Logitech diNovo Mini Remote/Keyboard Review

Testing:

Testing Setup:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2400 MHz @ 3528 MHz (441x8, 1.54V) Rev. B2
• Motherboard: eVGA 680i SLI T1 (P31 BIOS)
• Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2 x 1GB DDR2-800 @ 882 MHz (4-4-4-12 1T 2.250V)
• Video Card: eVGA 8800GTS 640MB AR @ 580/1750 MHz, Rev. A2
• Power Supply: Etasis ET850 850W
  
• Hard Drives: 2 x Western Digital Caviar SE 80GB in RAID 0
• Optical: NEC-3550A IDE DVD±R
• Optical: Pioneer A06 IDE DVD±R
• OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Business 32-bit

The best way for me to fully test the Logitech diNovo Mini was sitting on my couch in the dark. Once the Bluetooth receiver was installed, the remote immediately began working - no other changes were needed. First, I set the ClickPad to Touch, and started experimenting with it; I was a little overwhelmed at the outset - as I am with any new device - but figured it out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the diNovo was not nearly as accurate as a real mouse – it was reminiscent of the imprecise feeling of a regular laptop touchpad, which I expected. Left-clicking was accomplished by pushing down the ClickPad, a button in itself. Then I switched to Directional mode, which I liked quite a bit; it’s a replication of the arrow keys on a regular keyboard, and are be used by pushing down in the corresponding direction.

I pulled up various programs and began surfing the web; gradually, I became more comfortable with the diNovo Mini. Despite the remote’s small size, the keys were excellent -they bulge outward, which makes them extremely easy to punch - even with large hands! Again, I was a little slow to get comfortable typing, but, as before, I soon became accustomed to the keypad’s layout. I also liked that the Backspace key bulged out more than the rest of the keys - a great feature that helped me find a very important key! While typing, I noticed the high quality of the keys; the diNovo Mini feels good in the sense that typing is completely fluid and solid. All of the normal function and shortcut keys worked - even the Ctrl-Alt-Del function! The right-click also serves as a function key, and it was little more cumbersome than I'd like it to be, but it was sufficient. These function keys are very handy, especially the Ctrl-Alt-Del function and media hotkeys.

Since I was doing this in the dark - as if I were watching a movie at the theater - I loved the diNovo’s backlight, which saved me from searching around for the right key! I watched a movie on my HTPC, and when I wanted to pause it or turn down the volume, all I had to do was grab the diNovo, open it up, and bam – the backlit keypad helped me find the right button immediately! My only gripe with the backlight is that it fades out - when I was only using the touchpad, the keypad lights shut off, but when I wanted to punch in a few characters, I couldn’t see them! The only way to activate the light on the keypad was to punch a key, but that key then appeared on the screen and needed to be deleted! That was somewhat annoying, but it was really a fairly minor issue.

As for the remote’s range, I could walk around my entire living room and got excellent reception. Unless you have a gigantic screen that requires people to sit extremely far away, the diNovo would be perfect. Battery life was also great; the remote didn’t die on me once, even after hours of continuous use. Of course, I plugged it in to the charger every once in awhile to make sure it wouldn’t quit on me.