13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
A Slacker's Dream!
Date of Review: Sep 12, 2006
The Bottom Line: I would buy this because it is made by Micro$oft. It might be a few bucks more, but its pretty much guaranteed to work without hassle.
After getting sick and tired of my keyboard and mouse wires from getting tangled up, the balls on my regular mice wearing down on the one side and the fact that my keyboard just wasn't cool enough for me, I went and purchased this combo set at best buy for a little under $40 after tax ON SALE and I couldn't be happier.
It has a USB reciever, which works with Usb 1.1 and the Usb 2.0 standards although the box didn't specify which it needed or required so I found that out through trial and error. It has a range of about 7 feet but my office is 12 foot by 10 and it works great all the way over on the other side of the room. It's very easy to set up, just plug it in to your usb port, make sure your mouse and keyboard have batteries in them. You'll see a little green light waving back and forth (it's scanning for the mouse and keyboard on the channel) and in seconds you'll be clicking and typing wirelessly. I am not joking, it really is THAT EASY. It also does not interfere with wireless networks because it operates on the 27 mhz frequency.
The keyboard is your standard 101 key keyboard, takes 2 AA batteries to run, and my friend owns this same keyboard set, he says his will run for months on the same pair of batteries (even the cheapo brand batteries you get at the dollar store) so that is a very good thing. The function keys (F1 through F12) all do their standard tasks but there is also a F Lock key that you can press and the keys will perform tasks like open a new document, reply to an email, or even CHECK YOUR SPELLING if you're using office. Which is great if you are relaxed in your chair (or on your bed) and you really, really do not want to grab your mouse.
Along the top you will see buttons such as: "My Documents", "My Pictures", "My Music", "Mute", "Media", "Mail", "Web", and "Messenger" which all do the obvious things, like open the associated folder or program. With the software that comes with the keyboard and mouse, you can customize what those buttons do very easily via the Control Panel / Keyboards function or the shortcut that the install program puts on your desktop.
In the top center of the keyboard, there is your Volume / Playback control buttons, you can skip forward or backward play pause and stop using Windows Media Player. I don't know if works with Winamp or anything else because I don't use any other program but Windows Media Player. Nothing else works with my mp3 player so I have no use for anything else. If you find it does work with other programs please post a comment here as I'm sure other people would like to know that.
The mouse... although it has two AA battery slots... IT WILL OPERATE JUST FINE USING ONE BATTERY. I found that out rather a bit by accident. It is your standard two button with center click wheel optical mouse, very lightweight and ergonomic for my hands, it's very comfortable to hold and easy to get used to. My friend said battery life on the mouse is about the same as the keyboard. Which is good, but you still might want to invest in rechargeable batteries just to save some money in the long haul.
Overall this is an easy product to use and install, very stylish and rather handy. I don't know how I lived without one!
