Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite

Today I want to look at one of the new range of products introduced by Microsoft, the Wireless Optical Desktop Elite. Combining a very slick wireless keyboard and a revamped and improved version of the popular Intellimouse Explorer this could very well be what your desktop has been waiting for.

Let's get to it!

First Impressions:::...

There aren't many companies who can tread the fine line between marketing and image the way Microsoft do. The box hypes all the important features without ever looking like it's shooting for mass market appeal. This box says "I'm a professional product that anyone can own", and that's not for from the truth.

And inside the box comes everything you need to get up and running immediately, including a USB to PS/2 adaptor for those of you not fortunate enough to have a USB capable motherboard yet. Even the batteries are good quality "Energizers" rather than the usual cheap generic jobs.

The Mouse:::...

Without a doubt the headline feature for this new range of input devices is the "Tilt Wheel". Microsft have done what Microsoft do best and looked long and hard at one of those features that seemed just about impossible to redesign and then redesigned it!
 
 

The humble scroll wheel now offers not only vertical but also horizontal scrolling too. This is achieved simply by "tilting" the scroll wheel to the left or right. So simple it's almost genius! Importantly none of the other scroll functions have been compromised to achieve this and scrolling is still as effortless as ever. The scroll wheel also still functions as an additional button by depressing it.

In use I found it took me a little while to get used to the new scroll wheel. Not because of the tilt function but because Microsoft have done away with the familiar click action and replaced it with a totally smooth rotation. This coupled with the resistance that's been built in to stop accidental movement makes it feel like your finger is sliding on the rubber coated wheel rather than actually turning it. It works flawlessly, it just takes some time to get used to the new sensation.

The defining feature of the Intellimouse Explorer are the two additional buttons on the left hand side of the mouse.

My only gripe with Microsoft's mice, and it's a fairly longstanding gripe, is the relatively small ammount of "meat" on the pads. The current trend for hard, textured plastic mouse mats means the small surface area of these pads can be worn away to nothing in a matter of weeks in some cases. If the pads need to be this thin in order to keep the optical sensor close to the working surface than perhaps Microsoft should consider slightly increasing the pads' surface area or supplying a few spare sets. Unfortunately the IntelliMouse Explorer is not suitable for left handed users, though there are several universal models in the new range.


 

The Reciever:::...

Small, chic and curvy enough to grace any desktop, the lozenge shaped receiver features a "learn" button for registering and enabling new wireless devices and three green LEDs to notify you that the Caps Lock, Number Lock and F Lock (Function Lock) features are activared. A nice touch is that the LEDs are slightly angled so even at the back of your desk or under you monitor shelf if you have one they should be visible.

I tried running several electrical devices from hair dryers to hard drives close to the reciever and none had any effect on its operation. Range was around ten feet line of sight and six feet or so otherwise for the mouse while the keyboard bettered this with a range of about twelve feet plus.

Installation:::...

Unlike some wireless devices I've used this time it really was plug and play. Even without the new Intellipoint (mouse) software and Intellitype (keyboard) software everything worked, only that some of the more advanced features weren't available.

One of the really useful features for me was the keyboard's "My Favourites" function. To use this you simply navigate to the website you want to store then hold down one of the five numbered buttons for a second or so and the following panel opens:

Under the five buttons is one labeled "Show Favourites". Pressing this one brings up this panel:

The ability to double up the "show favourites" button as a shift button by holding it down would have allowed the five favourites to double up to ten which could have been more useful. Still, it's a great idea and one that's a real time saver. You can also assign files or programs to these buttons too which again stresses the need for a few additional locations.

One thing that would be useful is for you to assign a name to each location rather than it displaying the path. Some files, programs and sites have paths and URLs that bare no resemblance to what they actually are.

Just about all the main parameters can be tinkered with from within the Intellitype and Intellipoint software from pointer and scroll wheel speeds to reprogramming the various function buttons. A useful feature is the ability to check the signal quality and battery condition of your wireless devices.

And although many of the mouse features are now fairly commonplace I really love the accelerated scrolling option which increases the scroll speed sensitivity as the wheel gets turned faster, a real boon if you want to get to the bottom of a long page quickly.

The On Screen Display uses small, relatively high-res graphics that look far more professional than the usual bulky looking pre-school fonts often used for such purposes.

