Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard

Finding the best kit for the home office –
Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard

What is it? 
A multi device Bluetooth wireless keyboard for use with smartphones, tablets and computers. It works with Mac and Windows devices, iOS, Android and Chrome.

You can drive 3 devices at once by using a switching dial to change which one you want to use. Battery powered – expected to last 2 years used in office environment with 2 million keystrokes per year.

Design ****
The Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard is a bit chunky for me and not that ergonomically designed. It has a slight camber but essentially it’s a flat tablet. I’m not sure I’d want to use it for any length of time.

It’s a piece of black plastic (also comes in white) with a bright yellow channel to put your smartphone and tablet in. If you use a case for your smartphone it only just manages to squeeze into the holder at the back – you may have to remove the cover depending on the depth of your phone.

So it can be used in a home office or if you’ve gone to a coworking space/café. The keyboard is fairly heavy though about the same as my 13inch MacBook Air so it makes it rather redundant for me unless I didn’t want to take my laptop out.

If I wanted to do some light work and didn’t require the power of my laptop it does give me another option.

How easy is it to set up and use? *****
Easy to set up if you use the online information at www.logitech.com/k480. There are no printed instructions except on packaging and removable strip on keyboard itself. I only found website instructions after setting up keyboard myself.

The website covering the keyboard does give you all the instructions depending on what device you have and explains the keyboard and key strokes in more detail. It exactly mirrors your keyboard depending on which device you’re using.

You can link up to 3 devices – I linked to my iMac and iPhone. Once connected it links up successfully when you turn the keyboard back on and there’s a handy little graphic that comes up to let you know you’re connected – only on iMac not the iPhone though. It switches easily to another device and lets you know you’ve disconnected from previous device.

Perhaps the most useful time to use it would be with word processing programs on your mobile or tablet. You would be much faster if you’re used to a keyboard than the onboard graphical keyboard.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at first but once I started using it it grew on me! All the keystrokes work well so I’ve had no problems using short cut keystrokes.

Quality ****
You don’t get the same quality of touch and feel as you do with expensive laptop keyboards but this is relatively cheap in comparison. It feels solid and you would expect it to get a few years use out of it. More robust than many keyboards I’ve had with PC’s in the past with a nice action on the key pads.  

Worth the investment? ****
It can be quite useful to have a wireless keyboard. The main benefits of the Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard for me are:

1. Takes up less space than my existing iMac keyboard and being portable means you can clear your desk to do paperwork, read etc.

2. Can move the keyboard out of the way when you have drinks and food around so less chance of spillage onto keyboard.

3. Changing your routine. I found that it changed my state – I’ve written this piece entirely on the Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard. It also seemed to improve my performance. Perhaps it’s because I associate the iMac keyboard with being creative and this is more workman-like!

4. I’d rather someone stole this than my MacBook Air!

I love the aluminium keyboard that the iMac has so this would be a secondary keyboard in my home office.

With an iPhone or other smartphone it’s very handy especially with passwords as on the small smartphone keyboard I often don’t hit the right keys. I find it a bit of a struggle to write anything of more than tweet-sized bites on a smartphone. It makes texting easier and less prone to auto-correct errors! If you wanted to write a document using a word processing app then this would be especially useful.

The only downside is that you have to use the smartphone to do stuff like send texts and post things on social media which can be irritating. There maybe a function to do this on the keyboard but I haven’t found it yet! Having said that it’s not too much of a hardship to use the touch screen.

Overall score **** 4.25 out of 5

Best for:
Anyone who isn’t precious about their existing keyboard. Homeworker or freelancer out of the office with just smartphone or tablet. Changing to wireless keyboard when you have a slump in productivity or need to get something practical done.

Buy your own Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard.

With thanks to ebuyer.com for supplying a sample Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard for our reviewer to try.