Logitech K830 Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard with Built-in Touchpad – Easy-access Media Keys and Shortcut Keys for Windows or Android

The Logitech K830 is about as premium as a home theater keyboard can get. This keyboard is a perfect fit for those full keyboard typist like myself who prefer a standard keyboard like the one you would find on a laptop pc. Your ten fingers will find the home keys easily and stay put. To be completely upfront. It is slightly smaller than a standard keyboard layout. From the left shift key to the right shift key, the keyboard measures 10-1/4" inches. A standard keyboard measures 11" inches. The loss of 3/4" of an inch is bearly noticeable. It has a full-sized ENTER (RETURN) key and both the left and right shift keys are a standard 1-3/4" wide keys. Tabs are also standard sized. The spacebar, however, is slightly smaller than normal, 3-1/2" side. I added two full-sized keyboards for comparison. The Keytronics bluetooth keyboard and a wired Dell Mechanical keyboard.Despite being 3/4" of an inch less wide, it does have a generous touchpad for mouse navigation. The pad measures 3-1/8" wide by 2-1/8" tall. The pad is as good as those found in a good quality laptop touchpad. Furthermore, this keyboard is backlit making it easy to use in a darkened living room without the need to switch on a lamp. Perfect for the 5.1/7.1 surround home theater.One other thing. The keyboard is capable of entering input to two devices at once. Since the keyboard can pair with any Bluetooth device and pair with Logitech's own Unifying micro USB dongle, you could add the dongle to your smart tv, and Bluetooth connects the keyboard with your FireTV, Android TV (eg: Nvidia Shield TV), Apple TV box or even a PC computer and then switch the active device using a special keyboard combination on the keyboard itself. Nice eh?

I am a tech guy and I know my tech products. I've used dozens of keyboards over the years for my Home Theater PC. I used IOGEAR's GKM571R mini lighted keyboard for years. It has a good trackball but it's keyboard is awful for typing. So I wanted a large keyboard for when I'm doing more then just selecting videos. It had to be lighted and it had to have good navigation. This is by far the best fuller sized keyboard I've used for HTPC use. The keys are well spaced and have great travel and feel. The touchpad is by far the best one I've used in 20 years of computing. I've had an integrated touchpad in my desktop keyboard since way back in 1997 and I've always liked them IF they perform well. This one is very sensitive and responds to gestures perfectly. You just have to lightly glide across it and gently tap. No frustrating intermittent responses from the keyboard. I wish it had 3 finger gestures for back and forward paging but it only has 2 finger scrolling and pinch zooming. I does have a back key on the left side top row to use with your thumb as well as the standard back key right next to the touchpad. I've been using it for over a month now and I've completely abandoned my IOGEAR mini. This keyboard rocks! The rechargeable battery lasts a couple weeks of fairly heavy use. I now just charge it overnight about once a week so I don't get stuck. It will warn you when it's getting low. There are 3 light settings off, low and high. The lighting is bright white and very easy to see in a dark room.My only cons to this keyboard are the function lock keys use a dark red type that is so difficult to see even in the daytime and I have excellent vision. Forget about seeing them in the dark, it's not happening. The good news is they are only the F keys. The default is your media controls which are lighted so it really hasn't been a problem. But why Logitech would make this excellent keyboard and then choose dark red instead of a neon high contrast color baffles me. The other thing is this keyboard is a fingerprint magnet. It will look like it was passed around at a pizza party in no time. I clean it every few days because it looks dirtier then it is. But they are small knocks. My search for the best HTPC keyboard has finally ended!

I bought this as part of a home entertainment ensemble. I have a laptop PC and a Roku Premiere Plus connected to an LG smart TV. I also sometimes use it to help with typing on an Amazon FireTV that I have in another room. The Unifying receiver works as advertised and the K830 shares the same receiver as an M510 wireless mouse, cutting down on the number of occupied USB ports on the laptop. The range of these newer wireless peripherals is a huge improvement over older designs that could only be a few feet away from the receiver, although the bluetooth range may be shorter than the RF range. I haven't compared them directly.The inclusion of bluetooth capability makes this a very versatile keyboard which can be used with many different devices. That is one of the main advantages of this unit compared to the cheaper models such as the K400, which I also own. The other advantages are the rechargeable battery and the backlight. I think the advantages are worth the extra cost, but the K830 is a pricey keyboard even at the Amazon price, which is significantly discounted from retail.In use, typing is similar to using a good laptop keyboard, although it has better travel and the keys are less mushy than most laptop keyboards. Some people complain that the function keys are only usable with a key combo, but this is configurable with the Logitech Options software. Most of my frustration has come from trying to use the trackpad. Trackpads are almost always a less than satisfactory experience, but the one on the K830 is more accident prone than most. The trackpad and the cost are the reasons why I gave it four stars instead of five.