Logitech MK850 Multi-Device Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo, QWERTY Spanish Layout
M**E
Versatile, good but not for coders
UPDATE: After a month this keyboard is annoying me. The spongy wrist support is a dirt magnet and already look awful. The lack of separation between F and other control keys makes using the keyboard a pest in low light or when in 'full flow' and when using KB shortcuts. An Example... to increase audio volume you have to hold Fn + F10, if you hit F11 by accident (the keyboard wills you to do this) then you turn off the machine. I urge caution if you are thinking of buying a "full sized, full layout keyboard", this one behaves more like a compact keyboard (it does very well in that role). The lack of dedicated media buttons, keys too close and the dirt magnet make me hanker for my old K330. The multi device support is a great idea but I find 'Mouse without borders' (see below) has made that feature redundant during daily use.Original ReviewI would recommend this keyboard and mouse combo for daily general use depending on your workflow, I would not say it is the best if you use keyboard shortcuts extensively or for programing (probably not good for gaming either). I love the ability to connect to three machines and save desk clutter - this is the main selling feature and it works well and is a far cleaner solution than the KVM switches of the past.The Keyboard is well shaped, ergonomic and has soft feel keys. You can tilt the keyboard using the usual wee flip out legs on the bottom - Logitech has put two sets of these, one for four degrees and the other for eighth degree - nice!I usually go for the MX 'Cherry Red' clickity-clack keyboards and usually find the louder they are the more I like them, however, I like the feel of the K850 - it is quiet but the keys depress far enough (6mm maybe) to feel 'positive'. I am not a touch typist but almost - I find this keyboard takes my eyes away from the screen more than it should due to lack of grouping of/spacing between ancillary keys, it lacks tactile feedback.This is a full size keyboard, however, the layout has a slightly 'compact' feel to it. The main QWERTY keys are fine but the control keys are not. The function keys have no space between F4 and F5 nor between F7 and F8. I like having F keys in groups of 4 with space between the groups. In similar fashion the ESC key is hard against the F1 key. Further, there is very little physical separation between the number row and the F-key row. In practice, I have to actively look for F5 rather than using peripheral vision/muscle memory or tactile feedback to just find it. The ESC key also suffers the same problem, it is crowded. Other keys that, in my opinion, are too crowded and too small are Shift, Cntrl, Fn and Alt on the left side of the board.In general, this keyboard does not make it easy to find ancillary keys by feel. This does make coding or using keyboard driven complex apps slightly more difficult to use and I would imagine gamers would find this problematic too. I'm quite old school I use keyboard shortcuts extensively and prefer this to using a mouse. However, this layout may suit most users better.The other negative is the key printing (see photo). Logitech have tried to make this keyboard OS agnostic - or rather include key labels for both windows and mac, the result is not pleasing at all. So rather than having the "Win" key you have a key labeled 'Start' in bold white, a horizontal line and then 'Alt' in a grey colour. It's a bit busy but the main keys are cleanly labeled. This does not bother me too much but I imagine it would make finding the pipe or tilde key difficult for less confident PC users. Perhaps this is aimed at users who will connect to a windows and a rain mac/other machine?The wrist support is a soft rubbery type fabric, it feels nice but is an absolute dirt magnet. No One likes a dirty keyboard but we all hate cleaning nooks and crannies so I would not buy this for a teenage boy... This is a poor choice of material in my opinion. The fabric seems designed to trap dirt, it won't just wipe away but gets ingrained into the fabric itself. This will become a big annoyance for me as the KB ages.The Mouse is very good. It has three thumb buttons for forward and back and device selection. I do wish they had separated the forward back buttons from the device select button slightly or made the device selector feel different. It works on a shiny surface but I do notice it is smoother on a proper mouse mat. I'm not too fussy about mice as long as they have a scroll wheel, forward thumb key, back thumb switch and center mouse button. This mouse has all of these plus horizontal scroll.The thumb wheel is good and includes tilt (horizontal scroll). The wheel has two modes, free wheeling for rapid scroll down long documents and a ratchet setting for more precise scrolling - the button behind the wheel selects this. It feels nice in hand and encourages a good arm/hand/finger position. However, the center click are not very easy to use without accidentally 'scrolling'. Probably not a good mouse if you are into CAD.Other than that the mouse feels precise but is also zippy. I use two wide monitors (about 4500 pixels) and can go to screen edges and over to the other machine (see below) without running out of mouse mat. The acceleration algorithm is really good, I am quite happy with the default settings but it is configurable in software (and most OS's...).Multi-Device SupportYou can pair the KeyB/Mousey combo to 3 devices via Bluetooth or the (1 included) unifying receiver (tiny wee usb dongle). You can use the unifying receiver one one machine and Bluetooth on others or all bluetooth or all unifying receivers (only one included). It just works and just works very well. Once setup, you just press one of the numbered white buttons to select the device and pair to that device - you have to do this on KB and Mouse which is annoying but this also allows you to be mousing on one PC while 'boarding' on another (should