Logitech Cordless Mediaboard

Logitech's Cordless Mediaboard is a confusing product. It performs marvelously. It is responsive, has a greater range than you will ever need, and the batteries seem to hold out forever. However, it is flimsy, and really doesn't feel or look like a PS3 product. It's better dressed to hang out with my Mac Book Pro, than my PS3. The lack of PlayStation buttons and styling make this seem like a PC product adapted to the PS3, rather than designed for it. We've simply come to expect more from Logitech than an serviceable product.The Logitech Cordless Mediaboard certainly does what it is designed to do. As a wireless keyboard it works, but it lacks the polish and extras we expect from consumer electronics and videogame accessories. If it were a value priced wireless laptop keyboard, I'd be thrilled with it. But being that this is a premium priced accessory for a high end videogame console from a top tier manufacturer, I expected more.

The good news about the Cordless Mediaboard is that it works. Logitech managed to work around Sony's silly Bluetooth lock by using a USB dongle. The results are excellent. The keyboard and built in touch pad respond beautifully, and the range is much further than I can actually read letters on the screen. All of the standard PC keys are there... leaving me to wonder, "why do I need F1-F12 on a PS3 keyboard." Unfortunately NONE of the PlayStation 3 buttons are. No PS Home button, no R or L buttons, nada. While you can surf the web with it, remember that the browser was designed to use the controller buttons. While the Cordless Mediaboard does have workarounds, I have to wonder why they didn't just replace the function keys with PlayStation buttons.

The keyboard, unfortunately, feels weak and flimsy in the lap. If you sit with both feet on the ground, it's fine. The minute your legs are uneven, the keyboard bows and bends under very minimal pressure. While it may be stylish on its own, the Cordless Mediaboard looks out of place next to my PS3. Silver? Perhaps it was designed for the prototype PS3 with the boomerang controller. Black, give us black accessories, please.

The keyboard works well, it seems barebones, flimsy, and the wrong color for the price tag.

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Logitech Cordless Precision

Logitech's Cordless Action Controller for the PS2 is one of the finest controllers ever produced. I still use it as my default PS2 controller. When I found out that their PS3 controller, the Cordless Precision, was going to be based on the same design, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, like many 3rd party PS3 accessories, the Cordless Precision simply does not hold its own against Sony's originals. The Cordless Precision is every bit as comfortable as the Cordless Action, but it is missing too many features to save a mere $10.I must admit that I am a bit confused by Logitech's PS3 strategy. This is the company that delivered a controller that was actually better than Sony's PS2 Dual Shock, some of the finest PSP accessories out there, and the only console steering wheel worth having. One has to wonder who is in charge of their PS3 line. If the Cordless Precision is any indicator of things to come, we can expect mediocrity from a company that used to deliver excellence.

Don't get me wrong, Logitech's Cordless Precision controller for the PS3 works, and it has some high points, namely a superior D-pad and more comfortable grips than the Sixaxis, but it also has some pretty major flaws.

The obvious differences between the Cordless Precision and the Sixaxis are the use of AA batteries as opposed to a rechargeable battery, a USB receiver instead of using the build in blue tooth, a raised, instead of recessed, D-pad, no tilt functionality, and the inclusion of rumble (which no PS3 currently supports). While some reviewers have complained about the AA's, I see it as an advantage. I don't know how many drained Sixaxis controllers I've picked up, and the included cord is far too short to actually play with. The Cordless Precision outlasts the Sixaxis on the two easily replaceable AA's, and one can always opt to use rechargeable AA's if they prefer.

Unfortunately, the Cordless Precision suffers from both bad tech and design issues. The missing tilt control means the controller simply won't work with games like flOw, and the USB receiver can't be used to turn the PS3 on or used with system updates, so you'll have to keep at least one Sixaxis around. The extremely stiff L2 and R2 triggers can often lead to problems like not fully accelerating in racing games.

In the end the controller is really no better than the Sixaxis, and in many ways worse.

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