Kensington Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer and 2 GB Built-in Memory (Black)
by Kensington
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List Price: Our Price: $49.12 You Save: $25.87 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $36.13 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kensington Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer and 2 GB Built-in Memory (Black)
Customer Review: It works well and built-in memory is an added bonus
Summary: 4 Stars
I've given several presentations, and having a good wireless presenter is a necessity, if you want the presentation to go smoothly. There are several presenters that provide a lot more functionality than this one (i.e. mouse functions, etc.), but this one does exactly what the average speaker/presenter needs it to do. If you need more advanced, mouse-like functions, you will need to choose a different product.
It's simple, and has performed well each time I've used it so far. This model is very similar to its predecessor (Kensington 33374 Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer). The look and texture are slightly different, but the footprint and basic functionality are the same. The added bonus for this device is the 1GB of on-board memory that's built into the the USB receiver. This eliminates the need to carry a separate USB flash drive or other memory source preloaded with the presentation.
The 1GB memory should be plenty for the typical PowerPoint presentation, even if you include photos and sound clips. However, if you want to include video clips, keep in mind that higher-quality video clips (i.e. high def, 720p, 1080p) take up substantial memory, so the picture size and resolution may need to be downgraded, depending on the length of the video. For most presentations, this should not be a problem, though.
Other reviewers have complained about the size of the flash memory. However, please keep in mind that the included flash drive is primarily designed to store your presentations and related documents. It is not designed to be your primary removable storage device, mainly for two reasons: (1) You can get a much larger flash drive for a fraction of this price; and (2) removing the USB receiver from the presenter actually turns the presenter on, which drains the battery; therefore, you should really only remove the receiver when you need to load your presentation or when you are actually presenting, to preserve battery life.
*Summary*
Pros:
Ease of use - just plug in the receiver and go
Size - very comfortable in your hand
Quality - solid construction
Range - Has worked in all parts of the room, so far
Cons:
Laser pointer - not bright enough; should work fine in dark rooms, but useless otherwise (except maybe for burning retinas)
Functions (or lack there of)- very basic functions; still need to access PC to perform basic mouse or keyboard function (unless you have a sidekick) [not a big con though, in my opinion]
Customer Review: Very well designed and truly plug-n-play
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This handy little gadget works right out of the box! No setup was required. The 1Gb USB flash drive receiver was instantly detected on my Vista 64Bit system. I fired up a PowerPoint presentation and the laser pointer buttons navigated backwards and forwards through the slides with ease. You can also halt the presentation which produces a black screen and then resume using the same button.
*Pros*
No setup hassles. Just plug in the USB flash drive receiver and off you go.
Ergonomic design and comforting weight that sits well in large or small hands. It also feels comfortable in a pocket.
It worked at least 20 feet away from my PC with a direct line of sight. I could not test any further away, but the response was accurate and instant at 20 feet.
Instant response without any lag. It feels as instant as a mouse click.
The red laser dot is clear in light or dark conditions and is easy to hold steady due to the design of the pointer.
When the USB flash drive receiver is re-inserted back into the pointer, the battery power flow and laser dot are deactivated, which extends the shelf life of the batteries. They estimate that batteries last about a year. It uses two standard AAA batteries.
The flash drive docks into the pointer with a satisfying click and is removed by depressing the flash drive rear end again to release it. This should keep the flash drive safe from getting mislaid.
*Cons*
Only 1Gb of storage on the flash drive. This is plenty of storage for a bundle of presentations, but I would be happier with more storage space.
The receiver has a light that shines green each time a key is depressed on the pointer. The light turns red when batteries are low. The light is not positioned at the end of the receiver, but on one side. This was an issue with my PC because the USB port was oriented so that the receiver was upside down. I would have no way of easily telling if the batteries were low, unless I bent down and looked up at the receiver's "underside". This is likely to be a rare issue, but I feel is a bit of a design flaw.
*Summary*
This is a great device for somebody who makes PowerPoint presentations on a regular basis. The device is comfortable and exceptionally easy to use.
Customer Review: Nice little Gadget
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
First of all, setup is very simple - there is none ... You just put the Receiver into an USB port, the usual routine "Found new Hardware ... yadayadayada ..." starts, and after a short time the thing is ready to use. At first I was a little concerned, because the manual is real thin - but you actually don't need it at all.
So, then the remote is ready to go - and it works. Well, there is not much that can go wrong here - it has a button for forward, one for backward, one for black screen, and one for the laser pointer.
You just start your presentation (I use MS Powerpoint) and click through the slides. From a distance of up to 10 feet from the receiver, which should be sufficient even in big conference rooms.
