James Hunt looks at whether we’ll ever be able to completely cut the cords
If you were compiling a list of the most transformative developments in home computing over the last decade, it’s a safe bet that the invention of wireless communications would be somewhere near the top. By eliminating cables, wi-fi in particular made getting online convenient and simple. Most of us would no sooner go back to a wired network than we would start doing our laundry with a washboard and mangle. There’s no disputing that wireless was the future of networking. But is it the future of all computing?
You only have to look at your desktop PC to see that there are still improvements to be made. If you put a system into the centre of a room and spread its peripherals out around it, you’d probably have something that resembled a spider-diagram of itself. Accessories are tethered to your PC and to the wall – and sometimes to both at the same time.
It begs the question: if wireless networking has been such a success, would it be possible for a desktop PC to become completely cable-free? Faced with that sort of question, we couldn’t help but try to find out.
Wireless Keyboards
Price Range: £8-£80
Top Manufacturers: Microsoft, Logitech
Why Wireless? A wireless keyboard can free you from your desk chair, acting as a remote control for media on your PC, HTPC or smart TV, and it can allow you to type from any position you like. And if you’re just on your desktop, it looks a lot neater!
How To Choose: Keyboards are among the cheapest peripherals you can buy for a PC, but they’re also the one you’re likely to use the most. For that reason, it’s worth paying a little extra for a decent one.
Admittedly, it might be hard to psychologically justify the leap in price from a sub-£5 basic wired model to the slightly more complicated wireless keyboards, but it’s worth splashing out for extra features that’ll make the most of wireless controls, such as a volume sliders or media buttons.
If you’re not looking to use it on your desktop, we’d suggest getting one that uses Bluetooth rather than wireless radio or infra-red, because that’ll make it compatible with a huge variety of devices – not just your PC, but your laptop, phone, tablet and more. But on with a desktop PC, a radio signal is easier: there’s no pairing involved; it’s just plug and play.
Suggested Model: The Microsoft All-In-One Media Keyboard retails for £30.99, but can be picked up for less than £25. It has a huge multi-touch touchpad and a variety of extra programmable keys, in addition to media features, giving you plenty of scope to customise your use of it. The keyboard takes two batteries and has a battery life indicator to help you keep track of how soon you’ll need to buy replacements. The wireless connection is radio-based, meaning you can hide the receiver out of the way and still get a decent connection from anywhere in the same room.
Wireless Mice
Price Range: £5-£75
Top Manufacturers: Microsoft, Logitech
Why Wireless? You probably know why. Wired mice have cables that can get tangled, twisted and snagged from their frequent movements. It’s not a problem when you’re only moving your mouse within the same 3” radius as normal, but as soon as you want to move beyond that, you’ll struggle. Wireless mice are especially good for notebook PCs, where typical mouse cables are so long they inevitably get in the way.
How To Choose: As with keyboards, a good mouse is essential to establishing a smooth interface with your PC. Really, you should expect at least four buttons and a scrollwheel. Because wireless mice have batteries in them, they’re usually a little heavier than wired ones, so it’s worth testing the weight first to see how comfortable you are with them.
Suggested Model: The Logitech Wireless M525 has a £35 retail price but again can be found for cheaper prices without much trouble. Rather than separate buttons on the side, it has a scrollwheel rocker that can be used to navigate back and forward, which makes it easier to use if you’re left-handed. It’s a comfortable shape and about as light as you can get for a device lugging two AA batteries around. The wireless technology is RF, giving you a decent two- or three-metre range, but it uses Logitech’s universal wireless receiver, so if you have other compatible hardware, you only need one for up to six devices.
Perhaps best, though? It has three full years of battery life for the average user. If that’s even half-true, then you couldn’t ask for better performance.
Wireless Display
Price Range: £35-£200
Top Manufacturers: Microsoft
Why Wireless? Paired up with a wireless keyboard, mouse and speakers, a wireless monitor would mean you could put your workstation pretty much anywhere you liked (range-permitting), giving you all the power and flexibility of a desktop with the domestic portability of a laptop. It’s not quite as portable, admittedly, but if there’s a nook you want to hide your base unit away in, or if you want to move your workstation from room to room, it opens up those possibilities.
How To Choose: Sadly, the high data requirements of a video connection combined with the latency inherent in wireless connections makes the reality of wireless monitors less than impressive. Wireless monitors do exist, but they are often disproportionately weaker than similarly priced wired models.
What you can do is pair a good monitor with a wireless HDMI adaptor. Make sure it supports 1080p and has a low latency, and you’ll be able to use it with any HDMI-compatible display over a huge range.
An alternative might be something like a Miracast adaptor, which uses a network signal to mirror your screen output – though you’ll probably need a screen physically connected to your system to activate it. For a true wireless connection, you need cablereplacement technology, and that’s expensive.
