Perixx PERIPAD 701 - Wireless Multi-Gesture Touchpad

**Orton** · 18-01-2012

Perixx PERIPAD-701 is the latest wireless multi-gesture Touchpad along with backlight keyboard. The box contains a Mini-USB cable to charge the battery that displays range of about 10 hours. There is a small LED next to notify you the battery level: blue, red, one must remember to recharge. In addition we get MiniUSB, a Power mode that allows the switching on and off (for longer battery life) by pressing it for 2 seconds. Talking about lit, this button is to switch the touchpad's mouse pointing mode keyboard mode, which shows the illuminated keys.

Perixx PERIPAD-701 is very compact weighing just 140 grams measuring 169 x 127 mm from side, and thickness of 8 mm. This is far from the congestion mediacenter keyboard with touchpad or classic trackball, however they offer better ergonomics of the keys. Those on PeriPad are certainly numerous, but measure only 12 x 8 mm wide, occupying all the space touches. Like all RF devices, it offers an excellent range of about 10 meters without having to point the mini USB receiver supplied automatically detected by Windows XP, Vista or 7.

The touch panel backlit keys are clearly visible when the room is dark enough and when it is illuminated, even if their visibility is reduced. The pressures on these virtual keys are followed by a slight beep, bit disturbing, but ultimately very useful to know if the seizure has been validated.

Multitouch mouse pointer:

The entire surface is multi-touch, but there is no dedicated area to left click and right click. Perixx has used different ploy to try to reproduce the various functions of a mouse like:

Moving the mouse: slide your finger across the touchpad
Left click: type (strong) once on the touchpad
Right-click: Press and hold the touchpad (for 2 sec)
Double click: type (strong) twice on the touchpad
Select items, drag / drop: type (strong) twice on the touchpad and then slide your finger to select or move items.
Horizontal and vertical scroll: slide two fingers simultaneously up / down or left / right
Rotate / Zoom: pinching the trackpad like on a smartphone

Mostly multipont are managed, but we have already seen other touchpad uses to manage 3 or 4 fingers to perform various actions but its missing in Peripad 701. But even if the device remains functional in most of the time, it is disappointed that the function to move the selected items, or drag / drop are little unreliable that requires a sequence and perfect timing between the double tap on the touchpad, followed by sliding the finger...

**Orton** · 18-01-2012

Keyboard mode with mouse control:

The keyboard mode is even very attractive. First it was used to get the location of the keys tactile, remember the first few hours with your smartphone. Luckily it's a QWERTY keyboard that offers almost all the keys on a normal keyboard, including the function keys F1 through F10, with additional multimedia control keys as a bonus. It regrets that the keys interesting use media center, namely the arrow keys, Enter, Backspace, and Escape, are poorly positioned. Once again we can use them confidently without having to take a look at the illuminated keys.

It is also possible to control the mouse, without having to physically press the Mode to switch back to the mouse pointer. Just actually pressing a key on the top left corner or upper right, represented by a mouse. As long as you press one of these buttons, you stay cursor mode, and can use your other hand to scroll the cursor, click, double click, move items ... However in this mode, there is no multipoint mode.

Conclusion:

Peripad Perixx 701 is the best alternative of traditional media center keyboards, even if it does not really comfort or the accuracy of models with optical trackball. The main advantage of Peripad is its compact, that allows you even to easily hide it anywhere in the room. Similar to any other touch device, you quickly get used to the positioning of the keys on the keyboard, but the disappointment is nevertheless that the directional buttons, input and back are not more ergonomic, it's bad for media center users.

The trackpad mode works fine, but the area is not very touch sensitive, and therefore requires exerting “heavy pressure” for click and double clicking. Another problem is with managing drag / drop or move selected objects, which requires perfect coordination to be taken into account. Yet its not a bad device or a mini keyboard for HTPC use complies fully with keyboard / mouse for just 69 Euros.

Pros: