When it comes to gaming keyboards there really are only a few names that the average person will name off. The first one will most likely be Logitech, because not only have they been around forever, but also if you haven’t owned a G15 at some point then chances are one of your close friends has. They really did set the golden standard for a long time in gaming focused keyboards. The thing is recently a lot more people have been interested in mechanical keyboards and Logitech took their time bringing their first one out. Now that the G710+ is out, I’m excited to see how it performs. Was it worth the wait? There is only one way to find out.

Product Name:  Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Review Sample Provided by: Logitech

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

Specifications

Packaging

Logitech took an interesting approach when it came to the cover of trhe G710+’s box. Right up top you have a picture of the keyboard covering most of the box but half of the picture is an x-ray of the keyboard showing of the guts. This caught my eye specifically because Logitech for once doesn’t have to hide what is under the keys; in fact they want to show it off. It’s nice to a see a little pride showing. On the flip side, literally, there is another picture of the G710+, but this time they have lines going to a couple of the keyboards key features with short explanations on each.

When you open up the packaging, you will be greeted with another box inside. Inside THAT box you will find the keyboard, all wrapped up in a plastic bag. Tuck up under the keyboard I also found the wrist rest as well as the keyboards paperwork.

Features/Pictures

Starting with the USB cord for the G710+ Logitech already had my attention. The orange trim is something you rarely see and being my favorite color it caught my eye right away. Of course it’s still just a color, what was more important was the cable itself and its quality. Unlike most keyboards and mice recently, they didn’t go with a sleeving on the cable for the G710+, the cord is thick and heavy duty and made of rubber. You have one main cord that splits into two cords near the end and each connection is USB 2.0. One thing that is nice about them going with a color you don’t see as much, this should be easier to spot when you are back behind your pc trying to find your keyboard cord.

I love the look of the G710+ when it’s flipped over. There is a little structure with the beams that crisscross back and forth and they took advantage of the middle of those to place the product sticker as well. The bottom of the keyboard has four fairly large rubber feet to keep things in place while gaming. There are also two flip up feet to angle the keyboard but I should point out that they do not have rubber on them; this means you are down to two rubber feat when you have the keyboard angled up. For wire management you have two channels for running cables under the G710+, specifically for plugging in your mouse on the back USB port and running the cord under the keyboard. Personally I would have liked to of seen a third channel that goes out the side of the keyboard as well.

Back up on the top side; let’s take a look at the G710+ as a whole. It’s not nearly as large as the original G15 for example; a good size comparison would be to the second generation G15 with the orange backlighting and only one row of G keys. The keyboard itself is a combination of a couple different finishes and colors. The area around the regular keys is black and glossy. The G macro keys on the left are highlighted by a glossy orange around them. The rest of the keyboard is also black but a satin or flat black that is resistant to finger prints and shows less dust. I’m a little surprised they went with the glossy finish at all really, it looks great at first but I am very concerned that when I start testing its going to be a mess.

I mentioned it before, but the Macro keys on the G710+ are highlighted by orange, it’s almost like they were trying to get me to love the keyboard. More importantly, they went with just a single column with a total of six keys. This is a nice compromise for people who don’t need the macro keys, they don’t make the keyboard to wide but still give fans a few keys to put to use.  

FPS fans will be excited to see that WASD was highlighted with silver keycaps against the normal black keycaps. I personally think that Logitech should consider including Q,E, and R in the future and black A,S, and D keys. With the rise of LoL, DOTA 2, and HoN MOBA games are just as popular if not more popular than first person shooters these days. Keyboards that recognize that without singling one or the other out might be able to make a few more fans and a little more money.

For those who need more than the 6 macro keys on the left side, you do have three different profiles that you can flip through, not only that but you also have the MR button for you to record macro’s on the fly while you are gaming. This is the only way I ever end up making mine when I need them, although admittedly this is very rare.  There is also a push button that puts the keyboard in game mode; this means that the windows key is disabled.

Over on the right side there is a little more going on. Up top we have two buttons that control the lighting in two different sections, one controls WASD and the other controls the rest of the keyboard. Next to them you have play/pause, stop, and forward and backwards buttons for controlling your media. Next you have a mute button and a wide scroll wheel for volume control; I have LOVED this wheel on previous keyboards.