The laser pointer operates with the usual red dot and should have a sufficient reach in most cases.
So, nothing fancy or outlandishly sophisticated here.
The unit will shut down when the receiver is put into the bay at the end of the presenter - a nice solution to keep the presenter clear from too many switches and buttons.
Oh, and the receiver also acts as a regular 1GB USB drive, so you can actually carry your presentations with you - very useful idea.
The presenter's size and weight are very comfortable for my XL-sized hands. The buttons are within good reach of the thumb and through the two AAA-batteries inside the unit, it has a certain, reassuring weight to it. It probably won't act as the rock in a stormy sea when you discover that you screwed up the numbers in your presentation, but it provides the warm and fuzzy feeling that you are not completely alone in this universe when briefing the head honchos of your company on some delicate issues.
All in all, my only complaint would be: why now? I could have used this some time ago ...
But seriously, to sum it all up:
- works without a hitch
- easy to setup and operate
- looks good (although I would prefer a different color than black ... but that is just my personal taste)
- very good functionality because of the integrated USB stick
- nice solution for the on/off switch
- good size and weight
- placement of buttons is good
- this could be your new status symbol (if you can't afford a Porsche ... )
Customer Review: outstanding basic presenter, great design, Mac and PC compatible out of the box
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is one of those designs that when you use it, you have to ask "why didn't someone think of that earlier?"
I've used a lot of wireless presenters over the years, and this one is hands-down the best, as long as you don't need more than simple controls. If you're just giving presentations, in my opinion, you can't find a better solution.
The Kensington Wireless Presenter is a great design:
- provides 3 buttons (reverse, forward, blank display) as well as a laser pointer
- it's EXTREMELY comfortable: it's solid, contoured to your hand, with a rubberized finish that doesn't attract fingerprints or easily slip from your hand
- it connects to your Mac or PC via a USB dongle that also has 1GB of flash storage for transferring presentations
- the USB dongle stores inside the presenter body: this also acts as the power switch - when you remove the dongle, it powers on the presenter
- it uses RF technology, so you can be up to 60 feet away from your laptop (although I wasn't able to test the real range)
- it uses 2 AAA batteries (included) which Kensington claims should last up to a year of avg use
- out of the box, no drivers are required in either Mac or PC (not all presenters are Mac-compatible), it actually simulates an additional USB keyboard, with 3 keys: left arrow, right arrow, and B (blank display)
- GREAT value for the price
What could be improved?
- 1GB of storage is pretty small by today's standards - I assume that Kensington will eventually refresh the product with higher capacity
- the buttons do NOT auto-repeat if you hold them down, so you must click each time to quickly advance back and forth; this can be painful on a slide with lots of animations
- there is no option to map keys if you need to ... to be fair, both PowerPoint (Mac & PC) and Keynote (Mac) worked fine in my tests
- my unit arrived with dead batteries, not a big deal but initially a new replacement set of batteries didn't work either - eventually i got the unit to turn on. Perhaps just a glitch with the power switch, but hopefully it doesn't give problems down the road.
Customer Review: Great product with small caveats
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Let me start by clearing up what appears to be confusion on the part of some as to what this product actually is. When you are giving a presentation from a computer using presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote, this remote allows you to advance to the next slide, move back to the previous slide, or turn the screen black so the audience is not distracted while you discuss something in more detail. It also includes a laser pointer that you can use to highlight something in your presentation.
Pros:
1) Fits very nicely in the hand and small enough to fit in your pocket while you're not using it
2) Looks good
3) Comes with the batteries
4) Stores the USB receiver inside while not in use
5) Low battery indicator
6) Memory on the receiver is a nice touch. Although a bit more would be nice
7) Blackout button
Cons:
1) Adding the laser pointer feature removes start button
2) $74.99 (this model) - $51.99 (Kensington 33374 Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer (basically the same thing without the flash memory)) = $23, which is what they are asking you to pay for the addition of 1GB of memory in the USB receiver. This size of flash memory drive by itself sells for as little as $3.95 on Amazon with 8GB going for $14.95. So $23 is a steep price to pay.
3) [update after a couple weeks of use] I found something strange when using this the other day. I took the receiver out and plugged it into my computer but the remote didn't work. This includes the laser pointer. I thought perhaps the batteries had gone dead already but after getting back to my office I tried it again and it appears that what happened is that when I removed the receiver it did not click the on button all the way. When I inserted it and then removed it again it started working.
Overall this is a nice product that does its job well. However, I will agree with the other reviewers that said the price seems a bit high, as I detailed in my cons listed above.