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Kensington PowerPointer - PowerPoint Compatible Remote - REVIEW
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Jun 22, 2024
Whether you're a teacher, a public speaker, or just end up talking through slide decks on video chats, a solid presentation remote is a wonderful thing. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ tries out the newest of the bunch, the Kensington PowerPointer, and finds it's an instant must-have for presentations. Paired with Microsoft PowerPoint on a Mac or Windows PC, it will give any speaker lots more flexibility. The virtual laser pointer and annotation pen are pretty slick too... Check it at https://www.Kensington.com/
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0:00
If you make presentations, this is a must-have. Let's check it out
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Dave Taylor here, and I'm checking out this. Really cool. This is the Kensington Power Pointer
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and it's brand new. It looks like an Apple TV remote, right? But it's designed to work with
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Microsoft PowerPoint, and it automatically pairs and it automatically works with Mac or PC. Because
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the magic of it is in the bottom, you pull out and there's a little dongle. So I happen to have
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just by coincidence, I have a presentation. So I, unfortunately, on this particular Mac
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I need an adapter, which you'll have to supply separately, because this is USB 3. So if you
0:49
don't have a USB 3 port on your computer, and of course a ton of them do, then you will need an
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adapter. But that's all I do. I plug it in. There's no software, no drivers, no updates, no firmware
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nothing to deal with, no install, no mysterious downloads from some third-party company. It's
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ready to go right now. So all I have to do is decide what mode I want to use this in. Yes
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this is a modal pointer. So it actually has, on the side and on the back, they have a convenient
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label. But on the side, there's a four-position switch. And basically, as you can see in this
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close-up, the topmost is on-off, and then the second is regular presentation mode. The third
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option is annotation. We'll get there. I'll show you that. And then the fourth one, and I'll do
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that one first, the fourth one shows you battery status. So on the side, I see four green LEDs
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which tells me it's fully charged. How do you charge it? What a great question. You charge it
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by plugging a micro USB cord into the top. And of course, it includes a micro USB cord. But basically
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it charges pretty darn fast. I got it up to a full charge in about 10 minutes out of the box
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And then it is going to last for months. I mean, they just don't use much power. So I'm going to
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switch it from off into regular presentation mode. And then, as you can see on the front
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there are four buttons. Let's start with the really big one, which is next slide
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Right? So I can just push next slide. I can use the little one to use previous slide. And it's
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really a great ergonomic design because you don't have to look. You can feel the big button has a
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depression on it. And then the small button has a little bit of a space pushing out. So it's very
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easy with your thumb to know exactly what you're pushing. And then the top button is super
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interesting. But before we get there, let me do the bottom button. Ready? Bottom. So why would
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you use that? Well, that's a good question. While I turn off the slides, let me talk about that
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question you just asked me. Right? So that's what people do in presentations. They're like
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so I've done my slides. Let me just turn this off. And it's all from the remote. And that's
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the lower button that has the little profile, which is just a basically screen on off again
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built into Microsoft PowerPoint. Pretty cool. And then the top button is really neat because
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the top button is a virtual laser pointer. So you might not be able to see it very well
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but there's a little red dot on the screen. Right? And as I move the remote around
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the dot moves. Now you're thinking, when on earth would I do that? But people use laser
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pointers a lot. And here's where this is such a win because with the laser pointer, if I'm
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sharing this in a zoom or Skype or Microsoft teams meeting or something, then no one else is going to
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see my laser pointer on my screen. Right? They're just going to be like, uh, we're glad it's bouncing
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off of your glass. We see nothing. This will share because it's built into Microsoft, right? So it's
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built into PowerPoint. So if I use this pointer to highlight something on the screen, then everyone
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who's watching this will also see it. And remember at such a point in time as you might be presenting
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to a room full of people and also simul broadcasting or something simulcasting it
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then everyone else will also see that such a cool idea. And that's where the annotation comes in
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So now we slide it down one and I have to say, these are super Byzantine instructions. So just
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trust me that you just need to sort of experiment for a little bit to figure things out. And now
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the bottom button, if I just push it once, let me get the, find my cursor. Let's see
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Well, where'd we go? Okay. So I've, my cursor's on screen. Again, I don't know if you can see that
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it's right here. And then if I push the button once it draws a circle, right? And then if I push
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and hold, I can then draw a line. So if I have something I want to emphasize, I can underline it
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Obviously this is the worst case scenario ergonomically, but normally I would be facing
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my screen and then it would be very logical for me to be doing all these different gestures
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Now I have to be candid is that until I realized it was a different mode, I was completely baffled
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about how to do the annotation. But once you realize you just have to switch back and forth
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then it's pretty easy enough. And then you can go back on with your presentation. And of course
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this is actually something you can save in the presentation. So if you're recording the whole
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thing, then someone can play the slides back and get all that annotation too. So in fact, let's
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maybe move this. Let's see, where am I? I need to go down to annotation, get my cursor, and I can
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do the same thing, maybe down at the bottom. It might be a little easier to see. That's basically
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it, right? So it has, as they call it, pen mode. It has a digital laser pointer, no software
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no hassles. It's a 15 meter or about 40 foot range. So you can be standing in the back of
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the room and pointing at your computer and it's still going to work fine. And modern times
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it uses AES 128 bit encryption between the dongle and the remote to make sure someone else doesn't
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hijack your presentation. That would be awkward, right? But there are people that are going to try
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to do those sneaky things. So they've already thought ahead and they do have the encryption
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So that's about all I got. You can see it is a nice, small, simple device. It has that mnemonic
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on the back. Thank goodness for the different modes. You charge it off the top. The whole
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thing has a remarkably good feel. This is really by far the best presenter device I've ever used
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from Kensington. And I do a lot of talks and lectures and presentations. And this is definitely
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a real win. And because it works with the dongle and there's storage for the dongle in the bottom
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that means I can use this even if I go to an event and someone else's computer is already
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hooked up or the event AV company already has laptops hooked up for everyone, which is often
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the case. I could still plug this in and immediately just go with my own remote with
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the way I want it to work. So really a big win. So really all that's left to talk about is the price
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But before we get there, I'm going to ask if you can click on that subscribe button
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Really appreciate it. And give me some feedback. If you make presentations or do lectures or anything
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what do you use to advance your slides? Or do you literally walk up to your computer and
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push the button? So this is really giving you so much more range and ability to walk around and
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go into the audience and stuff. So really a game changer, which then is OK, how much
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This is the Kensington Power Pointer with handy built in dongle and it's $49.99 at
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Kensington.com and I'm sure it will become available everywhere else. But right now
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that's the only place you can get it because it's that new. So check around, look for the
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Kensington Power Pointer. And if you're a teacher, if you're a lecturer, if you give presentations
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game changer. Definitely worth checking out. That's all I got. I'll catch you in my next video
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