Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000

Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000

Rohan Naravane, May 15, 2008 1800 hrs IST

A RAZR slim keyboard and a mouse that connects via Bluetooth

Slim keyboard, touch-pad on the keyboard, Bluetooth connectivity, ambidextrous mouse

Expensive, no scrolling mechanism on the keyboard, function-buttons do not work with all applications

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Design and Features

Keyboard

The keyboard has arguably got to be one of the slimmest keyboards I've ever seen. It's got a slightly curvy shape. Two shades of grey make it look pretty elegant. Moreover, it's pretty comfortable to use on the lap.

This is pretty much the Moto RAZR of keyboards!

Notice that it does not have a separate num-pad, thus reducing the width. Also, the first rows of keys are touch-sensitive. These include five programmable application hotkeys.

The keys are a bit oddly shaped and have a small depth like the ones on a laptop. The keys on the left of the QWERTY are wider than those on the right. This causes some trouble while using the keyboard for the first time; unintentional typos are sure to occur. However, I think one gets used to the odd sizing after a while.

Now let's look at the other functional aspects of the keyboard other than the QWERTY.

The navigation pad, the back button, and the Windows Media Center shortcut key
The navigation pad is similar to the touch-pad of a laptop. The complete square is touch-sensitive which can be used to navigate the pointer. The surface when tapped acts as a left click. There's also a switch that lets you disable the touch-pad part, thereby turning it into standard directional keys.

The mouse buttons, magnifier and gadget button, and a set of multimedia keys

The two mouse buttons at the side complement the touch-pad on the right. Most of the multimedia keys are pretty much self-explanatory in function. The "Channel" buttons and the red-dotted "Record" button are meant to be used with the Windows Media Center.

At the back, the four AA batteries are placed at the two ends of the top panel. No tilting hinges are noticeable here.

In terms of design, the one thing that I missed the most was some form of a scrolling mechanism on the keyboard. I hated using the now-forgotten scroll-bar from time to time. You'll feel the need when you're using the keyboard for navigating your mouse too.

The keys are pretty soft to type on. The navigation pad accuracy is on par with touch-pads present on most laptops. However, the speed of navigating the pointer with a traditional mouse is always going to be way faster than the touch-pad. Nevertheless, it's a convenient design to use just one device to completely operate the computer from a distance. The range, too, is pretty good, given the 30-foot coverage provided by the Bluetooth interface.

Overall, the keyboard isn't as great as the Ergonomic keyboard or the Wave keyboard from Logitech, but it nonetheless impresses one as being pretty decent.