Customer Reviews

2.4GHZ Wrls Multimedia Media Center Keyb with optical Trackball

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pros:
This product is amazing. I was looking for a multimedia keyboard to replace my Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse. This has everything that is needed in a multimedia keyboard. It is full size so you have the much needed number pad. And the media center shortcut buttons are well placed. It has great reception and I haven't had any problems with it freezing up like I did with my Microsoft model. The track ball moves smoothly and it doesn't take long to get used to. This thing is perfect for surfing the net from the couch or Lazy-Boy.

Cons:
The one con is that the learn button on the bottom of the keyboard sticks out enough that you can accidentally press it while using the keyboard. Then you have to go to the comp and reset it. I solved this problem by taking the keyboard apart and just cutting the button down with a pair of snips.

Ordering this keyboard was a gamble that paid off, as I use OS X & Linux on my Mac Mini. I just received it this afternoon and I am so happy to have it for my living room setup. It'll take a little getting used to, as some of the function keys are a bit smaller than normal, but the design really does work perfectly in a small enough package to be practical without being cramped. The qwerty keys are standard sized, which makes typing easy.
As I mentioned earlier, I bought this to use with a Mac Mini which dual boots OS X and Debian Linux, and it works fine with both systems. The volume, mute, play, pause, etc multimedia keys work with iTunes in OS X right out of the box! In Linux, I used a program called keytouch, and selected "Microsoft wireless keyboard", which immediately allowed me to use volume and mute keys. The rest can be defined with keytouch-editor, or in xmodmap. I haven't bothered with trying to set up the extra file manager keys at the top of the keyboard, since I'm mainly a command line geek anyway, but I'm sure it can be done. I'd have given it a full five stars, except that (as others have mentioned) it does have a bit of a cheap feel to it, definitely not the luxurious tactile experience of a macally icekeys. But the feel is workable, and the mobility and packaging factors are truly awesome.

UPDATE: May 10, 2010

After living with this keyboard a while, one rather large flaw has surfaced: the optical trackball. It gathers dirt and dust as all optical pointers do, and I found that disassembling the keyboard to clean the trackball is a serious pain in the you-know-what. After removing all the screws and lifting off the top cover, all sorts of tiny pieces were immediately displaced -- YIKES! Although I did manage to clean and reassemble it, it took a LONG time to figure it out and get every tiny piece back in its place. This is a serious design flaw; they should have made the case have a small opening for just the trackball mechanism as any optical pointing device will need to be taken apart and cleaned periodically.

Also, over time the "clunkiness"of the keyboard becomes very tedious. It's a shame they didn't use higher quality components for the keyboard itself. But I suppose the primary market for this device would be HTPC users who don't type any more than necessary.

All things considered, this keyboard should probably sell for half the price it does. The lack of adequate competition in wireless keyboards with integrated pointing devices is all that allows Adesso to get away with selling such a cheaply-made device at what is essentially a midrange price point.

This product is my dream keyboard. The wireless system works perfectly, each time to power up your computer you just press the mouse button and the keyboard begins working instantly. The dedicated multimedia keys are very well distributed, the trackball is perfect and even more efficient than a mouse because you don't need space to move it and the movements are really very precise, thats why the trackball is the preferred device for advanced cad and technical users.
The keyboard has worked perfectly, no problem with key assignment or typing speed. I really can recommend this product.

I loved the keyboard. I thought it was the perfect discovery. I was able to watch and control everything on my 47 inch LCD Sony from my couch. After 2 weeks it stopped working. I tried new batteries and 3 different computers. Amazon was awesome when they let me return it even though I didn't keep the original packing. I love you Amazon.....!

I had high hopes for this keyboard. alas, because of one important detail, my review goes from a 5 to a 1.

Pros -
good keybard layout
feels sturdy compared to other wireless keyboards
good ergonomics -- feels good in my hands with the trckball and scroll wheel within easy access.

Cons - only 1.. The keyboard loses connectivity after 5-10 minutes of non-use. it's like the keyboard goes to sleep and doesnt wake up. You then have to click the sync button on the usb key and the keyboard to get it work again. In fact I had to resync while typing this review.

If adesso fixes this, It would be a 5.

pros: nice low profile keys on keyboard, great trackball, nice location on left-right click, page scroll is great, multimedia keys are fine, nice range. nice look.

cons: reconnection button is almost the same place that I hold the keyboard, it's very easy to hit that accidentally, reconnection sometimes took 2 seconds, sometimes 2 minutes.
it is not bluetooth so receiver should be visible to keyboard, but nice distance if the receiver is visible.
sometimes backspace doesn't work, I have to push it twice, but while typing long emails I have almost no error.
I wish there was no numeric keypad, it is making it just bigger that's all.

