More often now then in the past, on market appear combos of earlier models of keyboards and mouses from Logitech. Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution is typical representative of this kind of set. Keyboard present in this set is derivate of famous G15, while choice for mouse is MX Revolution, model almost two years old, but still unbeaten in many aspects.
Keyboard has LCD display which displays date and time, current room temperature (Celsius and Fahrenheit), calculator, information about songs played in media player, number of unread e-mails, etc. As far as we know Logitech is the only manufacturer who implemented Vista-friendly keys. In this case those are: Flip 3D, Media Center and Gadget keys that can be used for appropriate functions in Windows Vista OS. Additional keys are located to the left side and those are used for control of media player. Same keys can have more functions using Fn key which can be very useful.
Interesting and unusual function of this keyboard is counter of pressed keys. Thanks to this counter you can get exact statistics information of how many times have you pressed each key. Although this function is totally irrelevant it is possible to preserve this information even when changing batteries. The fact is that this keyboard uses four AA batteries but it can operate with just three of these so it is possible to change all four batteries and not lose settings and info about pressed keys.
One of rare things that we didn’t like on this keyboard is position of navigational keys that can be found above cursor keys. They are rotated for 90 degrees opposite to standard layout. Users in most cases don’t like this but manufacturers are “pushing” this layout because they can make keyboard narrower for a few centimeters (inches). At least Logitech did make an effort and didn’t lose Insert key which can be found in-line with function keys. On the other side we highly appreciate that Logitech made this keyboard “liquid safe”. If you accidentally spill glass of water (or some other liquid) it will go through holes in keyboard base and minimize chance of ruining your not that cheep keyboard. Although layout of keys used for typing is standard, keyboard ergonomics is very good because of soft coated palm rest.
