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Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth

List Price: $179.95
Your Price: $153.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rechargeable Batteries OK
Review: I have used rechargeable (NiMH) AA batteries in several Logitech wireless keyboards and they all work fine. There is a sticker right on the keyboard warning you not to do this, so do it at your own risk. However, I have been doing it for over a year and have had no problems.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So far, rather thrilled
Review: I purchased this product due to its Bluetooth capabilities. While it takes a bit more setup than your standard keyboard and mouse, it works extremely well. The keyboard and mouse work very well and have a great feel. The keyboard is extremely comfortable. The mouse charger also acts as a Bluetooth hub, which I used to connect my Palm Pilot and hope to use with a Bluetooth enabled phone soon.

The software also provides a few nice extras, such as onscreen volume display. Cap Lock/Num Lock/Scroll Lock onscreen display.

It came down to this product or the Microsoft Bluetooth setup. I chose Logitech both because of my previous success with their products and because the keyboard is a standard layout. The Microsoft version moves the Insert/Delete// block of six keys into a two column formation and doubles the size of the delete key. As a programmer, this frustrated me to no end.

Overall I am very impressed and I am planning on purchasing a duplicate set for my home.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Logitech Bluetooth MX Duo VS Logitech MX Duo
Review: I purchased this product to updgrade from my regular Logitech MX Duo, because I needed a bluetooth mouse for my laptop, and figured I might as well upgrade my keyboard as well.

While the bluetooth duo (referred to as the bt duo form here on) appears to be a good upgrade from the original MX Duo (referred to as the rf duo from here on), there are some drawbacks worth mentioning.

The most obvious is price. (...) closing that gap considerably.

The keyboard and mouse of both sets are essentially the same, just with cordless technologies. What is not clear from pictures of the product is that the bluetooth duo uses an entirely different color scheme! The rf duo is black and silver, and in the pictures on this site and logitech's site the bt duo appears exactly the same. This is not the case! The bt keyboard uses a very elegant dark gray/bluish silver scheme similar to that of the dinovo keyboard. The mouse on the other hand, replaces the black and silver of the rf mouse with a cheesy looking dark grey and a more sparkly silver. Obviously this is a matter of personal preference, but I think the new color scheme should be noted and made more obvious on the logitech site and store sites. I wish I had known about this color difference when I purchased it, because it doesn't quite match my black tower and monitor.

In addition to this, the new materials in the bt mouse are inferior to those of the rf mouse. The solid feeling, smooth black rubber on the rf duo mouse has been replaced by a rougher, harder feeling substance which doesn't feel very pleasant. The side back and forward buttons don't feel as solid as those on the rf mouse. Overall the bt mouse feels much more like a toy.

The hub for the bluetooth duo is about the same in appearance as that of the rf duo. It is much more powerful however. It is an actual bluetooth hub, and you can connect any bluetooth device to it. One minor gripe for me is that the connect button is lit in this set, with a blue led which looks cool in the daytime. I sleep in the same room as my computer however, and this little light being on at night is going to annoy me.

The most obvious advantage of the bt duo over the rf duo is range. My rf duo could get maybe 6 feet from the computer on a good day. The bluetooth duo has a range of about 5 times the rf duo, and works through walls.

This extended range is not at a price, however. The bt keyboard requires 4 batteries, instead of the original 2 of the rf keyboard. It has been said by other reviewers that battery life is much shorter on the bt keyboard also. I would imagine the more powerful bt radio would cause a significant decrease in battery life. My old rf keyboard went for months on end without replacement batteries. Hopefully the bt keyboard won't bankrupt me from new batteries.

For the mouse this is not as much of an issue due to the charging station, but I will still be bringing extra batteries when I use the mouse with my laptop.

Software wise, I had no problems with the set up and installation of the bt duo. It is a very good, albeit memory hungry software set. The rf duo software used less memory, but this is not as much of an issue to me as it would be to some.

Overall, this is a fine product, but if you don't need the range or versatility provided by bluetooth, I would stick with the tried and true (and cheaper) rf duo.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The curse of cordless is powerless
Review: I still remember when I bought my first Palm III: it was a cool product, but the replacement of batteries made it a very annoying toy. I also find it very un-ecological. Fortunately, the Palm V eventually came out, with a rechargeable battery built in. That made the whole difference to me.

Any cordless device is bound to have this problem, since we haven't yet discovered how to transfer power through airwaves (wouldn't that be a great invention).

The Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth is a perfect example of the above. The mouse ahs a built-in battery that can be recharged in a station, just like a cordless phone. More unfortunately, the keyboard uses four AA batteries.

Any desk product that trades off batteries for a power cable is very questionable in my opinion. If it was hardly justifiable for a Palm, I just can't find a reason to do so for your desktop keyboard. The mouse, on the other hand, is an excellent item. I see that it can be bought without the keyboard--probably a smart trade-off.

The set itself is very beautiful and sturdy, and the installation on XP was extremely easy. I cannot wait to use Bluetooth with my Palm m515. Whether it will drain the battery in two hours is a question I would like to know the answer to.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as bad as the_emperor_of_ice_ (reviewer two below) notes
Review: I'm not here to do a full-fledged review. Just that I've installed this combo for both my wife and a friend of mine and have seen a few months with both. Nobody has complained about the batteries or poor icons or what have you. Logitech keyboard designs have been using the same batteries for ages. We have owned about three Logitech keyboards and the batteries have only needed changing maybe once or twice a year tops. I basically just keep an eight pack in the house and have never run into issues. BTW, I get paid to review games. And I'll be honest, I like the Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse combos as well but I prefer this Bluetooth combos to Microsoft's current one.

