blog.averetek

I’m a big fan of Logitech gear. I used to swear by Microsoft hardware but became a Logitech convert when I tried out a co-worker’s MX 10 00 mouse. It was amazingly accurate and smooth. I picked up a Cordless Desktop MX 1000 Laser kit for myself and really liked it.

I figured the MX 5000 Laser must be just as good, if not better, right? Not really. For the most part the design of the standard 102 keys is the same as the MX 1000, and for the most part it performs the basic functions of a keyboard properly (in the sense that keystrokes appear on the screen). It fails to meet expectations when it comes to the special features Logitech added.



The MX 5000 sports an integrated 102 x 42 pixel multi-function display. Logitech uses it to show the currently playing song (built-in iTunes and Windows Media support), IM alerts, and the output of the “smart calculator”, a calculator built-in to the keyboard. The keyboard also has everything else you’d expect; media controls, browser navigation, and “special” function keys.

The first thing I noticed is that the keyboard and mouse froze when my co-workers mobile phone rings. This sounds weird I know, especially considering the phone is not Bluetooth capable…just a regular old Nokia. Nonetheless it was predictable, and only a hard reboot of the machine would resolve it. Once there was more than 20 feet between his phone and the keyboard there was no longer an issue.

The other negative is that when the keyboard attempts to display an alert (like an IM contact signing in) on the LCD there is a 10-15 second window where keystrokes are delayed. Disabling the alert functions resolves this, but should I have to? The mouse also experiences delay at weird times but I can’t tie it to any event at this point.

This keyboard has touch-sensitive volume and zoom controls, replacing the volume wheel and media buttons of the MX 1000. The controls are positioned on the left side, which is intuitive to me, but their functioning is flaky. Occasionally the keyboard will take a second to recognize that I’m trying to adjust the volume and then it will rapidly make the adjustment to catch up. I assume this is because the keyboard is just sending a series of keystrokes that are queuing up. The play/pause/next/previous media controls are also touch-sensitive. In order to hit these buttons you actually have to apply pressure to the buttons, but they don’t give way when depressed, which I would expect. Another design problem with the media controls is that there’s no physical differentiation between the buttons so you have to look at them to press one. They’re also really small and grouped closely so I find myself hitting the wrong ones on accident sometimes.

On the plus side the battery life for the rechargeable mouse is great. It was out of the dock for over a week before it needed a charge, and then I just docked it for the night and it was ready in the morning. The keyboard runs on 4 standard AA batteries (included) and if it’s similar to the MX 1000 they will last a few months.

Also cool is the Bluetooth USB receiver that comes with the kit. The receiver is also a hub so it allows you to connect other Bluetooth devices to your PC. I connected my Blackberry 7100 to it in a few simple steps and it works reliably. The specs claim that it has a range of up to 60 feet, but I haven’t tested this.

Suggested retail price is $149. My recommendation is that you wait for the next pass before parting with your cash. From a functional standpoint it does more than most other keyboards but the features that it has that other keyboards lack are borderline gimmicky at best.


UPDATE @ 1/11/05: I'm returning this keyboard. After installing a series of updates from Windows Update I rebooted my machine, only to find that the keyboard could not make a connection to the Bluetooth receiver. I think MS must have pushed something in the update that messes with Logitech's Bluetooth implementation. So I plugged in a regular old PS2 keyboard to my system and no love. No love even after a hard reboot, jacking it in to the USB port, etc. The keyboard was fine in the BIOS but it disappeared once Windows started. I used Remote Desktop to get on my machine and I uninstalled the Logitech software. After that it was back to normal.

Logitech sucks for disabling the PS2 ports on my system, and their Bluetooth keyboard sucks too.