Overall it works and I am not going to replace it with a different model for now. maybe in future with smaller size and blueetooth, best thing on this keyboard is the trackball it works perfectly.

I bought one of these keyboards for one of my media PC's and I am so thrilled with it that I am buying another one for the other room to replace the MS keyboard with completely unsat range.

There are a few complaints people commonly make about this keyboard that I can easily counter:

1.) Keyboard goes to sleep after x number of minutes, can't wake it up.
A.) Hit the left mouse button, it wakes up instantly.

2.) The button on the bottom is easily hit when putting it in your lap thus disassociating the keyboard.
A.) Glue a thick washer around it. It's not ideal but works fine.

3.) The light on the wireless receiver is annoying in a dark room.
A.) A small piece of electrical tape works miracles.

Read through the reviews on newegg for other suggestions (where I got these), but that basically covers it. Great keyboard with very minor issues easily worked around.

I bought this for my living room HTPC after buying three of Adesso's WKB-3000UBs, which I still consider the most perfect simple HTPC keyboard out there. I mainly bought this WKB-3200UB for it's media center buttons and with hopes that it might surpass the 3000UB model. I was wrong. This is not a horrible trackball/keyboard, as there are much worse out there, but why settle when you can have the best? So my review below is mostly a comparison of how an integrated trackball HTPC keyboard SHOULD be (the WKB-3000UB), to this 3200UBs shortcomings.

Firstly, and I see many reviews mention this, is the placement of the 'connect' button on the keyboad. It is located right where your middle finger would be under the keyboard when gripping it. Unsuprisingly, within the first few minutes of use, I hit it accidentally and the connection dropped. Unlike this model, the 3000UB has an 'ID' button on the top of it so that is much preferred.

Next thing is the trackball. Adesso took a big step backward with this model compared to the 3000UB, which again, I consider the perfect trackball for an HTPC. The material of the 3200UBs trackball is different from the 3000UBs and makes it feel 'grittier' and not move as easily. Anotherwords, not a natural feel translating to not as accurate as the 3000UBs, which (almost 3 years later for me) is dead-on and feels great.

Next up are the buttons. While the keys on this keyboard are fine (same feel as 3000UBs), the buttons are a different story. In a nutshell, they are ugly (all square/rectangular-shaped) and bulky. The worst part is they use these same buttons for the mouse left/right which makes this problem very apparent since those are used all the time. Again, this is in contrast to the 3000UBs buttons which are less bulky and very tactile-feeling. The ID button on the 3000UB is even sunk-in so as not to accidentally push it. The mouse buttons are different like regular mouse buttons should be. I was so dissapointed to see that the only left/right mouse buttons on this keyboard are on the upper left. With the 3000UB, you hold the keyboard like a XBox 360 controller and it has a left-click at your right trigger finger, scroll wheel at your left trigger finger, and the left/right in the upper left. Totally cool! And totally the best feature of the 3000UB.

Lastly is the build quality. Although this keyboard is designed well for having the number pad and media center controls, it is made of a different material plastic and is less solid than the 3000UB. The 3000UB is rock solid and I've dropped it dozens of times without worries. I would fear the outcome of dropping this one in comparison. Also, it could do without the Adesso logo on the top, which was tilted when stenciled on, only to add to the cheap-factor just a little more. The 3000UB has no logos at all.

So in conclusion, if you are looking for a perfect HTPC keyboard, pick the 3000UB over this one. This is coming from someone who owns three of these for close 3 years without issues. In my case, the media center buttons were all I wanted more of the 3200UB, but it's just not worth the shortcomings. I'll be returning this one and getting another 3000UB.

I've written a few reviews; I'm a bit on the overcritical side generally; the only fault if it could even be considered one is my difficulty adapting to the keyboard layout. I keep starting on the wrong key at the left and an intended "a" is "caps lock". easy enough to correct, but after 3 weeks of using this I would think that I should be improving more than I have. All functions seem to work well,....you DO have to push firmly on the trackball and the mouse keys to activate them, but that's probably a good thing.

What i would wish for: I would like a better leg wrapping system.....the indents fit a women with a svelte figure no doubt, but a big guy like me it doesn't fit too well. It's hard to achieve perfection, but this compact easy to use keyboard/mouse assembly is quite satisfactory. Original batteries still running strong after 3 weeks and hours of usage.

Pros:
1) Quite responsive.
2) Precision track ball.

Cons:
1) The keys are not as soft as a laptop keys. At times I have to press hard or at an angle
(e.g., interchange Left Hand <-> RH)
2) No indication of Caps or Num lock. So, kind of hard when entering passwords

Thoughts:
1) Keyboard layout is condensed, could have done away with number keypad.
2) Alternate mouse buttons near the track ball. So, can manage it with single hand.