Mini I6 2.4G Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad and IR Remote-[Black]

This keyboard fits my needs for use with an HTPC. Most of the time I use a programmable remote, but this keyboard is handy for advanced use and maintenance purposes. The range is not bad when the battery is fully charged but is does decrease a bit when the battery gets low. Basically it does what I need and that's what I wanted.

One thing to look out for: COUNTERFEITS. There are vendors who do not sell the real thing. They are shipping a "3 in 1 mini keyboard"

It looks like the Rii branded one (for the most part). It is not the same thing. It is far inferior in quality. I originally ordered one and got a fake. It couldn't handle certain key combinations and had a range of 5ft with line of site. This is not the case with the true Rii branded product. It handles all the key combos I have tried. The signal is good enough to use from the couch and through some furniture that is in the way. The USB dongle does need to go on the front of the HTPC though.

The Rii brand keyboard will come in a box with their branding and a sticker that has a scratch off strip. You will find a number under the scratch off strip that can be verified through their site (). Just type the number into the the search box next to the "looking for truth" button. The fake I originally received did not have the branding or the verification number. It was packaged in a very similar box but lacked those features. The remote should also have the Rii brand on the back side. The fakes won't.

I think this is a great product that doesn't always get the best reviews thanks to the fakes being shipped. Having said that, I did get a dud Rii keyboard that worked great if plugged in and powered by the USB port. I exchanged it and have not had any problems. Overall I'm happy with the keyboard now that I have a real one.

I bought this remote specifically for my boxee box. The remote which came with the boxee box was always kinda broken, the buttons stuck, and it only got worse with time. I couldn't RMA only the remote, you had to send the whole boxee box setup back, so I didn't because I was using the boxee most everyday and had given away my old WDTV Live and didn't want to go through all that hassle. I also didn't replace the boxee remote because paying $50 for that little thing with a cool-in-concept but weak-in-execution keyboard on the back is IMHO craaaaazy. That thing probably cost a couple bucks to make and $20 at retail should be plenty large of a profit margin for it, at the most.

So when I saw the Rii i6, I was stoked. It looked like it could serve as basically a superior version of the boxee remote, with a keyboard on one side that didn't totally suck, and was backlit, and a remote like dpad on the other side with a few programmable buttons. I would use the dpad remote side the vast majority of the time for controlling my boxee and when once in a while if I needed a keyboard for searching I could flip it over.

The Rii i6 feels pretty good in my hand, when I first got it I was more then satisfied taking it out for the first time, it's light and not enormous; I have pretty big hands though and tend to prefer physical interfaces that are rather full figured. The main knock I have on its looks is the prominently displayed and plenty ugly white FCC / Electrical / Made in China markings it has on the remote side of this remote. Did I mention these markings are ugly? They are. Though I suppose you can see this clearly from the product images before purchasing so you know what you're getting.

After I first took the remote out of it's box I plugged the tiny usb receiver into my boxee box and gave it a whirl. Unfortunately what I soon realized is out of the box it wasn't going to work the way I wanted it to. This is because the remote side of the remote is infrared only (as far as I can tell, the Rii website is atrocious and the documentation is sparse, if someone would like to correct me in a subsequent user review me please do). The boxee box doesn't have a built in infrared sensor, its remote is RF only. The keyboard and trackpad side of the Rii worked fine, but as is the remote side of the remote was useless for controlling the boxee box. Lame.

For a while then I used the keyboard side of the remote to control my boxee. The main downside of this is you have to use two hands. The buttons used to mimic the original boxee remote are the escape key on the upper left side of the remote, and the enter key on the right side of the remote, and the directional keys under the trackpad. Not very intuitive but, you can get used to it. My one real complaint about the keyboard side of the remote is how the backlight works. It doesn't automatically turn the backlight on when you use the remote, you have to manually press the 'turn on light' button. Maybe this is configurable somewhere, perhaps if you're using it with windows (somehow I doubt it). But that's how it's currently working for me. Also when the RF side of the remote is sleeping it doesn't seem to wake up easily with a regular button press, it's as if you have to deliberately press and hold a button for it to wake out of sleep mode.

Undeterred in my efforts to make Rii my ideal remote I bought an infrared remote w/ sensor for my boxee box: the Rosewill RRC-126 Media Center Infrared Remote Control. I figured I would use just the usb infrared sensor and throw the actual Rosewill remote in a drawer. When I got the Rosewill and plugged in its usb infrared sensor into the boxee it worked right away, the Rosewill remote seemed to control boxee fine, though I didn't use it much past a few seconds of testing. As a quick aside the Rosewill infrared sensor seems like it's not that great in terms of sensitivity and receiving angels other than pointing straight at it, and it's usb cord is short, too short in my case.

