Logitech Wireless Illuminated Keyboard K800

When I'm using a keyboard, there are 2 situations that get me frustrated:

- If my laptop is plugged into my TV and I want to watch something, it's always a hassle to have to get up and type something.

- I love working at night and I have a tendency to do it while the lights are out. This means I sometimes have to pause and squint at my laptop to try and find a key. This is especially troublesome as I'm from Portugal but have spent the last couple of years in the UK, so I usually use both keyboard layouts every day (UK while working, PT at home).

I searched online and found a couple of wireless backlit keyboards, but one was from Microsoft and had that wave shape I dislike and another one was a really small one with only 56 keys. Luckily, Logitech was going to release the K800 soon. Being a faithful Logitech customer for years, I waited. The high price did force me to think hard on whether it was really worth it, so I had to decide if I was going to take a risk - mind you, I have never purchased an expensive keyboard before, my gadget money usually goes to mice.

I saw a couple of videos of the keyboard on Youtube and it looked good. I never saw or touched one in the shops.
I finally decided on ordering it. I have been using it and I have to say... it's amazing!

- Shape
The K800 is very thin, minimal, quite low profile. It's shaped like a slim wedge with a transparent plastic edge around it. The micro USB plug is placed at the top right. I think it would have been better in the middle or the left side, so the wire stays away from the right side of your desk - where I have my mouse.

- Keys
The keys have a great feel to them, they are low so your fingers don't have to travel a lot when pressing down but they still make that "clacky" sound indicative of a proper keyboard. Above the number pad on the right, there are some keys to control the volume. Above those keys, an on/off switch and a battery indicator with 3 levels.

- Backlighting
You can disable it and there are 3 levels of intensity. I find myself using the lowest level of intensity even when the light is on, as the symbols don't have high contrast against the black keys. That makes sense, as the symbols can't just be "white" as normal keyboards; they need to be translucent so the light shines through.
The keyboard emanates a sort of "grey" light, which looks amazing. The sensor works very well, you just waive your hand or start typing and the light kicks in.

- Battery life
I work from home and am usually at the computer 8-10 hours a day. I charge it once a week. The keyboard lasts for a long time. When I get the warning about low battery, I just plug it to the computer via a USB cable and continue working. After a while, it's charged and I remove the USB cable. Absolutely no hassle.

- Connectivity
Logitech's Unifying USB receiver is just brilliant. It is so small you never notice it. You plug it in and forget about it.
Along with this keyboard, I have also purchased the Logitech MX Performance Mouse (Tracks on Glass). Both products share the same receiver and work flawlessly. I love smart technology.

As Arthur C. Clarke put it, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
And this keyboard does feel like magic. If you are tempted, treat yourself and get it. You will not regret it.

In a sea of predictably under-engineered rubbish this keyboard looks like a masterpiece. I spent ages deliberating over which keyboard to buy, but I knew I wanted wireless and hopefully backlit. Surprisingly that narrowed my search down to about 3 keyboards, including this k800 and other ludicrously priced insults to my intelligence. I was scared I would feel silly having spent £110 on a keyboard but I thought that I would just trust the principle that with technology, especially wireless gadgets, you get what you pay for. I was not disappointed.

My biggest fear was the range, no matter what the description said all previous wireless keyboards and mice seemed to solve the problem of wires and replaced it with the even more frustrating problem of signal dropouts. This keyboard has never once missed a single keystroke from my sofa across the room about 5m from the computer, utterly flawless in a room filled to the brim with various other RF signals and whatnot. When you turn it on there's no slight delay, no hourglass symbol, no prompt to update software, no silly nonsense cluttering up your life, just pure connection and instant control. The battery is not even an issue, it lasts months even with my default setting of the lowest backlight (perfectly functional and best ambient setting) always on and used every day. In fact the first time I saw the low battery warning light I was reminded that the thing even used batteries at all. Don't worry, although the battery is astonishing, there is still an easily accessible on/off switch for the piece of mind of those with OCD.

The backlights stand to attention when you so much as think about needing to find a key and fade away once you're done after a suitable delay. The feel of the keys is a magical compromise between the feeling of the trusty chunky keys of the good old days and the looks and space saving flatness of new laptop keyboards. It feels perfect, no spongy cheapness, no style over substance sacrifice (DiNovo Edge) and a weight that feels portable yet suitably expensive. It has a thin taper for your palms to rest on as you type and to grip without accidentally typing out goobledygoop when carrying it around the room, and after hours using it I have never once felt even a little sore.

The styling is modern and slick, but at the same time is also well thought out to maximise visibility, and ultimately make typing a unconscious activity. The keys are laser etched with the symbols which sounded like marketing spewage to me when I was buying it, but I can see that after intensive use I am never going to get to a point where the letters start to fade away and look abused. In fact I am pretty confident that the thing that will eventually stop me from using this keyboard will be me breaking the keys off or losing it. I even at one point was scared they were going to stop selling the k800 because it was not profitable enough and considered buying a spare in case something happened to this one.

To sum up this piece of engineering really is a masterclass on how to produce a quality product, that just works to the best of human design capabilities. I can't really think of anything that compares with this product for simply providing perfection, complete and utter perfection, in every single category. Nothing frustrates me more than a piece of technology that could work, but doesn't. Technology is there to make our lives more productive or easier, so often it is the case that gadgets don't work quite as well as you would expect them to or are clearly engineered by thoughtless buffoons, there's always an irritating catch. This K800 has been produced by people who clearly take pride in their work and recognise that out there there are custmoers who are prepared to pay the price necessary for the optimally designed tool. You could buy a cheaper keyboard that will 'work', but if stress and frustration is something you want to avoid wherever possible this is the keyboard to buy, as it simply dominates anything I have ever used. I promise that you will be impressed with what humans are capable of producing and once you have experienced this everything else just looks like a joke to be honest. Buy this keyboard and finally forget about your keyboard woes once and for all, I have had this for a year and it hasn't missed a beat and looks and feels the same as the day I took it out the box. Flawless.

Excellent keyboard. Key response is excellent and none of the missed key presses or extra repeats that plagued my previous wireless microsoft keyboard. The rechargable battery in the keyboard lasts about a week (without using the off switch to conserve the battery's life). Reports on other keyboards mentioned the letters wearing off the keys, the backlight is hopefully guard against this and it also makes it nice when I forget to turn the light on in low light conditions.