Logitech's money-is-no-object keyboard & mouse combination.
With an
MSRP of 250$, this is no easy sale. The
propaganda worked on me though, and I regret it (for the moment at least). It comes in three distinguishable parts. The
Logitech Bluetooth Hub, The Logitech Bluetooth
MX900, the Keyboard, and the
Media Pad. It comes in a gunmetal blue and black, looking like some sort of cordless
eurotrash.
A thousand words:
http://www.logitech.com/lang/images/0/2487.jpg
The Bluetooth hub doubles as a cradle and charging stand for the mouse. The batteries generally hold a ten hour charge, and take about an hour to recharge. To connect external bluetooth devices other than the keyboard, keypad, or mouse, you must install the
SetPoint software.
The hub plugs into your wall, your USB port, and your PS/2 keyboard port. The 3rd may be omitted, but allows you to use your cordless keyboard in
Safe Mode, or in
BIOS. The powered DC converter is only necessary for charging the mouse.
The keyboard has the same button touch as a laptop keyboard, or an
Eluminx glowing keyboard. It features a sleep button, as well as Home, Email, and Search hotkeys on the left side. On the right, a mute, volume up, and volume down button, as well as a media stop/
playpause/trackforward/trackback button, and a 'Start Media Player' button. The F keys can be enabled with the F-Lock toggle button next to the Esc key, but otherwise the F keys are labeled "New", "Reply", "Forward", "Send", "Undo", "Redo", "Print", "Save", "My Comp", "My Doc", "My Pic", "My Music". The Scroll-Lock key has been removed, and replaced with the Insert key in its place. The Delete key has the height of two normal keys.
Batteries on the keyboard aren't rechargable, but after 2 months, I have not needed to replace them. During a "wake" of the keyboard, sometimes I will get my first key
double-tapped, and registering twice in whichever window I was typing in. This doesn't seem to be a software driver issue, but more on that later.
The numeric keypad (or Media Pad) is detached from the alphanumeric keyboard. It is a little wider than a remote control, but otherwise feels a lot like one (and can be used as one). The '0' key on it has been split into an '0' key and an '000' key, but otherwise resembles a normal keypad. It has a volume +/-, and mute, as well as the same media play/stop functions as the keyboard. There is also a small beeper inside. As of SetPoint 1.04, the media button on the keypad can run a different media program than the keyboard's media button.
The MediaPad also has a 2-line LCD screen. In its dormant state, it displays the date. iTunes and Winamp will both display the current song and status in this. I haven't tested other software. It also has a calculator mode. It is advertised that the media pad will alert you of new emails, and incoming messages. What they don't tell you is that the SetPoint software only supports Outlook Express and MSN Messenger. Exclusivly. Future versions have been said to expand this (and since then, version 1.05 now supports Outlook 2003).
A design flaw of seperating the Keyboard and Keypad that is unaccounted for is that no Alt+#### keystrokes for inputting untypable characters are possible.
The
MX900 Bluetooth mouse has the same design as the
MX700 RF mouse. Right-Handed fit. Forward and Back buttons above the thumb position, and page-up and page-down buttons above and below the wheel, as well as a task switch button below that does not function without SetPoint software installed. Additionally, an
LED will flash red when battery power is low, and Green while charging.
All three have individual Bluetooth addresses.
An extreme shortcoming of the package is the software. As mentioned before, SetPoint only supports a couple of
Microsoft applications. There is no
SDK available to allow the community to expand upon this, either. With SetPoint software installed, Mouse acceleration is
maimed by Logitech. For comparison, Microsoft's mouse acceleration on High is equivilent to Logitech's Low, and turning off acceleration on Logitech's side is equivilent to Microsoft's disabled acceleration. Response times for the keyboard and mouse have been reported to be slightly slower than the MX700 on the
logitech forums, but
I can't tell. I have noticed that with SetPoint installed, my Half-Life input can get lagged at moments rendering games unplayable. In other words,
your quake game is screwed. With the SetPoint software uninstalled, things seemed to perform normally, although this defeated the purpose of
I only own one other bluetooth device, but I intend to expand upon this in
the not-too-distant future. I own a
Siemens S56 (american version of the
S55). The DiNovo was advertised to allow me to type into my cell phone, although this only works using my computer as a
proxy. I cannot connect my phone directly to the keyboard, as I had hoped. I can send and receive
SMS messages through the SetPoint
Mobile Phone Suite software. I am also able to view my phone's
PIM profile, and sync contacts with Outlook 2003 (and was able to with SetPoint 1.04), but I'm unsure how this stacks up with Linux variants. On Logitech's website, they list a compatibility matrix with the Logitech Bluetooth Hub, and boast that
their hub is to-spec, and that any hardware not working with the hub isn't their fault. I have heard things on the Logitech forum that the DiNovo will work with the Macintosh Powerbook's
BT port, but I will neither confirm nor deny.
To Logitech's credit, however, they do advertise that it "works with both
Windows XP and
Windows 2000", and boasts a
5 year warranty, which I intend on taking advantage of.
There are also some
hacks to internationalize the MediaPad's date format by editing the default.xml file in \Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Logitech\SetPoint\, although this should not be necessary for
my filipino grandmother to have the media pad greet her in
spanish.
they say hindsight is 20/20, and my advice to anyone considering putting 250$ on a keyboard to last them the next decade is to check the forums, and consider actual users' impression.
Sidenote: The item is available from ThinkGeek for 240$ before shipping, and as low as 200$ on the current lowest
Pricewatch listing. I also forgot to note that the keys on the keypad and keyboard rest flat, with a slight 15 degree tilt on the F keys. The very tops of the keys are no more than a centimeter above the resting surface. The keyboard has built in props to tilt toward the user, but the media pad lacks this.
Update: Warranty support for logitech rocks.