.
The wireless mouse is good but does occassionally act up and is difficult to use. Batteries have so far lasted three weeks with daily usage so longevity looks promising. The scroll wheel does not seem to work as well as my old non-wireless optical mouse although the mechanism is smoother.
Aug 04: just thought I'd update my review after four months use: well it's still here, and still being used. If you stick with it you adapt (I know find myself hitting the wrong keys on traditional keyboards!) - I just hope MS does not change the key layout again in the next model. I've sort-of got used to using Ctrl-X/C/V for cut/copy/paste, but it's not nice. The keyboard scroll wheel on the left is rarely used. The my favourites are used quite a bit, as are the media keys. I never use the Help/Undo/Redo etc. keys ever, so the function lock is always on.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 100
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
quango
|
|
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.