For everyone who still uses the same keyboard that came with their first desktop, and there’s still plenty of those people out there, there’s a good chance that Logitech’s new wireless keyboard could push them into splurging for a new one. For one thing, it’s a relatively small splurge compared with the benefits it brings – the retail price of less than $100 feels like a bargain when you take the productive and comfort features into account. Like with other new keyboards, enabling it was painless. The wireless keyboard, along with the LX8 Cordless Laser Mouse, sync directly to a small USB receiver connected to the computer. After adding two batteries each to the keyboard and wireless mouse, it took us less than a minute or so to set up the calibration needed to set up.
The mouse has no structural innovations of note, with a button above
each rubber side grip and the regular tilt wheel for horizontal scrolling. Since it’s wireless, it frees up your hands and its ambidextrous comfort form function is good, though is still not as comfortable as right or left hand-specific mice. It has seven programmable buttons in all and its laser track sensor tracks about 800 dpi, with polling rates of 125 hz. Though we didn’t play any games with it, the speed should be fine for most performance gamers. And there’s a battery status indicator at the top of the mouse that measures the performance and the juice left in your device.
As for the keyboard, the wireless range proved fine, as long as its within 10 feet of the receiver, even with large objects and irrepressible coworkers in the way. It includes Setpoint software and like the mouse, you can reset many of its buttons – doing so is easy and forces you to seriously think where a new setting would benefit your individual computer use. Also, specific applications or web pages can be manipulated with a single key if you like. And if you’re a lazy
former DJ and are constantly booting up your music files, you can press on the embedded Media Center button. The keyboard is indeed structured for the Windows Vista OS, and the management of its new graphic features is well done. For example, with the Flip 3D button you can zoom in or out of docs or of course, to use the Flip 3D mode to check between your open windows and use up your computer’s performance unnecessarily. We also tried it on an iMac, and it worked perfectly.
Regarding the all-important comfort factor, our first week verdict ranges from ‘pretty good’ to ‘better than most,’ though after immediately impressing us with its comfort for a day, we quickly got used to it and forgot about it. But don’t get us wrong; it does make a difference in the daily finger-pounding grind. The keys are designed to match the length of a person’s hand, so the keys that are raised the highest on the ‘wave’ design are for the shortest fingers, mainly the pinky, and those for the mid digits are set low. We were actually more impressed with the attached wrist comfort pad, made out of a breathable pleather material that kept our sweaty hands in check and ready to type the next inappropriate metaphor.
Finally, we need to talk about the cleanliness factor. What can I say? While mostly keeping a clean space, we do eat certain bready foods around, often leaving small crumbs near the keyboard. It turned out that it was easy to clean, sturdy, and the one time we smudged a crumb into the comfort pad, it only took an hour or two for it to disappear.
In summary, we like.
