Oculus Quest & Infinite office - Logitech K830 Review
Before we begin
What’s better than writing a review on the Logitech official Oculus Quest keyboard the K830 is writing it in VR (using google docs). Since Oculus Quest currently does not support hebrew, I will write my review in English.
I will skip the boring parts (such as unboxing and how it is used with a PC as these are already thoroughly covered all over the net and a review which i personally liked —————–>
The following review will mainly focus on the use of the keyboard in a VR environment and will be based on my experience of using it daily for a week.
So let’s start!
Ease of use: the Oculus Quest with the Logitech K830 Keyboard
Connectivity is pretty simple. Go to Oculus Quest settings and under experimental features add a keyboard via add bluetooth device.
Upon connecting a message with a pin code pops up. This pin code should be entered on the keyboard (just type the numbers and press enter) and afterwards the keyboard itself will appear in VR.
The pairing is limited to one device at a time, meaning that with the 2.4ghz dongle (usually connected to PC) or via BT only one device can be connected. If the wireless dongle is connected to PC, the keyboard CAN NOT be used via BT, between any switch in connectivity the keyboard needs to be switched off and on again.
Preformance: How the Logitech K830 stacks up
The trackpad on the other hand is subpar, and might be the most annoying, unconfigurable (gesture wise) and uncomfortable trackpad I have used in a while.
The mouse movement is inaccurate, especially when trying to perform slight movements (very noticeable when I try to select a word in a document) i find myself relying more on hand tracking (which felt much more accurate than the mouse cursor, kudos to FB on that) and keyboard shortcuts rather than using the trackpad, just to minimize the time i fiddle with it.
The two finger gesture for scrolling is inverted compared to any modern trackpad and is sometimes a hit and miss where suddenly you find yourself scrolling to the end of the page even though the finger movement is very subtle. The basic single tap for click doesn’t work either, requiring the user to click the mouse button every time (which is not very ergonomically positioned), an additional
LMB button is placed on the upper left side of the keyboard which I found to be completely useless. Overall, if you are using a laptop on a daily basis, it just feels miles off and can definitely be a deal breaker from using this keyboard with a trackpad.
I noticed a couple of visual glitches, such as the keyboard disappearance in VR, requiring the user to move the keyboard slightly or just look down for it to reappear.
The mouse cursor seems to change in an unpredictable way and can sometimes appear as a finger pointing and sometimes as a regular pointer, all while you are editing a text, which looks weird.
These are not the biggest issues, especially for a feature that is currently experimental, but they are still there.
Usability: What can you currently do with the Logitech K830
Might be the main problem with the K830 and the biggest hurdle in justifying its MSRP of 100$. Simply saying the usability is just not there!
Apart from doing some simple typing and browsing, there is NOTHING to do with this keyboard in VR.
Even for people like me who work most of the time with google docs. Running 3 browser windows (Spotify, Gdrive, Slack) it is still eons away from feeling as comfortable as it is on a laptop running the same apps. But! Kudos to FB, it does look cool!
I also tried using a remote desktop via web, such as Google Remote Access and ViRTC, both incompatible with the keyboard. While Google Remote Access was able to get input from the keyboard (ViRTC requires the use of KB+M connected to the remote PC), the mouse was completely off sync and was pretty much unusable.
Facebook will definitely need to reinvent the wheel to make people switch from standard desktops to VR, and will need to push functionality and usability to the max for people to see the upsides of working in VR, especially if you want the Logitech K830 keyboard specifically for the Oculus Quest 2.
Guardian: A glitchy mess
We definitely need to talk about this!
I don’t know if it’s related to my headsets (tested on 2) or lighting used (led light bulb/fluorescent lights), but the guardian is glitchy, and I was taken out from the virtual desk to “confirm the play area” multiple times.
These glitches stop any music running in the background and of course cut the line of thought and present yet another hurdle from using the keyboard and the quest itself as an alternative work environment.
?Conclusion: Should you buy the Logitech K830 Keyboard and switch to Infinite Office
Facebook presented a beautiful infinite office in one of their PR videos which is currently a little more than a concept. Apart from this keyboard being a “cool” device to use here and there in VR, there is just no actual use. At home or in office it is still much better to work on a laptop and a 2nd monitor, and when traveling it’s easier to carry a laptop rather than an Oculus Quest and a keyboard.
Till the day (virtual) reality will look even remotely close to what was presented above, I say it’s a hard pass!
