Cheap Desktop

I had a Dell wireless keyboard/mouse system which I loved and used for years. As a matter of fact, I have 5 more of them in my office, all working well after a large amount of usage. My home one finally went south and I had to replace it. I bought an (expensive) Logitech system which worked very well and seemed to be a fine replacement, until I realized that it was eating batteries like they were M&Ms. So I looked for something more battery-friendly and settled upon the Microsoft system.

By the way, let me mention that I had size and shape requirements too so not all possible systems were available to me. For example, I don’t like those “wave” shaped keyboards.

Anyway, the MS system arrived and I opened it excitedly, thinking about how much money I was going to save in a year in just batteries alone. The first thing I noticed was that the build quality was far inferior. Now I’m not a fussy person about stuff like this, so for me to notice that right off the bat really means something. The way the battery compartment of the mouse worked, for example, was disconcerting to say the least.

Anyway, I set it up (no problems) and began to use it. I quickly noticed that not all of the letters I typed on the keyboard actually made an appearance on my screen. I decided I just needed to type more firmly and tried to accept that doing so was a minor adaptation to make if the thing works. But, alas, that did not help the situation. Letters were missed regularly, and sometimes in embarrassing places. I found myself re-reading everything I typed for editing purposes, and even when I focused on correcting the missed letters, I couldn’t get them to type out. I even tried installing an updated driver to no avail. Now maybe I just got a bad keyboard, but that is the one this review is based on, and you’ll have to decide for yourself. The mouse, by the way, worked satisfactorily.

I went back to the battery-chomping Logitech, discovered that the mouse actually has an on/off switch on the bottom, use that switch when I leave the computer unattended, and so far, the battery issue is less apparent. And no missed letters. My review conclusion? Sometimes you get what you pay for.
Rating: 1 / 5

I have always had good experiences with previous Microsoft Mice and Keyboards; that’s why I went with them for this combo. But, this set is a complete dud for the same reasons mentioned by the other reviewers:

* The keyboard will suddenly stop registering all the keys you press. This doesn’t happen all the time, just when it’s most annoying (in the middle of a game or paper due the next day.)

* The mouse eats batteries like nobody’s business. You get less than a month of use out of a pair of AA’s, and that’s with the annoying auto-shut-off feature.

I bought this set so I could pick up the mouse and keyboard to keep them out of the reach of my 2-year old daughter. I wish now that I’d kept the wired ones I had before (I clipped the wires to make them into toys.) I would recommend doing more researching and spending a little extra to get a quality product. This set gets an Epic Fail.
Rating: 1 / 5

I have no problems with the keyboard. I find it quick and responsive. The range is good enough for me too. The mouse on the other hand is another story. The battery lid is a little tricky to open and close but with a little patience it’s workable. I wouldn’t mind clicking the mouse to wake it up after about 30 seconds of inactivity if it were to do what it was made to do which is, SAVE battery power. As it is I find that I need to replace the batteries every two weeks. That sucks. I’ve since gone to rechargables. I don’t know if this will be better or not.
Rating: 2 / 5