I have to say I am picky when it comes to my HTPC remotes. This is my 7th remote and I would rank it top 3.PROs
button layout great
very form fitting in my hands
range is the same as others (enough to sit on a couch with direct line of sight
battery life
CONs
every so often it cannot keep up with my typing and misses letters
NO backlight
no obstacle can be in the way others you could put in the back of a pc this has to go in front
If the cons are not that bad I would recommend this, My favorite of all time is the Rii mini the black one from 2009. It may not have the best layout but its reliable and once you have gone through as many as I have you just want something that works
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This tiny keyboard is handy for controlling a home theatre computer. You won't want to write a book, or maybe even emails, with a keyboard like this, but it is great for typing in a URL, username, password, etc.I bought it to use with an MK802 II Mini Android PC, and it is well suited for that purpose for occasional control purposes. You just take the USB dongle and plug it into the USB socket for the Mini PC (the dongle was located in the battery compartment). No drivers or settings, it just starts working when the Mini PC boots.
It also has a touchpad mouse that works with single-gesture finger touches. Mouse buttons are located on left and right side of the touchpad, but there is another pair, with bigger buttons and in a handier location, at the left side of the keyboard.
There is a built-in rechargeable battery, and a micro-USB socket that you plug a cable into to recharge the device. I was really pleased to find that the keyboard came to me pre-charged, ready to use, a nice touch.
As a fast typist and mouse user on a conventional PC for many years, this device seems a bit slow and clunky to use by comparison. It's thumb typing, not touch typing. Positioning the mouse is not as rapid (for me) as a "real" mouse.
The tradeoff, of course, is the small size. A full conventional keyboard and mouse requires a lot of space and a table surface. The table near the home theatre is not well suited to this, and I don't require the speed and flexibility of conventional keyboard and mouse, because with a home theatre PC, you mainly use the controls to start your entertainment, and except for games, there is not much further interaction.
The device is a bit smaller than I expected. It is like two remote controls side by side, except thinner, and with a nice curvy shape that is easy to hold in two hands for operation. It seems solid and well built. I don't expect keys to come flying off, for example, and because they are rubber rather than plastic, there's a good chance that the key labels will stay a good while.
Although I have not tried it, I assume that this device could be used with a conventional keyboard and mouse also plugged into the USB port (perhaps using a small hub). I think it can be used with PCs and Macs. I will update this review once I have tried some of these things.
BOTTOM LINE: Four stars means "I Like It". It is a very handy device for infrequent interactions with the computer.I thought this thing would work perfectly as a way to interact with my google-TV.
The battery housing is such that the battery contacts don't remain in constant contact with the terminals. . . leading to spotty performance.
After one month of use, the battery doesn't hold a charge, so the only way I can use my "wireless" keyboard is to plug it into a usb charger with an extension cord on it.
The keys don't seem to catch every click. Sometimes they capture 2 clicks.
Now, I don't know for sure how much of the key-click problems are related to the keyboard or to the googleTV device I have. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten a larger-sized keyboard, with a bigger battery.
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I received this keyboard late last week and while for the most part it seems to be very well built and work really well, I found that the "I" key on my keyboard was defective. It requires A LOT of pressure, at first I thought it was totally broken.I already started the return process on amazon and will update my review if the replacement ordered works without problems.
UPDATE: I received a new one of these. The new one seems to work great. All keys work consistently so far. I found some minor connection issues when I had it connected to a hub. I connected it directly and have not had any problems since (maybe some interaction with the hub?
So far my experience has included Windows 7 and some android use.
Of all mini keyboards, in terms of feel and layout this is my favorite. My reasons include:
1. scroll function (missing in many similarly priced keyboards, mostly fly-mouse types)
2. navigation arrows and centered OK button are the most used function of all for HTPC
3. Dedicated volume / mute and media keys
I will continue to update as things develop. For the moment I have upgraded my one star review to four stars.
UPDATE 1/7/2013:
I like this keyboard very much overall. However, I found that when used with a hub (and I have tried two different ones) sometimes the trackpad will not work or the connection will break (and I have to turn off and back on to get it working again). It could also be interactions with the other harware I have on the hub, such as thumb drives, etc. but only the keyboard seems to exhibit issues.
At least, going to a direct USB port seems to work well. This might help people with erratic performance who have not yet tried using a direct (no hub) port.
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