KeySonic KSK-3205RFM Air Super Mini Wireless Keyboard w/ Trackpad Review

Wireless keyboards and wireless mice have been available for quite some time and have proven popular for use within a Windows based media center environment. Today we are looking at the new KeySonic KSK-3205RFM - a tiny, portable keyboard and mouse 'all in one' unit for use at work or home. The KeySonic KSK-3205RFM is built around a gyro-based mouse, which works in a similar fashion to the Nintendo Wii controller. It also features a plethora of hot keys and media controls. Specifications: Connection: 2.4 GHz wireless RF Operation distance: ~ 7 Meters Key count: 49 keys 12 multimedia hotkeys 2 mouse buttons Power supply: 2 x AAA batteries The KeySonic Super Mini Keyboard with Trackpad ships in a bright red box. There is a large transparent window at the front, highlighting the diminutive dimensions of the product. The back of the packaging tell us a little bit about the device in three languages. Inside, alongside the device are two AAA batteries. The user guide is a bit thicker than we were expecting and has 9 pages in English, detailing how the device works and the key allocations. The device itself is rather small and the keyboard looks very much like a Blackberry keyboard (and is a similar size). The top set of keys are the media controls, and in the middle we have the track-pad and mouse buttons. The QWERTY keyboard features a lot of dual-function keys, allowing for Page Up/Down and keypad illumination on/off as well as all the standard punctuation. Interestingly there are two FN keys, suggesting they expect you to use both thumbs to type with. At the top of the device is a little on/off switch, so you can turn it off to save the battery when you aren't going to use it for a while. The device is thinner at the top than the bottom, so it fits nicely in hand. The back has a sleek dark black cover. The top is where the receiver is stored and it just slides in/out of place. The receiver is not much bigger than the USB connector and will fit into any free USB port. The design of the KeySonic is unique, at least in terms of its size. It measures only 6.5 centimeters in length which is smaller than a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone. As such, you probably don't expect much functionality, but the KeySonic KSK-3205 crams in a plethora of features. The air mouse feature is fantastic, especially when used as a presentation pointer. By pressing the mouse button twice, the gryo function is enabled permanently until double tapped again. I especially like the keyboard backlighting, something you don't normally see on a small wireless keyboard. The play controls are brilliant, and they work with iTunes, offering a wireless remote which can skip forward/backward, change/mute volume and even open up the default media player. If you use Windows Media Centre then this will also work as a TV remote allowing you to change channels. The keyboard is very small, and subsequently rather difficult to use for serious typing duties. Even after many hours of practice I couldn't type more than about 20 words per minute. Annoyingly, I can type faster than this on any of my smartphones, even an ancient Nokia I have in storage. I also found the layout of the punctuation to be a bit illogical, with only the full stop getting its own key. The rest are strangely positioned as function keys, and as the keys are so small the function key texts are rather tiny and difficult to see. For instance, on the top row the left square bracket is the function of the T key, but then function Y (the next letter to the right on a QWERTY keyboard) gives the right hand curly bracket .... this just doesn't make sense. The keyboard is not pleasant to use, with an excessively high resistance and some movement across the left and right plane. It also doesn't feel built to a very high standard. In terms of range the device is quoted to work at up to 7 metres. We tested it thoroughly at this range and there were no problems, although direct line of sight is obviously a requirement. We didn't have time to thoroughly test the battery life but it only uses power when transmitting key presses and even the keyboard illumination turns off after a few second when none of the keys are depressed. The KeySonic KSK-3205RFM retails at £40.76 from Scan.co.uk which is a good price, however the Xebec Tech iTouchpad Diamond HTPC keyboard retails for less, and due to the larger size is much easier to use as a typing device. At the end of the day, this is a very useful product, but the incredibly small dimensions also bring a series of user interface issues into the mix. Pros Very small and convenient Good range Easy to set-up (Plug and play) Has keyboard backlight Cons Difficult to type on Punctuation keys are located illogically Key's could be nicer to use. Kitguru says: If owning the smallest interface platform is a key buying decision, then look no further. Just be prepared to accept usability issues due to the limited physical dimensions.