It is wireless so you can throw it against the floor easier
Written: May 11 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: look/feel
Cons: battery life, repeated letters, not working at all, way to many things to list
The Bottom Line: Don't get it. Keyboard barely works and mouse eats batteries.
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| undergraduate's Full Review: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop (K51-00061) Key... |
I had been wanting to get a new keyboard and mouse for a long time. I was still using a plain jane keyboard and a trackball mouse, both of which were not exactly top of the line. So one day when I was in Best Buy with some friends I was given an opportunity to get which ever mouse and keyboard combo I wanted. So I had about 5 minutes to look and about 10 different models and I decided on the Microsoft Wireless Combo. It had the look and feel I wanted and none of the others really did it for me. In all honesty, if I could go back and pick a different one, I would.
Here is what has gone wrong and what I don’t like.
Battery Life
I have never had a wireless mouse before, but I don’t think battery life is this bad on other models. The mouse chews threw batteries like no other. A set of AAs last about 4 or 5 weeks before the mouse stops working all together. Battery life in the keyboard has been good though.
Relocated Keys
The ‘Home’ ‘Delete’ ‘End’ ‘Page Up’ and ‘Page Down’ are all rearranged from the normal layout on a normal keyboard. Even after almost a year of using this thing I still have to look down to see which one is which. Microsoft: Don’t rearrange keys, we know them where they are.
Keyboard Problems
After I had it for about 3 weeks the keyboard completely stopped working and I had to exchange it for another one. No big problem, I understand that sometimes things just were not meant to be. After a few months of pretty normal activity I thought nothing of it, but then the one I have now started acting up. It will get caught in an all caps mode where everything is in all caps even if it is on/off. Another problem is that it will start doing and automatic repeat. I think it is mainly if you hit the key to hard, I really don’t know, but it sucks. It will just start repeating one random letter for a few lines and then stop. It really sucks when backspace does this. I don’t even think I can describe in words how annoying some of these keyboard problems are.
F Lock
By default it is not on. I hate this because I always would use the ‘F’ keys throughout the day, suck as F5 to refresh the browser. Or when rebooting the computer to get into the BIOS.
The positives I like about the keyboard/mouse are as follows.
Look/Feel
This is why I decided to get them. This is just personal preference, I like the black and silver and I like how the keys feel and the not to noisy sound they make when you press them.
Connection
The wireless connection seems to be pretty good. I have the receiver about 4 feet away and don’t have a problem and I don’t experience any loss of connection for no reason.
In summary, don’t get it. You will probably end up having more problems then you would enjoying it. I have heard good things about the similar Logitech setups so maybe you should look into them.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 79
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Epinions.com ID:
undergraduate
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Location: Huntsville, AL - USA
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 1 member
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