Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard (Black)
by Logitech
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List Price: Our Price: $138.99 You Save: $41.00 (23%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $65.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard (Black)
Customer Review: Feels even better than it looks (and no problems in Linux)
Summary: 5 Stars
When another HTPC-style keyboard finally irritated me enough to replace it, I decided to try the diNovo Edge. In photos, the Edge looks attractive enough, but I always thought that the slimness made it look a little, well, flimsy. After actually getting it and trying it in person, (a) it looks even classier than the photos, and (b) it's got a nice heft and rigidity to it that gives it a feeling of quality I was not expecting. It really is a brushed aluminum piece there, not shiny plastic. Admittedly, it's expensive, but after trying it out I don't think it's disproportionately so.
About the trackpad ("TouchDisc"): I noticed some reviews commenting that it's nothing special. That's partially true; for the most part, it works just like normal laptop trackpad, which is good. The scrolling support has an interesting feature, though: on normal rectangular laptop trackpads, you place your finger at the right edge of the trackpad, and move it up and down to scroll. But you soon hit the top or bottom edge of the trackpad and have to stop. On the diNovo Edge you start the same way, by placing your finger at the right edge, but because it's round you instead move clockwise or counterclockwise to scroll, so you never have to stop. So once you start it scrolling you can just keep spinning your finger in circles around the outside edge over and over, pause, or change direction. The speed and accuracy of this approach are both big improvements, particularly when scrolling up and down long pages.
As for Linux support: no need for special drivers for the support of the main keys or the touchpad. In fact, many of the special media keys worked as expected out of the box, including the volume slider. Depending on what you're using to map keyboard shortcuts, though, not all of the media keys were available to be mapped without some tweaking. For these, a program called "keytouch" (probably available in most package managers) let me program the rest; it included settings for a different diNovo keyboard that seems to work fine for the Edge and includes most of those other keys already.
Customer Review: Stylish and nice to use
Summary: 5 Stars
First, I'm going to break this into three parts - the "keyboard" itself, the touchpad, and the extras
keyboard:
This keyboard has a "tight" layout - very little wasted space and everything is fairly close together. It's kind of like a laptop, but with nicer keys. They're all nice and springy but easy to push.. There's no number pad, but since this is a wireless keyboard, most people want it smaller rather than an extra 3-4 inches long. It's very nice to type on
touchpad:
The touchpad takes a little getting used to if you normally use your left hand. However, it's much nicer than the middle-mounted touchpads you might find elsewhere in that I don't keep slapping it with my palm. You can turn it on and off through hardware buttons, and if you don't like the tap to click thing, there's a dedicated "click" button on the left side. It seems like it would be a little awkward to use, but I just tap the pad anyway. In addition to being a touchpad, it also has scroll features - I feel these are of dubious use but they seem to work well enough.
extras:
This keyboard has a lot of extra button features. It has dedicated zoom buttons on the left, and then you can program F1-F4 and F9-F12 using SetPoint. The "FN" key is a little awkwardly located on the right side where the context menu button normally goes, but I don't normally use the extra feature sort of things anyhow. F5-F8 are media control buttons, and there's a "sleep" button in the top left, complemented by a "media" button in the top right. Thankfully, Logitech really got this one right - not only is the sleep button where it's hard to press it accidentally and it's harder to press than a regular key, but it's also programmable (mine is programmed to "do nothing")
This is an amazing keyboard. My main goal was to have a wireless board where I didn't need to sit near a mouse, and this performs admirably. Whether it's worth over $100 to you is your decision, but unlike the $70 mouse-keyboard combo I got last Summer, this seems sturdy enough to last for a couple years at least.
Customer Review: Give your home theater-PC the Edge
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros:
- Stylish, sleek, and sexy addition to the house / living room.
- A built in trackpad removes the need for another wireless device, and a left-click button located on the left side on the keyboard enhances browsing experience.
- Programmable extra function keys allow for easy access to most used programs.
- A built in lithium-ion battery reduces weight and adds convenience, typically holding a charge for an astonishing two months at a time.
Cons:
- The keyboard sometimes loses connection and needs to be power cycled to re-establish connection (there is a connect button located on the back, but pressing so takes just a long).
- There is no backlight for the keys.
