| After using this keyboard, I can say that it's almost perfect.
The nicest feature on this keyboard is the backlit keys. Every key and button is evenly lit in a soft white light. The backlight activates as soon as your hands get within about an inch of the keyboard. It dims, brightens, or shuts off depending on the light level of the room. You can also set it to never come on, or to go straight to maximum brightness once you begin using it, regardless of the light level. Plus it looks great.
The touch pad on the keyboard is more functional than you would think given its size, but it's no replacement for a mouse or even a normal laptop touchpad. It's more useful in the directional pad mode for controlling Media Center.
The included software (which had to be updated) caused my computer to hang a few times while I was installing it, and also forced me to install that annoying "Validation Tool" before I could download another update for the Bluetooth driver. You can probably skip this and just download the software update if you want, because it has no noticeable impact on performance.
The function keys on the top of the keyboard are touch-strips and not actual buttons. It definitely looks nice, but it's pretty easy to accidentally touch one and trigger it while you're trying to hit a number key, before you get used to the layout. That being said, you'll get used to the layout pretty fast coming from a normal keyboard. It's ergonomic and comfortable without being too much of a shock. The biggest changes are that there is no number pad, and the Windows key is now in the bottom center of the keyboard with a "function" key is in its place.
The mouse that comes with the keyboard is the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000. It works well enough and is very accurate. The scroll wheel is the smooth scrolling type, so there's no real tactile feedback when you scroll. At first I didn't like it, but now I actually like it better than a normal scroll wheel. It has an "accelerated scrolling" feature that allows you to scroll rapidly or very slowly depending on how fast you spin the wheel. The side buttons are in strange (uncomfortable) locations though.
As far as wireless performance goes, there is no lag from either the mouse or the keyboard. The mouse takes about half a second to wake up if you haven't used it for a few minutes, but the keyboard has a proximity sensor so it will normally wake up before you even touch it. Neither the mouse nor the keyboard have dropped their connections once.
If there's one thing I really didn't like, it's that the documentation that came with the keyboard is pretty sparse. It comes with a quick start guide, and a "manual" that reads more like an advertisement. The manual also gives you a link to go to in order to "learn more" about the keyboard, but the link just sends you to a flash version of the same advertisement-like manual you just read.
Aside from a few minor flaws, this keyboard and mouse set is excellent. I would definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who uses Media Center on a HTPC, because this is where it's features really shine.
| | Just what I was looking for |
| I've had mine for 10 days and it's just what I was looking for. It's not a gaming keyboard and there's no numeric keypad, but this should be clear from all the information readily available.
To understand why I waited all year for this to be released, I need to say something about my room setup. First, there's no ceiling light; there are 2 lamps and they are situated on the opposite wall. The room is large and light from those lamps barely illuminates the computer desk. For a long time I've resorted to a Kensington USB FlyLight to view the keys on my keyboard.
For this reason alone backlighting was the Number One priority on my keyboard shopping list. Early this year I read about the 8000 on Gizmodo and to my surprise Microsoft had not only added backlighting, but everything else:
1) Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
2) Proximity sensor to preserve battery life particularly with backlighting turned on.
3) Ambient light sensor.
4) Slightly curved ergonomic design (better than the 'wave' in my opinion).
5) A well thought-out charging cradle into which both the keyboard and mouse can be stylighly plugged in at the same time.
6) A USB Bluetooth Dongle that plugs into a USB port on the charging cradle; the cradle plugs into your computer via USB 2.0.
7) They even threw in an extra USB port on the charging cradle!
The keyboard also has the usual gamut of multimedia and special function keys, and there's no issue with wake-from-sleep for me! The keyboard buffers your keystrokes and all of them appear on the computer after a second or two (again, this is for wake-from-sleep).
However, nothing is perfect and there are a few ways Microsoft can improve the product:
1. The plastic housing is lightweight and reasonably sturdy, but not as rigid as Apple's new aluminum keyboard. If build quality is important to you, I would rate this as 8.0 whereas Apple's would be a 9.5.
