Last month, Dell announced a couple of PC accessories with its Wired Collaboration and Silent Keyboard and mouse that retail for under $50 and ushers in an era of AI with new features.
While I typically prefer the Microsoft Designer keyboard and Surface Arc mouse as my go-to combo, I spent the past 30-days giving Dell’s new Silent Keyboard and Mouse duo a ride and they delivered in spades.
It should be noted that my Microsoft branded peripheral combo comes at a much steeper price tag of $50-100 for the Arc mouse and another $100 – $129 for the Designer Bluetooth Desktop keyboard, but Dell managed to package its Silent Keyboard and Mouse for $50.
Already a notch in the winner column for Dell.
Beyond the price difference, the Dell Silent Keyboard has been updated with the Copilot key which remains a context menu key on my aging Designer Desktop Keyboard.
The Silent Keyboard and mouse also make use of newer Bluetooth technology with support of LE 5.1. However, if you using a dock or prefer a more reliable connection, there is an included 2.4GHz USB-A dongle that can be applied to pair devices.
Where the Designer Keyboard and Arc Mouse lead the Dell Silent Keyboard and Mouse is in accessibility. The Dell combo makes use of AA-batteries while Microsoft’s options leverage AAA-batteries but Dell claims up to 3 years usage which is great because switching them out is kind of an unintuitive pain.
For the Dell Mouse, users need to pry open the thin film of plastic that consist of the left and right mouse buttons via a tiny groove along the edging of the device. Some user might fear pulling open the top of their mouse might break or crack crucial parts of the mouse if too much pressure is applied. On the keyboard side, the battery slot is angled and sits too flush with the rest of the keyboard to make for an easy opening.
Eventually I got them open and got my combo up and working.
Another win for the Dell combo is its multipoint connection support so that users can connect the keyboard and mouse to another set up which is crucial for people on the go or leverage more than one PC at a time.
Pairing is pretty straightforward with the customary hold-three-seconds to find the devices. Shortly after Dell suggest downloading is Peripheral Manager app. I’m currently testing out the Dell XPS 13 X-Elite laptop paired with a Dell Ultrawide monitor so I’m familiar with the app.
Dell has updated its Peripheral Manage app to allow for customization of the Silent Keyboard and Mouse in many ways that include button mapping within specific productivity apps such as Office 365 suite and Teams. Users can also assign keys based on user categories or scenarios like productivity, Windows core OS usage, or multimedia consumption or editing.
After exhausting the long list of customization options I was off to the races and the while it took a little getting used to the deeper key travel design in place to keep the keyboard much quiter than my Designer Keyboard, I haven’t had any issues using Dell’s combo.
As far as the Mouse goes, it’s polling rate was nice at around 33Hz and on par with the Surface Arc Mouse. The Dell mouse delivered a solid experience, but without the capacitive that allows for a free range of scrolling on the Surface Arc Mouse, I would have liked to at least have a couple of buttons I can map to actions such as back, undo, skip, etc.
Nevertheless, for the dirt cheap price, Dell’s combo is well worth the price of entry, especially if you plan on making use of Microsoft’s Copilot AI platform but don’t want to be bothered with having yet another icon take up space in your Taskbar.
