So with Microsoft’s fiscal year ending, I decided to check out the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000. It was a $100 investment (not a cheap keyboard/mouse combo), but I thought worse case scenario, I’ll just give this to my parents back home, since their media center wireless mouse and keyboard are rather short ranged.
The regular wireless mouse and keyboards (using wifi/radio frequencies) have about a 6ft range. Infrared (the media center remote and keyboard) has a longer ranger, but are less sensitive and requires a direct line of sight. So I decided to that my next media center keyboard would have to be a bluetooth device.
Derek and I’ve been checking out different keyboards. The ones that we’ve been looking at include:
The diNovo Edge was sort of pricey, but the others weren’t cheap themselves. However, being a Microsoft employee, we get discounts on most hardware. Since the 8000 hasn’t been released yet, I decided to get the 7000 and check it out.
I’m going to be focusing mostly on the keyboard since for the media center, I don’t really find the mouse that useful. Plus the fact that the keyboard comes with a navigational pad (think touch pad), it makes the mouse even more useless in my case.
Although the keyboard isn’t split for ergonomics, the curved keyboard isn’t that bad. I still position my hands as if it was a split keyboard. The keyboard is super light and easy to carry around. Unfortunately, the keyboard itself isn’t rechargeable. It uses 4 AA batteries (included) and I don’t really have any idea how long it’ll last. There’s an on off switch on the back of the keyboard and I usually turn it off when I’m not using it, so I’m guessing the batteries would last for years, since I don’t really use the media center PC as my main computer.
The mouse itself uses 1 AA battery. A rechargeable NiMH battery is included. The mouse charge is a bulky, but I’m hiding it behind the TV.
On the bottom of both the keyboard and the mouse, there’s a bluetooth sync button and getting the devices to sync with the included bluetooth adapter was pretty simple.
Distance wise, I sit about 9ft from the bluetooth adapter behind my PC which is enclosed inside the TV stand. I get perfect reception on my comfy couch. At about 20ft, the farthest distance I can stand while still being able to see my TV, the reception started waning off. There were some dropped keys and so on. However, as I said, the bluetooth adapter is sitting on the back of my PC and is really blocked by wood on all sides, with the exception of the computer side which is aluminum. I think if I stuck the bluetooth adapter to the front USB ports or get an USB extension cord, reception should definitely be better.
On the upper right hand side, there’s this navigational pad, which is similar to a touch pad. It actually works fairly well. I would’ve preferred it to be in between my 2 thumbs, making mouse control easier, but the location up there isn’t too bad. However the surface area is a bit tiny and takes about 3 left to right scans to get across the entire screen. I guess having my resolution at 1920×1080 doesn’t help.
The F1-F12 keys are actually not regular keys, but touch sensitive keys, which are a bit funny to use at first, but nothing too bad about them.
There is no numpad, but not really something I care about on a media center PC. Not having the arrow keys island and the insert/delete island is a bummer though. I never really used the media keys and if I could redesign the keyboard, I would replace those with the islands.
The worse thing about this keyboard and I truly mean the worse is the Windows key. I’m not sure how often you use the Windows key (the key stuck between Alt and Ctrl), but I use it all the time. To bring up explorer (Win+E), to bring up the run prompt (Win+R), to lock my computer (Win+L), to show my desktop (Win+D), etc. They’ve moved the Windows key to underneath the space bar and it’s one of those hard to press keys (which actually requires a little muscle), like they don’t want you to hit it by accident. This got REALLY ANNOYING REALLY FAST.
The Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 hasn’t been released yet. According to the website, it looks like the release date is in September 2007. I hadn’t know about this release date before I got the 7000. The 8000 does have some better features over the 7000 including a rechargeable keyboard, backlit keys, and USB ports. The USB ports are actually part of the charging station. At first I thought it’d be neat and be like wireless USB if the ports were on the keyboard. A bit too early for that dream I suppose. However, it looks like they still have the same stupid Windows key problem.