Aside from the above issues, all was not bad with the keyboard and mouse. Let’s look at the usage.

3.1 The keyboard

Aside from the Bluetooth technology, everything else about this keyboard and mouse is similar to existing Microsoft mouse and keyboards. The keyboard is based on the Office keyboard design which has a very large Delete button and the End key is placed above the Page Up key. This takes some time getting used to. The keyboard buttons are fairly tactile – if you’ve used any other Microsoft keyboard then there’s nothing different in this version. Just like the Office keyboard, the Function keys also serve as menu shortcuts to popular applications such as Email, word processing, and general application manipulations. From F1 to F12, you can do the following: Help, Undo, Redo, New, Open, Close, Reply, Fwd, Send, Spell, Save, and Print. Hitting the F Lock button turns the function keys back to your normal F1 to F12.

The Keyboard	Upper Left
Middle	Upper Right

More keys..

Shortcut buttons also line the top of the keyboard. These short cuts include opening up Microsoft centric folders such as “My Documents”, “My Pictures”, and “My Music”. You can also manipulate multimedia applications by starting the media, skipping a track, reversing a track, and stopping the media. You can also control the volume of your desktop by moving the sound up or down in volume or mute it all together. To the right of the multimedia buttons are four buttons that launch Media, Mail, Web/Home, and Messenger. Most of these buttons are configurable using the Microsoft Keyboard software application. This is a very capable keyboard that has a snappy response time once the Bluetooth drivers are loaded within the OS.

Overall if you are already a fan of Microsoft keyboards, then this one will not disappoint. Aside from the lag time that occurs when the keyboard is coming back from power saving mode, the response times of the key to screen output is awesome.

The Bluetooth keyboard	compared to the Office keyboard

3.2 The mouse

The new Microsoft Optical Mouse is uniquely shaped with a larger base and an angled top that bends down towards the upper right hand corner of the mouse. You don’t grip the mouse as you would normally do with other mice. You would just lay your hand on the mouse and let it rest down. On the left hand side of the mouse, there’s a small well that will cradle a thumb easily – making lives more comfortable for frequent mouse users. Mouse response was decent enough though I did not test this mouse on enough games. For the gamers out there, I’ll have to revisit this mouse again to see how it handles high throughputs of data. If you have interference from 2.4GHz phone usage, then your mouse response time will suffer.

The Bluetooth Mouse	The bottom of the mouse	Compared to the wired Intellimouse

3.3 The Bluetooth transceiver

The Bluetooth transceiver and base will normally stay on your desktop. The transceiver itself gets its power over the USB line so you’ll to make sure that the USB line is powered. You’ll also need to make sure that the Transceiver is firmly pressed into the base unit since it’s fairly easy to insert the transceiver but not actually push it all the way in.

Bluetooth Transceiver/Base for desktops and notebooks

Now the one major complaint that I have about the Bluetooth transceiver is the shape. Why oh why did they have to make the shape of the unit so phallic looking. Ugh.. take a look at it and you tell me what it looks like? (on second though.. don’t tell me what it looks like) Ah well so goes the design teams at Microsoft.

Bluetooth transceiver for your desktop PC.. what the heck.

3.4 Notebook usage and other possibilities

I mentioned before that I had installed the Bluetooth transceiver to my notebook which is an IBM Thinkpad T21. Installation was smooth for the most part (aside from the device recognition issues that I forced upon it earlier). Once everything was up and running the keyboard and mouse worked well on the notebook. It’s nice to be able to just plug in a transceiver into my notebook and leave the notebook placed away from me while I work with it on a wireless keyboard and mouse. It would be even nicer if my notebook had a 15 inch screen so I could place the laptop further away!

Bluetooth receiver for notebooks

As for other uses, one could definitely think of using this combination for their Home Theater PC. HTPC users are always looking for that perfect wireless combination and Microsoft has created a suite that could be a contender in that market. However, the fact that a 2.4GHz phone could interfere with the Bluetooth communications hampers the usefulness of this suite. I’m not about to give up my Panasonic phone because it delivers clarity I can’t find in 900MHz phones so I doubt that this keyboard/mouse combination will ever see the light of day in my living room. However if you don’t use 2.4GHz phones, then perhaps you’ll be ok with this set. Keep in mind also that I have not tested this keyboard/mouse suite with any other 2.4GHz phones. It could just be a problem with the Panasonic phone and this suite.

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