22 years old, in a final year of a business and economics degree in London. If anypne sees the rest ...
22 years old, in a final year of a business and economics degree in London. If anypne sees the rest of my reviews around pls let me know, Ciao appears to have lost them :)
Logitech have recently made a name for themselves in manufacturing quality peripheral devices such as speakers, cameras, laser mice and keyboards. Recent rends seem to indicate that they have been largely successful in cracking the 'gaming market', that is providing high tech and quality products e.g. 1500+ dpi mice.
The keyboard has the following features that make it different from a standard desktop keyboard:
-Folding tilting LCD display -Backlight (three settings, low high or off) -Programmable 'G keys' -Cable management system
First off , the keyboard looks very nice. The keys are black, with the transparent markings to allow the blue backlight to shine through. The silver and black finish is also pleasant. It is fairly heavy, but less so than i expected it to be from its appearance. The G15 is quite a bit bigger than your average keyboard, as it incorporates 18 'G keys'.
The G keys enable the user to create macros and assign particular keystrokes. For example, in Battlefield 2, i have set the G1 key to select between semi and fully automatic firing modes. The keys are also useful in a non-gaming situation, as an example i have assigned my various e-mail adresses to diffrerent keys, so no longer do I have to type out the full address, i simply press the key which corresponds the the e-mail address I wish to use. The G keys can each be programmed three times. Pressing a 'M' button switches between profiles, meaning a maximum of 54 possible fuctions. You can also assign shortcuts to the G keys, which means that you can clear up your desktop.
The only drawback to the G keys is that you have to have the 'keyboard profiler' running in order to use it. Its only a small exe but is another icon in the system tray.
The other main feature is the LCD screen. The screen flips up from the top centre of the keyboard revealing media controls (play/pause, skip etc) as well as a cicular volume control. The software on the CD provided installs 5 LCD usable mods:
-Clock -Pop3 (e-mail) monitor -System resources monitor (cpu and ram usage) -Media information -Countdown timer
They all work as decribed, and you can manually disable any or all if you wish. Mods can be programmed to cycle through, or you can maually select which one to view using a button under the LCD itself.
The LCD screen is also made to support use in-game. However Logitech does not provide any mods or support for this. Neither have any game producers programmed support for it into a game, but will undoubtedly do so in the future. There are a large number of community made mods that work on a variety of games, and also for other applications. I even saw a few which put a 'tamagochi' style pet on screen that you have to care for usiung the buttons!
There is also a switch which disables the windows key, which is very useful in games.
I have owned the G15 for 2 weeks, and have so far found it to be very good indeed. The gaming features aside, it is also very capable keyboard to type with. Key strokes are nice a crisp, and i have written several essays withough any problems.
The only negative points (there arn't many!) are :
-backlight could be a little brighter
-the 'cable management system' is just a few well placed grooves cut into the underside of the keyboard, which are a bit small and i doubt many poeple would make use of it.
- top 'legs' have no rubber feet to prevent movement on poished desks.
- wrist rest makes the keyboard enormous. Its also pretty flismy and i doubt itt'd last long in my house, so i dont have it attached.
Final point, the G15 has 2 USB ports on either side of the LCD.
------------------------- additional info:
Length: 21.5" Width: 10.5" (with attached rest) Height: 1.22" Weight: 4.41lb Connections: 1 x USB - 4 PIN USB Type A
Advantages: Looks stylish til worn in, good for music control and email checking Disadvantages: usb hubs are nearly useless, hardly ANY support, under utilised.
Advantages: Keyboard lighting, 18 programmable macro keys, lcd display panel, 2 usb ports, volume jog wheel Disadvantages: usb 1.1, no sleep or shutdown button, no colour lcd display, lack of decent instructions
Advantages: Keyboard lighting, 18 programmable macro keys, lcd display panel, 2 usb ports, volume jog wheel Disadvantages: usb 1.1, no sleep or shutdown button, no colour lcd display, lack of decent instructions
Advantages: Looks stylish til worn in, good for music control and email checking Disadvantages: usb hubs are nearly useless, hardly ANY support, under utilised.
![Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard [USB, Black/Silver]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/88957536.jpg "Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard [USB, Black/Silver]")
Mar 13th, 2007
(Mar 16th, 2007)
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