Lenovo N5902 Enhanced Multimedia Remote with Backlit Keyboard (57Y6678)

I had previously picked up the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q190 Desktop (Silver) as what I had hoped would work as a reasonably priced HTPC unit for my bedroom TV. It didn't quite live up to my specific expectations, but the computer did come bundled with this remote. While I ended up buying a Mac Mini late 2012 instead of the Lenovo unit, I was definitely impressed with the remote, especially with the media controls. With my old PC setup, I was using the CE Compass Mini Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse PC Remote Control HTPC remote. That unit worked fine for most needs, but it seemed to be chomping through batteries more and more as time went on. It definitely served its purpose, but with the migration to OSX, I needed something with a Windows Key (since this was mapped as Command, which is frequently used). Admittedly, I could just remap the key to one of the function keys, but the feel and function of the N5902 was simply better. It was remarkable enough to warrant me buying this unit on its own. Windows 7/Windows 8 Takeaway: - This unit was designed in consideration of Windows. Everything works perfectly. - Multimedia keys work great with many (if not all) applications. - Mouse tracking is great on both operating systems, but with Windows 8 it's kind of a pain in relation to Metro, especially to bring up the charm bar. - Remember: the scroll pad is your friend in Windows 8 Metro screens. I kept futzing around with the mouse to do a lot of swipe type behavior (move over to the right/left). After goofing around for a while, I realized that the scroll pad was a way better way to navigate quickly in Metro. OSX 10.8 Takeaway: - There are no native drivers for this keyboard. It will generally work just fine, but multimedia keys do not work. I have not figured out how to map these keys accordingly. Note that lack of native drivers should not be a surprise since Lenovo didn't bother with the preceding model Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard N5901 . - Alt Key does not seem to pass through during boot sequence. If you're using Boot Camp, you may need to have a different keyboard handy if you want to bounce between two different operating systems. - Everything works fine otherwise. I did have to bump up the mouse tracking speed a bit to compensate for the small trackpad, but I still have the granular control for fine movement. Fast swipes will translate to big jumps on screen (which is helpful if you're using this on a TV). Unit Takeaway: - Keyboard is satisfying. There is good button response. While it's not great for blind typing, I can usually tell when I've missed a character. - Mouse tracking is good given the optical trackpad. A larger trackpad would feasibly be better for heavy mouse usage, but if you're doing a lot of work that requires heavy mousing, you'd be better off with a wireless mouse. - As I've seen in reviews for both the N5901 and this unit, there are occasional moments where there's a little bit of mouse tracking lag (you swipe the trackpad, don't the cursor move on your screen, and then suddenly a big jump when you swipe again). This is not a deal breaker for me, especially since it doesn't occur all that much. Competing models like the Logitech Mini PC Entertainment Dinovo Keyboard, Built-in Touchpad Controller With Unifying Receiver, Also For Google TV And Logitech Revue, Windows Media Center,PC,Mac Mini,PS3 Playstation 3, & Samsung Smart TV has the same issue according to reviews on that product. - The Left/Right mouse buttons are a bit large. Action occurs closer to the inside of the buttons - the outside portions are mostly just for visual flare (no action when you attempt to depress) - As reviewed by others, the backlight is brighter in the middle, but lighting extends to the other buttons to be visible enough. The extreme left of the keyboard is the least lit when compared to the rest of the keyboard. Overall, I'm quite happy with this remote. If you need a Windows/Command key, this is a better solution than the competing Logitech Dinovo. If that's not a critical button, I suppose the Dinovo could also work for you. Both are priced about the same (March 2013).

So before I wrote a review on this keyboard, I wanted to wait a bit so I could get used to it. I've had it for around 3 weeks & I must say I couldn't be happier. 1st off it's extremely comfortable & light in your hands. The keys feel sturdy & you don't feel like the unit will break if you drop it from 4 feet onto a hardwood floor. The backlit feature is really nice & the softouch backing is also a nice... uhh.. touch... All of the media keys up top, (Volume, Stop, Play, RW, etc) all work perfectly & immediately with iTunes. For some odd reason, the IE button does absolutely nothing for me & I'm running a PC with IE installed. Odd. Using the mouse button can get some getting used to. Attempting to drag & drop things WILL drive you nuts UNLESS you turn on the "Clicklock" function on your computer. That way, when you hold down the mouse button, it automatically 'locks' the items to be dragged. Then hit it again to disengage. Also, for those of u(s) that use a huge screen for our compy's, the best thing to do is to turn the speed of the mouse WAY up. Makes navigating much easier. Just a few cons for maybe the next model. First, the backlit feature is nice but it doesn't stay lit for very long. So hitting a random key to turn on the light can hamper the experience. There IS a button to turn the light on (to the left of the spacebar) that I honestly I didn't know that existed until around last week. Now you know. Also, they designated the "FN" button for commas, question marks & say apostrophes, however the "SHIFT" key is used for exclamation points, ampersands & parentheses. Just a bit of inconsistency there on Lenovo's part. Even WITH the cons, (which can be easily overcome with time), this keyboard is absolutely perfect for people that don't want a sea of wireless stuff all ove their living rooms. Perfect for entertainment centers. I love all my gadgets & this one fits my lifestyle perfectly.

