Microsoft Desktop 8000 - Microsoft Desktop 8000
- By Abbas Jaffar Ali
- Published 11 January 2009
- Storage/Input/Misc Devices
- Unrated
I've been using the Windows Media Center for a while now- since the XP Media Center days. I've also stuck to the same Keyboard since then- the original Microsoft iR based MCE keyboard. Its served me well but being iR based, it has its shortcomings such as short range and a not-so stellar mouse performance. Thus the arrival of Desktop 8000 from Microsoft gave me something to smile about.
The Bluetooth based combo comes nicely packaged in a box with all the accessories to get you up and running. These include a Bluetooth USB dongle, the keyboard itself, a Bluetooth mouse and a four port USB hub that acts as a charger for both these devices which can take the Bluetooth USB dongle into one of its ports. Microsoft includes rechargeable batteries in the package for both the mouse and the keyboard. The good thing is that they're the standard AA kind so if you ever run out of power, you can very easily replace them with standard batteries.
To make matters convenient, the charger is designed in such a way that you can easily use your keyboard while its being charged. It's like a plate that your keyboard docks to and your mouse rests upon. While this could work nicely if you have the Desktop 8000 connected to a desktop PC, it isn't necessarily ideal for a Media Center PC which is hooked to your TV ten feet away and the keyboard is held in your hands instead of a table.
Being based on Bluetooth has a few advantages. First of all, it adds Bluetooth capabilities to your desktop allowing you to add other Bluetooth devices easily. Second, with the keyboard being Bluetooth, you can now access its functionality even before Windows starts in places such as the BIOS or Windows startup menu. This wasn’t the case with the original iR based keyboard and I was only able to access it once Windows had initialized its driver. Last and certainly not the least, the range on Bluetooth is much better than iR and you don’t need to point your devices directly to the receiver for them to work best.
Coming to the keyboard itself, as you can see from the picture below, its a little narrower that the older generation iR based MCE keyboard (thanks to a wing-shaped design) and a lot thinner which certainly makes it holding in your hands more comfortable. One excellent thing is that the keys are now back-lighted which not only looks awesome but allows you to navigate easily in a dark room which is how you normally watch a movie.
The standard keys are large in size and have a soft feel about them making typing easy. The Function keys are like ridges on top of the keyboard and can act as Quick Launch buttons. Dedicated keys have now been added for VOiP calling, magnifier and Gadgets while the Windows Key has been re-positioned below the space bar- not something a desktop user would appreciate but good enough for Media Center users. A dedicated Media Center button is also present below the back button on the right side that takes you to the home page of Media Center.
The keyboard layout is re-arranged a bit and IMHO, its for the worse. First of all the STOP button has disappeared from the keyboard. This wouldn’t have been a big issue but I’ve had this bug in Vista for a long time where if you minimize the MCE interface, whatever was stopped in the background starts playing automatically. With the lack of the STOP button on the keyboard, this makes it, shall we say, very inconvenient.
Secondly, the D-Pad now either acts as a D-Pad, or with a flick of a switch, becomes a track-pad found on most notebooks. While the mouse works beautifully in this mode without any lag, you lose the functionality of using the D-Pad together with the mouse pointer. I used this when browsing the web on my Media Center PC where the D-Pad used to work very nicely for scrolling web pages. Granted, the Page Up/Down keys are pretty close to the Mouse Pad, its just not the same.
Coming to the Mouse bundled with the package, it’s a Bluetooth mouse that can work with pretty much any Bluetooth capable computer. Since I don’t use a dedicated the Mouse in my Media Center PC (the one on the keyboard is enough), I paired the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 with my iMac and it worked beautifully. The size for the mouse sf great and fits nicely if you're a left or a right-handed user. You have one side button on each side along with the primary and seconds buttons and the scroll wheel all of which work how you expect them to.
Battery life is probably very decent on both the Desktop 8000 keyboard and Mouse. I've only charged it once since In received it and its still going strong on both almost ten days later.
