Logitech K830 illuminated wireless keyboard wants to light up your living room

Logitech has revealed the K830, a wireless keyboard designed for the living room that won’t have you scrambling for a lamp every time you want to change channel, pause a film or load a music track. It combines a keyboard and trackpad and adds an automatically adjusting backlight to make typing in the dark less of a chore.

With home theatre PCs growing in popularity, and Smart TVs becoming even more like computers, the K830 sounds like an ideal way to control one from the comfort of your sofa. The fully backlit keyboard automatically dims or brightens based on the amount of light in your room, so you won’t ever struggle to find a shortcut key or type in a web address, and dedicated multimedia keys for controlling music and video playback. They keys light up fully as soon as you start typing and turn off five seconds after the last input to save power.

The board appears to use Chiclet-style keys, and despite looking rather thin we have high hopes that it will be comfortable to type on. The accompanying touchpad is larger than previous Logitech combination keyboards, and includes physical buttons instead of an all-in-one design.

Connectivity is handled by a USB dongle, which uses 2.4GHz wireless to create a connection up to 33 feet away, and the internal battery can be recharged to save you having to buy endless packs of AA batteries, although Logitech hasn’t revealed how long customers can expect to last between recharges.

“More and more consumers want an easy way to access movies, TV programs, music and photos with their PC connected to a TV,” Charlotte Johs, Logitech’s global VP of brand development for PC accessories, said of the new peripheral. “Our new Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830 is designed with this setup in mind. Backlit keys and a premium aesthetic that blends into the living room make it a stand-out choice for people with connected TVs.”

The Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830 should be going on sale in the UK and throughout Europe later this month, with an expected RRP of £90. We’re hoping to take a look at one for a full review soon.