I desperately searched hi & low across the internet for a good, reliable, wireless device that was on the smaller side, was back-lit, had a track-pad and offered the full functionality of a keyboard & mouse. I didn't want those cheap candy-bar shaped mini-keyboards from China either. They may work for some people and get the job done, eventually, but I was looking for a QUALITY unit that will last for a few years of constant use. The best item I found was the Logitech DiNovo Mini. But that thing is very old and being that technology moves fast, it was already way out-dated. After that I just about settled on Logitechs K400 mini keyboard w/track-pad, but it lacked back-lit keys. I soon came to the realization that I wasn't gonna find my ideal device and would have to settle on a unit with most, but not all, of the features I was looking for. It seems like, for whatever reasons, that companies aren't manufacturing these types of devices anymore. More and more people are using "home theater pc's (htpc)" but lack the necessary input device to use from the couch. The K400 is a 3/4's keyboard, meaning it's three quarters the size of a regular full sized keyboard, it has a built-in track pad with a reliable connection and was a QUALITY device, even though I wasn't feeling the size of it. Just as I was about to order the K400, I came across the Lenovo N5902 Multimedia keyboard. The best thing was that the Lenovo had all the features I was looking for!!! Now, a lot of people here complained about the range of the unit and others say it works better when the USB dongle is in the front ports of the PC to give a more unobstructed view. I don't have either of these issues, though it will miss a letter, here & there, while typing long paragraphs. But I don't think it's the Lenovo messing up, I think it was me not pushing the buttons hard enough. I was going by feeling the "click" of the button when I pressed it, but just because you feel a click doesn't mean you pushed hard enough for it to register the button press. Since I've consciously been pushing the buttons harder, I haven't had any issues. My recliner (where the device is used from) is about 6ft away from the laptop (where the USB dongle is located) and they're horizontal to each other with the computers USB ports facing the recliner. All I can say is that it works FLAWLESSLY 99% of the time! The N5902 is 100% a quality device. It has bright back-lit keys, is small but not too small, has a thumb-sized track pad and scroll functions, and has a very reliable connection. If you are used to texting on a cell phone, then you will feel right at home using the Lenovo. The keys are aptly sized and spaced when considering the size of the unit, which brings me to my next point. The pictures here on Amazon don't convey the size of the device. It is much smaller than I thought it would be and is easily used with one hand. The whole thing is smaller than the size of my hand and the track pad is about the size of the top of your pointer finger. The only thing I was a little leary about was when the unit arrived, it came in a plain box with no writing on it. It had a sticker that said the model number and the condition (new). It had a Lenovo sticker sealing it shut that had to be cut to open the box. I just found it very strange that it wasn't in a retail type of box. The packaging looked how items look when they're sent out from the manufacturer as refurbished, though it said "new" on the sticker. It also didn't have ANY paper work, like a quick start guide, warranty info or instructions. Just a heads up... the USB dongle comes in the battery compartment. Just take it out, pop it into your pc's port, turn the unit on and you're ready to go. Aside of the packaging, the Lenovo N5902 is the best item I found, after hours of searching and reading reviews, that met all my requirements and I recommend it whole heartedly.

