Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 Review
Reviewed by Andrew Lambert on November 18, 2007

Newegg.com Price: $129.99 U.S.
Category: Input Device
Microsoft Info: Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000

In the box:

The Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 is packaged in a red and black box containing the following components:

• Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard 7000
• Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000
• Mouse recharging station with AC Adapter
• USB Bluetooth Dongle
• Microsoft IntelliType Pro 6.1 and Microsoft IntelliPoint 6.1 Installation CD (Includes Windows and MacOS Versions)
• 4 AA Non-rechargeable Batteries
• 2 Rechargeable AA Batteries
• Quick installation pamphlet

Installation:

Initial installation was a breeze. All I had to do was install the batteries (and charge the mouse), plug in the included USB Bluetooth dongle and Windows did the rest. Both Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows XP Professional SP2 automatically recognized the Bluetooth adapter and installed the appropriate drivers. After installing the Bluetooth drivers both versions automatically installed the necessary drivers for the mouse and keyboard. No reboot, no fuss, no muss.

Installing the optional (but recommended) software presented no surprises. If you have ever installed a program on Windows, then you will have no trouble with these programs. The included versions of IntelliType Pro and IntelliPoint have already been superseded by a newer version, so you should download the updated version rather than use the bundled CD.

I noticed that the mouse seemed sluggish and the keyboard reaction time to my keystrokes slowed to a crawl when using some very processor intensive programs. I was able to solve this by switching to hardware managed Bluetooth rather than software managed. Microsoft seems to recommend using a software managed setup, but if you experience the same problem you may want to try switching.

Features:

The Microsoft Wireless Desktop 7000 is a small, light and sleek wireless keyboard and mouse set. Both the keyboard and mouse connect via Bluetooth through the included USB Bluetooth dongle. The set is certified for use with Microsoft Windows Vista. Thanks to Microsoft for providing the reviewer with the hardware. The test machine was a custom built rig with a 2.66GHz Intel Celeron D processor and 2GB of RAM running Windows Vista Ultimate (32 bit) and Windows XP Professional SP2 (32 bit). This review focuses on the hardware's use in Windows Vista.

The keyboard is quite remarkable. Though lacking the standard 10-key numeric keypad, it includes a number of innovative and interesting features, as well as a bunch of nifty buttons to satisfy the button-freak in each of us.

In addition to the standard media control buttons (play, pause, volume, etc.) this keyboard boasts a number of unique controls. Among these is the built in touchpad. The touchpad allows the user to use the mouse pointer without having to actually reach for the mouse. In addition, the touchpad can be switched over to a four-way directional pad with an 'ok' button in the center. This eases the use of the keyboard to control such things as the onscreen menus on DVDs and DVRs, as well as in Microsoft's own Media Center.

Other buttons include the already mentioned standard media buttons plus a record button (for use with DVR software), channel up and down buttons for switching TV channels, a Windows Live Call Button to launch your Windows Live Messenger contact list, a dedicated Media Center start button for access to Windows Media Center features, plus a screen magnifier button and a 'Gadgets' Button for quick access to Windows Vista's gadgets.

Some of the special buttons require the installation of Microsoft's Intellitype software (included and free to download).

An extremely interesting feature of the keyboard is the use of 'touchpad' like patches for the F1 through F12 keys, the Home, End, and Escape keys. These 'keys' are merely touch sensitive bumps along the top of the keyboard. While this is a really cool feature at first, it very quickly loses its charm as I found myself fumbling for these keys with no real tactile indicators.

The single most obvious difference between this keyboard and other Microsoft keyboards is the placement— and design— of the Windows key.

On most keyboards, the Windows key is located between the Control and ALT keys, often on either side of the spacebar. In this case the Windows key is a stylized blue circle located beneath the main keyboard. This design and placement seems to attempt to evoke the look of the Start button in Windows Vista. While it does this very well, it makes the key hard to reach and requires a little more pressure to press than a standard key.

The only showstopper for me was the arrow keys. They were way too small— barely half the width of the other keys— and were placed at the extreme bottom and right of the keyboard. This may not bother most people but for someone like me who plays a lot of games, it's downright frustrating.

