Looking for a wireless keyboard (without mouse combo)

[trinibwoy]

Hey guys, I'm in the market for a new keyboard but there doesn't seem to be a standalone wireless (preferably bluetooth) keyboard out there. Logitech and Microsoft seem to have only wireless mouse + keyboard combos.

Is there some reason where they don't offer keyboard only wireless solutions? I'm pretty happy with my corded MX518 now after trying wireless mice for a few years and don't need a new mouse.

 

[Davros]

because its so cheap to add a mouse they might as well
just by the set and dont use the mouse

 

[dZeus]

There's a Nokia bluetooth keyboard (SU-8W) as well as Apple's wireless keyboard (bluetooth).

I'm looking into those, as a replacement for my MS MCE IR keyboard; I can only type at about one third of normal speed on that one, as it otherwise skips or generates rubbish keystrokes instead.

 

[Obsidian]

this is the best Keyboard on the market atm.

Logitech dinovo edge.

1 battery charge will last for about 3 months, very slim and easy to type [personnel preference], may feel a little unusual while gaming becouse it is thin but nothing drastic, the mouse touch pad is excellent and handy,sexy as hell....expect people to stare.

 

[Davros]

or thers the dinovo mini
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848&cl=gb,en

 

[Arwin]

this is the best Keyboard on the market atm.

Logitech dinovo edge.

1 battery charge will last for about 3 months, very slim and easy to type [personnel preference], may feel a little unusual while gaming becouse it is thin but nothing drastic, the mouse touch pad is excellent and handy,sexy as hell....expect people to stare.

I have this one. Sold on it partly because its looks match the Samsung LCD and the PS3 just perfectly, but of course BlueTooth was important to me as well. It's only downside to me is that the scratchpad is a tad insensitive, making mouse control just a tiny bit uncomfortable. But I have gotten very used to using the scratch-pad's scrolling features, which work quite well (turning your fingers in a circle for continuous scrolling). Only think I miss right now is support on the PS3 for its volume function, or an option to use that slider for different purposes. Overall though, very nice piece of hardware. That mini version looks very cute though. And of course, there are definitely cheaper alternatives out there, like the Logitech keyboard for PS3 and all sorts of others.

 

[nutball]

I use the diNovo-for-laptops keyboard, which has the advantage over the other versions that it's a fair bit cheaper, and doesn't use Bluetooth. It's a lovely keyboard to type on I find. It has a detached numeric keypad thing but I don't use that. I use a wired mouse, the wireless mouse as part of the kit is in the loft.

 

[dZeus]

I just bought the Apple wireless keyboard, and it's very nice. No low type rate problem as with the MS MCE keyboard, and it will pair with my Nokia E51 as well as my PC running Vista and the Toshiba bluetooth stack. It's also very quiet.

My main gripes with it currently are:
- that you need to remove the batteries to put it into 'discovery mode', to allow it to pair to another device.
- I need to figure out how to properly pair it with my other PC running XP with the MS bluetooth stack (different adaptor).

I'll post an update in this thread when I get some more use out of it, test the range, and manage to pair it with my computer running XP.

btw. did I mention that it's much cheaper than the Logitech option?

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I hate my Logitech mx3200 wireless setup. Most inconsistent piece of hardware I've ever used, and I can't even figure out why. It misses key presses constantly, jumbles up the order of letters, and randomly enables the capslock, and even automatically selects the secondary character of multi-function keys (say "?" instead of "/") in this mode.

Oh yeah, that's when it even works. Sometimes it just won't type for ****. I mean that. You can press all the keys you want and you'll be lucky if it registers 1 in 10. Disconnecting and reconnecting the receiver makes no difference. Changing the batteries has no impact. Moving the position of receiver and/or keyboard makes no difference. The thing has a mind of its own.

The mouse acts up as well, although it never becomes quite as unusable as the keyboard. The mouse pointer will lag behind physical movement, and it will fail to recognize when you click perhaps one out of two clicks, as well as not recognizing when you let go of the button (thinking you're dragging an object instead of clicking it at rest).

I don't think I'll ever use wireless again, once I get off this set. The only reason I use it is for convenience in the living room, as I use my plasma screen as a monitor, and regular keyboard/mouse cables don't reach this far and I'd rather not have chords running across the floor in the middle of the most frequented room in the house.

 

[Sxotty]

Anyone know of a wireless keyboard that has an integrated trackball?

I wanted something like that for HTPC with a decent range.

I have an RF setup now, but the range is terrible. 4 feet or so (it is logitech). I had a range of 7 feet, but now the receiver is closer to the speakers and they seem to interfere with it.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I have an RF setup now, but the range is terrible. 4 feet or so (it is logitech). I had a range of 7 feet, but now the receiver is closer to the speakers and they seem to interfere with it.

LOL, sounds familiar...

 

[dZeus]

ok it wasn't the MS bluetooth stack that crapped the pairing, it's the crappy MSI bluetooth module I used. I swapped the adapter, and the keyboard works fine now, using the MS bluetooth stack.

Range is about ~4 meters (~12 feet) using a 10 meter 'micro USB bluetooth dongle'. I've got a 100m range version of the same micro adapter on order, to see if that improves the range. It's a lot better than the range of my logitech wireless keyboard though, and turning on the 28" CRT TV just above the HTPC doesn't seem to influence the range of the apple keyboard; for the logitech set it drops from an already abysmal 4-5 feet range to about 3 feet range when I turn on my TV.

Some other updates on the keyboard:
- you need to install the Apple bootcamp keyboard driver to get basic 'Fn' key functionality to get access to keys like Printscreen which aren't on the keyboard by default. However, it is rather inflexible in use, and some keys don't work (volume control). It also doesn't give access to the Fn key to keyboard remapping programs (Fn scancode is intercepted by this driver and not passed through).
- to get full access to scancodes of all the keyboard keys including the Fn key, a program called 'AutoHotkey' is needed plus some dll for the Apple keyboard. I've downloaded both, but not fiddled yet with it.

Now it would be interesting to know if there are bluetooth USB modules available that can pair with a bluetooth keyboard or mouse without driver, and emulate a USB HID keyboard/mouse device before the driver is loaded. If those exist, you could use the BT devices to navigate the system bios and install the OS

 

[bearjack]

I really like the latest MS desktop set, the 7000. (Reviewed here: http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1615.htm ).

The keyboard is well featured and very comfortable to type with, and the battery life is excellent (been using it for six months and it hasn't run out yet).