Microsoft Presenter+ review: Become a Teams and PowerPoint presenting pro with THIS

These days, Microsoft is all about enhancing your workflow with handy productivity-focused software and accessories, and its new Presenter+ remote embodies that philosophy very much so. I love gadgets are that designed for specific use cases, and while it’s certainly not the first of its kind, the Presenter+ is elegant, sleek, and easy to set up and use.

I've been using the Presenter+ for a little over two weeks to conduct presentations and enhance Teams meetings. Here's my review!

Microsoft Presenter+: Price & Availability

The Microsoft Presenter+ is available directly from the Microsoft Store or Amazon and has a retail price of $80. Here are the specs of the product:

Microsoft Presenter+: Design

The Presenter+ features a clean, elegant design that looks good on your desk and discreet in your hand. It's small, lightweight, and feels great to hold thanks to its premium smooth plastic enclosure. The buttons are tactile and easy to press and have a satisfying click to them. 

The buttons themselves consist of a large circular mute button at the top, followed by two smaller left and right navigation buttons below it, a pill-shaped "presenting laser" button below those, and a large circular Teams button at the bottom. On the back are a power toggle and Bluetooth pair button.

The back of the remote is covered in a slightly grippy texture, which makes it slightly easier to hold and reduces its ability to slide around on your desk when not in the charging dock. There's also a small Microsoft logo on the back, just below an indented area to rest your finger in as you hold the device.

On the bottom is a USB-C port flanked by two silver prongs, used for charging with the included charging dock. The charging dock itself is a nice inclusion, connected to a USB-A cable that plugs into your computer to supply power. The USB-C port on the remote can also be used for charging. 

Microsoft Presenter+: Features

The Presenter+ includes several different features and modes, all designed to enhance your experience when presenting PowerPoint presentations or partaking in Teams meetings. We'll start with the presentation features, which unsurprisingly are a highlight for this remote.

This remote includes a built-in virtual laser function, which can be used to point at and highlight areas of a screen being used to present content. The virtual laser can be used anywhere, in any app by simply holding the laser button and pointing at your screen. 

It uses a built-in gyroscope to track the location of the remote, and relatively accurately display the laser where you'd expect it to be. It works very similarly to how LG's Magic Remote works on its TVs, with the ability to point the remote at the screen and use it as a mouse.

The laser button, when paired with the navigation buttons above it, makes for an all-in-one solution for presenting PowerPoint slides on a stage, or even virtually in Microsoft Teams. The only frustrating thing about the laser pointer is that you can't actually click on things with it. Within Windows, you can use it to highlight things, but if you want to click OK on a prompt, you can't. 

The remote can also be used as a microphone toggle with the dedicated mute button along the top. This is great for scenarios where you might find yourself walking around a small office while in a meeting, with other colleagues interrupting you in person every so often. 

Now, there's no microphone built-in to the remote, so you can't use it as an on-the-go toggle mic, but the mute button will act as a toggle for whatever mic is built-in to the device you have it connected to. 

Lastly, the Presenter+ features a vibration motor for tactile signals, which buzz when a Teams meeting starts, you mute or unmute your mic, when the battery is low, and even when you raise and lower your hand. Yes, the remote also functions as a way of raising your hand virtually in Teams meetings. Pretty cool. 

Microsoft Presenter+: Customization

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Many of the functions and features of the Presenter+ remote can be configured, which means you can dial in how you want to use the remote to your personal taste. For example, you can choose to use the microphone button as a toggle, switching between muted and unmuted states with a click, or use it as a push-to-talk button, only unmuting the mic when the button is held down.

The laser feature can also be customized, including the ability to change the size and color of the laser pointer itself. You can also configure the sensitivity of the gyro, which is great if you find the remote isn't doing a good job of tracking the laser pointer on the screen out of the box.

You can even customize the strength of the tactility motor, increasing or decreasing its strength to suit your preference. You can also turn on and off which features present tactile signals, so if you didn't want it to vibrate when you mute or unmute your mic, you can turn that off. 

All of these features can be customized using Microsoft's well-put-together Accessory Center app, which is automatically installed when you pair the remote to a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC for the first time. The app also includes the ability to "find my remote" by buzzing the vibration motor inside it if you ever lose it. 

Microsoft Presenter+: Competition

There are countless clicker devices out there on the market that allow you to control a PowerPoint presentation, and some of them even have actual laser point pointers built in. Peripherals such as the Logitech Presenter R400, which uses its own wireless receiver for functionality, can be had for just $32. But it doesn't come with any customization software or integration with Microsoft Teams.

There's also the DinoFire Wireless Presenter, which just like the Logitech, uses its own RF receiver for functionality, and a built-in level 2 laser. But again, no Microsoft Teams integration. And that's going to be the big differentiator between other clickers and the Microsoft Presenter+.

The Microsoft Presenter+ offers a virtual laser, in-depth Microsoft Teams integration, a wide array of customizable settings, and even a haptic motor. You're not going to find those things on other clickers on the market.

Microsoft Presenter+ Should you buy

The Microsoft Presenter+ is an excellent peripheral, but only if you find yourself presenting PowerPoint presentations on a regular basis. For everyone else, I don't think it's a necessary investment, as it's pretty easy to navigate a PowerPoint slide without a dedicated accessory.

With that said, the Presenter+ is really only for the people who want or need to look professional on a stage or virtually. They won't want to be seen walking back to a laptop on the corner of the stage to advance to the next slide. They want to stay in their flow and present the next slide as they talk to their audience. 

If that's you, then you simply can't go wrong with the Presenter+. The other integrations with Teams are a nice addition, such as raising the remote to raise your hand in the meeting and using the mic button as a toggle.