Review: Microsoft Wireless Optical Dekstop 700

Obscure Washington outfit Microsoft present us with this, the Wireless Optical Desktop 700.

It's been fairly inconsistent in the design and quality of its peripherals lately, swinging from the sleek Arc Touch to the almost unusable Windows 7 Touch mouse.

Recommended at £30 but available for a shade over £20, the Wireless Optical Desktop 700 features a well-built keyboard running on AAA batteries and a slightly flimsy mouse running on AAs, each communicating with your PC or laptop via a wireless receiver.

Key feature

As far as this reviewer's weary fingers are concerned, the best thing about this package is the weighting of the keys.

The mouse, however, is less satisfying underhand. It's extremely light, which makes it a bit of a nightmare in a gaming scenario. Despite this and some flimsy buttons, the real problem is that it goes to sleep too soon if you haven't moved it in a while.

We can forgive the Wireless 700's unsuitability for gaming because that's not what it's designed for, but this has an impact on everyday desktop use. It's an issue that plagues many wireless mice, particularly at the budget end.

The big problem here is the absence of any lights for caps, num and scroll locks. Okay, it's £30, but no lights? It affects the most fundamental keyboard tasks, and is something that £10 keyboards get right.

It's easy to get up and running wirelessly and while the mouse doesn't feel great, we doubt either peripheral will fall apart any time soon.

However, you should only consider this keyboard and mouse if your needs necessitate a wireless setup, and your budget's locked down to this price point. There are better wired bundles for the same price, and better wireless ones for a bit more.