Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood keyboard, garbage mouse
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2021
I've been using this keyboard and mouse for a bit over a weejkand have quite a few thoughts on both of them.
First: this is a rebadged product from some nameless Chinese company. Just look around on Amazon, you will find multiple listings for this exact same keyboard and mouse. Some of them are even lowered priced than this unit (around $25 as opposed to the $30-$35 for most of the units).
The mouse is pure, unadulterated garbage. But, I will talk about a couple of good things first. The DPI adjustment does work. The mouse itself does mostly function. But that's about all the good things to say about this mouse. The switches for the button are horrible, mushy junk. The wheel works, but is just not very responsive or accurate. The body is really thin and difficult to grip without any rubber or texture to make it easier to grip. The glide pads on the bottom are bad compared to any reasonable mouse (like the mid-tier Logitech mice).
But, that's not the worst of it. Some other reviews have mentioned issues with the mouse, and I have encountered them as well...the big one being the mouse going to sleep, and not waking up when trying to use it. It goes to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, and the only way to get it to wake up is to turn the mouse over and switch it off and back on. (It's just like the old IT Administrators joke...only in this case it's literally true.)
It's gotten so annoying that I went back to using my Logitech MX Anywhere 2S (which I was hoping to free up to use as a portable mouse for my laptop....I'll probably buy another one.)
As for the keyboard. It's pretty decent. Not a lot of deck flex, and the keys are just tactile enough to provide a positive typing experience. The one annoying part is that the keys that need to be stabilized (the spacebar, shift key, etc) do tend to rattle a bit. Another thing I'm not certain about is the reversal of the function keys with media / special keys. A lot of applications I use tend to bind important things to the function keys, so having to use the Fn key to access the function keys is probably going to be more of a nuisance long term... Another thing that is an omission is the ability to adjust the angle of the keyboard. Yes, this is a low profile keyboard, but that doesn't mean the user shouldn't be able to adjust the angle.
Basically, overall this is a decent keyboard, the equivalent of a well made low-end laptop keyboard. Whether I stick with it long term or not will depend on three factors (1) getting used to the function keys, (2) the lack of angle adjust causing problems, and (3) whether I detect any impact on my typing accuracy.
Overall, this combo is a mixed bag. The mouse is junk. The keyboard is good, but flawed. However, given that the alternative of the Logitech MX Keys and either the MX Master, or MX Anywhere mouse is well over $140, this isn't the worst alternative. IMO, if you can find the keyboard alone, and buy a separate mouse, that would be the best approach (as long as you don't have to use two dongles...the MX Anywhere mouse works with either the Unifying reciever, or directly connects with Bluetooth.)
