Read All Microsoft K48-00019 Product reviews
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Category: Personal Computers
Brand: Microsoft
Model: K48-00019
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Microsoft K48-00019 Review
Microsoft K48-00019 Review by W. W. Lowrey IV "banzaibill" (Allen, TX USA)
OK - I bought one of these after returning a Logitech. Unfortunately, the thing that screwed up the Logitech is also a problem with this keyboard. As another reviewer noted, this keyboard is an FLOCK keyboard. What this means is that your function keys have been remapped to some "new and improved" settings. I've been using computers for 25 years, and I want the dang function keys to be function keys. I think it's actually much worse than the other reviewer said.Here's the situation: If you want your function keys to work, you have to hit the FLOCK key. You have to do it every time you boot, as it won't remember your setting, and you can't toggle it permanently. So, if you want to hit F2 to get into your BIOS, you better hit that FLOCK key in the 1/2 second window and then the F2 key. The same applies if you want to get into Safe Mode (F8). In addition, if you forget to hit the stupid thing each time you boot, you'll find yourself doing something stupid, like cutting text or sending mail or whatever instead of what you wanted to do.
If it wasn't BIOS based (in the keyboard BIOS), you could probably easily toggle it with the driver, but they made it the default behavior for the keyboard. I'm extremely frustrated with Microsoft AND Logitech. If the leader of the herd jumps off a cliff, you don't have to follow!
This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen two companies do. This is an otherwise fine keyboard, but it's going back too. I tried to live with the Logitech for a week, but I'm not giving this one that long. I can pick up a Memorex keyboard for 1/4 the price. I'll do that instead, and I won't bother buying another Microsoft keyboard until they stop doing this. (I own 3 already between home and work).
Microsoft K48-00019 Review by C. Scagliola (Santa Rosa, CA)
Hello Everyone,So, I took the advice of my good friend and purchased this combo set. I'm glad I did BUT there are a couple of things you should know. First off, if you live in an area with a LOT of CB buddies you may find that the keyboard and mouse act funny at times. This is because they run on the 27 MHz band and if you're close enough to a CBer running some wattage, you can get inference. Also, note that NOT ALL BACK-UP SOFTWARE WILL SUPPORT WIRELESS USB MICE. I'm running Acronics True Image myself which supports such devices but, if you run Norton Ghost, Watch out!
All this being said, I find the keyboard and mouse work very well and would purchase them again. Hey, give them a try for yourself, if you don't like them I'm sure Amazon will take it back and set ya straight.....they're good like that.
Ciao!
Microsoft K48-00019 Review by Homam (LA, CA USA)
I agree with the other reviewers that the F-Lock feature is quite a hassle. If the keyboard didn't boot to the mapped mode by default, I wouldn't have minded it. It would've been another useless feature for total newbies. But you have to REMEMBER to turn the mapping off every time you reboot!Notice that I emphasized "remember", because I don't mind clicking an extra key every time I reboot. The problem is, many times I forget to turn the mapping off and end up with totally unexpected results.
For example, I'm used to pressing the F6 key when using IE or FireFox to move the cursor focus to the browser's address bar. I do this many times while browsing because I configured IE with PowerToys and use FireFox's bookmark keywords to write something like "imdb pulp fiction" or "amazon effective java" in the address bar to have IMDb search for the movie or Amazon lookup the book. Now if I forget to press the F-Lock key after I turned the computer on or restarted it, the browser's window will vanish away. The F-Lock feature remaps the F6 key to mean "Close" by default. Very annoying, especially if you don't remember exactly how you got to the webpage you were browsing.
What makes the F-Lock feature even worse is that you don't have a clue if it's ON or OFF by just looking at the keyboard, which takes me to the next annoying feature.
Instead of putting the CAPS-Lock, Num-Lock, and F-Lock (no pun intended) indicator lights on the keyboard, they put them on the wireless unit attached to the computer. I understand they made this decision to prolong battery life, but unless you have the wireless unit in sight, you won't see the indicators.
Finally, sometimes it does act funny, as some reviewers mentioned, and I'm sure it has to do with oversensitivity to EMI or radio interference. For example, many times pressing Ctrl-V (to paste) using the left Ctrl button doesn't seem to work and just sends a barrage of letter "V" to the computer. But that doesn't happen so often.
Having said that, I still give this keyboard four stars for the following reasons.
1) The mouse is much lighter than other wireless mice, and therefore puts less stress on the wrist.
2) The buttons are quiet, yet have clicky feel.
3) Smaller footprint than the previous MS Natural Keyboards, which means once you get used to it, your fingers travel less distance and type faster.
4) The new non-standard placement of the Insert, Delete, Home, Page Up, and Page Down keys, while needs some getting used to, is way better than the standard layout because it emphasizes usability. For example, on standard layouts, many times I unintentionally press the Insert key, and find myself overwriting text. In this new layout, Home and End are placed horizontally to emphasize their meaning (beginning and end of a line in a text editor); the Delete key is much bigger because it's the one you're most likely to use when editing text; and the Insert key has been moved way up because it's seldom used. But this will make using Shift-Insert (to paste) harder, so you'll have to use Ctrl-V instead (and hope there's no interference).
5) Longer battery life, though at the expense of moving the indicators off the keyboard.
6) Looks pretty nice, especially if you have a black monitor.
More Reviews...
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro v2.0:: Technical Details
- Three-year warranty
- Comfortable, ergonomic split keyboard design encourages natural typing position
- Windows and Macintosh compatible
- Wireless Optical Mouse is shaped for comfort for right- or left-handed use
- Wireless keyboard and mouse work within 6 feet of the receiver
- Item Dimensions: 21 x 11 x 4 inches; 5 pounds
- Brand: Microsoft
- Model: K48-00019
- Product Type: Personal Computers
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