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 was looking to go to Bluetooth with a HTPC/living room setup of mine. Tired of the MS wireless. All I really wanted was stronger range.But when I stumbled across this unit, I saw that the developers had thought of things I had not yet realized I needed.The integral touchpad means no separate mouse to handle or mousing surface to find.The compact size has been an improvement I didn't expect. Easier to carry/handle. No loss in effectiveness or convenience.The rechargeable Li-ion battery means no more AA's. Plenty of useful life on a single charge.The (nearly hidden) extra left click button on the upper left is a clever feature that I haven't taught myself to use as often as it would come in handy. And the shortcut/Fn keys are thoughtful/organized enough that for the first time I am actually learning their location.The two finger scrolling on the touchpad is such an improvement over the touchpad edge scrolling that I am used to with my laptops.The backlit keys are well thought out also, and even provide a low light level when the unit knows it is in a dark room.The only problem I have had is with a default setting in Windows. What was happening was the KB would get into a zombie state overnight sometimes. It would show as paired but not connected to the computer, like it was out of range. It appeared to be related to the battery level of the KB, but it would happen before I ever saw the recharge warning on the KB--and was a real pain to make reconnect. But before I gave up the ship I found some good advice online (after the usual 90% bogus advice) that showed a default power management setting was letting Windows 'turn off the device to save power' (but the KB apparently never got that memo). Unclick the check box and no problems, just happiness, since. [Device Mgr>>Bluetooth>>Intel Wireless Bluetooth>>Properties>>Power Mgmt>>uncheck box]

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.