I spoke about the macro keys and the media keys but what about the keyboards layout? If it’s not obvious, the G710+ uses a standard keyboard layout meaning it has a full number pad, direction pad, ect. The space bar is of standard length and starts under the X and ends under comma. Also the enter key is a single height key meaning there aren’t any weird quirks to the key layout.

As someone who never unwinds all of their mouse cord to keep it short and out of the way, I was very happy to see that Logitech made sure to include a USB connection on the G710+. I would have preferred to see a second plug, but one is enough to hook your mouse up if nothing else. They did kind of hide the plug up under a ledge though. You will have to peak around to get your mouse plugged it.

When you pull off the G710+’s key caps you are going to find a couple things. First, the inside is completely white, the black coloring is die on the outside of the keycap to make sure the letters light up well with the backlighting. Second you will also notice that Logitech has put rubber O-rings on each key cap, or what some would call silencers. This eliminates the sound that the key makes when you bottom it out. This is a great addition and something that you really don’t see anyone else do.

Up under the keys we have brown key switches and you can also see the LED’s for the white backlighting.

Performance

After living with the G710+ for a while I could finally really talk about its performance. When I saw that the G710+ had brown key switches I was very excited, everyone has a different preference for key switches and brown is mine. Having said that I really enjoyed using the G710+ as a day to day keyboard. The brown switches give you a nice tactical feel while not completely driving my wife crazy when she is in the room with me. Logitech also installed silencers on the G710+ as well, so how did they help out? If you are a gentle typer they really won’t be noticeable, the same goes for someone who really slams their fingers down. But for the average user, you will notice a big difference with the silencers. They will quiet down the click sound of your key bottoming out. This actually made the G710+ one of the quietest mechanical keyboards I own.

The white backlighting is classy and will go with any computer, there is no need to try pick out a keyboard that is going to match your rig this time around. I was hoping we would see a full color spectrum from Logitech like their recent G series keyboard, but I’m not even sure it’s possible on a mechanical keyboard. The lighting buttons on the top section of the G710+ let you flip through different brightness’s for two different zones. The first zone is WASD and the arrow keys and the second zone is the rest of the keyboard. MOBA fan’s might take offence to the lack of a QWER zone as well, but what can you do. When the backlighting is turned up the G710+ is extremely bright, you really only have to have it turned part of the way up to be effective.

Last but not least, how did it perform in game? Being a G series keyboard it did support Logitech’s amazing software.  You have the ability to rebind any of your macro keys in the software as well as on the fly using the MR button. I also want to point out that Logitech’s software works with their entire gaming lineup; this means you will only need to install one program to adjust your mouse, keyboard, G13, and headset. With everything setup, I spent far too much time gaming and calling it work just to play with the G710+ in game. I did slightly miss the LCD screen that the G15 was known for, but even without it I enjoyed using the G710+. They gave me the perfect number of macro keys along with the ability to adjust my volume and flip through my background music while still in game.

Overall and FV

After seeing so many mechanical keyboards, I really start to wonder if anyone will come out with anything a little different. Logitech may not have been the first to market, but they took their time and made sure to introduce something that is different from the competition. The combination of brown key switches and rubber O-ring silencers, the G710+ is one of the quietest mechanical keyboards that we have ever taken a look at. What is even more interesting to me is the combination of the gaming styling with the white backlighting that gives the G710+ a little class. During all of my time with it, I really didn’t have any issues or complaints about the keyboard. I could completely go without the macro keys all together, but I am happy to put up with them and have the great software and media controls that have made past Logitech keyboards a staple in my household before we went full mechanical.

Really the only issue I can find with the G710+ is its MSRP. I’ve come to expect a fairly high price tag when it comes to a good mechanical keyboard with backlighting. But at just under $150 the MSRP puts the G710+ up in the same price range as a Semi Custom Max Keyboard or some of the imported boards like Duckys. Although I think that Logitech put together an amazing keyboard, they did price it up at a price point that is out of range of a lot of people. Imagine what they would be charging for this same keyboard with an LCD screen. But when not taking price into consideration, Logitech has put together one of the best mechanical gaming keyboards on the market.

Author Bio

Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org

Editor-in-chief

You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.