We've recently tested a couple of mice from Pleomax, and now it's time for a set containing a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Pleomax ZEN Edition Wireless Set, keyboard + mouse
Packaging:
This set comes in a large black box with a hole in the middle and inside you'll find a plastic wrap containing the wireless set that looks as if the Lord of Darkness himself was using it.
You’ll also find batteries, the manual and the receiver, that is the main point of communication between your mouse and keyboard and your computer’s USB.
Keyboard:
When you open the box, your eyes are fixed on the elegant looking black color. The keyboard itself is quite thin, less than 24mm high, 456mm wide and 176mm long.
It contains 113 keys, 8 of those being special and placed on top of the keyboard; they are used for quick and painless Internet, mail and multimedia access. There are two volume control buttons, four media player control buttons – Play, Stop, Next and Previous.
A small LED lamp on the right side of the keyboard shows the battery status, and when the battery is almost out the LED lamp will indicate that it’s time to replace them. Sadly, the batteries that you receive are not rechargeable.
This is a SoftTouch keyboard, and it truly feels like your fingers are flying. The keys feel soft to the touch, and that means long working hours won’t be a problem.
Still, the keyboard has a couple of downsides to it. The first problem is the edges on the bottom, because they’re a bit sharp. This might not be a problem, depending on whether you keep your hands on the bottom edges while typing. Downside number two also might not present a problem to some. There are no LED lamps on the keyboard, which means you can’t tell whether caps lock, num lock or scroll lock are on just by looking at the keyboard. In this case, the LEDs are placed on the receiver.
Mouse:
In our recent review, we tested a similar model. Actually, design and efficiency of this mouse is identical to the one we tested; the difference - it’s wireless and has no blue LED lamp underneath.
This optical mouse with 800dpi resolution will suit right-handed users as well as left-handed ones. It has three buttons, one of which is the scroll wheel, and although it packs two batteries, it’s quite light. Although the design is quite boxy and looks as if you might cut yourself on it, that’s not the case. It fits in your hand quite comfortably and you won’t feel any strain from using it.
Reciever:
We don't have much to say about this device, as its only use is to be the communication link between the keyboard/mouse and your computer through USB. Installation is automatic and won’t give you a headache; you simply plug it in, sit back and relax while Windows does its thing.
The receiver is a black box with 4 LED lamps, three of which show keyboard locks (caps, scroll, num), and the fourth is the mouse battery indicator. Besides being a receiver this black box serves as a mouse docking station. Batteries shipped with this set are rechargeable so you might want to keep your mouse on the docking station when not working.
Conclusion:
Elegant and functional set, and it would most definitely look good in some big shot’s office. Not only does it look cool, it also feels good.
Pros: Elegant, soft touch, 8 special buttons for Internet, e-mail, multimedia control, receiver/recharger, automatic device recognition in Windows, price around €40.
Cons: Sharp edges on the bottom of the keyboard, caps/num/scroll lock LEDs are on the receiver.