Logitech K830 keyboard for Oculus Quest useful or not?

June 13, 2021

Special version Logitech K830 keyboard for easy writing in virtual reality with the Oculus Quest on your head.

Logitech K830 keyboard for Oculus Quest useful or not?

Price: 119 $ | Logitech | Oculus Quest 2 at $ 349 | Setup of my Quest 2 | VR news | Current VR games promotions

Since updates V27 and V28, Oculus allows you to associate a Bluetooth keyboard with your Oculus Quest VR headset. But, the stronger this one remains visible helmet on the head to allow you to write easily.

If in theory this concept is great for doing office automation or using your social networks in VR, what is it actually “real”?

Logitech K830: first official Bluetooth keyboard for Oculus Quest

Currently, if you have a Bluetooth keyboard, you can try to pair it with your Quest 2 by going to Settings.

In theory, you can pair any Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with an Oculus Quest 2, but the K830 has the added benefit of being viewable in VR and automatically triggering its transparency display in your VR view. Personally, I didn’t even manage to make my keyboard visible in the Quest 2’s Bluetooth pairing menu.

So, to keep it simple, you need the first one Logitech K830 bluetooth keyboard which made in official partnership with Oculus.

Design K830: elegant and illuminated

  • Width: 36.7 cm for 495 g

  • 2.4 GHz Logitech wireless technology, with a range of 10 meters

  • Bluetooth smart

The advantages of the Logitech K830 keyboard

  • Status indication LED: battery and connection level (green / red)

  • Intelligent key illumination

  • Mini Pad

  • Special keys: Mute, Volume – and Volume +.

  • Physical on / off switch.

Smart backlighting is a snap, but what is it?

When you tap the keys, they automatically light up. If you stop typing, then the backlight turns off after 7 seconds to save power.

In addition, a light sensor automatically adjusts the power of the backlight.

Integrated trackpad

As using a mouse in addition to a keyboard would complicate matters, the K80 is equipped on the right with a small touchpad. For those who have a laptop, you know how happy it is to use.

It allows you to navigate with both hands. Point with your right hand, click with your left hand, using the additional left click button.

Wireless autonomy

You can use your keyboard for the equivalent of 20 hours of typing after just 3 hours of charging.

Charging is done with the supplied micro-USB cable. It is advisable to use the physical on / off switch to prolong its use.

Features

Type, point and navigate VR, just like you do in the real world, with a 3D representation of your hands and the Logitech K830 keyboard in the Oculus Quest 2.

The high-fidelity rendering of the tracking keyboard, combined with the visualization of the hand, reduces typing friction in VR and enables faster typing with fewer errors.

Setting up the Bluetooth keyboard with the Oculus Quest 2

To take full advantage of this feature, you will need:

  • The Logitech K830 keyboard at 119 $

  • A Oculus Quest 2 at $ 349

  • Optional, but makes perfect sense, a laptop or stationary PC

  • Air Link, Link or Virtual Desktop to connect Quest to your PC

How to pair your keyboard with your headphones

  • Access to Oculus Quest settings

  • Select the Experimental Features row and find the Bluetooth pairing option.

  • Press the menu pairing button to connect the keyboard which must also be in pairing mode.

  • To activate the Logitech K830 Bluetooth pairing mode simultaneously press the “Function” key (bottom left) and the “DEL” key at the top right. The green LED above the touchpad should flash.

  • Then enter the code displayed in the Quest on the keypad.

  • Make sure hand tracking is enabled in general settings.

  • Finally, activate keyboard tracking in the experimental features to adjust the opacity of your hands. This adjusts the level of transparency to see the keyboard through your hands. It’s not yet fully developed.

Normally at this point you should see the image of your Logitech K830 keyboard at the top of the Oculus main menu.

If you don’t see it, try resetting the Experimental Features settings to default which worked for me. Make sure your keyboard is turned on. Last option, if it still doesn’t work, you can try restarting Quest 2. Ultimate option, go through factory reset.

Logitech K830 review with the Oculus Quest 2

Once the keyboard is paired, I see the keyboard keys glowing blue by transparency as well as my computer screen. The Oculus Quest 2 is now sort of my 360 ° computer screen.

To type the text, the hand tracking also allows you to see them in VR and coordinate his fingers perfectly on the keys.

You can move the keyboard, but the tracking is quite slow. So my advice is to place it correctly and leave it still. The ideal is to place it on your desk or your lap if you are very Zen. Additionally, Oculus suggests that the lighting in the room shouldn’t be too dark.

Logitech K830 Quest 2 test

Practical operation, but still limited

There is a lot of limitation at this time to using all of the experimental keyboard features. In reality they only work with the official Oculus Apps:

  • Oculus TV

  • Oculus Store

  • and the health home browser

Using the Oculus browser, it is easy to enter a web address and navigate the pages of a site. You use your hands to scroll (pinch index finger and thumb) and click. On the pages of your Twitter or Facebook accounts, you can easily write and post.

Another great use is to go through Virtual Desktop to access your computer screen.

With Virtual Desktop, you can open your PC applications and write with your keyboard. But it must remain in a fixed position. In addition, you do not have the transparent view of your hands, but the “avatar” hands of the Quest. However, you can easily use the touchpad to navigate around the Steam VR library for example. This system will be very practical for having fun with PC games requiring a keyboard.

However, it is not possible to access Google Docs. So there you say to yourself, it does not matter, I take the other VR browser on Oculus, Firefox Reality, but it does not recognize the passthrough zone for the keyboard either.

Other apps don’t seem to be working properly. This is the case for Immersed, an application that can extend its Mac or PC to the Quest 2 and use the headset to stream multiple virtual monitors.

Logitech K830 keyboard price

Whatever the model, the official price in Europe is 119 $. But, just to be a little disgusted, he is sold in promotion for $ 79.99 instead of $ 99 in the USA.

Pay attention to the model ordered:

  • French model with AZERTY keys: PN: 920-006088 sold 119 $

  • QWERTY version: PN: 920-006090 at $ 79.

But, the AZERTY model is currently unavailable everywhere … The use of QWERTY is possible in AZERTY but you lose all the interest of the illuminated keys that we see in the helmet.

First opinion: whether or not to buy a Bluetooth keyboard for your Quest?

Could Facebook’s evolution of VR capture transform the Quest 2 into a laptop with a 360 ° immersive screen?

For now, the beginnings look promising to me, but the Logitech K830 is particularly expensive for a simple VR input. In addition, it is not yet available in an AZERTY version. While using the keyboard and its illuminated keys, you gradually improve your typing speed.

But for now, the limitation to the QWERTY version and the number of really usable apps with Bluetooth keyboard in VR mean that we are still on a technological promise rather than an operational solution.

So, wait and see, especially since many Android apps are coming to Oculus Quest including Photoshop!

Oculus Quest Logitech keyboard test

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