Digital Trends

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard September 22nd, 2008 | by Nick Mokey

Lights, Please

Besides looking pretty, the backlighting on the keyboard made it substantially easier for us to type in the dark. Granted, perfect touch typists would probably scoff at the idea of needing anything but the glow of a monitor to operate, but for less finely tuned typing machines, a glowing white array of keys never hurts.

To tailor the level of light to what you need, Logitech offers a dedicated lighting button that scrolls through several different levels of intensity. However, since even the brightest isn’t all that bright, we didn’t find much need to fiddle with it, and just left the LEDs on full all the time. The option might, however, be useful for gaming or watching movies in the dark when you don’t want the glow of the keyboard distracting you from the screen.

Image Courtesy of Logitech

Hot Keys and Software

Rather than giving the Illuminated keyboard its own set of dedicated hot keys across the top as many keyboard manufacturers have done in the past, Logitech kept the Illuminated Keyboard clean by tacking the hot key functions onto the F keys as orange icons, and adding an orange function key between ALT and CTRL to activate them. You’ll find standards like media controls and e-mail, along with a few oddballs like document flip and gadgets. While we appreciated the uncluttered look, requiring a button-combo to access the shortcuts definitely deterred us from using them – until we figured out that Logitech actually accommodates for this in its software. Checking a button in SetPoint allows the F keys to function as hot keys first, and revert to F keys by holding the FN key. Now that’s some intelligent software. 

Like most Logitech input devices, the Illuminated Keyboard will work perfectly fine without any installed software, but we found the optional SetPoint software to offer a range of useful features like this. The depth of customizability leaves a lot of room to play. For instance, not only could we set a hot key to perform a specific function we assigned to it, we could even tell it to pull up a customized menu, then build that menu ourselves. Don’t want the browser key to merely open your default browser? In under a minute we programmed it to instead display a menu where we could choose from Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Chrome. This kind of customizability extends the usefulness of the keyboard above and beyond what its designers may have originally intended and gives it a personal touch.

Build Quality

True to our experience with most other Logitech products, the Illuminated keyboard felt rock solid, even despite its more fashionable aspirations. While spilling a drink into this keyboard might have some extra implications above and beyond your average keyboard, we don’t think the durability has in any other way been compromised by the addition of LEDs. If anything, the low-profile design seems to make the keyboard feel even less creaky than full-size boards. We especially appreciated the solidly attached wrist-rest portion, which some other keyboards add on as a flimsy detachable piece.

Conclusion

Nobody really needs a back-lit keyboard, but if you’re looking to compliment a sleek black monitor, mouse and speakers with a keyboard that adds a little flair to your desk without turning it into a carnival, this is it. The $80 price tag also seems quite appropriate for the keyboard’s extra functionality and overall quality, making it a sound buy.

Pros:
 
• Crisp, quiet keystrokes
• Subtle LED lights add style, light in dark situations
• Hot keys coupled with useful software
• Quality materials and feel

Cons: 

• Needs more height adjustment