Pictures and Features

The G19s takes a lot of its design from the other gaming keyboards in Logitech’s lineup with the exception of its unique color display in the middle. The keyboard itself is just like the G510s that I took a look at a while ago with its dark blue trim around the keys itself and a flat black finish on the rest of the keyboard. This mean that those of you who have worn out your old G15’s and G510’s should be able to move to the G19s without hardly any adjustments. Those of you who used the first model G15 will notice that there are fewer macro keys on the left side while those who started with the second generation G15 (orange) will actually have more macro keys.

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Starting on the flip side of the G19s their isn’t to much going on. The color LCD screen pivots on a bar across the back of the keyboard to give you the best viewing angle. For grips you have small rubber pads on each corner, the pads near the palmrest are a little wider because when you flip the feet up to angle the keyboard they will have to do all of the work. Speaking of the feet, Logitech’s design is a little different than what most other companies go with. The feet flip from the side. This makes it less likely that you will push your keyboard and flip the foot back. Also on the bottom of the G19s are wire management groves for your mouse cord to keep your desk as clean as possible.

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I mentioned it in the packaging section, but the G19s is very unique in the fact that it requires an AC power cable to be plugged in for the keyboard to be powered. Logitech provides a very long cord for you to hook everything up, the AC connection plugs into a second cable built into the USB cable. When you combine the length of this cord with the length of the AC adapter provided, you should be able to reach a power plug to hook the G19s up. My only complaint is that you have to deal with a power wart. I don’t know about anyone else, but my power plugs at my desk are already crowded, having to work around a power wart can be difficult.

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For some reason Logitech highlighted the WASD and direction pads with silver keys against the rest of the keys that are all black. I understand the logic behind the WASD keys but the direction pad seems like an odd choice. With more and more people playing MOBA’s I wouldn’t be shocked to see QWER being highlighted more in the future, especially with Logitech playing a big role in Riot’s LCS. Another option would be to have a LoL special edition of the G19s. They didn’t have the best luck with branded versions of their mice in the past, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they avoided it all together.

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All of the keys on the G19s have a backlight that can be controlled by the included software. In the software you can set the backlight to any color and adjust the brightness down as needed as well. You also have the option to set the backlighting to each of your macro profiles to help you recognize what profile you are using on the fly.

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The three macro profile buttons are up in the top left corner, just like all of Logitech’s gaming keyboards. The fourth button allows you to do on the fly macro creations by pressing it, selecting the G key you would like to set it too, and then typing out your macro.  Pressing the MR key again locks down your macro.

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Just to the left of the LCD screen you have all of the on screen controls. The direction pad helps you move through the menus while the menu and back buttons will get you into the menu that you are looking for. Over on the left, with an old Atari joystick logo, is the gaming mode switch that turns off the windows key to prevent an accidental press while in game. No one wants to have your game minimized in the middle of an important fight.

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Over on the top right corner you have all of the media keys. The layout is the exact same as the previous G19 model as well as the G510s. This is because this layout works well. You have a play/pause button as well as stop and skip buttons to skip through your music while in game. The large button is mute, in case someone walks into your office or if something comes up. To keep your volume perfect you have an easy to use volume knob with rubber grips on it. This is a much better design than the old G15 designs with the spin knob or the buttons.

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Logitech did slip in two USB connections for those of you who are like me and prefer to run a short cord for your mouse. I should point out that this isn’t the best place to plug in your mouse, due to its high report rate. I still prefer having the two USB ports over building an audio card for your headset like what they did with the G510s.

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The G19s’ biggest feature is of course its color LCD screen. Logitech has been working on their integration of the G screens into games for years now. The G19s is a little different than the G15 and G510 because of its different size and its full color display. Because of that you get a few more features that you would normally miss out on. For example, you can actually play YouTube videos directly on it or as I have done below, you can stream your webcam through it. I’m not sure how much streaming your webcam will help you, but if nothing else it could prevent you from having someone sneak up behind you while gaming.

Where I think the screen comes in handy though is being able to watch your CPU and RAM usage while you are actually in game. Beyond the features Logitech provides you can also download third party plugins that can add additional features like temperature readouts.

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The LCD screen does have a lot of room for adjustment. This is important because of its size and glossiness, if you have a lot of sunlight in your office you might have to adjust it to prevent a glare.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #34586 04 Apr 2014 17:28
Happy Friday everyone. Today I take a look at Logitech's flagship keyboard with its color LCD screen.

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