Short Review of Logitech Dinovo Mini

Thursday, July 31, 2008

One thing that has always bothered me about my HTPC was the need to use the mouse and keyboard. While I have it configured for the remote control for MythTV and Elisa, there is no getting around the fact that sometimes you need a keyboard and mouse for performing regular PC duties like finding a torrent or browsing the web. I was using the standard wireless HP keyboard and mouse that came with my HTPC and while they worked well, it was never very comfortable hunching over the coffee table to perform these tasks.

Enter the Logitech Dinovo Mini keyboard/trackpad combination.

The basic premise behind the Dinovo Mini, as you can see from the picture above, is that you can use it comfortably from a couch or armchair without having to balance a keyboard in your lap or sit at a desk. Given that I have a home theater system because I like keeping my butt planted on the sofa this works for me. The first thing you notice when you unbox the Mini is how small it is, the device is very comfortable to hold and any Blackberry user is going to be instantly conmfortable with the two hand grip/thumbs over the keyboard style used with the Mini. The unit itself has a high wife acceptance factor as it is very attractive and the smoked plastic cover means it doesn't look out of place when lying on a coffee table.

The keyboard on the Mini is an absolute delight to use, it is responsive to the touch and has a very comfortable feel when banging out short bursts of text. You wouldn't want to write War and Peace on this keyboard but for HTPC use it is a very good fit. The backlighting on the keyboard is excellent as well though I wish there were some configuration options to control how long the backlighting stays on. One problem with the keyboard is that Logitech chose to omit certain standard keys, such as the function keys, in favor of various custom keys such as PVR controls. I can understand why they did it but personally I'd prefer the standard keys as I use a remote for controlling media center operations and I would want the Mini to be the best keyboard possible, not duplicate my already existing remote functionality.

The touchpad supports two modes, in the first mode it operates as a standard mouse touchpad similar to what you find on most laptops. In the second mode it operates as a directional pad for navigation in various media center front ends. The mode switch is quite seamless and the backlighting switches color from orange to green so it is easy to see what mode you are in. In mouse mode you can click the pad itself to perform a left click, however this can also be done by using the OK button on the left of the Mini. I found the OK button a much better solution for left clicking since pressing the touchpad down invariably moved the pointer out of range of what you were trying to click.

Unfortunately in mouse mode the touchpad is nowhere near as good as the keyboard. Trying to use the touchpad with my thumb was an exercise in frustration as the mouse cursor moved along in fits and starts no matter what I chose for sensitivity settings. At this point I was strongly considering returning the Mini however a reviewer on Amazon mentioned that he had much better luck with it using his index finger rather then his thumb. His reasoning was that the touchpad is quite small and a thumb cuts a large swatch across it, a smaller finger allows it to react better.

Giving the index finger a shot I found that the touchpad was in fact much easier to use with a finger then a thumb. I'd prefer the thumb since it is already in the right position when holding the Mini but switching to a finger is no big deal given the nice form factor of the Mini. I do think the touchpad is something Logitech really needs to address in the next version, for me I'd much rather use a thumbstick then a touchpad for the mouse.

In terms of Linux support the Dinovo Mini works well on Mythbuntu 8.1. The keyboard works out of the box, however for the touchpad I did need to make some changes to modprobe.d/options as per the instructions in the AVS Forum post called Logitech diNovo Mini Wireless Keyboard- Holy Grail for HTPC?. My next job is to see if the various custom keys on the Mini can be configured for Linux but I have not taken a shot at it yet.

All in all I would have to say the Dinovo Mini represents the best keyboard currently available for HTPC use in terms of fitting in well with the typical environment home theater environment, aka the living room. Despite the touchpad being less then ideal I would still highly recommend this device.

Posted by Gerald Nunn at 9:55 AM | Categories: Home Theater | | | Permalink