Unplugged

Cutting the Cord
On Your Keyboard and Mouse

By Walter S. Mossberg
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

It's easy to see the advantage of a wireless mouse-it eliminates a cord on your desktop that can often get snagged and interfere with mouse movement. But the biggest makers of wireless mice, Logitech and Microsoft, are now bundling the mice with wireless keyboards, to clear all the cables off your desk. The advantages of a wireless keyboard are a little less obvious, but the bundles are attractively priced, and we've been testing three of them.

Like standalone wireless mice, the wireless desktops use a small receiver that plugs into a PC's normal mouse and keyboard jacks and can be placed on or under the desk. The battery-powered keyboards and mice transmit key presses and mouse movements and clicks wirelessly to the receiver. All of the keyboards come with built-in buttons and dials to control your PC's audio and video playback functions, and to launch your e-mail program, Web browser, instant messenger and other programs.

Most of the keyboards and mice use a short-range wireless radio system that is good for about six feet. One of the units we tested has scrapped that system in favor of Bluetooth, a somewhat longer-range (30 feet) wireless technology that can also link PCs to other devices, such as printers and cellphones.

Bluetooth Decay

The first product we tested was Logitech's Cordless Elite Duo keyboard and optical mouse set. It costs $99.95, but I found it on Amazon.com for $69.99 after mail-in rebates.

Setup was easy. After we installed Logitech's software on our Windows computer, we plugged in the Logitech receiver, a half-oval-shaped piece made of translucent black plastic, and pressed a button on the receiver. It flashed a green light to show that it was detecting the wireless mouse and keyboard, and we began cordlessly computing.

The Logitech product worked OK, though I thought the keyboard lay too flat on the desk, even with the legs extended. I also found I needed to do a lot of tweaking of the settings for the optical mouse, such as adjusting the speed of cursor motion, to get it to work smoothly.

In addition to operating with Windows, Logitech's Duo works with Apple's OS X operating system for the Macintosh. We tested it with an Apple iMac, and after installing the software, the quick-link keys worked just as easily as they did with Windows.

The second wireless keyboard and mouse set that we tested was Microsoft's $159 Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth, for Windows only. This is a more ambitious product. It aims not only to free the user from keyboard and mice cords, but also to equip your PC with Bluetooth wireless capability, so you can link it wirelessly to up to seven Bluetooth-equipped devices.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend the Microsoft Bluetooth desktop. In two separate tests, one by me and one by my assistant Katie-in different locations with different PCs-it not only proved useless as a Bluetooth hub, but it also failed as a keyboard.

The physical design is very nice. The black, blue and silver keyboard is well laid out with large keys, and the mouse is more comfortable to use than Logitech's.

Once Katie had installed the Microsoft software and was using the keyboard and mouse, she tested the Bluetooth transceiver to see if it would recognize another Bluetooth-enabled device-a Sony T68I cellphone. After following 46 arduous steps-46!-with help from a technician, she still couldn't get our computer to communicate with the phone. In my test, I couldn't get it to work with a Bluetooth-equipped IBM laptop.

Matter of Taste

Worse, in both of our tests, at some point, the Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard just quit working. Microsoft says this may have been because the Logitech software remained on our PCs from earlier tests, and interfered with the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. But, in both tests, we had totally uninstalled the Logitech stuff and rebooted before installing the Microsoft product, so we don't buy this excuse.

Luckily for Microsoft, we tested another of their wireless desktop models, which uses the traditional six-foot wireless system instead of Bluetooth. This product, called the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop, is $84.95 (or $69.99 on Amazon.com), about half the price of the Bluetooth model. It's compatible with both Windows and the Mac. And it works. I'm typing this column on it now.

In fact, I prefer this less-costly Microsoft product to the Logitech model we tested. The keyboard sits at a better angle, and the mouse was easier to get working smoothly. The whole thing has a solid, reliable feel. But you may prefer Logitech's design. It's a matter of taste.

So, if you want to clear keyboard and mouse cords off your desk, these wireless desktop sets may make sense. Just stay away from Microsoft's Bluetooth model.

-With reporting by Katherine Boehret