2. The Esc, Home, and End keys are not full keys, but thin horizontal lines. It takes a little time to acclimate one's fingering to these oft-used keys. They don't press down so there's no tactile feedback; you just have to watch the screen for assurance that the key was pressed.
3. The 4 arrow keys are narrower than usual and again require a little patience and practice.
4. I had a little trouble with the Bluetooth setup wizard. I consider myself a power user (with a lot of previous experience in pairing Bluetooth devices), but there were some initial pairing pains with the mouse. After a couple of reboots and reconnection attempts (holding down the 'connect' button on the cradle and keyboard/mouse) everything connected properly and since then has remained perfectly stable.
5. The documentation is entirely online in the form of the old non-browser-based Help dialog. There are various blinking lights on the mouse and keyboard, in both red and green. If you want to know what they mean (for example, to know when the battery is fully charged), you have no choice but to find the answer buried in the online Help.
Despite these shortcomings, I am extremely satisfied with this product despite its price. The backlighting is a godsend.
| | Great wireless keyboard, with very good range |
| I have this keyboard hooked up to a HP Pavailion HTPC to watch on a 61" Samsung DLP HDTV. My goal was to control the HTPC from anywhere in the home theater room (basement). As a bonus, I wanted to control the PC from my living room (directly above the home theater room), as the HTPC will eventually feed other TVs from the single HTPC via video distribution.
Range:
I was surprised at the range of the keyboard and mouse. They work flawlessly in the home theater room. I tested from 25'+ away from the PC, with the Bluetooth adapter plugged into the back of the PC. No delays or missed keystrokes. I tested the keyboard from other rooms (created a new doc and walked around the house typing sentences). It worked through multiple walls and through the basement ceiling into the main level living room. I finally lost signal about 25' back and 12' up (main level kitchen). The keyboard will work well beyond the range that you can actually see what you are doing on the screen.
Look/feel:
Beautiful keyboard. The back light is very well done. It wakes up when you approach. It has a very nice feel to it. I am getting used to the ergo keyboard, but that will come with time like any new keyboard. The touchpad mouse on the keyboard is fine for short term use, but I prefer the wireless mouse that came with the keyboard. The wireless mouse has a very nice heavy feel to it and has multiple buttons that can be configured.
The only problem I had was when my HTPC turned off the USB ports for power saving, which was set by default. I could not get the mouse or keyboard to work without a reboot or hooking up a hard wired keyboard to run the keyboard setup again. I initially blamed the MS keyboard/mouse, until I dug a little deeper. I found that the HP's standard power setting turns off the USB ports after a certain time of inactivity. I changed the power setting to 'high performance' and changed the USB power settings to never go to sleep. No issues sense.
As others have said, the lack of a separate keypad may be a deal killer for some. The keyboard has a keypad in the middle of the keyboard that can be accessed by clicking the function button. Not perfect, but for light use it works ok. The use of a keypad is not a big deal for a HTPC.
This is a expensive keyboard. Amazon has the best price on it. If you can get over paying $235 for a keyboard/mouse, you should be very pleased with it. I would buy it again, if I had to do it over again. It beat my expectations, which were very high to begin with.
| | Expensive keyboard with lots not to like about |
| Overall it has a lot of nice features that you'd expect from a $250 keyboard+mouse set. Read the marketing description if you want to fall in love with this product, which I did. I am sure you can read about all the nice things about this keyboard above. I'll just mention the issues, the ones that they left out in the product description, intentionally or unintentionally.
Issues:
1. the surface of the keyboard is very easily scratched. The keys looks like soft plastic with metallic paint, they scratches terribly easily. For the shiny aluminum look, they should have thought about the scratch issues, I've only had the keyboard for 2 days and I already have 3 very obvious scratches, 2 on keys and one at the top of the keyboard near the charging contacts.