Overall, the Desktop 8000 is a pretty neat upgrade and even with the couple of minor issues, I prefer it over the older iR based model. The price is a bit steep with the set selling for almost AED 800 which is certainly on the expensive side. Maybe Microsoft can remove the mouse from the package and lower the costs as you really don’t need a separate mouse in a Media Center environment which is what this keyboard is best suited for.
The Bluetooth based combo comes nicely packaged in a box with all the accessories to get you up and running. These include a Bluetooth USB dongle, the keyboard itself, a Bluetooth mouse and a four port USB hub that acts as a charger for both these devices which can take the Bluetooth USB dongle into one of its ports. Microsoft includes rechargeable batteries in the package for both the mouse and the keyboard. The good thing is that they're the standard AA kind so if you ever run out of power, you can very easily replace them with standard batteries.
To make matters convenient, the charger is designed in such a way that you can easily use your keyboard while its being charged. It's like a plate that your keyboard docks to and your mouse rests upon. While this could work nicely if you have the Desktop 8000 connected to a desktop PC, it isn't necessarily ideal for a Media Center PC which is hooked to your TV ten feet away and the keyboard is held in your hands instead of a table.
Being based on Bluetooth has a few advantages. First of all, it adds Bluetooth capabilities to your desktop allowing you to add other Bluetooth devices easily. Second, with the keyboard being Bluetooth, you can now access its functionality even before Windows starts in places such as the BIOS or Windows startup menu. This wasn’t the case with the original iR based keyboard and I was only able to access it once Windows had initialized its driver. Last and certainly not the least, the range on Bluetooth is much better than iR and you don’t need to point your devices directly to the receiver for them to work best.
Coming to the keyboard itself, as you can see from the picture below, its a little narrower that the older generation iR based MCE keyboard (thanks to a wing-shaped design) and a lot thinner which certainly makes it holding in your hands more comfortable. One excellent thing is that the keys are now back-lighted which not only looks awesome but allows you to navigate easily in a dark room which is how you normally watch a movie.
The standard keys are large in size and have a soft feel about them making typing easy. The Function keys are like ridges on top of the keyboard and can act as Quick Launch buttons. Dedicated keys have now been added for VOiP calling, magnifier and Gadgets while the Windows Key has been re-positioned below the space bar- not something a desktop user would appreciate but good enough for Media Center users. A dedicated Media Center button is also present below the back button on the right side that takes you to the home page of Media Center.
The keyboard layout is re-arranged a bit and IMHO, its for the worse. First of all the STOP button has disappeared from the keyboard. This wouldn’t have been a big issue but I’ve had this bug in Vista for a long time where if you minimize the MCE interface, whatever was stopped in the background starts playing automatically. With the lack of the STOP button on the keyboard, this makes it, shall we say, very inconvenient.
Secondly, the D-Pad now either acts as a D-Pad, or with a flick of a switch, becomes a track-pad found on most notebooks. While the mouse works beautifully in this mode without any lag, you lose the functionality of using the D-Pad together with the mouse pointer. I used this when browsing the web on my Media Center PC where the D-Pad used to work very nicely for scrolling web pages. Granted, the Page Up/Down keys are pretty close to the Mouse Pad, its just not the same.
Coming to the Mouse bundled with the package, it’s a Bluetooth mouse that can work with pretty much any Bluetooth capable computer. Since I don’t use a dedicated the Mouse in my Media Center PC (the one on the keyboard is enough), I paired the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 with my iMac and it worked beautifully. The size for the mouse sf great and fits nicely if you're a left or a right-handed user. You have one side button on each side along with the primary and seconds buttons and the scroll wheel all of which work how you expect them to.
Battery life is probably very decent on both the Desktop 8000 keyboard and Mouse. I've only charged it once since In received it and its still going strong on both almost ten days later.
Overall, the Desktop 8000 is a pretty neat upgrade and even with the couple of minor issues, I prefer it over the older iR based model. The price is a bit steep with the set selling for almost AED 800 which is certainly on the expensive side. Maybe Microsoft can remove the mouse from the package and lower the costs as you really don’t need a separate mouse in a Media Center environment which is what this keyboard is best suited for.
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