I was very optimistic about my brand new Logitech Cordless Desktop S520 wireless keyboard and mouse set. After years of awkward wires in a small desk space, it seemed like the ideal solution. The price was reasonable at about £20 and this seems to be the lowest you can still purchase it for. Having connected it to the small black receiver device, which can fit into a tiny space and is sleek and stylish, I installed the software. This all went smoothly and my devices were up and running in minutes. By now, I was delighted. This was fairly cheap, though definitely not bargain basement, but it was working.

These are my initial experiences of the initial devices.

----Keyboard----
It has a beautiful design with glossy black and silver finishes. The lettering is aesthetically pleasing with white and light blue on a black background. Secondly, the keyboard is quite thin and streamlined, which allows your hands to rest comfortably on its surface. You can type easily on it with its keys elevated at a reasonable level and touch typing is fine with no awkward key placements like you can get on some laptop keyboards. This makes it fairly quiet to use. It also has some nice extra features that you are paying for in the brand that are meant to make it more durable. For example, the keys are UV coated and this has meant that they have not faded, even with quite intensive use. It has also been through a testing procedure under liquids which makes it fairly spill resistant, though it picks up crumbs easily like most keyboards. The battery life is also quite long and it lives up to its promise of 15 months, though the need to replace batteries in both keyboard and mouse is frustrating. Finally, there are many keyboard shortcuts, whether it be on all of the F keys which can be customised, or separate key areas for music and zooming. This is an excellent keyboard and one that I still use. Its unique selling point is as a quality wireless device and this is certainly met.

----Mouse----
My use of the mouse has been a completely different story to the keyboard and I feel awkward not using it anymore. When I first bought it with all that expectation, I had been using a cabled USB Microsoft mouse, which was ergonomically pleasing. But when I tried to use the Logitech mouse, the incline that your hand is forced on, it was more difficult. You have to tilt your hand downwards at an awkward angle, which makes it uncomfortable to use. Whilst it got better with time as you used it more often, it was still not the same as before. Also, whilst the battery indicator on the keyboard lights up, the mouse indicator came on erratically and eventually not at all. To be fair, the keyboard is not much better as it always seems to be on the same setting and can disappear instantly. Even when it turns red, you can get more life out of it, so it seems a little useless and comes down to when you can be bothered to change the batteries.

The final nail in the coffin of this mouse, however, was when it broke. This may just have been my fault because it was dropped, but only from a desk. Whilst I am sure that this would come under human error, that it is not as durable as most mouses concerned me. Now, even when three sets of batteries have been tried on it, it is pretty much dead and resides in a dust-filled cupboard with other gadgetry consigned to the darkness such as digital photo frames and a writing tablet. The keyboard still works luckily, and is happily partnered with my original faded Microsoft mouse.

---Receiver---
This is a very positive part of the Logitech wireless system, as it seems to be fairly reliable. The small black device that picks it up is lightweight and chic in its modern curvature. Its main function of picking up the keyboard signal is done on most occasions and even when it falls beneath a desk and is not visible, it still works. From time to time, you can get bad patches without signal, but if you move the device a little, it quickly picks up again. It is irritating to have a wireless system with a wired digital receiver and three things on your desk rather than two. But overall it works well.