With so many keyboard options on the market these days it’s really surprising that there hasn’t been very much competition with Logitech’s gaming line of keyboards with their display screens on them. This past year Logitech went through and refreshed their gaming lineup including the G19s with its full color screen. Having a screen on your keyboard can be a little gimmicky but considering how popular they have been for Logitech I was excited to see what they did with the G19s.

Product Name: Logitech G19s

Review Sample Provided by: Logitech

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

 

Specifications

Dimensions

20.4 x 2.6 x 10.2 inches

Weight

4bs

Macro Keys

12

Backlighting

Customizable

Package Contents

Keyboard

Palm rest

User documentation

AC power adapter

Warranty Information

3-year Limited hardware warranty

System Requirements

Windows® 8, Windows® 7, or Windows® Vista

Available Hi-Speed USB port

 

 


Packaging

The packaging on all of Logitech’s gaming lineup follow the same theme for the most part. They all have a black design with a photo of the product on the cover that is blended in half way with an x-rayed photo of the device showing off the inside slightly. The G19s isn’t any different, you get that same x-rayed photo, but this time it is much larger than the headsets and mice that we have seen in the past.

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Inside the G19s is wrapped up in a plastic to keep it from getting dirty and it sits in its perfectly shaped bright blue cardboard that keeps it from moving around. The wrist rest comes up under the keyboard in its own plastic bag as well. The G19s’s cord and power cord are tucked up in the blue cardboard boxes in the left and right corners to keep them from bumping into the keyboard in transit.

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I mentioned the wrist rest previously; Logitech didn’t change anything from the previous design. It is also the same design as we have seen on the G510 and other Logitech keyboards. The biggest thing that comes with the G19s that you wouldn’t see with most keyboards is the external power wart. The color LCD screen on the G19s pulls more power than can be found over USB requiring Logitech to include it.

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For documentation you get a small quick guide as well, just in case you have any questions while setting up the G19s.

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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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Software

One of the best things about Logitech’s Gaming product line is their gaming software. The gaming software works with everything from their current product line and most anything introduced in the last 5+ years. This integration makes it very easy for you to buy into the entire Logitech eco system when you know you only have to keep one program running for your headset, mouse, keyboard, and even gamepad. When you hook up a Logitech device the first screen you come too has a large photo of the device, in this case the G19s, along the bottom is a smaller photo of the keyboard with arrows where we can flip to our other installed Logitech devices.

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The first functional page for the G19s is the macro page where we can see all of the side macro keys in the photo. Each key can be clicked on and you can select from a long list of commands or if you would like you can create your own macro. Logitech allows you to program them to media functions as well as shortcuts, voice avatars if you have a Logitech headset hooked up, and mouse functions if you have a Logitech mouse hooked up. As you can see up on the top, you can setup different profiles or if you would like the software will actually scan for installed games and setup premade profiles specific to that game. Those profiles will load for you when the game executable is loaded, making it very easy to have custom macros specific to each game.

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The next page is for the color LCD screen applets and their configuration options. Here you can select what applets you would like to have active and if you would like you can adjust their settings as well as the screens brightness.

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The next page is all about the keyboard backlighting coloring. You can select from a few premade colors or use the color wheel or RGB sliders. Here you can also adjust the back light brightness as well. As you toy with the colors the keyboard will adjust on the fly for you to get a good feel for a color before locking it down.

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The last page is where you can backup your custom profiles directly to the keyboard. This is perfect for people who have multiple PCs that they game on using the one keyboard. If you played in tournaments for example this would be very helpful. For me, I don’t have much of a need for it.

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Performance

The reason there are basically no changes from the G19 to the G19s (they only changed the color) is because what Logitech has been doing works very well and no one is really competing when it comes to the features the G19s offers. For example, there are only a few other keyboards who have an easy to use volume control and media controls like the G19s. Most of the others are other Logitech products and a few other companies who used the Logitech design for inspiration. The same goes for how easy it is to program macro keys on the fly using the MR button. I don’t think there is any way to improve on the current design. Personally I don’t need as many macro keys that the G19s offers but it is one of those situations where it is better to have to many than not enough. The only downside is that the additional keys make the G19s a little wider than most other keyboards, this will cause issues if you have a small desk or at a LAN where space is limited.

As someone who likes their PC lighting to match their keyboard, it is great that you can set the backlighting on the G19s to any color. As usual I set everything up with a nice LanOC orange right way before toying with other colors. Just like the G19, G510, and G510s the G19s does have a slightly dim backlight. This is partially due to being compared to the mechanical keyboards with backlighting these days. Mechanical keyboards have one LED behind easy key, making them extremely bright. Even so, when comparing the G19s to our old G15 with the orange backlighting there was a difference. I think you lose a little backlighting when going to the RGB LEDs needed to give us the full color spectrum adjustability.

So how well did the G19s perform when using it both for writing and gaming? Well as expected the keys feel a little mushy coming from a mechanical keyboard. But for a membrane keyboard the G19s performs great. The macro keys on the side are just slightly out of reach without moving your hand off WASD or QWER. I think that most games that you will want to use macros will be games that don’t use QWER or WASD.

So how about the main feature, the full color LCD screen? Compared to the G510s the new screen is larger, brighter, and much easier to see. I really like using this screen to keep an eye on my CPU and memory usage. I found using the screen in game to be a little harder though, especially when they are showing important information on the screen. Looking away from my games can be tough. I really love the integration with LoL though (they even show your gold per minute).

 


Overall and Final Verdict

The G19s is in a weird spot right now when you consider its price paired up with the fact that it isn’t a mechanical keyboard. At this price point you will normally find higher end mechanical keyboards do to their increased construction costs (those cherry switches aren’t cheap). Logitech does still offer a lot with the G19s to help justify the price. You are getting the only keyboard with a full color screen built in as well as the full color spectrum backlighting and their top notch software. The only other downsides to the keyboard (beyond not having a mechanical switch option) is the keyboards width can be an issue when you have limited space, like at a LAN party. I also feel that the backlighting is a little dimmer than I would prefer. Part of that is because in comparison to a mechanical keyboard like the G710+ the mechanical keyboards have an LED for each key so they are brighter. But also looking back to our old G15 with the orange backlighting it was also brighter. This is the tradeoff for the additional color options though.

At the end of the day it really comes down to the keyswitch for me. If you currently have a non-mechanical keyboard and are happy with it you will love the G19s and the features it offers. But most people that have moved on to mechanical keyboards are going to have a hard time adjusting back, especially when the G19s costs more than their G710+. Hopefully in the future Logitech will offer a mechanical keyboard with a game screen built in, or an option to get the same screen on my desktop without the keyboard at all.

fv3

Author Bio
garfi3ld
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.

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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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