Small and lightweight, the Zoom ZDTV Wireless Keyboard is designed specifically with media-centre enthusiasts in mind. Merging a laptop-style keyboard with a small, multitouch-capable touchpad, it’s small enough to live with your other remotes without getting in the way.
As with most wireless peripherals, the ZDTV connects to your PC via a small USB dongle, and we were able to make it work successfully from a distance of up four metres. That’s pretty good, making it practical to use in all but the largest living rooms. Alas, the ZDTV doesn’t keep up the good work.
The keyboard itself both looks and feels cheap. And while the compact size may at first seem a good idea, we feel that Zoom has taken this a step too far. The smaller-than-netbook design has severe implications for ease of use, rendering typing at speed impractical, and requires your full focus at all times to avoid spelling mistakes.
The touchpad is equally small, and thus difficult to operate. You often have to remove your finger from the unit and reposition, before continuing to scroll across the screen. However, doing so results in jumpy and skittish behaviour from the mouse, causing navigation to be far trickier than it ought to be.
As a keyboard intended for media-centre use, the lack of multimedia hotkeys is also disappointing. Similarly priced units offer volume rockers among a slew of other media-based controls, yet the ZDTV Wireless Keyboard offers only four – one of which is a branded hotkey, launching proprietary software that’s of very little benefit, and entirely riddled with adverts.
Although compact, then, this isn’t a keyboard we’d recommend. It’s fiddly to use, build quality is suspect and it lacks essential features. Considering the numerous alternatives available at this price and cheaper, the ZDTV Wireless Keyboard is a bitter disappointment.
Author: Andrew Eldridge
PCPro
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