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| Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth Keyboard |
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Along with Microsoft, Logitech have been the market leader in keyboard design and innovation. Today we’re taking a
look at the Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth Keyboard, and see if it is really worth its high asking price.
With a RRP price of AU$349.00, the diNovo Edge is certainly not cheap, and can any keyboard really be worth that much money when they all do pretty much the same thing? Well I’m writing this review on one of them, so I’m sure to find out.
The retail package includes a small USB Bluetooth 2.0 dongle that in itself requires no drivers under Windows XP or Vista, which is handy to add Bluetooth connectivity to your PC or laptop to use with other devices, not just this keyboard. A charging base is also included as the keyboard has internal rechargeable batteries, which don’t seem in any way to be user changeable, so I hope they last a long time and a lot of charge cycles.
The keyboard itself is certainly good looking, a high-gloss black frame and brushed aluminium hand rest give a very comfortable typing position when used on a desktop, and still feels nice when using it on your lap, like you would if controlling your media centre PC in your lounge room.
The face of the keyboard is very clutter free considering the amount of shortcut keys and touchpads it has. Every Function [F] key doubles as a shortcut key. When you press the [Fn] key in the bottom right of the keyboard, the F-key shortcuts light up above their respective keys and fade away nicely when the [Fn] key is released. The shortcuts include VoIP (MSN Messenger), Search, Mail, Internet, Media Player controls, and 4 programmable keys. I say 4, but in actual fact, all the keys except the media player control keys can be reprogrammed to anything you like through the Logitech software.
The keys on the diNovo Edge are flat laptop style keys with a very short downstroke, so the touch is very light. And despite its size, the keyboard is without a number pad, which is a bit of a disappointment, but in its place, you get a cursor touchpad for mouse control, and a touchpad slider for volume control that looks and feels like it come out of Star Trek. Both these touchpads light up in a very cool way when you use them. Above the volume control touchpad you have a Media Player launch button, which can launch any media or DVD player you tell it to.
The cursor touchpad also includes sections for horizontal and vertical scrolling, certainly much better looking than a scroll wheel included on some keyboards, but personally I still prefer a normal scroll wheel. The scrolling on the touchpad is imprecise and sometimes lags a bit before it realises what you want it to do. The cursor movement however is excellent, easily as good as any laptop touchpad for speed, ease and accuracy, with the normal tap-to-click option included as well. The left and right mouse buttons are located just below the cursor touchpad.
Battery life with the diNovo Edge is unlikely to be a problem, I got it out of the box today with about 70% charge, turned it on and off (via a physical switch on the keyboard) more times than I can count, played with everything that lights up for hours for the photos, and have even been typing this review on it, and it’s still saying I have 34 days of ‘normal use’ left, seems like you’d only have to put the keyboard back in the charger every couple of months! One point to note is that when I was turning it on and off to get it to light up (see pic below), it never needed to be re-synced with the PC, and it always worked straight away.
There are more features on the left hand side of the keyboard, including zoom controls, which work with everything from Office and Internet Explorer to Photoshop, a sleep/standby button and another left-click mouse button. This additional left-click button comes in handy when using the keyboard on your lap, one thumb using the cursor touchpad, and the other doing the clicking, very cool inclusion.
Conclusion:
This keyboard is obviously aimed more at the media PC market, and if Logitech were trying to outdo Microsoft’s Remote Media PC Keyboard, they’ve done it hands down. This keyboard has a better feel, far better mouse control, and has a Bluetooth connection rather than IR (what was Microsoft thinking with that one?). Unfortunately it is way over double the price, almost triple in fact. But if I had to buy one with my own money, I’d still have one of these over the Microsoft any day.
OzHardware Rating – 8/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au
