Logitech G19 Programmable Gaming Keyboard with Color Display

Hi, I thought I'd give my impressions on the Logitech G19 since I've had it for a few months and have had time to make up an opinion on it.

Prologue...

I first ordered the keyboard to be a replacement for my old G11 (which was getting a bit worse for wear) because I got a 40% discount code for a two day period so I thought this would be a good impulse buy (because when is impulse buying ever a bad idea? )

The first G19 that arrived was fairly poor in terms of it's quality, 8 separate keys didn't work, all from different parts of the keyboard and all important keys that I couldn't do without e.g. e, y, r, c.

Not suprisingly I was a little pissed at this, so I sent a stern email to Logitech who then emailed back a week later () saying if I sent it back to them they would send me another one out, so I did so and within another week I had my fully functional G19.

Main Review

Size

The first thing that struck me about the G19 was that it was relatively small compared to the G11 I had previously, this being in part to 6 less 'G' macro keys and the fact the keys on the G19 are slightly smaller. Nonetheless this is still a considerably sized keyboard which occupies more room than your standard $20 keyboard.

Keys

The next thing I noticed about the G19 was not a good thing, the keys seemed a little off. After trying out the G19 compared to the G11 it was clear that the keys were smaller and also felt more wobbly, especially the CTRL keys and the space bar. I tried to fix the space bar by removing it with a screwdriver and attempting to adjust it - bad move, you shouldn't try to do this as I managed to break one of the plastic stability clips clean off, so the space bar had the world's most irritating wobble, however this was remedied by using small pieces of a cut up credit card and some super-glue. I feel that the general quality of the keys has decreased slightly from the G11, however it is still perfectly suitable for the 5 hour long gaming sessions I seem to be having too many of.

General build quality

Apart from the aforementioned issues with the keys, the quality of the keyboard is impressive, the shell of keyboard feels very well built and the general feel of the keyboard as a whole suits it's price tag.

However it's worth noting that the wrist-rest seems to attach in a similar manner to the wriat-rest from the G11, by that I mean every time I need to take it off I feel like the plastic clips will break, although from shopping around and looking at other keyboards in shops .e.g Razer, Steelseries etc I haven't found an substantially better method.

Features

This is possibly the most important reason why people would choose the G19, it is packed full of some awesome features (not all of them however are very useful).

The G19 feature list is extensive, but the one's I feel are the most important are:

Backlighting - You can change the colour of the backlighting via the Logitech driver software to a huge number of different colours, and if you look around and can be bothered, there are even code snippets you can use that allow the keyboard to cycle through the collection of colours at varying speeds or to alternate between many different combinations, you can also set it natively to different colours for each macro setting (see below). Very nice to not be stuck to a single colour all the time, a very nice feature.

Screen - The centrepiece if you will of the G19, the full colour LCD display allows you to view loads of things from game stats to what's playing in iTunes (great in-game) and even a simple clock. Despite this however, I only find myself using the last two things I mentioned, it seems awesome when you get it, but then you realise it's not that useful.

'G' Macro keys - The G19 has 12 'G' macro keys on the left hand side of the keyboard (as opposed to the 18 on the G11) that can be used to program stuff such as keystrokes, multi-key presses, mouse function, media function, links etc etc etc. On top of the standard 12 macro keys, there are 3 separate macro sets, accessed by pushing the M1, M2 or M3 buttons. You can assign a 'profile' to each macro set so that you have specific macro's available for different tasks, you can even go as far as to assign a particular game to a profile and macro set so that when the game launches the macro set is automatically loaded and you have your particular keys at the ready. Personally I am an FPS player primarily, so I don't find these keys as useful in game as perhaps an MMORPG player might do, however I find them immensely useful for assigning to keystrokes so I can press one key and have my email address typed out or a website navigated to.

Media controls - The G19 also features a set of media keys in the top right hand corner of the keyboard which allow you to do the usual play/ stop/ rewind/ pause/ fast-forward/ mute etc but also change the volume using an inbuilt scroll wheel. Very useful to have these controls, especially when I'm listening to music in games and I don't want to have to Alt+Tab out of the game to pick a song.

Extra - Due to the fact the G19 has an LCD screen, the keyboard cannot simply draw all the power from the USB port, and is packaged with a wall plug which plugs into an inline connector from the keyboard. Some may find this cumbersome if they go to LAN parties, but for me, being a solely home gamer, I find this of no concern.

The G19 also comes with two high-speed USB 2.0 ports which is a great convenience for plugging in a headset or mouse. This is a very useful addition and a welcome upgrade from the essentially superfluous 2x USB 1.1 ports on the G11.

There is also a backlight on and off button, for those who care. Although considering how many different colours you can have for the backlight and the fact that you can change the backlight colour to 'black' which emits no backlight anyway means I never use it.

Typing experience

As stated before, the keys of the G19 feel considerably more wobbly than those on the G11, which makes typing on it at first very weird. The keys also seem fairly small to me, I know for certain they are smaller than the G11 keys but compare to many other keyboards I cannot say. After trying a mechanical keyboard (I blieve it was the Steelseries 6GV2) for the first time after buying the G19 I was immediately filled with a sense of sadness that I hadn't tried mechanical before I bought this keyboard, the feel of the keys from mechanical to the G19 (and maybe most rubber-domes keyboards) is so much better, even the sound of a mechanical key is cool compared to rubber-domes. However the G19 is quite clearly marketed as a keyboard for gamers, and whether or not a gamer requires mechanical keys is not for me to say.

General comments and conclusion

In conclusion I find the G19 somewhat of a mixed bag, it has many really cool features such as the backlighting and the wide number of 'extra' keys (media and macro), however it must be said that at least in my opinion, the keys of the G19 are a bit of a let down considering the price tag and placement of the G19 in the Logitech range.

If this keyboard were equipped with mechanical keys that didn't wobble I think Logitech would be on to a real winner here, however because of the flaws with the keyboard and the price it retails at, I would only give the G19 an average mark.

I hope anyone who persevered and actually read this found it useful, more information about the Logitech G19 can be found at: http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/gaming/mice-keyboard-combos/devices/4956

Have a good day!