The Logitech Cordless Desktop MX5500 Revolution keyboard and mouse set is a fantastic Bluetooth set that combines so many great features right at your fingertips.
Ease of Use, Performance: 25/25, Look & Feel: 23/25,
Features 25/25, How much I enjoy 24/25
Total: 97/100
Logitech just keeps the fantastic products coming and the MX5500 Revolution just goes to show what someone can do to continue a great tradition of useful and user friendly computer peripherals. The MX5500 Revolution keyboard and mouse are both fantastic devices in their own rights and combined equal a great computing experience.
The MX5500 Revolution keyboard is a fully featured keyboard with an LCD screen for a great and convenient display of important features. Using the display for a calculator adds convenience to many users but you get so many other functions from it. During normal operation you can use the LCD display to act as a media display, calculator, mail notice and time/date function.
The display has only the preset functions but it is so nice to have the time at your disposal all the time when computing or gaming as there are so many times that I would like to have this in front of me without having to look up from my work at a calendar or clock on the wall. It’s the little things in products that make the most impact and the MX5500 has plenty of them.
The display also features media center support so you can see the current movie or video playing on the display as well as a time line of the current item playing. This is again not a big thing but it adds up like the two keys below the display for what you have programmed into the four favorites keys. There are four favorites keys that act with the function key as addition quick start or shortcut keys just like the extra set of functions for the regular function keys.
Simply press the FN key between the right control and alt keys and you have a second set of function keys for the F1 through F12 keys. The F1 through F12 keys are pre assigned as common ones and you can reprogram all of them but the first eight have little orange pictures for their default settings. The other four have the letters A through D as the secondary function and are preset for Media Player, Search PC, Document, and Control Panel.
The rest of the keyboard works well and has other programmable keys such as the media buttons along the left and the page flip and zoom keys. There are three keys on the right below the keypad that are preset as Media Center, Photo Gallery and Gadgets with the Media Center being the only one that is reprogrammable. The other two cannot change but with all the other keys available for you I can’t see having much more of a need. There is one key above the number pad used for a power and sleep mode button that is preset as the power off button and can be reprogrammed as many other power functions like sleep, restart and logoff.
The calculator is a great feature that I really enjoy as I occasionally use one but find that having to find a handheld one is a pain and using the built in Windows one is also a pain but having one that is one button away and does not pop up on your screen but on the display is very nice. When you hit the calculator button it disconnects the keypad from your computer functions and uses the calculator that shows only on the LCD display of the keyboard. This allows for uninterrupted use of the calculator for math functions but allows you to easily go back to your computer work or turning off the calculator with the press of the calc button.
The keyboard communicates using Bluetooth that has a small dongle you plug into a USB port on your computer and connects both the keyboard and the mouse to your computer. I was also able to easily and quickly get both the keyboard and mouse to connect with my PlayStation 3 system and it worked beautifully.
The keyboard runs on four AA batteries that go into a compartment on the bottom of the keyboard. I connected the MX5500 Revolution to a couple of computers and found it worked perfectly without loading drivers as a regular keyboard and mouse but you just have to install the drivers for the best of the Logitech MX5500 Revolution features.
The mouse is the best part of the package and works so very well, I can see what all the fuss and talk on the reviews is about. The MX5500 Revolution mouse is a great wireless mouse with built in rechargeable batteries that last a good time but not more than several days without replacing it into the dock. The mouse has several buttons as well as two wheels that work well.
The regular mouse wheel is supplemented by the use of a back and forward wheel that works more as a rocker switch than a wheel. The scroll wheel has a transmission that can be used for smooth scrolling or click scrolling and has four settings. On and off according to a transmission and speed of scroll, on or off, and click to change from smooth to click and back. This smooth scrolling is nice for some applications like image editing but does not work so well in word processing or internet viewing as the page will often jump when using smooth scrolling and the wheel settles some.
The MX Revolution mouse works very well for many different types of work and I found that it works well in games as well as more conventional office type work like word editing or internet browsing. The mouse is a nice optical smooth action mouse with a performance laser and nice low battery warning in the blinking battery symbol.
All the buttons on the mouse as well as the many function keys on the keyboard are reprogrammable for a great many settings in your personal use. You can use the very easy to install Logitech SetPoint program to change any of the settings for all Logitech products on your computer easily. The SetPoint program allows for configuration of your peripherals in many ways and it is an easy to use and install program.
The Logitech MX5500 is a great keyboard and mouse set and wonderful for both gaming and regular computer use like in an office. Using the keyboard for a few weeks I can easily see how so many have applauded the MX Revolution mouse but the keyboard has so many nice features that make general computer work so much easier.
I cannot recommend the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX5500 Revolution keyboard and mouse set highly enough, this is about as perfect a mouse and keyboard as you can get without specifically designing one yourself.