I bought this remote to control my PC when I use it to watch videos, to control my smart tv (Sony R520A), and my NAS box. Basically, you need one today, as you have more and more computers around you performing various tasks and fewer and fewer "dumb" devices, since in most cases you are going to use one or more of the following: -type inside of the search box -type paths and / or commands -use mouse to navigate the GUI buttons Lenovo makes three models of this remote: The old, the new and the new with backlight. I am not going to discuss the new model without backlighting, because I do not see the point of doing so. The old and the new models have largely cosmetic differences and two main differences: the type of mouse control and the backlight. The old remote has the scroll-ball mouse, the type that you'd have on a blackberry, and the newer one has a mouse control that is just like a tiny touchpad, which can also be pressed to click. The problem of choosing the model comes from the fact that both implementations of the mouse are horribly bad on Lenovo remote. the type of a mouse present on this newer model is horribly inconvenient. -For the older model, as everyone mentions the problem is that the mouse ball is too loose in it's socket and therefore it moves every time there is a slightest movement of the remote itself, such as if you move on your couch, and as a result the mouse becomes active on the screen and the your video player switches to control skin. How would you like that happening every time your dog itches? -For the newer model, the touchpad is not sensitive to the movement of the remote itself at all, which is great, however, the mouse control is a pain to use. This is hard to explain, but everyone I know says that the ball mouse is far far more superior and precise than the touchpad. You can try the feeling if you cover your laptop touchpad with a piece of cardboard leaving only a small round hole in the middle, about 1/4 inch in diameter. Do this, and try to use the mouse. You will find that it is possible, but much much less precise! So, instead of simply fixing the ball mouse by making it a tiny bit stiffer, Lenovo decided to make another mistake by going with the touchpad sensor type of mouse control, which as it turns out has it's own problems. I was sure that I could open the older model and tighten the ball, however, I decided to buy the newer model because the older one lacks backlighting, and that is simply unforgivable in 2013. After using this newer model for a bit, I can tell you that the idea itself is great and the device is truly irreplaceable. Lenovo made it fairly tough, reasonably convenient to use and very good looking. There are few problems with it, which I am going to mention below, but I'd like to note that even with that said, this is still a very capable device. -If you are not 16 year old, and no longer have a laser cut vision, you will discover with great disappointment that just like many other devices these days, the manufacturer did not give a single thought to the ergonomics of the device. The size of the printed characters on the keys is about 1/9 of the total available key surface area, meaning that the character could easily be printed three times larger, but it wasn't. You will find yourself looking at a key, say 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch, but the character will be printed the size of a character in a small print disclosure text. And no, of course it is not even bold. -the backlight is designed to save your battery power, and not to be convenient, as if the batteries price was your main concern here. It times out in about a second, and light up again as soon as you press a key, but the point is that if you are trying to find a key in the dark, you will most likely not be able to find it that quick! -the remote has two "click" buttons, just like the laptop touchpads, one for the right-click and one for the left-click. Well, the designers positioned those right above the mouse sensor, thus the following will happen: If you need to scroll the screen, you will want to position the mouse on a scroll bar and then hold it there by holding the left-click button. At this point, you will find it very awkward, because the button you're holding is right above and very close to the mouse sensor, so your right thumb is trying to move almost underneath of your left one!. This is the worst possible location of the click buttons for a thumb operated keyboard. -finally, I haven't found yet a way to customize the keys for my particular TV. In my opinion, such a device as a mini remote keyboard must have this as a feature. There should be, say, a couple of customized layouts remembered, so that you could easily switch from one device to another. Failures. My remote came with a defect, - the number one key is not functioning. After testing all they keys, I have found that this is not a hardware problem, as the "1" key functions just fine in an upper register mode ("shift" pressed). Thus, I will be returning this remote for exchange. I expect this to be super smooth, as I am dealing with Amazon here and not with Lenovo. I would still love to have this remote, provided I can obtain one with all keys functioning.... keeping my fingers crossed.

I really like this little gadget. It replaced a wireless keyboard & mouse combo I had on a computer that's hooked up to a TV (used for Media Center purposes). The keypad is slightly larger than the slide-out keyboard on my Motorola Droid 3 (it has more keys than my Droid); the track pad (mouse) is not a rolling ball but works like the Blackberry pad and can be pressed for left-clicking rather than having to press the left mouse button (silver area between pad and space bar). The design is comfortable allowing me to hold it in both hands while typing, like my Droid. There's a 3-position power switch on the back - off, on with backlight, and on. There's a dedicated Ctrl+Alt-Del button. Cons: the backlighting is not evenly distributed across the keypad. Some keys will appear brighter than others but all keys still light up. Not a deal breaker - I can still see to type. No dedicated Function keys (F2, F8, etc). Again, not a deal breaker. If I need to do something involving F keys, I plug in a regular USB keyboard. Overall, a nice accessory. It's small and can be tucked away in a drawer, unlike the full-sized combo I used before.