you care to do that, why I do not know).SoftwareLogitech Options is the software suit which allows you to adjust mouse and keyboard settings, key assignments (per application), mouse speed etc - it is a reboot of 'Setpoint'. You can also install advanced features such as 'Flow' (move mouse from one PC to another). I installed Options, got annoyed because it wants to connect to 'the cloud' and then discovered a conflict between Options and my own custom software (to allocate keys etc) - my audio volume became uncontrollable so I uninstalled Options.I tried 'Flow' briefly but found it to be more of a dribble than a steady flow, perhaps my mouse has prostate problems? To be fair, my setup is a bit complex and my main PC probably has old copies of Setpoint and other trash that conflicted with Flow. I need to reinstall this PC and maybe try again. There is good support on the Logitech website and people seem to like it but I did not persist with Flow - there are better alternatives.In general, I dislike Logitech's software and find it works best when uninstalled;) Modern operating systems are more than capable of using all the standard features without adding bloated control apps. While it allows you to customise the combo I find there is no *useful* function that can be achieved within applications or by small third party utilities. I must say, 'Options' is optional, it's not needed to use the combo with multiple devices.Alternative to 'Flow' [MS Mouse Without Borders, Windows only]If you have a need to move the mouse/kb between Windows machines then you should search for "Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders". This is a MS app that essentially shares any mouse/KB between all (Windows) PC's. I have two Win 10 boxes on my desk. Number 1 has the Logitech KB/Mouse connected via Bluetooth while the second machine has an old wired KB/mousie - I can use either mouse on either machine (and also share clipboard etc) just by travelling the mouse over (KB follows mouse). As the Logitech is only paired with one machine I can still connect it to two other devices!So, my setup with regard this product is as follows. I use Mouse without Borders to share KB/Mice both ways between my two Windows 10 boxes - this is only one of the three connections. Device Two is a Linux box. Device Three is a Tablet (using BT). The Bluetooth setup was seamless. Switching between devices is flawless and very satisfying.Recommended?Yes, it does work very well. it is built well and any problems with Logitech's software are most likely easy solvable and options to Options exist. I will probably look for another fuller 'full sized' keyboard with better tactile feedback for my coding/CAD/Photoshop machine and consign this KB/Mouse to my 'office' machine and for tablets etc.Just one more Inch!Had this just been an inch bigger and the ancillary keys spaced better ... sometimes an inch really does make all the difference!
R**H
Keyboard keeps going to sleep far too quickly! Otherwise its awesome!
Whilst the "functionality" of these combo is just fantastic, I mean, 3 computers with 1 mouse and keyboard is just wicked, however, its most incredibly annoying flaw is that the keyoard seems to go into "sleep" mode and it happens really quick, like within a few minutes, so every time you start typing again, you keep missing the first letter!wish there was a way to disable its sleep mode.Other than that, its pretty good. Just buy yourself 2 more unifying receivers and you can switch between 3 computers. No more KVM! Makes typing on the ipad nice and easy too...
M**H
Great combo but...
I have been using logitech products for quite a long time due to there multi device support. I bought this combo only coz of the keyboard since this was the only keyboard with multi devices interchangeability option.Mouse:- Since I am addicted to Mx master , I found this mouse to be very uncomfortable. Very small, the center button is very loud.- There is a feature called logitech flow, which allows you move pointer icon from one device to another without changing device. The feature is great but it doesn't work half of the time. Sometime it gets stuck on the edge. Sometime it goes the next device but automatically comes to the first one.Keyboard:- Great comfortable keyboard. No issues with switching device.- Once you link the keyboard with the flow feature that's when the problem starts. The keyboard doesn't switch with the mouse Icon. Mouse is on device where as the keyboard is still on device 1. Once you open the flow window then again the keyboard will start working. As if the keyboard goes on standby.Both my laptops have unifying receiver to eliminate the bluetooth migration issues.Overall, not happy with the product but might keep it coz of the keyboard multi device option.
J**.
Terrible product
I can honestly recommend nothing about this keyboard and mouse combo. At a base level, I expect it to work - but the keyboard continually loses connection to the point where it becomes impossible to accomplish anything, even though the mouse is working, and vice versa. The mouse is subject to delays/smearing and slowing.On top of this - I've had to return or throw away 3 different mouse-mats because the way the laser works on this mouse seems to be subject to a very high level of sensitivity to anything that isn't a matt surface. Anything plastic/gel/similar seems to cause the laser to reflect the light so much that it confuses the device and renders it useless. Initially I thought there was a problem with the mats I was buying, but when I became tired of returning the products and just resigned myself to using them elsewhere (work etc) the mats worked with other laser-based mice but not with this one.So a mouse that is slow and doesn't work on most mouse mats and a keyboard that steadfastly refuses to connect for any reasonable length of time (in spite of software/firmware updates as demanded on Logitech's website) means that I would recommend avoiding this at all costs.
Trustpilot
2 weeks ago
2 months ago