IOGEAR Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black)

Had been ordering this keyboard on a regular basis for shipping out with a product I sell. I have opened and tested over 40 of these keyboards. At first, the quality was excellent and the keyboard was incredibly responsive over long distances. In the past month or so, the quality of this keyboard seems to have drastically changed. It still has the same name, but the packaging is slightly different, the USB receiver is the not the same as advertised, and the trackball has a noticeable difference in quality; feeling very clunky. As far as operation goes, so many of these do not detect the USB receiver at all, and end up being useless. There is no 'connect' button on this new USB receiver, so trying to initiate any manual sync is impossible. All you can do is plug it in and hope for the best. When batteries are placed in the keyboard, the low battery light flashes for a few seconds. Not sure whether this is a connection problem or part of the 'syncing' process, but the previous version did not do this. I've tried the included batteries as well as brand new Duracells: same problem every time. I'm not sure whether this is the new model that IOGear is producing, or whether I am receiving old stock of a previous (faulty) version. Overall, it feels like a knockoff of the version I had come to love. But the cheap/new/old/knockoff version (whatever it is), is not worth the money. Be warned.

Cheaply made and inconsistently made. I have bought several of these only to find out IOGEAR will not honor their 3 year warranty. Several phone calls to their tech support and sales people went out of their way to be as UNhelpful as they could. I deeply regret buying these since I found out IOGEAR does NOT honor their warranties at all on this product. Move along to another product so you too don't get burned by this shyster company. They look for and find reasons to not honor their warranty so you know their product is junk. I've never had one last longer than 6 months. As if all this was bad enough; I found out they use poor ink on their serial number label that rubs off within a few weeks so when you call about the warranty, even if you have the original box with serial number on the box, they will not honor their warranty. A class action suit should be brought against this company for false advertising.

Whatever they did to the newer version, the range is now horrible. I used to be able to sit comfortably across the living-room and use this keyboard. We have used buy these every few years in the past because they would eventually go out after a lot of kid abuse. This next generation, the trackball immediately started seizing up and the range went from at least 15ft+ to about 3ft. It makes me sad, this really used to be the perfect HTPC keyboard. Now it possibly the worst for that purpose. I'm going to try an Adesso WKB-3000U to see if the range on that one is decent. I'll post my review on that one once I get it.

Oh Yes! This is awesome!this is sweet. It feels great in the hand, it is intuitive and easy to take to out of the box.It takes a fair amount of work to make something feel so natural straight away. It feels like a giant game controller and is comfortable to hold.The enter key is oversized as a bigger target for your thumb, the lips at the base that meet your finger tips to give a good secure grip. Everything just works on this unit and it works very, very well. I am using this mainly as a living room KODI remote. A task to which it is more than capable. The hotkeys are functional and awesome the trackball is great, but the ball itself feels like cheap hollow plastic though that feeling doesn't translate into it's actual performance that much. But if you hold it at too tiled an angle while reclining in your easy chair it can jostle in the socket and become annoying. Held reasonably flat though it's hard to complain mainly because it's not easy to find one of these with a trackball, which I prefer. So I'm willing to accept a couple minor flaws. over all this unit is awesome. It does however run on two included AA batteries which I'm not super enthused about but it is what it is. in the time we live in it just feels strange to have such a techie item not come with a proprietary lithium battery but maybe I am thinking too much into it.No deal breakers, wonderful , well thought out button placement and design. excellent choice and probably your best bet for a wireless keyboard in any price point. also a very well suited kodi remote if your in the mood for a full size model. works with fire tv and Windows 7,8,8.1, and 10 .Highly recommended.Edit: about the aa batteries, I've not changed them once for many months and have practically never turned it off. And since internal lithium is not super replaceable I'm kinda glad now about the aa batteries.

Have bought over a dozen of these in the past as gifts and as controllers for home theater PCs. I have previously recommended them to everyone I know. I now officially WITHDRAW that recommendation. Iogear's decision to replace the high quality USB dongle/plug with a cheap version has killed the device. The effective range of the latest gen unit has dropped from 30 feet+ to approximately 3 feet. Secondly, the decision to downgrade the quality of the trackball has destroyed any decent pointing and selecting capabilities. Great job Iogear! Hope you saved a few bucks. Your previously flagship product is now utter garbage. What a shame!

keyboard is good as it works quite far away and the tracker ball is very good, as long as you turn the point speed up a touch. Not seen any missed letters whilst typing like on my old one.Quite well made, a bit small in size as it's not a fullsized keyboard, but big enough for my needs. Only needs 2 AA batteries and you can switch keyboard off by a switch, or it auto does so. Which makes batteries last well.Would have been nice if there had been a mouse button on each side.

This is a good keyboad; I find the scroll wheel and inbuilt trackball especially useful, but it is compact and if you have large fingers this is perhaps not for you, especially as there is no indicator light on the device to remind you whether caps are on or off. When entering passwords this is a damned nuisance. I would have given it 4 stars but for that. Also, the keyboard sleeps after a few minutes of activity but doesn't wake immediately you start using it again: if typing something without first waking it up (and not checking the screen) the first 2-3 characters will be missing.

I bought this to go with my Zino, because the Dell mini keyboard had no scroll wheel anda tiny little trackball.This is a vast improvement, worked right out of the box & drivers were on Windows 7.It's a little bigger than the Dell, but the keys & functions feel really good.Trackball - well, never going to be 100% are they, but this is pretty good!

Good product but have issues with my wireless broadband it interferes with the keyboard @2.4mhz

my setup is i use my computer from my sofa and my monitor is my 55" tv. this has meant that for the last year or so, i have used a large oem keyboard and a mouse plugged into a usb hub plugged into an extension plugged into my computer. this was a real nuisance and i was constantly tripping over the cords.finally i decided to go wireless and discovered these keyboard/mouse all-in-ones. i ordered this model from another large retailer and waited for 5 weeks and it did not show up. finally i had to call them, they were nasty and i cancelled the order. i then decided to look at my options. i researched so many keyboard/mouse combos, my head was spinning as to which one to buy. i wanted one with good range, good battery life, good precision, good looking and compact but not tiny.i went back to my original choice of this model and bought it from amazon. in only 4 days it was delivered to my door. as a long time amazon customer i should have just ordered it from here in the first place.when i got it home, all i did was plug in the dongle and instant connection. it's been smooth sailing ever since. this is a piece of kit that no one should do without. i was abit worried how the trackball and buttons would work but i needn't have. it is so intuitive to hold the 16 x 36 cm keyboard in your hands and control the mouse functions with your thumbs, you will be so surprised that you have even more control than you did with a mouse. it is really an amazing well-designed piece of equipment. i can't talk about battery life yet as i've only had it for a few weeks but as it has an automatic sleep function, i don't anticipate any concerns there either. if you are surfing the net from your couch, this is the one for you!