Note, GizBeat may receive a small commission on sales generated through our links.
I’ve used the Rii mini i24 air mouse keyboard for several days now and have a fairly good grasp of its assets and limitations.
Essentially, the mini i24 is meant to replace a keyboard and mouse for navigation of your smart device. My primary use for this gadget has been controlling a Web Browser on a smart TV. It can also be used with a PC, Android phones and Android TV boxes – basically, anything that can accept mouse/keyboard input, this remote can do. This includes helping big time with navigating and adjusting smart TV settings.
The mini i24 looks good. It’s brushed plastic and the long sides are curved in slightly. Two fat mouse buttons are in the middle. The center button stops the mouse pointer where it is regardless of where the remote is pointed. This remote features an internal battery that can be recharged via the micro-SD port. I would have appreciated an LED backlight but given the price point, it is forgivable.
In the apps I tested, the i24 requires that the Fn key be held down to access media functions instead of the PC targeted F1-F12 functions. For my purposes this isn’t a big issue, as the D-pad can be used in HTML5 web videos for volume and fast forward/rewind. This also works with YouTube through the smart TV’s browser, but does not in the YouTube app.
There are three ways to scroll through pages – the D-pad, the page up and page down, or by clicking and dragging the scroll bar. It’s quite a stretch going back and forth with one hand between the mouse buttons and the scroll controls. There were several solutions missed here – enabling scrolling by pointing at the very tops and bottoms of the screen, including a side scroll wheel, putting the mouse buttons and D-pad closer together, or for example, holding down the mouse button while moving the pointer up and down to scroll.
The keyboard packs in a ton of controls. In addition to the ASDF keyboard there is a 3-level LED battery meter, a 4-way directional pad, function keys for PCs, page up and page down, caps lock, even a CTRL-ALT-DEL by holding the Fn key and hitting Enter.
In Live TV, the page up and page down keys change the channel and the number keys can be used to change the channel as well. I have not found a way to bring up the channel list without using the stock TV remote.
A bonus is that you can use the remote to control games, particularly any games which allow the controls to be set. Many emulators allow this, so you can play Super Mario with this remote too.
Setup is automatic plug-and-play. Just plug the included USB dongle into the TV and you are ready to rock.
Overall I’m fairly impressed with this device. There are a couple of frustrating things about it that could easily be addressed, but the Rii mini 24 is a great addition to the arsenal, doubly so due to the excellent price point.
