Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 Review

It may look odd, but the Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 fits comfortably into the hand.

Button-wise, both keyboard and mouse come fully loaded for daily computer use. The Wireless 7000 Mouse has five buttons (right, left, wheel with vertical scrolling and horizontal tilting, and two buttons on the left side), each programmable through the mouse control panel applet. The keyboard includes a full thirty-three function keys running up the left side and in two rows across the top of the unit, each programmable from their default uses to any command that suits your fancy. Among the thirty-three are three floating keys, which sit in the top row in a touch-sensitive section of the plastic rim, and are meant to activate a user-preferred program, document or webpage - anything you can activate using a path. In addition, about half of the remaining function keys are enhanced F keys, which can switch between programmed functions and traditional F key features using the F key lock.

The mouse's rechargeable battery charges through a connection on the included stand.

The top row of buttons, including the three floating buttons.

The keyboard and the mouse use the same 2.4 GHz wireless receiver, built in to a USB chip the size of a flash drive to connect to the host computer. This receiver allows the keyboard and mouse to operate from up to thirty feet away, and can hop between frequencies to prevent problems with interference. The mouse, which has a 1,000 dpi high-definition laser sensor, comes with a rechargeable battery that refreshes through the included charger, a dock-type piece of hardware that hooks into the mouse through a connection point on the bottom. Microsoft claims that the battery in the mouse will last three weeks without any additional charging. The keyboard, however, relies on an (included) standard AA battery for power, and does not include any charging capabilities. Unfortunately, this means that if your keyboard's battery goes dead, you'll need to have access to spare batteries or a spare keyboard to prevent any work stoppages. Microsoft does not provide a rating on the keyboard's battery life.

The Wireless Laser 7000 set as part of a complete desktop.

Microsoft IntelliPoint & IntelliType Pro Software
Microsoft may have built the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 with Aero flourishes, but it works just as well on Windows XP (or on Mac, for that matter) as it does on Windows Vista. Separate applets for keyboard and mouse give you control over all of the programming functions, and include (for the mouse) a visual representation of the buttons you're modifying or (for the keyboard) pictorial representations of the icons on keyboard buttons to make it easy to tell which function you're assigning to what key. Clicking on an icon in IntelliType Pro activates an edit button that opens a new window with the name of the key, its default assignment, and customization options that allow you to assign a new command, launch a program or a webpage, or disable the key. Commands include some fifty options, including every single pre-programmed function on the keyboard and more standard options like cut, copy, and paste.

The mouse control panel applet.

The keyboard control panel applet.

Editing a keyboard function in keyboard control.

Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 Usability
I tested the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 on both Windows XP and Windows Vista configurations over the course of two weeks, using the keyboard for every day work tasks, assigning commands to buttons, and checking out differences between XP and Vista configurations. For the keyboard, the differences in usage between the two operating systems are negligible: the Gadgets key, which calls up the Vista gadgets sidebar, becomes a free-use key in XP, and the Flip 3D key in Vista pulls up a tiled version of all open windows for easy selection in Windows XP. On the mouse, there's a broader spread: in XP, the standard buttons options are left and right click, center button click, center wheel scroll (both horizontally and vertically), and forward and back with the side buttons. In Vista, the vertical scroll on the center wheel switches to Flip 3D, while the front side button defaults to magnify, which enlarges a portion of the screen. To be honest, I'm not a particularly big fan of either of these options - Flip 3D is also available on the keyboard, and I don't regularly read print that would be small enough to fit in, say, the Oxford English Dictionary - but I can see their value, and because it's so easy to change them to other, perhaps more comfortable options, I'm not really bothered by their inclusion.

Magnifier in action...

Once I adjusted to the mouse and keyboard, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 proved both easy and comfortable to use. The keyboard's numerous function keys, which at first seem like fun - but unnecessary - luxuries, quickly became basic necessities for computing, allowing me to launch web browser, email, audio player, folders, and instant messaging programs at the click of a button. Sure, I could have done the same thing using desktop icons, the Quick Launch toolbar, or the Windows start menu, but the keyboard function buttons allowed me to do one very important thing: save taskbar space by removing the Quick Launch toolbar. Anyone who's had to open enough application windows to move to the second level of the taskbar knows that the more space available, the better, so being able to remove the Quick Launch toolbar for additional space is a big plus.

The keyboard's curve is surprisingly easy to adapt to.

One thing that did bother me about using the keyboard: because the floating buttons are just touch sensitive plastic and not real buttons, they're not as easy to use as the real thing, because there's almost no feedback: if you have a slower computer or the application takes a little longer to launch, you might not know immediately whether or not your pressed the button correctly. I eventually learned to listen for the slight click that occurs when I pressed one of the buttons, but since the floating buttons are an aesthetic effect, I'd prefer that Microsoft ditch them for something with a little more substance.

Using the mouse generated no such problems. The mouse's surprising ergonomic curve actually creates the kind of comfortable grip that's absolutely perfect for work use, and even now, two weeks after I started using it, it continues to glide along my desktop as smoothly as if it were an extension of my hand. The mouse's two side buttons get some taking used to - one's a little larger than the other, and as a result you may find yourself pushing the wrong button as you get used to the mouse's feel - but their ease of differentiation very quickly made them an appreciated part of the experience.

Recap
Microsoft's newest wireless laser keyboard and mouse set may be expensive, but it offers two big inducements to use: first, both units are not only attractive to the eye, but pleasant on the hands, making them easy to adapt to and even easier to use. Second, the keyboard's enormous number of programmable buttons adds functionality that quickly goes from superfluous to very necessary in a short period of time. If you're up for luxuriating your keyboard and mouse experience, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 seems like a great bet.

By Eric Hanson, Contributing Editor