The Bluetooth hub worked with both Nokia and Ericsson Bluetooth-enabled phones. The mouse is basically modeled on the Logitech MX700, which has proven to be my favourite mouse since Logitech's iFeel Mouseman (no longer in production). I don't notice lag in games and the charger is nice to have.

I've been using computers (heavy, heavy usage) since 1983-ish and this mouse is nothing close to as terrible as TheEmperorOfIce made out (no disrespect to you--I just don't agree with your summation and I've used these combos for several months). In addition to these reviews, go out and Google this item and read some other reviews and see what they think. Don't just take my word for it. This combo is not quite perfect, but it's pretty damn good.

Last but not least, head over to your local Best Buy/Circuit City/CompUSA/Fry's and check the combo out in person before you go online and order it for less cash. Not every keybaord/mouse combo is perfect for every person. Have a good one and enjoy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not for Noobies
Review: I've been using the MX for about 4 months now, and haven't had a single problem. The keyboard batteries haven't been a problem, and I hammer away at the keys for 10 hours a day. The mouse is nice because it has some weight to it, not like the crappy mice you typically get with a new desktop computer.

The only complaint I've got is the amount of clutter on the keyboard. It's got office short cuts, F-keys that double as additional short-cut keys, and it's even got a scroll wheel on the left edge. Why? And the worst design decision of all: the hibernate key is just to the left of the escape key. All you vi users out there may find yourself putting your PC to sleep instead of getting out of insert mode.

Overall, a great product, if you have some amount of clue with which to use it properly.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A great Idea, but poorly executed
Review: Preveously I used the Logitech "cordless elite duo." This product worked reliably, installed easily, and the bundled "itouch" software was intuitive and easy to use. The only downfall was the limited range. If I set the keyboard on my lap, below the level of the desk where the receiver rests, the connection is poor resulting in missed keystrokes. Even with it's heafty price tag I was egar to buy what I thought would be the same keyboard with the extended range of Bluetooth, as well as bluetooth connectivity. Sadly, the "Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth" has been sorely disapointing for the following reasons.
1) Fragile transmission device in keyboard. Don't so much as sneeze hard on the keyboard of the transmitter will stop functioning rendering the keyboard useless. I am very careful with my keyboard and still had this problem, and "damage caused by the user" is not covered under waranty.
2) Cumbersome to set up.
3) Bundled Software Stinks. The bundled has been changed from the previously used "itouch" software which was intuitive and easy to use to "setpoint" software which is slow and cumbersome. For example w/ the old software any of the extra buttons at the top of the keyboard could be assigned to almost anything (program, web page, etc) quickly and easily (eg ctrl + button assigns current web page to that button). The new software allows only programs for certain buttons, and only web sites for other buttons, and th process of assigning the button is cumbersome.
4) Several of the keys lack previous functionality. The Mouse wheel lacks the universal scrooll functionality that every other mouse has. Specifically it scrolls ok, but pressing the scroll wheen does nothing. Additionally the scroll wheel at the left of the keyboard no longer has re-assignable functionality (for example many users assign the volume to this wheel, as the other volume controll wheel on the logitech keyboards doesn't work very well.
5) The point about the new setpoint software being bad, really can't be over-emphasized. In addition to being more cumbersome to use, it is a 40mb poorly functioning monstrosity that creates a noticable lag when it's functions are used. (for example when clicking on the "back" button on the mouse, there is a noticible delay before the jump to the prevous web page/folder etc. It is considerably slower that other mice.

I give it 2 stars rather than just one, because during the time it was working (in it's own cumbersome slow way) during the 1 month I used it before the keyboard transmitter stopped functioning, it did connect wirelessly without inturruption.

In summary, bluetooth connectivity for keyboards and mice is a good idea, because of the icreased range, but Logitech really missed the mark with this product

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Bluetooth Desktop System
Review: Pros:
Rechargeable mouse unlike Microsoft. Best optical mouse you can buy. Keyboard can enter Bios and wake from suspend unlike Microsoft keyboard. Able to use through a USB switch to share with my laptop and desktop. Excellent feel and feature set. Long range makes it an excellent choice for a HTPC.

Cons:
Short delay while Bluetooth devices are first detected on power up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth is amazing
Review: The Logitech Cordless MX Duo provided comfort, style, rechargeable mouse and most importantly MX technology. With the new advancement with the MX technology, it was still missing one main component, Bluetooth technology. It makes any component capable of achieving wireless range of thirty feet and nearly perfect communication integrity with the Bluetooth Wireless Hub. Not only does the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth contain Bluetooth technology, it still retains all previous terrific features from the keyboard and the mouse. ...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Perfect until XP SP2 Install
Review: This Keyboard and Mouse combo is a dream. Wireless perfection with a great range -- thats until SP2 came around August 2004. No end of problems as the new Bluetooth functionality of XP SP2 doesn't recgonize the Logitech Hardware. Logitech's software gags on the installation so I'm back to a wired setup. CAUTION: Check the Logitech Website for a SP2 Driver update Before buying this, but once its fixed -- happy days.


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