Review of The Kensington PilotBoard Laser Wireless Desktop Set

I have always called my room the 'motherboard room'. I am the only one in the entire house who knows how to set a cable modem, a network, and any other peripheral that has to do with the Internet, or the computer.

Unfortunately though, because of my knowledge I am the go to girl whenever the network goes down, everyone expects me to figure it out; even if that means sitting on the phone for an hour with rude tech help from India.

If you were to come into my room, you'd immediately think that it were some nerds room from a scifi movie. It is sincerely out of this world, with wires running from one end of the room to the other, and blinking lights in every color imaginable. My room breaths technology, but at the same time, the wires have gotten ridiculous.

I was given a $100 gift card to Best Buy this past summer, and normally I'd spend the money on some ridiculous Playstation 3 video game. However once I got there, and got to looking around, I stumbled down the keyboard and mouse isle, and figured I could use a new set. I had been using a wired mouse and keyboard that came with my desktop, and as soon as I spotted the available wireless and mouse sets, I knew immediately it would be something I could use. Plus I'd be able to substitute 2 wires from my rooms decor.

I was initially going to go with a set by Microsoft, but the wireless ouse I used in the past for my laptop went belly up within a week, so even though Microsoft's sets looked sweet, I knew not to make the same mistake twice.

Instead I went with the Kensington PilotBoard Laser Wireless Desktop Set.

I was going to skip on it due to the price tag marked on the set. $89.99 for a keyboard and mouse??? Yack...too much!!!

However after feeling how solid the wireless mouse was, and how comfortable it felt in my hand, I went with it.

The mouse has a tilt wheel in the middle of it, and a right and left click button. The left click button seems to work flawlessly, the left click button though requires a bit more finger muscle to get it to respond, which is relatively annoying when I'm trying to copy and paste.

The mouse also has 6 programmable buttons to sync with your PC. However I never bothered with these settings because I didn't feel like messing around with buttons I'd never use anyway.

There are however 6 of them, if you are the type who feels the need for such things.

If you don't program the buttons though, it comes factory set with two silver buttons that rest on the left side of the mousefor you to press for instant forward and back commands for web navigating. I never use them but they are there for convenience.

The set comes with a USB stick in order to register the keyboard and mouse. You simply plug it into the PC, and the stick will detect the keyboard and mouse from about 20 feet away.

Keyboard:

When I bought the Kensington set I was primarily in it for the keyboard. I liked knowing that I could simply power on my PC, hook up a cable to my HDTV, and use the web right on my bed thanks to the keyboard that I could simplyu plop down on my lap.

It works very well, but occasionally it does not register a keystroke, and I missing a letter. Thank God for spellcheck!

I don't see it as an enormous problem, but it is a problem that needed to be brought up nonetheless.

Now what I like about the keyboard, aside from the fact that it is wireless, is the fact that I can lower the PC's volume with just a tap of a button. These command buttons are located on the far left hand side of the keyboard, and are not distracting to typing. I do like having them there though for when I am far away from the PC's speakers, and I want to lower or higher the volume. I can also use the keys to fast forward, rewind, pause and play video. A quick touch to the handy little mute button is also convenient.

The keys are also nice feeling on the fingers, and have a nice quite tapping sound. The space-bar though at times will not respond to light clicking, and will require a harder press down. It's rare, but it happens.

Is The Price Worth The Product?

As much as I like the Kensington Wireless Desk Set, it does have it's flaws. The USB stick for instance. I usually switch it between my laptop and desktop. I dropped it on the floor and the thing literately feel apart. It's pretty flimsy so you have to be careful with it. Luckily for me I was able to snap the thing back together.

The mouse is ver responsive, but the keyboard not as much.

All in all I would say that the set is not worth the $90.00 I paid for it. Slap it down to $30.00, and I'd say yes, this is a pretty decent set, but at the price associated with it as of now, it's far too overpriced for the flaws that come packed with it.