The Keyboard:::...

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a massive fan of button-packed multimedia keyboards. As rule. by the time I've located the correct button and pressed it I could have done the same thing twice with my mouse. My mother however swears by hers and does almost everything with the keyboard function buttons so it's quite possible I'm the exception rather than the norm. That said, I have found myself using them more on this keyboard than any other I've owned so maybe the winds of change they are-a-blowing!

Out of the box this keyboard is a bit of a strange beast. It looks and feels huge yet alongside my trusty Microsoft Internet Keyboard it's not actually as big as it seems.

One things for certain, this keyboard oozes class. The black, gun metal grey and silver colour scheme is very "in" right now and if you have a black case too this is certainly the pièce de résistance.

The buttons are frosted and semi-transparent as you can probably see best from the picture above. The symbols are printed on them in white though with my desk light at some angles they can be quite difficult to see. Kind of like white lines on a wet road when the sun comes out. To allow for the added function buttons the keys are also packed quite close together which may take a short while to get used to, particularly for typo-prone two-finger typists like myself.

Most of the main functions are laid out along the top of the keyboard. Over on the very right are the Calculator, Log Off and Sleep buttons. The "F Lock" button works in the same way as the Caps Lock or Num Lock buttons and is used to toggle between the dual function sets available on the top row of keys.

To the right of the main media control buttons are three 'Net related function buttons and three file access buttons. For some reason I never, ever use the My Documents, My Pictures and My Music" folders, prefering to set up slightly more specific storage locations, but all is not lost. I changed "My Documents" so it opened Dreamweaver, I changed "My Pictures" so it opened Photoshop and changed "My Music" so it opened my MP3 folder. Easy!

Taking the "Head of the Household" central location are the media control buttons. As you'd expect there's the ability to launch your media player, play and pause your media, change its volume, mute it and navigate through it. These buttons are slightly larger than the others.

To the left of these are the innovative "My Favourites" buttons as we discussed on the previous page, and below these the "Show Favourites" button which brings up the list of what's been allocated to which location.

And just to put the glaze on the cherry that's on the icing that's on the cake, a second tilt wheel and a pair of Web page navigation buttons as found on the mouse itself. If that seems kind of pointless I thought so too, but that didn't stop me using it. In fact in a lot of cases it seems far more natural to scroll a page with this wheel than it does the mouse wheel.

And if all that wasn't enough, how about the added luxury of a padded leather-look wrist rest. Yes, now you can own a keyboard that matches your luxury executive leather swivel chair, or if your like me, compensates for the fact you don't own a luxury executive leather swivel chair.

In use both the keyboard and mouse performed admirably. The key action feels lively and responsive and the functional and ergonomic aspects are very well thought through. The mouse meanwhile tracked with perfection, never once faltering unless you count the time I drove off the edge of my mouse mat. Microsoft tells me the optical sample rate is 6000 frames per second which no doubt explains its ability to keep pacfe no matter how fast I moved my hand.For the first time in a while I think I can happily declare this an optical mouse fit for even avid gamers. Or let me put it another way, if you can move this mouse fast enough that it leaves the cursor behind yet still have the accuracy to stop dead pointing at what you wanted to shoot at then perhaps earth technology isn't ready for your race yet.

Initially I found it quite difficult to turn the mouse's scroll wheel at any great speed without accidentally pressing it and activating the switch but as the wheel resistance eased over the first few hours of use it became much easier. Microsoft tell me that it's quite normal for it to take around 25 revolutions of the wheel for the lubricant to circulate and the wheel resisitence to begin to settle down.

Conclusion

Don't underestimate the importance of the seemingly mundane parts of your PC setup. Things like your keyboard, mouse, monitor and even your chair may not make for exciting purchases but they are far more important to your experiences as a user than the high glitz items. With an estimated 6 month battery life for the average user, a claim I wasn't able to test, wireless technology has come of age, as has the optical mouse. No user should these days own a mouse with a ball in it, they're simply not worth the cash you save.

I often try to guess the street price of review items before I look and on this occasion I overshot the actual price by some way. With a price tag of under £40 the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Elite represents excellent value for money. Why not treat yourself or even someone else to a very classy piece of kit.

We have 250 of these in stock.

Please note that all prices exclude vat