The S 510 Cordless Desktop builds on the already-acclaimed series of cordless mice, keyboards and media remotes that Logitech has built and sold with considerable success.
At the center of the package is a simple premise - the home user is evolving. The S 510 kit comprises a keyboard, a mouse, a media remote, a wireless receiver for the three, six batteries to power the three devices and a wired USB port extender.
Getting all of that out of the box, actually, is more difficult than the installation. It's all plug-n-play. Plug in the wireless receiver, stuff batteries into the trio of devices and it's just a matter of pressing the connect buttons on the receiver and the device in sequence.
The systems install and come online by themselves. In fact, the installation instruction sheet actually made an appearance long after all the three items were already controlling the Intel inside.
The systems do need need you to install Logitech's Setpoint tuning software which can be used to program the plethora of programmable buttons, set sensitivity, mouse tracking and acceleration and other such delightful intricacies.
A hiccup
We found the default mouse settings too fast and everything else just perfect. Programming the buttons is made dead easy by a intuitive Logitech trick. Just press and hold any key for two seconds and it sets up to launch whatever application is current at the moment.
Our keyboard, for instance, is set to launch Firefox from almost any key. Using the trio on the office environment felt a bit tricky initially. Suddenly, putting the uncorded keyboard, mouse and remote became an issue that never existed before. But that was perhaps the only hiccup in the week the S 510 was here.
The keyboard is a lovely unit. The light, responsive keys, the comfortable flat design, the thoughtful wrist pad for off the lap application all work very, very well. The placement of media keys on either side of the keyboard makes life very easy.
The left side offers a zoom, rotate and standby key set. Very useful for browsing through images, zooming in and out as needed. And instead of tilting your head, pressing the rotate key re-orients the pic, click for clockwise, control+click for anti.
The right side has controls for the media player. You can configure which one the top button launches, and you get all the usual buttons plus a shuffle and a mute. It will be hard to return a normal keyboard after this one.
The mouse is not that impressive. It keeps getting stuck now and then, when the corded mouse (run parallel for a while) would easily pick up where it left off. The wireless reception was flawless, though, so it isn't clear why the mouse skipped the beat now and then.
No games in the office, but in a Doom or Quake, that'd be an unforced frag. On the other hand, the tilt function on the scroll wheel is a neat way to extend the mouse's functionality, although it must be said that Logitech has far more comprehensive, versatile mouse models on sale, so the S 510 mouse could have been more useful.
Yet, it's money's worth
The remote, on the other hand, is a great little device. If you're playing music off your computer, you can move around in your playlist from sixteen feet away (the keyboard and mouse worked upto ten-odd feet away). The remote also brings up Logitech's MediaLife application, which allows you to play music, slideshows and videos.
However, for those who favour dedicated applications for those three things, it can be configured to work with other applications. Once that is done, it's a good friend to have in your hand.
The central scroll bar was soon being employed to scroll down websites, alter font sizes and simultaneously maintain tight control over the music.
In today's digital home, the S 510 should fit right in. If you have your PC plugged into your high definition LCD or Plasma screen, the Logitech would make the perfect way to access your data, music, email or whatever.
Logitech claims even closer integration with home theatre PCs but we did not test this. The Indian product will come with a 2-year warranty. The unit sells for Rs 5,250 (MRP is Rs 6,995, but the former is a dealer price). We think it's quite reasonable.