After purchasing my wireless Targus Numeric Keypad and the battery lasting a mediocre few days I felt like I was scammed out of money. Bluetooth keypads have longer battery life, but overall their response time are hideous! As a result I feel that wireless key pads are simply unreliable. This brings me to two neat candidates that in concept give us plenty of possibilities. The Canon devices above are three-in-one calculators + numeric keypad + mouse combo! Check the images and text below for the details.
Canon DK-1000i
- There are many useful keys for PC mode. The arrow keys, backspace, and tab are very useful for use in MS Excel.
- For ten-key the keys are too small and will not work well unless you have thin fingers. The keys do not offer an enjoyable depth. The DK-1000i seems to send key presses to the PC faster than the DK-1000i II.
- As a mouse I feel that the DK-1000i has well positioned left and right click buttons of very good size. The mouse though is missing a scrolling method!
- The screen of the calculator seems to diminish the contrast depending on the angle.
- As a stand alone calculator I would not recommend it because there is a noticeable screen delay after each key press.
Canon DK-1000i II
- The keys on the DK1000i II are better because they offer a thicker depth. The keys also have better separation in between which allows you to discriminate among keys better. The DK-1000i had a tab button, but this doesn't seem to have one. Also, the DK-1000i II is slower when sending key presses to the PC.
- The mouse has a scroll wheel, which is great! However the left and right click buttons are tiny and not as comfortable.
- The screen has better contrast and works well at all angles.
- As a stand-alone calculator the response delay is considerably less so than the DK-1000i.
Both
- Have the same cable length, which are retractable. The cables are thin and not too long. In a way I wish I could remove the cable and attach a more appropriate cable for my needs.
- They send key presses to the PC only at one key at a time. This could feel slow when compared to other numeric keypads. The DK1000i II is slower when sending key presses to the PC, which I did not expect as it is the newer model.
- The mouse functions of both work without having to set the calculators in PC mode. Once you set PC mode then the calculators will begin working as numeric keypads.
- If you use the device as a calculator and desire to transfer your calculations to the PC then all you have to do is press and hold the SEND key. This is a very neat feature!
- It's important to cleanup the trackball mechanism because both did not work well on the first run. After cleanup they worked the same way all trackballs do.
Conclusion
While I like the concept I feel that both the DK-1000i and DK-1000i II fail to meet the expectations that most people would have. There are positives and negatives on each and I wish that I could combine aspects that would then give us a very good stand-alone calculator + numeric keypad + mouse combo.
Back of the packages.
The contents of the package. From here on you should always see the DK-1000i II on the left and the DK-1000i on the right.
These Canon devices connect to PCs via USB. A direct connection is more reliable than wireless devices.
The USB cables retract and can be neatly stored away.
The DK-1000i II (left) is slightly thicker than the DK-1000i (right)
Because the Targus is closer to the camera it will seem thicker than what it actually is, but you can observe that the Canon calculators are considerably thicker.
Each device has their own key shape and as such give you a different "feel" when pressed.
The DK-1000i II has a scroll wheel, but not a tab key! The DK-1000i has a tab key, but not a scroll wheel! Each have their strengths and weaknesses and I recommend reading the notes found above for details you should know before making definite decisions.
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