Images
About as far as it's possible to get from the coffee-stained office keyboard without going voice-controlled, the diNovo Edge looks like something robbed from the deck of the Enterprise.
Moulded from a single chunk of gloss black plastic and trimmed with aluminum, it’s only 11mm thick.
Thin and wireless
The wafer-thin profile looks great and oozes quality. Despite the elfin design it feels robust, and the keys are tactile and comfortable to use.
It connects via Bluetooth using a dongle in the box. Unusually among wireless keyboards it’s rechargeable, so there are no wires to spoil the look: when not in use you just prop it up in the similarly minimalist silver desktop stand to top up the battery.
Media manipulation
The Edge brings a touch of designer class to any desktop, but its real home is on the sofa. A built-in laptop-style trackpad means you can control the mouse pointer and scroll iPod-style, and there's a touch-slider volume control.
Pressing the ‘Fn’ key converts the function keys along the top to media controls and customisable shortcut keys, which are tastefully backlit for low-light use and really set off the gloss finish.
You can’t touch this
The only thing that spoils the package is that it shares the Nintendo DS's weakness of overly-obvious fingerprint marks, so choose your movie snacks carefully.
It's hard to imagine anything else you'd want in a media center keyboard, save perhaps Mac support. It'll have some competition soon from Microsoft's upcoming Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000, but for the moment this is the best sofa-ready PC controller around.
Comments
PavPev
5 years ago
I bought one of these keyboards a few months ago along with a Logitech MX Air cordless mouse and I have to say I am very very impressed! The main reason I bought it was for the bluetooth compatibility with the PS3, however the bluetooth USB dongle has allowed me to use it for my laptop or desktop too. It comes with a CD of software which adds additional functions, but even without that it's more-or-less plug and play! The keyboard looks amazing, of course, but prehaps slightly bulky around the edges; it seems like the keys could have been framed by less plastic, but considering it is a compact layout (no number pad) it keeps the keyboard lap-sized. It is very light and solidly built, which is reassuring when you feel how thin it is as it feels like it can snap under pressure, but the build quality is superb The responsiveness is spot on, I have yet to experience any instances of lag or backlogged keystrokes, even when I use it for gaming. The keys feel slightly more spaced out than I'm used to, but that will depend on what keyboard you are accustomed to. The home/end/delete/pgup/pgdn buttons are laid out more logically than standard, which is nice to see, but does make you hit the wrong ones out of habit sometimes. The touchpad is a nice addition, especially for PS3 use, however it wouldn't be comfortable to use as the primary pointing device all the time. The scroll functions on it are clever andd fun at first, but soon become a bit fiddly as it's hard to hit the sweet spot to make it scroll. The volume control is great though, the touch sensitive, LED lit slider looks and feels great to use. Just when you think you've played with everything this keyboard has to offer, you can hit the Fn button and unlock even more functions! You will find yourself doing this over and over for no reason other than to see the lovely orange text light up and set new controls to the F keys. The media and shortcut controls work automatically from the go, and the A-D custom shortcuts can be programmed to make it easy to access whatever other funstions you should need. But all this does cost quite a bit. I got mine for £100 just to spoil myself, but after these few months I can see why it is worth the price tag. It feels new to use every time you pick it up, the high quality plactic and metal makes it feel cool to the touch, and the battery lasts for weeks of daily use! I can see myself never needing another keyboard again.