Dell's new courtesy keyboard and mouse apparently surprisingly great

The arrival of a new Dell is synchronous for the average user with the subsequent contemptuous dumping of its stock keyboard and mouse into a cardboard box full of unusable peripheral offal. But Jason over at Techware Labs says that might change: he's impressed with the new keyboard and mouse Dell intends to package with their desktops:

A new Dell mouse seems to be a shot across the bow for Logitech. The text around the sensor reads "LaserStream Technology" which is a trademark used by Agilent Technologies, a company that sold laser technology to Logitech. The sensor appears identical to the one on the Logitech G-series (G3, G5, G7) which is a second-generation laser sensor maxing out at 2000 DPI or so.

This seems to be a direct potshot at the G3, having a similar shape; the Dell is arguably better for having an LED sensitivity indicator. I know the G5 has one, but the G5 is not ambidextrous. This looks like the best courtesy mouse I've ever actually seen, and I can see this raising the bar for OEMs regarding input peripherals.

The keyboard was of the short-throw type, with well-integrated media keys and volume wheel. It wasn't the world's best, but it was generally pleasant to type on. I know some of you hate short-throw keys on principle, but the rest of you should consider taking a look at these things - I expect them to be really good bang for the buck.

Not exactly the most hyperbolic praise, but that a reviewer of a courtesy mouse and keyboard could drudge up any enthusiasm at all for them is almost hyperbole in itself.

Dell Pre-Release Keyboard and Mouse Spyshots [Techware Labs via Engadget]

[#1 posted by Jake0748 , September 10, 2008 6:41 AM]

I was gonna ask, what the heck is a "courtesy" keyboard or mouse. Then I thought about it. Does it mean the freebie ones they throw in when you buy a system? Am I right? What do I win?

[#2 posted by NaR , September 10, 2008 6:42 AM]

The style of these looks 15 years old. They're not as ugly as the pipe, but they're pretty bad.

[#3 posted by dculberson , September 10, 2008 6:46 AM]

John, you know I love your writing, but I'll have to be "that guy" this once and quote from Paul Brian's Common Errors in English:

"You can plan on doing something, but you intend to do it."

So Dell intends to package theses with ... ;-)

[#4 posted by John Brownlee , September 10, 2008 7:00 AM]

Ha. Fair enough. It's been fixed. Thanks as always, D!

[#5 posted by John Brownlee , September 10, 2008 7:00 AM]

Ha. Fair enough. It's been fixed. Thanks as always, D!

[#6 posted by dculberson , September 10, 2008 8:02 AM]

Okay, they probably don't intend to package theses. Man, I love a spelling error in a grammatical correction. Sigh.

[#7 posted by pork musket , September 10, 2008 8:56 AM]

I really hate the use of "courtesy" here. It's not like they're doing you a favor by including a mouse and keyboard. You're paying for the damn things.

[#8 posted by El Mariachi , September 10, 2008 4:36 PM]

The last couple of Dells we've bought have come with fairly decent keyboards. Good click feel and no superfluous bezel area or cheap plastic wrist rest, so they're easy to stuff somewhere out of the way on the workbench when not in use.

[#9 posted by Anonymous , September 11, 2008 7:04 AM]

I hope that giant wrist rest on the keyboard is removable. Jesus that thing is huge and ugly.

[#10 posted by FutureNerd , September 12, 2008 10:05 PM]

"Courtesy mouse." Yeah, a courtesy to those poor souls who don't know any better and actually use the parts that come in the box.

What, 90% of customers?