After speaking to various people and the various hardware i have bought in the past plus stuff I already own, my question is “Can Microsoft actually make good hardware”? There is a very good reason for asking this very question and we go on to discuss future Microsoft hardware, should you trust this Software giant to make hardware that works on there very own operating system?
Keyboard’s and Mice
I bought the BIG (as in size) Microsoft Laser 6000 desktop set which I am assuming is called V1, it has a USB Device which sits on your desk showing you the Caps Lock etc and then we have the keyboard and mouse itself and to say it is big is an understatement.
Were do the problems lie?
It stands to reason that as it has media keys, you would expect it to control the chosen program of choice, be it WMP, iTunes or even WinAmp. Now I use iTunes myself and pressing the Media button does bring this up to a degree but move away from the application and press the back/forward buttons and NOTHING happens – you have to highlight the program! I assumed iTunes was the issue, so I tried the same trick with WMP and the same happened, so basically to change track you have to be in the Application itself – which defeats the objective.
Webcam’s
In my time I have bought (and took back) a whole range of webcams made by Microsoft and I need to say that unless you have studio lighting then expect the camera to pixelate so badly that you may be forgiven in thinking this thing is a 2MP webcam and the image you are looking at is 640×480. Basically when Light is low, a webcam can do one of two things, it can try and bring in as much light as possible which in turn lowers the FPS or in the case of Microsoft, keep the FPS but lower the quality. In the case of Low FPS, you can alter the settings of the camera to balance between light and FPS.
The above picture was taken in a normal lit room at 640×480, it looks green and grainy – so you want an comparison with maybe another 2MP webcam? sure thing:
Same room, Same light but this is from a Logitech 9000 Pro. Maybe you may say though that it’s just the NX-6000? Well I have tried the VX-6000 (Desktop Model), 5000, 1000 and various others and I can put my hand on my heart and say that every single Microsoft Webcam in non-perfect lighting will be as bad as the top picture.
Further testing
What happens when you want to point the Webcam out of the window in daylight for example or a night with just a few street lamps to light up the scene? Once again the Microsoft models will show you a pure white light (as if the sun had fallen and landed in your back yard) or pure blackness.
What annoys me the most is go to any store, pick up a box from ANY webcam and most will have this amazing write up and equally amazing picture showing you how it looks, which happens to be some photograph shot with a 10MP camera I think in perfect studio lighting.
You want more?
I bought this Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike joystick a long time back, the concept looked cool and who would have thought I might have trouble running this thing on a Microsoft operating system – even future versions such as Vista and Windows 7? Microsoft gave up on this almost straight away and although the OS might pick up the basic buttons – the advanced software that it used to come with no longer works – way to go Microsoft.
Conclusion
As a software company, I am more then happy with what they bring out but the hardware leaves a lot to be desired. I do not care if they bring out a 20MP webcam – I refuse to buy anything Microsoft ever again, I am defiantly a Logitech Fan now for hardware.
