Introduction

In my recent review for my newly acquired wireless mouse I mentioned that it was included free of charge in an order I made for a wireless keyboard. The wireless K400 keyboard as shown in my picture was recently featured on Logitech's website at a reduced price and as a special, limited number promotion Logitech were including a free wireless mouse, the M305 and the subject of my last review. I've been after a wireless keyboard for a while having become thoroughly fed up with the mass of wires behind my desktop computer but assumed they would be difficult to install and not very responsive, however when I spotted the offer Logitech were promoting I decided to take a chance and place an order. Fearing the worst but hoping to be proven wrong my order was delivered promptly and I had a new toy to play with...

Connecting the Keyboard

Packaged in a small, cardboard box the K400 wireless keyboard comes supplied with 2 AA batteries, a USB receiver and illustrated instruction pamphlet. Promoted as a plug and play device the USB receiver needs slotting into a spare USB port that you might have on your laptop or desktop PC and similar to the experience I encountered with my wireless mouse, my PC recognised the new piece of hardware immediately and installed the drivers needed for me to start using it within a matter of seconds. The instruction pamphlet is clear to follow but I found that I didn't need to refer to it as it was pretty straightforward working out how to set up the keyboard and once I switched it on it was ready to use.

The Keyboard in Use

Although not clear from the supplied picture I was surprised to discover that the K400 is smaller than I was expecting it to be. It isn't a full sized keyboard and I must admit that my first impressions were not very positive, I've been using keyboards for a number of years now and have over time built up my typing speed to be quick, I don't need to look at the keys to type anymore and at first I thought I was going to struggle in adapting to a keyboard that was more compact than I was used to. Luckily my concerns were short-lived as I found that I quickly became accustomed to the smaller than usual layout and my typing speed was not adversely affected at all. If anything this keyboard allows me to type faster than I could on my old wired HP one as its keys are a lot softer to press and are virtually silent in comparison and I do think that this is by far the keyboard's strongest area. It really is a joy to type on and although I do still struggle with the backspace key as it's not where I instinctively reach for I can still touch type on it and I find it incredibly easy to use.

The keyboard features a large, 3.5 inch touchpad which is located where the right hand side numerical keypad usually is on other keyboards and although I tend to stick to using my mouse to control the on-screen cursor I do find that the touchpad is responsive to the touch. I think that this particular keyboard has been designed to be used with a number of different devices as its wireless range can stretch up to 10 metres (33 feet) so anyone with Internet TV should find that it's ideal for use with one of them and even I can sit on my sofa and use the keyboard to surf the internet if I want to get comfortable and don't want to be sat in front of my monitor.

They keyboard isn't very heavy and is truly portable; it is beautifully designed with nicely rounded edges and does feel very well made. Because it is battery powered there is an on/off switch located on the outer edge of the keyboard, I haven't had to replace the batteries in mine yet so I can't say how long they last for although this will be dependent on the user anyway and as I mentioned in my Mouse review everyone will get different life spans out of the batteries depending how often and for how long the keyboard is used.

A possible downside to the keyboard is that it isn't adjustable and does come in one fixed position; this isn't a problem for me but it does sit quite flush to surface it is sat on and anyone who likes a raised keyboard might find this to be a problem area. It is small when compared to other keyboards but the keys themselves still feel the right size to be pressed easily and overall I have very little criticisms with how it looks or performs. I've never experienced any lags with the keyboard even when it's a distance away from the USB receiver and best of all for me I no longer have any trailing wires. The USB receiver is small and unobtrusive and once it's in place in an USB port it has a slightly raised profile but nothing that should cause any problems and is smaller than a flash or pen drive.

The keyboard can be used with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 and comes with a 3 year limited hardware warranty from Logitech. I paid under £25.00 for mine directly from the manufacturer's website and this model is still available to buy from a number of different places online where prices tend to vary but start from around £20.00. This has been my first wireless keyboard and even though I was concerned about its size when I first saw it I was soon won over by its responsiveness and comfortable keys.

5 stars as a rating from me and definitely recommended. Thanks for reading my review.