Logitech K400 Plus Review

Yasashii · April 6, 2017

I hate wireless stuff. Having to worry about battery life, potential connectivity problems and the dreaded input delay are deal breakers for me.

So, in accordance with the above, I used to run two 10-meter USB extension cords along the walls of my room from my PC to the night table next to my bed (in front of my TV that's connected to my PC) where a wired keyboard and mouse would sit.

That setup worked but took quite a bit of space and required me to reach over with my hand to grab it, which was a nuisance (yes, I'm that lazy), so I decided to finally break my own rule and buy a wireless keyboard+touchpad.

The first impressions were actually rather underwhelming. It really didn't look great on the shelf sitting right next to its main competitor, the Microsoft All-in-One Media Keyboard:

And that's its biggest problem right there. The Microsoft product looks much nicer and modern. It's also pretty well built. It's somewhat more expensive, though. You can find the Logitech for $20 and the Microsoft for $30.

Is the Microsoft keyboard worth the extra $10? Well, it might be.

Quality and usefulness

As far as build quality goes, Logitech have put in some effort. The K400 Plus is made of decent kind of rubbery plastic. There are no sharp edges anywhere. The three buttons above the touchpad are rubber. It also features rubber pads on the bottom so the keyboard doesn't slide around when you put it down. The keys are very quiet, with the exception for the space bar which does make a somewhat louder clicking noise. Nothing that would get to the point of being annoying, though.

The keyboard itself isn't brilliant for typing, to be honest. The keys feel somewhat squishy and don't have any actual spacing between them. They get narrower near the top but there's nothing like an actual physical grid separating the keys. Pushing two keys at the same time accidentally does happen from time to time.

The touchpad feels alright. I have run into an issue, though. After some time of using it, it would kinda glitch out where I would attempt to scroll a website and it would zoom it instead. After turning it off and back on, things would go back to normal. It may just be a problem limited to my specific unit, though. Anyway, the problem went away after installing the Logitech Options software, so I guess it's not a problem for me (it might be a problem for you since it's only available for Windows and Mac. If you're rocking Linux, well, sorry.)

Software

The Logitech Options software is actually a nice bonus as it offers a lot of useful uhh... options. The media/function keys do the functional stuff without having to press the FN key (pressing it turns them into standard F1-F12). If you don't like it that way, you can reverse that. You can also override what those keys actually do to fit your needs more. You can enable and disable various touchpad features as well. For instance, you can add hardware smooth scrolling for stuff that doesn't support it. You can switch applications with a gesture, and you can zoom in or out by pinching (that's what might have been glitching out before I installed the software, I think).

Even if you don't need any of those options, installing the software is a good idea because it changes the way the touchpad feels in general. Makes it more sensitive (which you can turn down, of course).

Finally, you can also utilize the software to use whatever other Logitech wireless mice or keyboards you may have with the same dongle, which is very nice and something Microsoft hasn't thought about.

Summary

So to sum up, I really wouldn't recommend it as your main 10-page-essay typing utility, but then it's really not its purpose. You're supposed to use it when sitting on a couch in front of a TV and for that, it does just fine. Logitech seem to actually have put a lot of thought into the small nitty-gritty things to make the experience of using it as pleasing as can be. You can adjust pretty much every aspect of it, which is great. It's nice to the touch and it's light. Generally, a pretty good product.

So should you spend the extra 10 bucks on the Microsoft keyboard? Well, that really depends on your needs. If you, for some reason, need to do more typing than putting in video titles on YouTube with your downsized, touchpad-including, wireless keyboard, then you should go for the Microsoft. The keys still don't feel brilliant on that one but they are somewhat better than the ones on the Logitech. Other than that, the K400 Plus should really be enough to satisfy your needs, so maybe spend the $10 on an extra pillow for your couch and enjoy the ultimate laziness of not having to reach over for a mouse.

Evangelina · June 28, 2023

Hello!, I've recently purchased this same keyboard.

¿What has been your experience since the writting of this article?, ¿How did the keyboard worked and there has been any problems or new bugs that happened to you?. Currently mine is working good, i'm still unsure if it's neccesary to turn it off via the button or not, cannot seem any difference (And i would like to avoid wearing out the slider to turn it off/on).

OhioYJ · June 29, 2023

2 hours ago, Evangelina said:

i'm still unsure if it's neccesary to turn it off via the button or not

No, not necessary. It will go to sleep if idle for a while to save power. You'll notice after letting it sit it won't respond for a split second or until you hit a button (and it wakes). I have one of these for travel and then only time I turn the switch off is when I put it in it's travel case.

I have several Microsoft media keyboards (very similar) around the house for my HTPCs and I never turn those off and the batteries still last a very long time (so long I don't remember changing them, a year maybe?)

Evangelina · June 29, 2023

21 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

No, not necessary. It will go to sleep if idle for a while to save power. You'll notice after letting it sit it won't respond for a split second or until you hit a button (and it wakes). I have one of these for travel and then only time I turn the switch off is when I put it in it's travel case.

I have several Microsoft media keyboards (very similar) around the house for my HTPCs and I never turn those off and the batteries still last a very long time (so long I don't remember changing them, a year maybe?)

Awesome!, that's a relief. Thank you =)