Utilizing a PC in your front room isn’t as simple as you need it to be, however having the precise equipment could make it higher. A couple of years in the past, once I began utilizing my pc to recreation in my front room extra, I picked up a Logitech K400 keyboard.
A couple of years later, it’s nonetheless going robust, so I’ve determined to overview it.
The K400 is constructed for the lounge. It features a small keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard additionally options 4 particular buttons: Mute, quantity down, quantity up, and one other button that permits you to left-click along with your left hand, however extra on that later.
The keyboard expertise is ok, however I wouldn’t purchase it should you plan to kind lots. That being mentioned, I used it to write down this story, and it has a strong format and first rate key journey. It’s a Logitech keyboard, and it really works. What did you anticipate? The keys are a little bit nearer to at least one one other than I’d choose, however general, it will get the job carried out. On the finish of every keypress, you possibly can really feel the mushiness of the membrane under the buttons, so I’d one hundred pc keep away from this for gaming.
The trackpad on the keyboard’s proper facet is healthier than you’d anticipate, but it surely’s not good. It’s cramped, so whereas I would be capable of flick my cursor round reasonably rapidly on my pc monitor, as soon as I scale as much as a PC on a TV display screen, it will get much more tedious. The buttons under it are once more high quality, however not the best with a boring click on. As I discussed earlier, a particular button within the prime proper nook acts like a left click on. Due to this fact, should you’re standing and holding this keyboard in two palms, you possibly can click on along with your left hand and transfer the cursor along with your proper. That is truly a very well-thought-out button, and I discover myself utilizing it generally.
Whereas the K400 keyboard/trackpad format works high quality, I’ve additionally used the Logitech K380 (replaced by the Pebble keys K380S), and I really like its chiclet keys. For an inexpensive plastic keyboard, it feels nice to kind on, and the smaller keys permit for extra space between the letters, so I discover I mispress characters much less. If Logitech made a model of this with a trackpad, I’d be very tempted to modify up.
The K400 isn’t rechargeable, and it runs off two AA batteries that final roughly 18th months). I haven’t modified the batteries in a little bit over a 12 months.
“If all you want is one thing to click on by way of the Steam interface whilst you boot up your video games, you possibly can’t go improper with this.”
Contained in the battery compartment, there’s a little bit house for a Logitech Unifying Receiver. There’s no Bluetooth within the K400, however secretly I really like how handy the unifying receiver is. Through the years, I’ve had a couple of bug out on me, however I’m at all times capable of reset them with the Logitech Unifying software.
General, I’d choose a barely higher media centre keyboard, however since I’m not likely keen to splurge on one which prices greater than the K400’s tremendous reasonably priced $40 price ticket (it goes on sale typically), I’m sticking with it because it will get the job carried out. The K400 fulfils all the guarantees you’d anticipate from an inexpensive keyboard, however the 2-in-1 nature of the gadget makes it nice for the lounge. If all you want is one thing to click on by way of the Steam interface whilst you boot up your video games, you possibly can’t go improper with this.
I’m at all times on the hunt for distinctive devices so when you’ve got a front room keyboard that you simply love, please attain out to me on Twitter or Threads @thebradfad and share it!
