Logitech Professional Presenter R800 with Green Laser Pointer

• Brilliant green laser pointer is easy to see on any presentation screen--even in a brightly lit room
• LCD display with timer and silent vibrating alerts help you manage time without watching the clock
• Up to 100-foot wireless range for freedom to move and mingle around the room
• Intuitive controls for easy, one-touch slideshow navigation
• Plug-and-play USB wireless receiver stores inside the presenter for easy pack up. Carrying case included

The Logitech Professional Presenter R800 is one of those tools you didn't realize you needed until you get one in your hands.

For any person doing presentations, this little unit is a wonderful device. Ergonomically, the design is perfect. It is small in size, light in weight and just fits in your hand perfectly. Indentations on the various buttons let you easily find the correct button without looking during your presentation. On the left edge is the on/off sliding switch. On the right edge are two buttons. One of the buttons is for controlling the start/pause of the presentation timer, the other is for setting the presentation duration timer. On the face of the device are 5 buttons. The top button operates the green laser. Immediately below that wide button are two narrower, but taller buttons that control the movement forward or backward through the presentation. And below that are two slightly smaller buttons that control launching the presentation and, if the application supports it, going to a black screen.

The green laser is bright and relatively sharp. It actually is not a pinpoint sharp light like some other laser pointers, but rather a bit more diffuse. This works out to be an advantage because the lit area becomes a bit larger in diameter, albeit less "sharp", which makes seeing the laser on your screen easier. It really is better than an intensely bright tiny spot. And as compared to the Kensington pointer device I recently reviewed, Kensington 33374 Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer, it was much brighter overall thus more effective.

One of my favorite and most useful features of the R800 is the timer function. Not only do you get a visual indication of the relative amount of time left, by a series of gradually diminishing lines, you also get a silent vibration in the device at 5, 2 and 0 minute markers. This is so handy and helpful that it has become indispensable to me.

The USB receiver stores nicely inside the R800.

I have used the R800 on my PC ACER laptop with no issues.

Concerning Apple computers however, Logitech does not officially state that this is meant for use on a Mac. However it will work with most Macs as best I can determine. I've tried it with four different Macs.

On my 24", 2.16GHz iMac with Snow Leopard (and previously with Leopard) operating system, it did not work at all. But then I read about a possible conflict with the Logitech Control Center which is used for controlling Logitech keyboards, mice, trackballs, etc. I happen to use the Logitech Marble Mouse with my iMac and had the Logitech Control Center v3.10 control panel installed. When I plugged the USB receiver into my USB port, it was not recognized and thus the R800 did not work with the iMac. However, as soon as I uninstalled the LCC software (using the uninstaller that was in my Utilities folder) the R800 receiver did work.

It also worked perfectly using IBM's Lotus Symphony presentation software with my 2.4GHz MacBook running Snow Leopard.

On an old 1.6GHz PPC G4 iMac running OSX 10.5.8 and PowerPoint from Microsoft Office 2004, it worked except for the start presentation button. But manually starting the presentation then using the R800 to go forward and backward worked. With Neo-Office v3.0, it worked perfectly... even the start presentation button.

I also tried on a 1.2GHz PPC G4 iBook with OSX 10.5.8 and it also worked just like on the old iMac with Microsoft Office 2004.

Whether the start presentation button works or not seems to depend on the application you use for the presentation rather than the model of computer you are using.

Bottom line is check before you buy or it may not work with your particular Mac, though it does work on the all of the ones I tried it with. If it does not work on your Mac, then check to see if you have Logitech Control Center installed (check your System Preferences panel > Other)

Logitech should be more forthcoming with the actual state of affairs as it pertains to Mac compatibility and compatibility with Logitech Control Center software but in the meantime, don't assume it will work unless you can corroborate that with someone who has already had success with it on a Mac using the same model.

The only major omission in my opinion is the lack of backlighting on the R800 LCD display. It would be desirable to have backlighting on the unit when operating in dimly lit rooms.

