At long last, Logitech has corrected the interference problems that have bugged the last two generations of its diNovo keyboards.  Our last few tests left us feeling like Logitech wasn't listening.  You'd have thought that giving the appalling score of just two stars to a combined keyboard and mouse kit that sells for more than £200 that would have prompted some faster action, though ...

Now that the keyboard has been upgraded, there's no hiding the problems with its predecessors.  We met a manager from Logitech's peripheral division who confirmed that there were indeed worrying cases of interference with other nearby wireless products.

This admission is almost enough to pardon the earlier faults--unless, of course, you're one of the unlucky few who actually bought one of the earlier kits and suffered these problems yourself--but we can happily say the mysterious problem of phantom letters appearing on the screen is now long gone. 

The new diNovo Edge keyboard (and it is just a keyboard, without a bundled mouse this time), is more attractive, uses a rechargeable battery and transmits data to your computer without any interference.

Perfect for long-distance use

Another new feature of this keyboard is that it's designed to allow you to control your computer from the sofa with a full range of multimedia keys allowing you to start and stop playback and move through films that you project.  We were impressed to find it worked at a distance of twenty metres with two walls in between. 

To give even more long-distance functionality, the right-hand side of the keyboard includes a small round touchpad with two buttons, allowing you to use it as a mouse in a pinch.  There's also as special vertical trackpad for scrolling through documents.

Although these extra features are likely to appeal to anybody whose used to using their keyboard from the other side of the room, but is likely to infuriate anybody else.  While you're typing, it's all too easy for your little finger to slip onto the trackpad, and all of a sudden you've bounced the cursor over to the other side of the page or selected a couple of paragraphs.  We constantly found ourselves bumping into this part of the keyboard that can't be deactivated using Logitech's software.

Smart design ... but isn't something missing?

The whole thing is elegant, unlike a lot of keyboards with dozens of multimedia hotkeys.  Unfortunately, though, Logitech might just have gone a little too far in paring down the keyboard, which now has to do without a numeric keypad, which, in earlier versions, was supplied as a separate extension that connected to one end.  We liked it that way!

Top Typing


Finally, our attention turns to one of the most important aspects: typing.  Unlike some of fellow journalists, we have to say that we very much enjoy typing on this new diNovo keyboard, which is a lot better than previous versions.  The keys go in deeper, and, although they're a little stiffer, they're much quieter and, above all, pleasant to type on.  It does sound more like a Microsoft keyboard than what we're used to, but we have to say we prefer this new Logitech!