I programmed the Rii i6 with the infrared signals from the Rosewill remote, it's pretty easy and I was able to figure out without the manual. It has two modes you can activate with the bottom two mode buttons, which allows the dpad and other keys to be configured in two different ways. This is pretty cool. After programming the Rii it seemed to work just fine and I threw the Rosewill into a drawer in addition to my Receiver remote which I no longer needed thanks to mode 2 (sweet). And away I went.

Did I say the it seemed to work just fine? It didn't. There's a delay. A big one. I suspect this is a combination of delays coming together to make a huge delay when using this remote in this fashion. The Rii seems to have a serious delay for it's infrared side (the RF side seems snappy), then perhaps the Rosewill infrared usb sensor into the boxee has a small delay, and then the boxee box itself isn't exactly lightening fast. Bottom line is, for me anyway, the Rii in this configuration is unusable. The delay is serious and constant, and the combination of the Rii remote and the Rosewill infrared sensor, hard to say which deserves more of the blame then the other, makes line of sight a regular concern. If you're not pointing the remote almost directly at the sensor there's even more delays / unregistered button presses.

When I use just the Rosewill remote with it's infrared sensor the delay is reduced to the point that it's tolerable, it doesn't bother me and seems usable. This being the case I lay most of the blame on the Rii's infrared capabilities. It's too slow to offer a compelling experience. When using the infrared side of the Rii to control my receiver it seems a little better in the delay department, but it's hard to tell really because navigating a menu or interface such as boxee's UI is much more of an interactive experience than simply turning the volume up or down or changing inputs.

Being that the remote side of the Rii is the main differentiation between Rii's other models my issues seem relevant enough to warrant a 3 star rating. If you didn't want to make good use of the dpad and programmable buttons just buy one of the cheaper Riis that have only a keyboard and trackpad. It's possible when programmed for a bluray player or other device the delay won't be as much of an issue for you. For me this wasn't the case.

For now since my original boxee remote is still broken I've been using the Rii's keyboard side two handed for controlling my boxee. Which is too bad, since that's not what I bought this remote to do.

Buy Mini I6 2.4G Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad and IR Remote-[Black] Now

'almost' met my needs perfectly... only three gripes (two minor)

Pro's: Works! Backlighting works great, keyboard totally usable (and I have pretty big hands) and the trackpad is surprisingly accurate/useful. Have only tested remote control but it programmed properly and worked for my TV.

Gripes: no real 'con's'... as it all works as advertised and meets my needs... three gripes thought:

1)Build quality. Very light/plasticy feel to it.. would like a bit more 'heft' and on/off switch seems fragile

2) RF dongle... I thought (incorrectly, relooking at the listing) that the 'dongle' would store onboard the keyboard (ie. a slot to hold the dongle when not being used in a computer). This is not the case... so you have a very small part that you need to keep track of if you don't leave it plugged into your PC (probably not an issue for HTPC).

3) The remote control is only 'direct' programmable... in other words, there are no 'codes' that you can type to set a remote to a system... you need to point an existing remote at this one, push a button, and capture the signal. Good if you already have a remote for the system but bad if you want to support something that you do not currently have a remote for.

Bottom line: for the price this is a very usable/cool device... would be 'perfect' if the three gripes above were solved.

Update: I obtained the remote for my Optoma projector (Pk301) and the 'remote' portion of the keyboard programmed without a hitch... very cool. With my laptop plugged into my projector, I can sit back and control/use both with ease... gotta love browsing on a 5' screen... awesome.

Read Best Reviews of Mini I6 2.4G Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad and IR Remote-[Black] Here

On paper, this product filled all my needs for my HTPC. It was wireless, and had IR programming so I could control my TV and receiver. It does work as expected, but leaves a little to be desired in quality. The keys, mouse pad, and slider power switch on this device are not nearly as good as the Rii without IR. It works, it is just a little flaky sometimes. Other than that, I love the device, eliminated all sorts of remotes!

Want Mini I6 2.4G Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad and IR Remote-[Black] Discount?

The remote worked great for about 11 months, then it just stopped connecting to its receiver. Email inquiries to the manufactured are returned as undeliverable, and many other parts of their site are broken as well. Buyer beware.

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