2. driver software needs some work. While installing in Vista x86 went relatively smoothly, I do not understand why the installation would ask you to reconnect your keyboard and mouse since they are already connected. What was Microsoft driver team thinking? If that was ok for Vista x86, installing in Vista x64 was a pure disaster. Each software (intellipoint and intellitype, both freshly downloaded form Microsoft) asked for mouse and keyboard to be re-connected, and reconnected again!!! After rebooting, the mouse works, but keyboard shows connected but something wrong with the passkey. It took a total of 5 reconnects of both mouse and keyboard to get it working in Vista x64. Someone ought to get fired at Microsoft for this.
3. the magnifying function is ridiculous, it flashes and disables the Vista Aero interface before showing up. Why does it need to do that?
4. Escape key is at a weird place, and I accidentally hit F1 every time I want to hit Escape. There is a Fn key where Windows key normally is, the round windows key at the bottom of the keyboard is nice and OK but why can't there be a windows key where one is expected? Such design makes Windows key combinations more tedious to execute such as Windows-E, Windows-R, maybe the designer of the keyboard is not smart enough to be aware of such combinations (hint they are published on MS website). The lack of numeric keypad is a hassle at times, whether doing number cruching or running video game trainers.
5. the backlit keys are OK, but the light is too soft. Using the brightness adjustment and setting to max still only yield a very soft back light. Do not expect them to light up your dark room for you.
6. The touch pad (the area to the top right of the keyboard with 4 directional and an OK button in the middle) works OK but does not work like a typical touch pad. The speed of movement is rather unpredictable, and trying to "click" with the touch pad is error-prone.
7. There is a back button but not a forward button.
8. The media center key always lauches the Media Center in full screen mode. And that key does not show up under keyboard control panel for you to change its behavior. Again, what is Microsoft thinking?! Being able to run Media Center in normal window mode vs full-screen was one of the features they boasted for Vista and the damn keyboard took it all away.
9. The included rechargeable battery is 2000mAh Energizer, not my favorite brand when it comes to rechargeable battery (read reviews of these batteries on Amazon), Microsoft should've done some research on the batteries.
10. the charging stand when in contact with the keyboard makes a faint but definitive high-pitched noise. I can make it go away by re-seating it on top of the keybaord, but it is still somewhat audible now that you know it is there. It feels like some sort of vibration that's causing the noise.
I can keep going. Don't get me wrong, I still like this keyboard/mouse set and am not returning it, not yet at least. But they do annoy me. Oh by the way, the mouse works perfectly and feels heavy (which I like) and very accurate. No complaints there. The keyboard could use lot of improvement. Is anyone at Microsoft reading this? Send me a new set of keys if you are (need 5 and 9 for now). These scratched keys are such an eye sore, and I swear I do not even remember scratching them with anything. I've never managed to scratch a keyboard in my whole life until now.
| | Pros: I have owned both microsoft 8000 and logitech edge keyboards long enough to make a few comments. Apparently more reviewers favor logitech edge over 8000. I understand why so. but I would say that is somewhat misunderstanding. You really need to play both of them for quite sometime to make fair comments. The Edge, generally speaking, gives user a better impression in the first few days, because its more stylish, in piano black, and heavier in weight. But these features are more to cosmetics. Regarding functional keys, they are some somewhat different and yet similar. I personally prefer the curve of 8000 and more importantly I like 8000's key stroke more than the edge which is very very good, or say near perfect. The 8000 just makes it perfect. It is softer than the Edge and yet you still perfectly feel the click. The individual backlighted keys with proximity senser of 8000 is a superior feature. But frankly. I hardly use it because of battery concern and never work or play in the dark
Cons: The ""ESC"" key among other touch keys could be mis-fired initially. I am used to it now. The mouse is for both left and right hands so I dont like it very much. However, its performance is just as good.
Other Thoughts: The battary life of the key board is surprising long. I have been using it for more than 2 weeks with 3-4 hours normal usage per day. The backlight is turned on once a while when I accessed it after a long idle or covered the senser accidently. But the edge's battery tends to run forever. That is very very impressive. Initially, 8000 seemed relunctant to reconnect wirelessly, like reboot or KVM switching. But for some reason, after plugging the doggle to charge base, it always reconnects promptly just liek the Edge.
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