This is a wonderful little device that stands heads and shoulders above its competition such as the Kensington Wireless Presenter Kensington 33374 Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer. However it costs nearly twice as much as the Kensington. For my money, it's worth the extra cost as it has a better ergonomic design and more useful features.

I give it a solid 4 stars. Why not 5 stars? Because it really needs a backlit display and it is quite extraordinary to me that the Logitech R800 device is incompatible with Logitechs' own Logitech Control Center software on the Mac. Nevertheless, this is one terrific pointing/timing/control device for presentations.

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I use MAC OS X, Snow Leopard 10.6.6. By default , all buttons worked correctly on Microsoft Powerpoint and Keynote except the Play button (start button) which didn't work on Keynote.

To fix this, you need to open System Preferences, select the Keyboard & Mouse panel, and then select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Click the Plus button to assign a new shortcut and a new panel appears. Add Keynote as the application (you'll have to scroll to the bottom of the list, select Other... and then find where Keynote is installed). In the Menu Title section, type "Play Slideshow" and then assign this to the keyboard shortcut of F5. When you then restart Keynote, you can click on the View menu and you will see that "Play slideshow" is now linked to the F5 shortcut (instead of the default Command-Option-P).

Now all the buttons of Logitech Professional Presenter R800 ( I think also R400), work perfectly and without any problem on Keynote too. Hence, this presenter device will completely work on MAC OS X, if you apply the above trick.

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Coming out of the box, the first thing that caught my attention was the ergonomic feel of the Logitech R800. Once I popped in the two AAA batteries I removed the on board receiver and plugged it directly into my laptop's USB port. With no software downloads to concern myself with, the system was up and running in no time. The R800 operates via Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 platform.

Button navigation begins with the sliding on and off switch located on the side. The back/forward and on/off black screen buttons are placed on the top. Control is at your fingertips. I found that even in a darkened room, the indented buttons are easy to navigate. With its built in timer, the LCD display is clean and simple. A great time management tool is the vibrating alarm with three settings (5/3/0 minutes). It also displays battery strength and reception levels.

I put the R800 to the test with a matted wall screen in a lighted room. The green laser's projection was bright and visible from all points. The second day, I worked with an LCD screen. Again the same outstanding results. The manufacturer boasts of an operating range of 100 feet. The most that I could garner straight on was a maximum operating distance of about 50 feet. Anything past that and it was touch and go. Still not too bad.

The R800 is powered by two AAA batteries. If its anything like its predecessor, battery consumption should be low. This model is backed by the manufacturer's 3 year limited warranty. The R800 is packaged with a foam zipper case, user information, (2) AAA batteries and of course the on board receiver. The unit's exterior is a black finish.

With all of its bells and whistles, an illuminated LCD display would have made this the perfect go to device. Even without that overlooked feature, I remain very impressed with the Logitech R800. It is an excellent presentation tool.

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I had to return this to the manufacturer for a refund. Why? There is a button called "start presentation" that alternately generates an ESC and F5.the ESC takes you out of presentation mode, the F5 restarts the presentation from the beginning. This button is very near the "back" button and I accidentally push it approximately once an hour. This completely messes up my presentation and there is no way to disable the button. Thus I cannot use this during a professional presentation it is just about guaranteed to create an unprofessional event for me, and I do presentations for a living. So as much as I love every other part of this device, I had returned it to Logitec and ask my money back.

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It works as advertised. I checked with Vista SP2 (OpenOffice Impress 3.1.1), MacPro (sold earlier this year) MS Office Powerpoint, and Ubuntu 9.04 OpenOffice Impress. Vista and Ubuntu worked all buttons perfectly but slide show start button did not work in Mac OS X (manually start then other buttons worked previous/next and blank buttons).

The reason for 4 stars is that the laser power is not that strong (around 3 mW power) that I wish for higher (around 5 mW) powered green laser. Legal issue with 5 mW class lasers?

Update (Apr 2012)

Although I have not used heavily, it still works fine. I just plug in to any laptops around me when I need to present something and I never had troubling using it with any systems so far (Windows, Linux, and Mac boxes).