First of all, seller, great job, got here on time as promised and in seemingly good condition. The first one wasn't executed very well, so I passed on it... This new one looked like they made many improvements and the backlit keyboard sounded great. After watching the Lenovo produced video "Lee" promised me some great improvements.[...] As soon as I saw that little usb dongle (that we all know so well from the Logitech and microsoft mice/keyboard products) I thought, oh no, how could they do that? There is no way that thing has range... but the more "Lee" talked me into this sucker and the pronounced 10 meter/30 ft range, I gave Lenovo the benefit of the doubt - THOUGHTS: "Man, Lenovo really must have figured that mini dongle out, especially to be shipping it with a HTPC product made for the living room where you are going to be at least 10 ft from the PC... and in my case about 18 - 25 ft ... they could not have over looked this. Ok "Lee" 30ft should work, but 100ft should have been the goal, maybe the next one." What a disappointment, all this hype and this promo vid with our man "Lee", all to be let down with such a HUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEE oversight. Take a note from Gyration and get RF working on these things. Do something to fix what you have done! This could never be used in a true HTPC environment in its current state. Funny, I don't review much, but this needed to be brought up, because everyone will have problems. As soon as I pass 6ft this thing is over. If I put the dongle in the back of the HTPC you are looking at 3 ft. HOW DID YOU DO THAT LENOVO! HOW! I hate returning online purchases.... this one has to go back. worthless. I hope for Lenovo's sake that this was a problem unit.

I am soooo displeased with this thing. It`s clearly the absolutly worst product fr its purrpose i have EVER bought on Amazon. It goes from working fine... to totally just freaking out and moving left and right ALL ON ITS OWN. I have changed the sensitivity to less... and it seemed to work... then it just started moving on its own again. hen ithought... maybe i had another usb device making it move on its own... so i unplugged ALL my other usb devices... nope... it still moved on its own... it sucks because it scrolls between pages... or if its Youtube... then it just scrollls to the bottom or top of pages all on it`s own. t`s like it has an accelerometer or something... but it doesn`t. THIS IS JUST ONE BAD DEVICE. This will be the vary last lenovo product i will ever buy. Man am ever ticked. DO NOT BUY. DO NOT BUY. THERE IS NO SUPPORT AT LENOVO WEBSITE EITHER. OK... i stand by what i said earlier im my review... i found that the device`s biggest problem is that IT HAS TO HAVE LINE OF SIGHT TO THE USB.... AND NOT BE MORE THAN MAYBE 6FT AWAY. I also found that the device was giving me the major issues hence my first review.... becuase the new batteries that shipped with the device were actually nearly dead. thats why the thing was just freaking out and doing what it wanted when it wanted. I am using this ... well trying to use this sitting on my couch about 10 ft away to control my MK808 mini pc on my tv. I also found that u need to turn down the mouse speed to ghelp it not freak out and just start scrolling between or within pages all on its own. As i said before... i would not buy this again. Now... besides myunits obvious movement issues... i think this form factor and idea are the best for me... maybe thats part of the reason i was so displeased... because i really wanted it to work. I find that the unit does require two hands for data entry... but thats ok. as for the mouse feature... as long as the mouse curser does not decide to move on its own.... it does work as designed. the only cheap part i found for the unit is the spacebar on it. it does work most of the time... but u should press to the left or right of the spacebarr to not get that "did i press it or not feeling". also... which is no big deal.... the keyboard lighting is not very uniform.... but the keys do light up enough to see them even in a normal daylight room situation. Thats my thoughts

I bought this keyboard/mouse to go with a micro PC that I am using as a HTPC/media center in my living room. I primarily just use the computer for streaming Spotify and accessing pictures on my network. This remote seems to do the job, though it certainly isn't perfect. Pros: Battery life so far has been great. I have had this for 8 months and rarely actually shut it off. I have not had to change the batteries yet (though I don't exactly use it that much). The keyboard is laid out in QWERTY fashion rather than ABC. It has large left and right click buttons, and the optical mouse can be clicked as well. The device appears to "go to sleep" after a few minutes of not being used; you simply have to click a button or run your finger over the mouse a few times and it immediately reconnects. Cons: I hate to say it, but nothing about this device feels particularly well made. The backlight is uneven and splotchy; this doesn't affect your ability to use the keys at night, but it does look cheap. The keys do click, but again, nothing feels that great. The media keys at the top are a nice touch, but you can hardly feel the gaps in between them which means you have to look at them to use them. If I had the choice, I think I'd probably buy this again, if only because it is decently priced and does work. The range is acceptable and it is far more convenient than a full size keyboard and mouse, as long as you don't have an essay to write.