Microsoft Arc PC & Mac Wireless Compact Keyboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2010-05-08
·
1,168 words · ~5 min read
0:00
this is the Microsoft Arc it's not out yet but we do have a sample here to show
0:05
you today this is a wireless style that
0:09
works that's their little slogan for it wireless PC and Mac keyboard and their
0:15
their thing is okay yeah that it's style that works so it's a stylish small
0:19
little keyboard that's meant to be I would imagine well here's what I would
0:22
use it for okay I'm not going to tell you what it's for cuz I don't know what
0:25
they intend it for but I would use this from the couch to control my media
0:29
center because it's exactly the kind of size that you can comfortably put it in
0:32
your lap but still be able to comfortably type actually we'll find out
0:36
if we can comfortably type once I actually get it out of the box but okay
0:39
here we go why don't we see what what Microsoft has to say about it meet the
0:43
art keyboard with beautiful curves and a compact design it's at home wherever you
0:48
are okay so in my case on the couch excellent you can show it off clean
0:53
lines and an ey catching shape complement your style here there
0:57
anywhere something about using it anywhere and be free also something
1:01
about using it anywhere they have a little picture of the Nano transceiver
1:05
for wireless Freedom okay so let's find
1:08
the seals and I do not have anything even
1:14
remotely resembling a knife on
1:18
me uh okay here hold on actually just a sec I have a fork and I will just use
1:25
that to pierce the sticker and then hopefully the whole sticker will come
1:30
away from for me and then we'll go from there or I could just peel the sticker
1:34
bear with me here just going to peel the sticker up because my Fork has lasagna
1:39
on it and I think that that would be um
1:42
not quite sanitary especially because like well you know old lasagna
1:49
isn't really a very sanitary thing to put on stuff that's my wisdom for the
1:54
day okay so here we are it is covered in
1:59
a little cloth sheath that is to protect it from scratches I'm assuming and also
2:04
to make the presentation of this is actually excellent look at this so you
2:08
open up your box you get a little sheath
2:11
pocket envelope thing here made of like a nice clothy material then you get oh
2:15
this is nice so this is would be a CD and probably your user's guide start
2:21
here helpfully labeled even so you right
2:24
here so this must be a quick start guide so they show you how to put in the
2:28
batteries put in the wireless trans Seer and then press the buttons in order to
2:33
link it up oh cool oh that's a neat system so basically to turn the keyboard
2:38
oh okay to turn the keyboard on or off press and hold function and Escape until
2:41
the battery light changes and then
2:44
that's it huh need do
2:49
okay then you've got a Microsoft product guide here which probably include some
2:54
warranty information as well okay two AAA batteries not a big fan of AAA
2:58
batteries but when you're trying to make a device as compact as possible
3:03
sometimes it's unavoidable it's just that they're sort of they're more as
3:07
expensive as doublea's and you don't get more battery life out of them etc etc
3:11
they're not really my favorite thing but let's get this Arc keyboard out of here
3:17
oh that is nice actually so you can see it has a slight curve to it hence the
3:21
name Arc and on the bottom is a cleverly designed little compartment for the D or
3:25
AAA batteries see now I'm all screwed up for the AAA batteries and then right
3:30
here is the little Nano transer is that
3:34
I love it held in by a magnet look at that so you never have to worry
3:40
about it coming out as long as you know
3:43
you don't have a a curious toddler that
3:47
comes along and eats it anyway that's really convenient and then the top of
3:50
the keyboard itself so I'm going to apologize in advance for the crot shot
3:54
here I'm just going to go ahead and put this on my lap and actually that's not
3:58
bad you you can comfortably reach all the buttons it is a very standard layout
4:04
so you can see that you've got long shift keys on both sides you've got a long enter key so it doesn't have any of
4:09
the weird bilingual keys that cut off your shift or um the the strangely
4:13
located slash key that would cut your backs space down to the point where I
4:17
mean if you have small hands reaching a back space beyond about here is
4:21
completely unreasonable so yeah I I personally hate the short backspace key
4:26
you've got all of your function keys no
4:29
you do not oh this is interesting okay in order to save space what they've done
4:33
with the layout is a they've only got one Windows key so there's no Windows
4:37
key on the right hand side that's a function key oh and this appears to be a
4:40
mouse that is something I didn't know that oh no these are your arrows okay so
4:44
here are all the things that they've managed to make more compact they've
4:47
removed a Windows key put in a function key they've turned the control the right
4:51
control into the arrow keys which is a on dpad button okay then up here they've
4:58
actually got f F1 to F6 and then you use
5:01
the function key in order to access F7 to F12 great that works for me and then
5:08
we've got all of our home and page up page down and print screen all in four
5:12
buttons right here and then they've even included media buttons so you've got
5:15
mute louder and quieter and then delete and insert but no no play stop pause
5:22
that's a little bit disappointing given what I personally would be using
5:25
something like this for but I mean really if you have a media center you should probably own one of these already
5:29
anyway it's like the most useful $15 or
5:33
whatever it costs that I've ever spent on a hardware component in fact I own
5:37
three anyway thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the arc I
5:41
still think the coolest feature is the magnetic transceiver that's so cool
5:46
thank you again for checking out my unboxing of the Microsoft Arc