My Big Fat Review
You'll Never Have to Get Up Again!
I have been looking for a great keyboard and mouse control, all in one, to use with my media PC for awhile. Originally I had been using my IR control that came with my IMON Ultra Bay, but IR sucks and the battery life was not that great (see review on Ultra Bay). I was tempted to go with the new Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse setup that I'm using on my desktop, but I knew there could possibly be some driver issues (see review on Apple Bluetooth Mouse/Keyboard setup). Nice packaging with this device and it comes with a bluetooth dongle. The dongle tucks inside the back of the keyboard which is nice for portability. Logitech recommends using their dongle, which also works for other bluetooth devices, but I have a Wifi/Bluetooth 2in1 PCI card so I went with that instead (see review). No instruction on if the Mini needed charged before use or not, I played it safe and did the 24 hour charge thing. The battery is a Li-ion so you'll be safe either way. Battery life is purported to last 30 days on one charge, I haven't had it long enough to tell.
Install was hassle free using the supplied cd drivers. As usual, I would recommend using the latest drivers from the Logitech site. One issue was that SetPoint did not work from the cd or website and I tried multiple versions. It simply did not recognized the Mini, no big loss for my use, but this can probably be corrected by using the supplied bluetooth dongle. After about two weeks of use I have to say I love the Mini. Most devices like this don't live up to my expectations, but the Mini did. If your use to texting or using a blackberry, unlike me, you'll find the keyboard easy to learn (I keep trying to use all 10 fingers). Even so you'll find it easy to get use to, plus for a media PC you're not doing a lot of typing beyond the occasional imdb.com look up. The mouse feature is great, similar to the feel of a laptop touch pad. The pad doubles as the left click button, there is also an okay button on the other side that works as the left click. I'm not sure why one of them isn't a right click, but you can use SetPoint to change this or by other means. If you hold the Function button the okay button becomes a right click. You also use Function for the Ctrl+Alt+Del and a few other key sets. The entire keyboard is back lite for easy use in the dark while watching a movie. The only major issue I've had so far was, a few days after I started using the Mini, it simply died on me, no power with the battery or cord. I tried taking out the battery, charging it, pushing various buttons and looking frustrated. I ended up rebooting my media PC and then putting the battery back in and reconnecting the bluetooth to finally get it working again. I've read of similar issues on some forums, but it's only happened once to me. The diNovo Mini comes with a two year warranty so for now I'm not going to sweat it and hope it was a fluke. Overall this is a great device and I definitely recommend it for any media PC setup.
Update 3/17/9: After a 24 hour charge I found my battery only lasts about 5 days. Disappointing, but not so bad. My controller also started emitting a soft buzzing noise when in use, bareable, but annoying.
Update 1/28/11: My controls still going strong. I did buy a battery with a bit longer battery life since the original seemed to be wearing down quicker. Where the adapter plugs into the controller seems to be getting a bit lose, but beyond that no other issues.