Logitech diNovo Mini - REVIEW

Adam Turner
Monday, 14 April 2008 13:14

Your IT - Entertainment

If you're on a quest for a lounge-room friendly keyboard, Logitech's wireless diNovo Mini could be your holy grail.
The diNovo Mini looks like a wide, flat sunglasses case but when you pop up the lid you're faced with something resembling a tiny 5 inch widescreen notebook - but without the display. It features a full 63-key QWERTY keyboard along with a round trackpad that can also act as the cursor keys. The keyboard is designed to be held in two hands while you type with your thumbs, similar to some smartphones, and weighs a mere 175 gm. Above the keyboard is a string of multimedia buttons designed to work with a media centre computer.

The supplied Logitech SetPoint software is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista, but the diNovo Mini is a standard Bluetooth 2.0 device. It comes with its own pre-paired USB receiver, which can be stored inside the back of the keyboard when not in use. As such you don't really need the SetPoint software and we had it up and running in seconds on a Vista media centre and later a Leopard MacBook (with the Windows key acting as the Command key). It's also designed to work with the PlayStation 3, which is great from those who want to use a PS3 as a full blown media centre as well as for web browsing. The fact that it's wireless means, unlike a traditional remote control, you don't have to worry about line of sight.

The diNovo Mini is one of those rare products that works straight out of the box. No configuration, no tears, it just works. It comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and Logitech claims you'll get about a month out of one charge (although we assume this is under light use). Disappointingly it doesn't come with a recharge cradle, just an AC adapter that plugs into the back of the keyboard.

The keyboard has a very similar look and feel to the keyboard on the HTC TyTN smartphone (rebadged as the i-mate JasJam and Dopod 838Pro in Australia) but is half as big again. Each key is raised slightly in the middle, making a slight click when pressed, which significantly assists your typing accuracy. It's fine for writing emails and other short typing jobs, but you obviously wouldn't want to write a novel on it. As you stretch your thumbs to reach the keys in the middle you can feel the tendons in your palms stretching and we suspect you'd get cramps in your hands if you typed for long periods of time.

The keyboard is backlit, which is perfect for the lounge room, and it features a light sensor so it can kill the backlight during the day to extend the battery life. Closing the lid puts the keyboard into standby mode and we found it had no trouble reconnecting to our computer when revived.

When you hold the diNovo Mini, a trackpad for controlling the pointer is under you right thumb. If you hold down the function button it becomes a four-way rocker switch replicating the cursor keys. Pressing the centre of the pad is the equivalent to hitting Enter key. When you switch from controlling the pointer to controlling the cursor the backlight changes from orange to green and the cursor buttons on the trackpad are illuminated. It's a shame they didn't extend this concept to the PS3 functions such as the circle, square, triangle and X buttons.

If you're just using the trackpad and multimedia buttons, the backlight behind the QWERTY keys fade. Next to the touchpad is a switch which toggles its functionality, so it can be a rocker switch for the cursor by default with the function key letting you control the pointer.

The touchpad obviously isn't as accurate as a touchpad on a notebook, let alone a mouse or trackball. It's tricky to make precise movements and you have to train yourself to use the tip of your thumb rather than the pad. If you install the SetPoint software you can adjust the sensitivity of the trackpad.

Under your left thumb is an OK button which is the equivalent of a left mouse click, while holding down the function button generates a right mouse click. Below the OK button are page up and down buttons, which also act as Channel Up and Down buttons when controlling a media centre. While the diNovo Mini is well suited to controlling a Windows-based media centre PC, don't throw away your media centre remote just yet. CONTINUED