Logitech's New Wireless Living Room Keyboard is Backlit
Logitech has built a wireless keyboard for the living room with backlighting.
Logitech's K400 keyboard was very well received in the past, as it made an excellent keyboard for use in the living room. It features a keyboard along with a touchpad, combining both a mouse and keyboard into a single wireless device. It was also quite cheap though, which did reflect in the build quality of the unit -- it worked perfectly fine, but it never had a high-end feel to it.
Now, Logitech has announced the K830 illuminated keyboard. This keyboard employs the same principle as the K400, combining a keyboard and a pointing device, but takes it a step further. As the name indicates, it features backlighting -- and yes, the keyboard is still wireless. It connects to your PC through Logitech's 2.4 GHz unifying receiver.
In order to ensure that the batteries will last long enough, the backlighting will only turn on when you actually type -- five seconds after you stop typing they will power off again. Fortunately, the keyboard can be recharged, so despite probably not lasting as long on a single charge as the K400 did, you'll never be taking batteries from your TV remote in order to use it. Also, most folks will probably be using this keyboard for their media center, where, let's be honest, you won't be doing a lot of typing.
Pricing for the unit is set at $99.99, and it should be coming to shelves any moment now in both Europe and the United States.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
-
Lamontiego Way Way to Expensive.... Logitech is smoking crack if they think people are going to pay that price.Reply -
Vlad Rose I have the K400.. they are nice for what they are. I can definitely see the back lighting being useful. However, one main reason why I bought the K400 was because it was under $40. As Lamontiego said, $100 is way too expensive to charge for a product like this. And yes, I do agree that they should offer Bluetooth instead as I hate having to figure out which dongle to use for each wireless Logitech device I have; not to mention the waste of a USB port or the fear of losing the stupid thing....Reply -
tvieson They used Blue Tooth on the DiNovo and DiNovo Mini which I have used for my HTPC for the last 3 to 4 years. Its been pretty good and I still use it. It also cost 99.00. The Blue Tooth worked flawless till I updated my HTPC to Windows 7. It still works will most of the time, but I have to pull the battery out once and a while to get to sync back up. Annoying, but the fix is quick and easy.Reply
I love Logitech products. I have always found there peripherals to be comfortable and dependable. I have used other manufacturers, but they never feel as comfortable as Logitech and they never last. You can't beat the longevity of there products. Every keyboard and mouse I have ever purchased from them still works 100%. I still have 3 of there original optical mice that first came to replace the old ball mice. They all still work to this day as good as the day I bought them. -
BranFlake5 ReplyWay Way to Expensive.... Logitech is smoking crack if they think people are going to pay that price.
They sell tons of Bluetooth iPad keyboards for $99. I'm pretty sure there will be a market for this, just not one you're thinking of. -
redgarl ReplyBluetooth sucks. You keep having to "Pair" them every week or so. No thanks.
I never had to repair my MX Performance and my K800... ever...
-
thundervore I have a Performance Mouse MX and a K800 and i only had to pair them once to a single receiver. Best Logitech setup ever for home use!Reply
Blutooth? Hell no, not on W7, having to constantly pair is a PITA. Hopefully they use Lithium Ion batteries in this keyboard instead of the eNi-TIME knock off Sanyo Eneloops. -
Bean007 I also have the K400 and always wished there was a backlight for the keys and I wish they did something with the touchpad. The touchpad is rather large and the buttons are so small that sometimes I think that I'm on clicking on the buttons but actually i'm on the touchpad. I also hate it when I turn on my HTPC or even put it too sleep that it doesn't remember that I disabled the ability for it to register a tap on the touchpad as a left mouse click.Reply