Digital Trends

Logitech G15 December 13th, 2007 | by Josh Norem

Use and Testing

The first thing we noticed about the G15 is how slick the keys feel on our fingers. Logitech began using this new super-slick surface on its recent keyboards, including the Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser. It feels unlike any keyboard we’ve ever used, which have a grainier feel. We like the feel of the keys, and the positive feeling is enhanced by the soft curves of each key.

The lighting of the keys is soft and never bothersome, but even if it was, you could turn it off or dial it down a notch, which was appreciated when it came time to hit the sack. It would be nice if there were other colors to choose from other than amber, but we like the soft orange and prefer it over the blue on the Gaming version since it’s a bit softer and not quite as bright.

The LCD is still relatively useless and has some issues. For example, whenever we played “media” it would automatically switch to the “media display” mode from whatever mode we were in before, and then we had to manually switch it back to the previous mode. One would think the software would intelligently do this, but that is not the case. We mostly used it to monitor our CPU and memory usage, but you can also use it as an LCD calendar, a countdown timer, or download custom widgets from the Logitech website.

There are also four unlabeled buttons underneath the LCD, and we have no idea what they do. We looked in the included installation guide but saw no reference to them. When you press one, an icon that looks like a calendar pops up, and then disappears. We looked online for documentation and could find none, so the keys’ purpose remains a mystery.

We also found the media buttons to work as they should in Windows Media Player and iTunes, but not in Winamp. For example, in Winamp the volume controls work, but the stop button does not, and the pause key rewinds the track to the beginning.

The software that is included with the keyboard is decent, and is accessible via an icon in the system tray. You can use it to disable, enable and configure the widgets. You can also turn down the brightness of the display separate from the keyboard lights, and even invert the lighting from orange on brown to brown on orange. Overall it’s intuitive and useful, and the interface is simple and effective.

As for other ancillary things, there’s a button to disable the Windows key, which is something all keyboards should have. We liked being able to cycle the backlight too, and found the optional wrist wrest to be very comfortable.

Conclusion

We’ve been using the original G15 Gaming Keyboard as our home keyboard for the past eight months or so, and the G15 is very similar, but slightly better in our opinion. The biggest difference is that the keys feel better, the backlighting is softer, and there are enough new features to make it truly superior to its predecessor. Though we would not sell our G15 Gaming Keyboard for this newer model, the G15 has enough upgrades to warrant a serious look if you’re in the market for a superb gaming keyboard.

Pros:

• Comfortable to use
• Great features
• Looks cool

Cons:

• LCD is still of questionable value
• Some buttons appear to do nothing