Suggested Model: The Acer MWiHD1 retails for £160 and uses a 60GHz wireless connection to give interference-free wireless HDMI transfer. Designed for use with projectors, it’s compatible with any HDMI input. All it needs is an HDMI out and an HDMI in to connect the two parts to, and your cables are a thing of the past. It supports 1080p, 60fps and Blu-ray 3D at 4GB/s without compression. You will need an HDMI port that’s MHL compatible to use it, though, so check before spending any money!
Wireless Speakers
Price Range: £12-£280
Top Manufacturers: Creative
Why Wireless? In a world where your computer is capable of surround sound, nothing spoils the illusion quite like having wires trailing around the floor – to say nothing of the potential damage (or injury!) you could cause by tripping over them. Alternatively, wireless speakers with good enough range will allow you to pipe music from your PC and MP3 player into any room in your house, truly liberating your music collection.
How To Choose: Whether you go for a simple single-speaker setup or a multi-speaker surround sound behemoth, the rules for choosing speakers are simple. Make sure they’ve got a good amplifier in them: the higher the wattage, the better the sound quality, and the louder the volume. The biggest obstacle to becoming unwired for sound is that a most wireless speakers run off Bluetooth, and even now, very few desktop PCs have Bluetooth built in. Before you buy speakers, make sure you’ve got a wireless audio transmission method lined up.
Suggested Model: The Creative Inspire T30 speakers are comfortably mid-range at an RRP of £99.99, and we easily found them for £79.99. Although audiophiles might want to consider some network speakers, these have a built-in tweeter and a woofer that takes up the entire rear of the speaker, allowing them to chuck out a powerful sound. The speakers have an auxiliary input in case you want to plug them into your non-Bluetooth computer or MP3 player, and AptX compatibility means that in theory the sound is as good as any wired connection.
Headsets & Headphones
Price Range: £23-£220
Top Manufacturers: Sennheiser, Sony
Why Wireless? As fond as many of us are of noise-cancelling, lightweight, space-age-material-sporting headphones, the simple truth is that wired headphones are simply inconvenient. What headphone user reading this hasn’t got the cable caught in the wheels of their chair or accidentally pulled their speakers over after misjudging the amount of slack available? None, that’s how many. Not only do wireless headphones get rid of that sort of inconvenience, they also let you play games or watch TV on your computer from the other side of the room. Ideal for experiencing late night movies or gaming in a way that won’t wake the neighbours.
How To Choose: There’s not much science to this one; just avoid getting anything you’re likely to be uncomfortable wearing. If you’re serious about headphone use, noise-cancelling capabilities are a must, and gamers or Skype-users will, of course, want a built-in microphone. Headsets inevitably cost more, but as with speakers, as long as they do the job, you don’t need to go wild.
Suggested Model: Unless you’re committed to a super-expensive pair, we can’t recommend spending more than £80 or so on a pair of headphones. Logitech’s Wireless Headset H800 can be picked up for about £69.99 (it retails for £79.99) and has a 12-metre range, built-in microphone and on-ear track, volume and power controls. They have two connections: a nano receiver for a PC and Bluetooth for smartphones, tablets and other compatible devices, so it’s easy to switch between them. They’re also foldable for easy portability!
Wireless Printer
Price Range: £60-£200
Top Manufacturers: Epson, HP
Why Wireless? If you mostly use a laptop or tablet, you might not have a permanent workstation set up. That means you’re probably already familiar with the pain of having to assemble and dissemble a printer in your living room every time you want to print something. With a wireless printer, you can stick it in a corner somewhere and print to your heart’s content, with no need to lug your computer from room to room to do so. And, of course, a wireless printer can be accessed by multiple devices simultaneously, rather than the single device it’s plugged into.
How To Choose: You’ve got a few options: a colour inkjet (or even cheap monochrome laser printer) at the very bottom end or the price spectrum, or expensive all-in-ones and colour laser printers at the other. Usual printer rules apply: laser if you’re printing a lot of text, colour laser for high-quality photos, inkjet-based models for general multi-purpose use, and all-in-ones if you want faxing, scanning and photocopying into the bargain. Remember that to use the printer properly, you’ll need a router too.
Recommended Model: The HP Envy 4500 is a multifunction colour inkjet with print-and-scan functionality, cloud access and USB connectivity. As a multifunction, it of course has built-in copier, scanner and fax functions, and the colour touchscreen allows you to simply access and configure its functions even without a separate device. At £46, it’s not the cheapest printer on the market, but that’s almost £20 off its RRP, and when cheap printers are so shoddily made anyway, it’s worth spending extra money to ensure you get decent-quality hardware rather than a loss-leader designed to sell ink cartridges.