Usually a sentence with the word "compromise" in it is bound to end badly, but in this case, not so much. The
Logitech K400r keyboard has the features of a keyboard you're meant to travel with, and one that is best suited to staying on your desk. Whether you like it depends on how you feel about clacky keyboards instead of flat, low-slung chiclet ones, but it is a 79-key one that has the convenience of a travelling keyboard.
That convenience comes down to how very light and portable it is, how it connects via 2.4GHz RF wireless instead of cables, and most of all because it comes with a built-in 3.5in trackpad. That's not the most common feature on a keyboard, and it is particularly good. It's thoroughly built in: you can't remove it or, as you might more wish, move it to the other side.
The trackpad is on the right, and it's staying there. We'd argue that this isn't crucial: we've rarely moved a trackpad around, and often just used it wherever it happened to be. Also, even at the very worst, even if you cannot work without that trackpad being on the left, the K400r still wins over most keyboards simply because it has the trackpad at all.
The keys themselves are a compromise between modern and old. There is definitely much more of a travel to them, a greater distance to press down as you type than you might now be used to. If you've come to it from one of the new Apple Magic Keyboards, you're even going to find that your fingers catch on the row beneath the one you're typing on. You get so used to the keyboard that this stops happening, though, and the difference is just that: it's a difference, rather than one being better than the other.
You might well disagree if you dislike chiclet keyboards, or the MacBook's new butterfly style of keyboard, but then if you're firmly in the camp that likes the feel and the sound of the IBM PC AT format, you will probably be disappointed. The Logitech K400r needs more typing pressure than many modern keyboards, but it's still such a light build that it doesn't take very, very much more. It's also rather quiet given how much physical movement there is on the keys.
So it's light, comfortable to type on, it connects via RF rather than Bluetooth, and it comes with a built-in trackpad: this should surely be a travelling keyboard. No: not in our opinion. We think this belongs on your desk in front of your desktop computer -- it works with Macs and PCs -- because of that RF connection. The keyboard comes with the separate USB receiver that you plug into your computer. It's very small: it ships tucked into the keyboard's battery compartment.
It's small but it's essential: without it plugged into your Mac, the Mac will not see the keyboard. So wherever you go and whatever you want to connect the keyboard to, you need to plug in this USB receiver. That immediately rules out any iOS device: you're not going to write on your iPad with this. More, it means you've got to remember that tiny device is plugged into your computer and you've to remember that before you've left home.
It works, and it works well, yet that's enough to make us think that this is a desktop keyboard. Curiously, it doesn't feel as solid as the
Logitech K380 keyboard which is specifically intended to be used as a travelling, portable one. Given that it's meant for typists who like heavy key presses instead of chiclet-style, we're not sure it'll take a pounding for a very long time. That said, we get through keyboards like nobody's business, so there are few that really last, and we're also able to say that we enjoyed typing on this more than many others.
The Logitech K400r keyboard requires a computer with a USB port, and is
typically available from Amazon for around $20. That's a ridiculously cheap price, and more reflects that this keyboard is getting a bit old. There are similar models, such as the K400 Plus, which are twice the price but don't seem to us to be significantly different.
Who is Logitech K400r keyboard for:
If you bash through your keyboards a lot, you'll enjoy using this, and the built-in trackpad is a very handy feature.
Who is Logitech K400r keyboard not for:
It's neither for people who like low and ergonomic keyboards, or really for ones who like very heavy, very noisy ones either. We'd also not rush to recommend it as a keyboard to throw in your bag, not when Logitech does others that are better for that.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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