- The built in li-ion battery limits product life, as it will need to be sent in when the battery can no longer hold a charge.
Grade: A-
Bottom Line:
This keyboard is not meant for gaming or data entry (this is primarily a matter of battery maintenance and not comfort - the keys are very comfortable and responsive). From the price tag, now a much more reasonable amount down from the original $200, and its ostentatious design, one can easily see how it was meant to be a fine addition to a home theater + PC set-up. This translates to light and convenient use for Web surfing or streaming videos/movies. When there are friends over, we often find ourselves gathered around the TV, passing this keyboard around, showing each other new websites and cool videos. It is useful, durable -capable of withstanding even beer splashes - and enviable.
Recommended if your monitor is your TV on the other side of the room, but not if your monitor is directly in front of you. For that, I would recommend a cheaper wireless/wired keyboard.
Tip:
For li-ion batteries, high charge levels (fully charging it) and elevated temperatures hasten permanent capacity loss. Therefore, do not charge it everyday and do not leave it near windows or hot PCs.
Customer Review: Maserati of Keyboards
Summary: 5 Stars
This keyboard is quite expensive, but, if you have the extra money to dish out, worth it.
I use this on a notebook-turned-HTPC (Home Theater PC), and it does EVERYTHING I need it to, while looking good doing it.
Install was a breeze - plug in the adapter, synch the keyboard to it (simple press of a button), and Windows 7 saw it and went off to the races. The real fun, though, starts when you install the included SetPoint software and start customizing. You can adjust what the sleep and media center hotkeys do, as well as what actions are performed by 8 hidden function keys (that are practically invisible until the Fn key is held down - then they illuminate in a subtle amber light).
Everything on this keyboard is sleek and useful. There is a touch-based volume control, which triggers an on-screen notification of your current volume (again, very handy for a HTPC). There are, of course, media controls - also hidden until the Fn key is pressed.
Best of all, there's an integrated trackpad, with vertical and horizontal scrolling built in. Touch it, and the ring around the pad illuminates to guide you. Touch the right side of the ring and track around the circle - clockwise for down, counter for up - and you can scroll through a webpage with ease.
Amazingly, with all these features and a very reliable bluetooth connection, the battery life is preposterously long. I charged it two days ago for maybe three hours - and have been using the keyboard regularly since - and the SetPoint software is still saying I have 60 days of battery left. I've not tested the battery life thoroughly, so I can't speak expertly on it, but so far I am quite impressed.
Overall, this a beautiful keyboard that I am very happy with. It is way more than I've ever spent on a keyboard, but feels worth every penny. It's built sturdily, looks gorgeous, and does everything I need it to do.
Customer Review: Ideal "Home Theater PC" Keyboard
Summary: 5 Stars
If I were going to use this as a primary PC keyboard, I'd rate it lower... I much prefer a "full keyboard" when working (as I am now). But that's not what I'm using it for, and I don't really think that's what the "target usage" ever was.
This keyboard is PERFECTLY suited for the living room, and the "Home Theater PC" application role. It's small, stylish, and has more than enough range to work from a TV tray or coffee table across the room from my HTPC (which is hooked up to my big-screen flat-panel through my receiver).
Most of the time, when using the HTPC, I don't even use a keyboard (or mouse). I just use the remote control, almost entirely from within "Media Center." However, when ripping music, or configuring software, or updating Windows, or on those rare situations when I want to do "normal computing" in the living room, this does it all.
The "touch disk" is FAR superior to the conventional touchpad, as far as I'm concerned, if for no other reason than that it's NOT WHERE I'LL ACCIDENTALLY BUMP IT (which is why, on my laptop, I've permanently disabled the touchpad and instead us a handheld trackball). The charge capacity is terrific (I've let it go for several weeks without a charge and never seen even a hint of signal loss).
The only issue I've ever had was with a neighbor who, apparently, bought one of these for herself and kept "channel hopping" to the same channel I was on. A brief "teaching moment" with her and I was able to get her to set it to a particular "channel" and then ensure that mine was on a different one. If you have difficulties... check into that, first. If there are multiple devices in the same place, using similar technologies, trying to use the same channel... you'll frequently lose your connection and have to turn the device on and off to reconnect. Frustration, but easily fixed by a little consideration between neighbors!