The mouse can be bought separately from this set, and it seems as though its inclusion was almost an afterthought by Microsoft. It's a standard Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000. That isn't to say that the mouse is inferior to the keyboard; it just seems that they were not designed with the other in mind.

My initial reaction to using the mouse was that it is significantly heavier than the Logitech mouse due to the two double A rechargeable batteries (included) it requires. Also, I did not like how the mouse rose sharply in the center rather than a gentler slope that better fit the contours of my hand.

The mouse has a number of buttons of its own. In addition to the requisite right- and left-click buttons, it has two smaller buttons on either side plus a four-way scroll wheel.

I found the placement of the two auxiliary buttons to be somewhat uncomfortable and awkward to use; the angle at which they protrude and the degree to which they are recessed into the chassis made it difficult to press them without completely repositioning my hand.

With Microsoft's IntelliPoint software installed (included and free to download) the two auxiliary buttons activated the 'history back' button in web browsers and Windows Explorer (left button) and the screen magnifier utility (right button).

A very handy (and in my opinion long overdue in the mouse world) feature of the mouse was its four-way scroll wheel. Four-way scrolling uses what Microsoft calls "Tilt Wheel Technology" which amounts to a scroll wheel that detects when it is pressed left or right and scrolls accordingly. This technology takes a little getting used to and the default scrolling speed is painfully slow. The scrolling speed can be easily adjusted through the Mouse Control panel applet from the default slow all the way up to uselessly fast. Choose your speed and you will be quite happy with this feature.

I believe that this four-way-scrolling is going to become an industry standard very soon, it is that useful. It may seem that I am gushing over a relatively mundane feature but I am not. Anyone who uses this feature is going to wonder how they ever got along without it!

Both the keyboard and the mouse operate exclusively on battery power; the mouse is rechargeable, the keyboard is not.

The mouse's charging stand (included) is rather interesting. Rather than having to connect the mouse to a power cord, you simply set the mouse on the charger and it recharges through metal contacts on the mouse and charger. The scroll wheel area of the mouse pulsates a soft green when charging and when the battery is low. Very cool.

The keyboard takes four double A batteries (included). Microsoft claims that the keyboard will go for nine months on one set of batteries. While I was not able to stuff nine months worth of use into a few weeks, I did use it quite extensively and have not noticed any apparent signs of the batteries getting weak.

The mouse only need one hour of initial charging before it could be used, a big step over older wireless devices that advise charging over night. Under heavy use, I have had to recharge the mouse about every 36 to 48 hours, and then only for about an hour!

In short, so far the battery life has been superb.

Reviewer's Conclusion:

Overall I would say that the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 package would be an excellent setup for your home media center computer or even as an external set for your laptop. It is small, feature rich, portable, and easy to install.

However I would dissuade anyone thinking about using this set on any computer where you expect to do a lot of typing. The keys on the keyboard are arranged in Microsoft's "Comfort Curve" design which seems to be a hybrid between the split-style ergonomic keyboards and a standard laptop style keyboard. This marriage of styles is not conducive to typing anything longer than a password or website address. The odd placement of keys (in addition to some oddly shaped keys to accommodate the curved design) coupled with the (in my opinion) ill advised use of laptop style 'flat' keys, the tiny and hard to use arrow keys, the complete lack of a numeric keypad, and the maddingly hard to use Function keys make this a distinctly non-work oriented setup.

Certified for Windows Vista hardware:

This product was sent to BleepingComputer.com on loan from Microsoft in order to review hardware that is Certified for Windows Vista. Hardware that is certified means that the product was thoroughly tested by Microsoft and its partners for not only compatibility with Vista and its premium features, but also for a higher level of performance and quality. I can attest that both the keyboard and mouse integrated very smoothly into my Vista desktop.

For those who are interested in more information on the Certified for Windows Vista logo program, you can read about it here.

System Requirements:

PC:

• Windows Operating System
• Available USB port
• CD-ROM drive

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