Rapoo may sound like a rapper on laxatives but as a brand, they're huge in China, especially when it comes to wireless peripherals. Now they've set up shop in New Zealand and I was pretty chuffed to get my hands on the E2700, a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo.
Look and feel
It's a compact beastie that pulls off that all too rare feat of being big enough to be usable but small enough not to get in the way. A big part of this is the fact that it uses a scissor switch key mechanism similar to what you'd find in most laptops.
Aside from being petite, the E2700 is also wafer thin, being a mere 8mm thick (with the exception of a 20mm bump at its rear which houses 2x AAA batteries and USB receiver). Cleverly the bump also lets the keyboard sit on a comfy typing angle, even when its in use on your lap.
In Use
Although it felt small for use as standard keyboard, its diminutive formfactor makes the E2700 ideal for use with a media box. Getting set up was also a doddle, and the E2700's wireless 2.4Ghz USB dongle delivered a surprising amount of range (I was pleasantly surprised to note that driving my PC from the other end of the house was possible but sadly not practical). Getting started was as simple as hooking the USB receiver dongle into my media PC, inserting the bundled AAA batteries into the E2700, and flipping the power switch to on.
More importantly the E2700's thin and light design was ideal for use on the sofa. Whilst I'd probably prefer not to use the E2700 to knock out a novel, it was pretty much perfect for driving my media PC. Central to this is the E2700's trackpad which proved indispensable, allowing me to steer my mouse pointer around with relative ease for tasks such as constructing playlists.
