Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 Review
Microsoft Wireless Entertainement Desktop 8000
The Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 isn’t a new product, it’s been out for probably over a year (if not more). I’ve been eyeing this mouse keyboard combo ever since it was announced by Microsoft, but found the price too hard to justify; $300 for a mouse and keyboard! Yikes! Regardless of how nice this device is, the price just seemed a bit steep. But it’s no longer that new, and although the price hasn’t dropped, but I was able to find it on eBay for about $175, which I find a little more reasonable.
The box came in last week, and I brought it to work and spent the last few days with it. I’ll do my best to document my experiences with it, and my overall impressions.
Background
Just a little background on what compelled me to spend so much money on a keyboard and mouse combo. Well, I’m a web developer by trade, and I spend an exceptional amount of time in front of various computers tapping away, so a keyboard and mouse are pretty important (when isn’t it nowadays). Over the past month, the company I work for had me and several others pull very long weeks (including weekends) to meet a harsh unmovable deadline. After the project’s release and things began to slightly calm down, I began to notice symptoms I feared were the early onset of Carpal Tunnel; which would be a death sentence for me. My existing keyboard and mouse combo I had wasn’t bad. It was a Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 1.0, not a bad combo, but it seems over the past year I started to prefer the feel of laptop keyboards, especially those on my HP 2710 tablet and Apple MacBook Pro. I think it has to do with the keys not requiring as much pressure to perform a keystroke, or it might be the travel distance of the keys as they depress, meaning less stress on my hands. My criteria was that the feel be similar to a laptop keyboard, but due to the length of time I will spend typing, I wanted to retain the ergonomic angle that my current keyboard had.
Why This Keyboard?
The Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 interested me because of the following factors:
- Curved ergonomic design
- Flat shape, no incline
- Wireless (and Bluetooth at that!)
- Rechargeable batteries
- Backlit (for those late night coding marathons)
Unboxing and Initial Impressions
The keyboard arrived a week ago on Saturday. Nothing too exceptional about the box, it was metallic red, had a large image of the keyboard and mouse on it. It had an open top area showing the mouse. Opening the box and taking everything out, I was surprised to see how many cords this thing had. But honestly, I shouldn’t be, since this device is rechargeable. Unlike other combo’s I’ve owned, this one had a charging dock, so it must have a power plug to allow for recharging, since the USB ports on a computer aren’t powerful enough to charge a kayboard and mouse. The build quality is pretty good, the only thing I did notice is on the right, the plastic on one area wasn’t secure, but it snapped back into place without issue. It came with a simple manual, 6 Energizer rechargeable batteries (a surprise, since I’m used to combo’s being bundled with no-name brand junk batteries), and a CD containing the Intellitype drivers.
The Dock
The dock has a number of functions.
The MS Wireless Entertainment Desktop has an interesting dock; it serves as a usb hub, and a charging station for both the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard magnetically locks into place at the bottom of the doc, and the mouse sits on top, the mouse can actually sit in either left or right handed orientation for charging; there is a round nub in the middle which aligns the mouse to either the left or right recharge receptacle. The keyboard is bluetooth, and in an interesting design choice, Microsoft made the bluetooth connector into a usb dongle, instead of integrating it into the dock. However, there is a special usb port at the bottom of the dock that perfectly fits the dongle. I believe this design allows for the dock to be used on a computer that already has bluetooth available, so there would be no need for a second bluetooth receiver, such as in the case of a laptop or an all-in-one computer, like an iMac.
The dock also has two additional USB ports at the back so it servers as a nice USB hub for any additional devices you may want to hook up to your computer. The cable is generously long and there is an additional power receptacle for the included AC adapter. It’s important to note your computer won’t detect the hub until the AC adapter is plugged in. Overall, a nice, thoughtful and flexible design.
The Keyboard
The front of the keyboard and all it's function
The keyboard itself is very thin, flat and doesn’t weight much, thus is easy to handle. On the top most part of the keyboard near the middle are two metal tabs, this is where the docking station sits to recharge the batteries. All around the keyboard are a number of function keys that are to the left and right of the main keyboard. I wasn’t overly concerned with them; since they are keys and functions I won’t really be using too much, since I’m targeting this keyboard for work, and not leisure. Probably one of the more interesting things about the keyboard is on the right side is a touch pad/cursor pad area that you can use as a mouse, and on the left side are two buttons that are the left and right mouse buttons; clearly making this a nice single device option for media center usage, since you don’t need to be goofing around with a seperate mouse while reclining on the couch.
The Keyboard lit up
The one design consideration Microsoft made is to not make the function keys and the ESC key into physical keys on the keyboard. They are touch points above the number keys, and the ESC is off ot the far left. In practical use, I’m not fond of this design; I never realized how much I needed to use the ESC key until it was removed from it’s normal position. It is also harder to use because these keys don’t give feedback like a depressed key, so you’re never quire sure if you’ve actually landed on the spot while you are touch typing. The Windows Key has been moved down to a single round button at the bottom center of the keyboard, in it’s place is an FN key. I’m not too sure what the FN key is used for yet, since I’m using this on a desktop, there normally isn’t FN key operations. So, every now and then I have to take pause to us windows button hot keys (such as Windows-M to minimize all my windows), because I now have to relocate my hand to the middle round button.
