The evolution of my mobile office continues. I recently started school again, and remembered how much I hate jotting down notes on paper…I hate it. My handwriting stinks, but that isn’t the point. I wanted to have digital notes. I already have my Acer Iconia A500 Tablet, and HP Touchpad Keyboard. My collection wasn’t complete though, I needed a mouse. I can use any wireless mouse I want with my Iconia, but that wouldn’t be…geek enough. I saw Logitech’s Wireless Touchpad and my interest was piqued. Did it play nice with my Android Tablet?
The Touchpad is pretty large, measuring about 5 inches wide. It makes it easy to swipe your fingers freely and not run out of room to do so. It has a sleek black finish, but not too sleek to the point where it’s a fingerprint magnet. It feels as good as it looks. My fingers slid on the Touchpad with ease, but allowed me great control over my cursor. The back is completely white, and seems to be a bit prone to dust though. I’m worried it might be the type of the material that gets dirty easily. Over the six week period I’ve used it though, it only required cleaning once. The back has the unit’s On/Off switch, so you have to be careful where you keep it so it doesn’t accidentally turn itself on.
As soon as I plugged the incredibly tiny Logitech Unifying receiver into my A500 Tablet, it recognized it. I put one finger on the Touchpad and immediately saw the blue cursor on my Tablet’s screen. It moved around smoothly, and I was working in seconds. It takes a while to get used to the fact that this works differently on Android than on Windows. A click on the Touchpad acts like a tap on the screen, so that’s all it takes to launch an app for instance. It still makes working on Evernote while my Tablet is propped up on its case a lot easier. I type with my HP Keyboard, and used my Touchpad to navigate about the screen. It is a great combination. I used it both on a Honeycomb build and the newest Ice Cream Sandwich build on my Acer A500.
There are some shortcuts and gestures that work on Windows and Mac but unfortunately don’t work on Android. I was looking forward to using pinch to zoom for instance, but it doesn’t work. The only gesture that works is swiping with multiple fingers counts as scrolling the screen. Still, I was able to work very well, I use it while I take notes during class, and using the cursor to take care of notifications and stray emails made my life a lot easier. Plus, you can’t kill that cool factor of using a Tablet like a Laptop. I think the Touchpad makes a great addition to any mobile office, since it’s so wide, it doesn’t feel crammed like most laptop touchpads. That being said, my only complaint about the Logitech Touchpad is its price. At $49.99 MSRP, its a little steep for what it offers. Keep an eye out though, and you should be able to find it a lot cheaper. I bought it on sale myself for $29.99, and at that price, it is absolutely worth it. It helps make almost any tiny space a comfortable office. Have at it, and be productive!