I haven't really liked my experience with bluetooth in comparison to Microsoft's proprietary wireless tech. I have owned a Microsoft Wireless Desktop Elite, and a Logitech MX 5000 desktop, as well as a generic bluetooth mouse. Both the bluetooth products have been kinda sucky in 3 areas: connection stability, battery life, and functionality.
in terms of connection stability, my ms mouse and keyboard never disconnected. in the year and a half that I had them, I never once had them disconnect on me. at all. Ever. The logitech and the generic, both disconnected daily, be it from 3 minutes inactivity, or even a lot of times *while I was typing*. I would end up getting liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ke a disconnection mid word. Regardless of how my batteries were doing. It didn't matter where the dongle was placed either. They just randomly disconnect.
Another major gripe of mine comes in the functionality of my bluetooth desktop. I cannot use the keyboard until windows has booted. Meaning, I cannot press f11 to go into a boot menu when the computer is starting. It seems to me that bluetooth is software based, so until the bluetooth software had loaded, it was as if I did not have a keyboard plugged in. This was not the case with ms's wireless, which was 100% plug and play hardware based.
Battery life was also FAR superior on the MS product. The logitech mouse gets 3 days of battery life per charge. The Microsoft got a solid six months of daily use before I needed to change it's batteries. Same goes for my Logitech keyboard. It gets 3 months of battery life, the ms got 8.
Idunno, are my experiences unique to me? do other people run into any of these problems with bluetooth?
Ah, but the thing is, wireless keyboards, to me, just seem stupid in most cases. You don't often need to move your keyboard around: it sits still on your desk. It seems fine to use a cord for it, to me anyway.
I *do* love wireless mice (mouses?), however. I have a Logitech VX Revolution, and a I love it to death.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tony C @ Feb 5th 2008 9:37AM
They look pretty damn sharp for Microsoft mice... But no Bluetooth...?
Chris @ Feb 5th 2008 12:44PM
I haven't really liked my experience with bluetooth in comparison to Microsoft's proprietary wireless tech. I have owned a Microsoft Wireless Desktop Elite, and a Logitech MX 5000 desktop, as well as a generic bluetooth mouse. Both the bluetooth products have been kinda sucky in 3 areas: connection stability, battery life, and functionality.
in terms of connection stability, my ms mouse and keyboard never disconnected. in the year and a half that I had them, I never once had them disconnect on me. at all. Ever. The logitech and the generic, both disconnected daily, be it from 3 minutes inactivity, or even a lot of times *while I was typing*. I would end up getting liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
ke a disconnection mid word. Regardless of how my batteries were doing. It didn't matter where the dongle was placed either. They just randomly disconnect.
Another major gripe of mine comes in the functionality of my bluetooth desktop. I cannot use the keyboard until windows has booted. Meaning, I cannot press f11 to go into a boot menu when the computer is starting. It seems to me that bluetooth is software based, so until the bluetooth software had loaded, it was as if I did not have a keyboard plugged in. This was not the case with ms's wireless, which was 100% plug and play hardware based.
Battery life was also FAR superior on the MS product. The logitech mouse gets 3 days of battery life per charge. The Microsoft got a solid six months of daily use before I needed to change it's batteries. Same goes for my Logitech keyboard. It gets 3 months of battery life, the ms got 8.
Idunno, are my experiences unique to me? do other people run into any of these problems with bluetooth?
rockintom @ Feb 5th 2008 2:01PM
Ah, but the thing is, wireless keyboards, to me, just seem stupid in most cases. You don't often need to move your keyboard around: it sits still on your desk. It seems fine to use a cord for it, to me anyway.
I *do* love wireless mice (mouses?), however. I have a Logitech VX Revolution, and a I love it to death.