The bottom of the keyboard has an on/off switch and a button for bluetooth sync. Also at the bottom to the top left and right are two compartments that house 2 sets of AA batteries, which Microsoft provided, and are good quality Energizer rechargeable batteries.
The keyboard is also backlit, it’s probably one of the nicest backlit keyboards I’ve come across. It shares the same style backlighting as the MacBook Pro. The level of backlight is adjustable, and the keyboard both senses the ambient light and your proximity to activate and adjust the backlighting, a very slick feature.
Oddly it took me a bit of time to adjust to the keyboard, this surprised me because my MS Comfort keyboard has the same curved key layout. It might be because the keyboard is so flat. But once I got used to it, I was typing well again. But I’m still a bit annoyed at touch point buttons. I don’t mind too much about the FN keys, but the ESC key is annoying and takes getting used to.
The Mouse
The MS Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 Mouse
The mouse is relatively ordinary, in my opinion. I’ve always preferred Logitech mice over Microsoft mice; it’s not that the Microsoft mice aren’t good, it’s just their design aesthetic for me isn’t as functional as Logitech’s. Having said that, the mouse itself isn’t bad, it’s got two side buttons which you can configure with the drivers, but by default act as Back and Forward. The mouse has a big scroll wheel which can toggle left and right, and can be pushed for middle click or some other configured option. Left handed mouse users will be happy to know that this mouse doesn’t make preferential treatment for right handers.
What I don’t like about this mouse, which goes back to my dislike of Microsoft mice in general, is their scroll wheel. I never really liked Microsoft’s implemenation of the scroll wheel on any of their mice; the word “stiff” and “big” comes to mind when using this scroll wheel. I prefer the metal scroll wheels that Logitech puts on their Revolution mice, and even their standard rubber scroll wheels are better than what Microsoft implements. The scroll wheel on this mouse is the same as the one on my old Comfort combo, but this one is far more stiff; it just feels like I have to make such an effort to scroll, and requires too much strength to depress to use normally as a middle button. But the middle scroll physically feels nice, being easy to feel for (being big), and is rubbery, so it doesn’t slip. Some may find this appealing, but once again for me, it’s tolerable.
The mouse buttons on the left and right side are pretty flat, and a little hard use, since they need to be depressed a little more than I’m used to to perform it’s operation. I also miss not having two mice buttons on the side, since I’m used to going forward and back while browsing with my thumb. Now I need to use my pinky finger to tap the button on the other side to go forward. Luckily, I won’t be gaming with this mouse, since clearly, this mouse is not made for that in mind. In general, this is a usable mouse, but the weakest thing in this combo.
My last complaint about this mouse is for some reason, the Microsoft label at the back part of the mouse partially pealed off. I never had that happen on any of my mice before, so my mouse is now a “Mircroso” mouse.
Final Impressions / Conclusion
All the pieces assembled
I’ve been using this keyboard for two weeks now. I had a little difficulty adjusting to the flat angle, even though the layout was pretty much the same angular layout of my Comfort keyboard. I had some difficulty getting used to the non-tactile ESC and function keys; since I’m using this as a work keyboard, these touch, non-tactile keys are somewhat annoying. Also, being that I’m in a work setting, I don’t take advantage of the backlighting, which is a bit of a shame, since it’s probably the nicest backlit keyboard I’ve seen for a PC, it pretty much is exactly how the MacBook Pro is. The keys themselves are very comfortable to use, so, once I finally got used to the keyboard, I’m back to my normal typing speeds.
The mouse is fine, it’s got a good shape, and the click feel is normal. I don’t like the wheel though, but I never liked the Microsoft wheels on their mice, they are simply too stiff. The mouse also lacks two buttons on one side, similar to what I’m used to on my other mice, but they did this obviously to keep the mouse left or right handed; I won’t be giving up my Logitech mice anytime soon for this one.
The Dock is well designed, allowing the mouse to sit on top facing either direction to charge. The keyboard magnetically slips neatly under the front part of the dock to charge the keyboard. The inclusion of 6 Energizer Rechargeable batteries, 4 for the keyboard, 2 for the mouse, was a nice added bonus.
In closing, the keyboard is the star of this combo. It’s a well made and well designed keyboard with quite a lot of thoughtful features, it’s not necessarily fit for office use, and therefore makes an expensive leisure keyboard, which is sort of where Microsoft seemed to target this. But if you can get over the shortcomings, such as the function keys and ESC keys, it will work well in the office.
Other Images
Here is an assortment of other images I took of the keyboard and mouse.
What's on the bottom of the keyboard
The dock has a number of functions.
Right side of the MSWED8K Keyboard
Left side of the MSWED8K Keyboard
Power cable used to charge the keyboard and mouse
Bottom of the MSWED8K's Doc
