{"id":1128,"date":"2007-06-29T23:33:44","date_gmt":"2007-06-30T07:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2007-06-29T23:33:44","modified_gmt":"2007-06-30T07:33:44","slug":"microsoft-wireless-entertainment-desktop-7000-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/29\/microsoft-wireless-entertainment-desktop-7000-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So with Microsoft&#8217;s fiscal year ending, I decided to check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/hardware\/mouseandkeyboard\/productdetails.aspx?pid=081\">Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000<\/a>. It was a $100 investment (not a cheap keyboard\/mouse combo), but I thought worse case scenario, I&#8217;ll just give this to my parents back home, since their media center wireless mouse and keyboard are rather short ranged.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/v\/misc\/IMG_0111.JPG.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/d\/13782-2\/IMG_0111.JPG\" alt=\"microsoft wireless entertainment desktop 7000\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/v\/misc\/IMG_0112.JPG.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/d\/13785-2\/IMG_0112.JPG\" alt=\"microsoft wireless entertainment desktop 7000\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/v\/misc\/IMG_0113.JPG.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/d\/13788-2\/IMG_0113.JPG\" alt=\"microsoft wireless entertainment desktop 7000\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/v\/misc\/IMG_0114.JPG.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/gallery.krunk4ever.com\/d\/13791-2\/IMG_0114.JPG\" alt=\"microsoft wireless entertainment desktop 7000\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The regular wireless mouse and keyboards (using wifi\/radio frequencies) have about a 6ft range. Infrared (the media center remote and keyboard) has a longer ranger, but are less sensitive and requires a direct line of sight. So I decided to that my next media center keyboard would have to be a bluetooth device.<\/p>\n<p>Derek and I&#8217;ve been checking out different keyboards. The ones that we&#8217;ve been looking at include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.logitech.com\/index.cfm\/keyboards\/keyboard\/devices\/192&#038;cl=us,en\">Logitech diNovo Edge<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/hardware\/mouseandkeyboard\/productdetails.aspx?pid=081\">Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/hardware\/mouseandkeyboard\/productdetails.aspx?pid=080\">Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The diNovo Edge was sort of pricey, but the others weren&#8217;t cheap themselves. However, being a Microsoft employee, we get discounts on most hardware. Since the 8000 hasn&#8217;t been released yet, I decided to get the 7000 and check it out.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to be focusing mostly on the keyboard since for the media center, I don&#8217;t really find the mouse that useful. Plus the fact that the keyboard comes with a navigational pad (think touch pad), it makes the mouse even more useless in my case.<\/p>\n<p>Although the keyboard isn&#8217;t split for ergonomics, the curved keyboard isn&#8217;t that bad. I still position my hands as if it was a split keyboard. The keyboard is super light and easy to carry around. Unfortunately, the keyboard itself isn&#8217;t rechargeable. It uses 4 AA batteries (included) and I don&#8217;t really have any idea how long it&#8217;ll last. There&#8217;s an on off switch on the back of the keyboard and I usually turn it off when I&#8217;m not using it, so I&#8217;m guessing the batteries would last for years, since I don&#8217;t really use the media center PC as my main computer.<\/p>\n<p>The mouse itself uses 1 AA battery. A rechargeable NiMH battery is included. The mouse charge is a bulky, but I&#8217;m hiding it behind the TV.<\/p>\n<p>On the bottom of both the keyboard and the mouse, there&#8217;s a bluetooth sync button and getting the devices to sync with the included bluetooth adapter was pretty simple.<\/p>\n<p>Distance wise, I sit about 9ft from the bluetooth adapter behind my PC which is enclosed inside the TV stand. I get perfect reception on my comfy couch. At about 20ft, the farthest distance I can stand while still being able to see my TV, the reception started waning off. There were some dropped keys and so on. However, as I said, the bluetooth adapter is sitting on the back of my PC and is really blocked by wood on all sides, with the exception of the computer side which is aluminum. I think if I stuck the bluetooth adapter to the front USB ports or get an USB extension cord, reception should definitely be better.<\/p>\n<p>On the upper right hand side, there&#8217;s this navigational pad, which is similar to a touch pad. It actually works fairly well. I would&#8217;ve preferred it to be in between my 2 thumbs, making mouse control easier, but the location up there isn&#8217;t too bad. However the surface area is a bit tiny and takes about 3 left to right scans to get across the entire screen. I guess having my resolution at 1920&#215;1080 doesn&#8217;t help.<\/p>\n<p>The F1-F12 keys are actually not regular keys, but touch sensitive keys, which are a bit funny to use at first, but nothing too bad about them.<\/p>\n<p>There is no numpad, but not really something I care about on a media center PC. Not having the arrow keys island and the insert\/delete island is a bummer though. I never really used the media keys and if I could redesign the keyboard, I would replace those with the islands.<\/p>\n<p>The worse thing about this keyboard and I truly mean <strong>the worse<\/strong> is the Windows key. I&#8217;m not sure how often you use the Windows key (the key stuck between Alt and Ctrl), but I use it all the time. To bring up explorer (Win+E), to bring up the run prompt (Win+R), to lock my computer (Win+L), to show my desktop (Win+D), etc. They&#8217;ve moved the Windows key to underneath the space bar and it&#8217;s one of those hard to press keys (which actually requires a little muscle), like they don&#8217;t want you to hit it by accident. This got <strong>REALLY ANNOYING REALLY FAST<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 hasn&#8217;t been released yet. According to the website, it looks like the release date is in September 2007. I hadn&#8217;t know about this release date before I got the 7000. The 8000 does have some better features over the 7000 including a rechargeable keyboard, backlit keys, and USB ports. The USB ports are actually part of the charging station. At first I thought it&#8217;d be neat and be like wireless USB if the ports were on the keyboard. A bit too early for that dream I suppose. However, it looks like they still have the <strong>same stupid Windows key problem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So with Microsoft&#8217;s fiscal year ending, I decided to check out the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000. It was a $100 investment (not a cheap keyboard\/mouse combo), but I thought worse case scenario, I&#8217;ll just give this to my parents back home, since their media center wireless mouse and keyboard are rather short ranged. The &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/29\/microsoft-wireless-entertainment-desktop-7000-review\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 Review&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krunk4ever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}