Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830 Review

If you have a great experience with keyboards, there is a chance that you’ve used some of the Logitech keyboards. They are known for their Logitech K series that offer some of the best keyboards for the price. But, is Logitech Illuminated Living-Room K830 Keyboard worth its price of around $100? Well, that’s yet to be seen in the review. One thing is for sure, Logitech is a great manufacturer and I always have great expectations from Logitech’s products, even from this one, that is a few year old keyboard. Let’s begin with the design first.

Logitech K830Keyboard Design

On the first look, Logitech K830 might not look that compact, at least on pictures. But when you get to use it, lift it and do some typing, you’ll realize just how this keyboard is great in design. It’s a nice, thin, sleek and elegant keyboard, weighing around 480g in total. Bearing in mind that it also has a trackpad, the size of this keyboard is impressive, boasting 14.4 inches in length, 4.9 inches in width and 0.65 inches in height. From these dimensions, you can tell that K830 is almost like a full-sized keyboard, and in my approximation, it’s around 90-95% of that size.

Read: Logitech K840 Mechanical Keyboard Review

Being a slim keyboard, K830 features a nice, shallow buttons which are quite good here, but we’ll talk a little more about that later. The keyboard also offers a great backlighting, which is a welcome addition to a wireless keyboard. Trackpad located here also works well and is located on the right side of the keyboard, making it great for… well, right-handed people. I know that left-handed people fall short of some features, but hey at least you have enough keys for other functions. Trackpad located here also has a full-fledged right and left click, so you can basically do everything like on your laptop. The keyboard is made of plastic, and in my tests, it didn’t even bend or squeak, so props to that.

Logitech K830 Keys

K830 uses a standard QWERTY layout, with keys being shallow and low-profile. As I said, the keyboard is compact and this comes with a major issue- the lack of Num-pad, which is now exchanged with a trackpad. If I was a manufacturer, I wouldn’t swap Num-pad for a trackpad, but hey, it’s just my two cents. Looking at the keyboard from the top, you can see that all of the other keys are here, thank God for that, or Logitech! Again, ‘F’ keys are assigned to various functions like volume rocker, fast forward and Home and they can be remapped using the special Logitech software.

The keys are square-shaped and while the keyboard is compact, I had no problem pressing those keys that feel responsive when pressed. The keys are also big enough, so it’s great for typing. Speaking of keys, there is an additional left mouse button which you can use if you are holding the keyboard in your hands, as well as micro USB port and power switch underneath the keyboard. Overall, I felt great using this keyboard in my business, or even when I’m gaming in the free time.

Logitech K830 Features

Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830 is packed with features, and it’s not just beautiful, but quality keyboard overall. Some of the key features are listed below:

Great trackpad

I earlier said that I don’t like Num-pad being swapped for the trackpad, but hey, I can’t lie to you, this trackpad works great. It’s responsive, and it’s enough size to provide a great control over the stuff you need. Plus, there are three buttons for controlling your volume, so you can now control your music or any kind of media easily.

Also check: Logitech K780 Multi-Device Wireless Keyboard Review

Fantastic battery life

Being a wireless keyboard, K830 aims to provide the best possible experience for users and battery plays a huge role here. K830 features Lithium-Polymer rechargeable batteries that could be charged in few hours, lasting you for over a year! The situation, however, changes if you decide to your the backlight, which will reduce the overall time to around one day. If you use the backlight, I recommend you charge it at night when you don’t use it.

Included Unifying Receiver

Unifying Receiver that comes with the keyboard is a device on which you can connect your Logitech K830 keyboard. You just need to plug it into your USB port and you’re done. However, the main thing here is that Unifying Receiver supports up to six compatible Logitech keyboards and mouses, so there’s no need for more USB ports to be used. It’s a great feature for this keyboard, but it also promotes buying of Logitech products, when you think about it more, as it supports only Logitech products.

Backlight

Finally, a wireless keyboard with a backlight. I must say that I’ m a bit surprised by how well backlight works and illuminates your white and red keys with those colors. The backlight here can be controlled manually with a keyboard, so you can turn it off or on whenever your battery is low using ‘F’ keys.

Remappable keys

If you install a special Logitech software, you can remap your keys, but as you’ve probably guessed it, not all of them can be remapped. The keys that can be remapped are just a few of the ‘F’ keys at the top, which isn’t quite impressive, but the fact that it IS there makes it valuable for me.

Verdict

After all, it boils down to the price to performance ratio. Is Logitech K830 worth the money? I would say yes. It has everything you need from a wireless keyboard, except the Num-pad, but you can get nice, backlit keys, slim and elegant design, great trackpad, responsive keys and great battery life for around $100. Beware that prices may vary, but all in all, Logitech proved that they are still a great company, by taking care of even the tiniest details and incorporating the knowledge about the area of their business. I strongly recommend this keyboard for those who want more than a typical wireless keyboard, offering tons of features at affordable price.