Posts Tagged logitech illuminated keyboard

Reviewing a keyboard is always going to be hard if you’ve only owned two in the last five or so years, my previous one being the Microsoft Ergonomic 4000 which always got an ‘eww it’s all wierd’ reaction from anyone who tried to use it. I’m still undecided as to whether the split style was a help or a hindrance, as keys were further apart which made gaming trickier with small hands, and the fact that most other keyboard were of ‘normal’ variety… Sorry, this is a review of the Illuminated Keyboard, I get distracted easily. OOH! Bad Company 2 Beta has been released, brb.

The unique features of this keyboard are it’s sleek stylish design and laser etched back-lit keys which allow for easy night time typing. Sleek and stylish it certainly is, by far the best looking keyboard I’ve seen. There is a 5mm border of glass around the top and sides of the keyboard which glimmers from the light of my monitor. The keys can be illuminated with 4 different levels of light, which definitely looks the part and can help you find the key you want in the dark if you’re not a touch typer. My one gripe with the illumination are the function keys, instead of F1-F12 being illuminated, the shortcut icons (for opening email and other thing nobody ever uses) are illuminated in orange which does annoy me. It seems like they could have made F1-F12 illuminated too as they are on the same key, but they chose not to.

If you don’t like laptop keyboards then the Logitech Illuminated probably isn’t for you, as the keys have a similar depth to those found in laptops but I have no such problem. Key strokes are smooth and responsive and just feel right, as well as being a lot quieter than conventional keyboards which can be beneficial if you don’t want to hear clicks every time you cast a spell or jump, which brings me on nicely to my next point, whether it is any good for gamers.

This wasn’t a huge problem for me, I’ve never owned a proper ‘gaming’ keyboard with 10 gazillion programmable macro buttons, and I don’t use my computer solely for gaming. I type a lot, which you might expect with me being at university. The Logitech Illuminated performs admirably when it comes to gaming, though it is definitely not perfect. It’s all down to personal preference and some people may feel that chunkier keys are better for gaming while others may want the extra macro buttons which this keyboard doesn’t offer.

Moving on, one large flaw when I received the keyboard was that the W, Shift, and Space keys wouldn’t work together. This meant jumping while sprinting in games was impossible. After a bit of research I found that quite a few people have problems with phantom key blocking with this keyboard, which is a bit worrying considering it costs £50 and is made by Logitech. However, I got a replacement a few days ago and it works flawlessly. Something to bear in mind.

Positives
+ Very sleek and stylish design
+ Keys feel right
+ Easier to type in the dark
+ Excellent build quality

Negatives
- No additional functionality for gamers (could be a positive as well)
- Function keys only light up the media shortcut icons not F1-F12
- Could suffer from phantom key blocking

AltTabbed score: 8.5/10