Software and Performance
With almost any product the software side of things plays an important role in the overall performance. But that is doubly so with the G Pro X 60 Lightspeed. Logitech uses their G Hub software on all of their gaming peripherals and for the G Pro X 60 Lightspeed, they dove in and made a few big changes that we will see used on other keyboards in the future as well. They did that because feedback from the pros when testing a compact board like this was that they wanted it to be easier to program for function layers to fine-tune key locations to the user. When you first get into GHub all of your Logitech G devices will show up with photos including the Pro X 60. The Pro X 60 will be greyed out anytime it isn’t connected so make sure it is powered up and not in idle mode. The main page has a picture of the keyboard and shows the wireless connection as well as the current battery life.
When you first open the page up they run through a few pages showing off some of the key features of the G Pro X 60 Lightspeed, not just from the software side but also the hardware making sure you know about the volume wheel and game mode for example. You also get a page that has you pick your first lighting profile but in my situation, I had Windows dynamic lighting on so the dropdown didn’t work.
There are three options on the top left and a fourth down in the bottom left corner with each being its own page of settings or information. The top icon looks a little like a sun and is the Lightsync page for controlling your lighting. If you have Windows dynamic lighting on none of these options will be available but it is good to know that if you want Windows will handle your lighting for you. Once I turned it off you get three tabs. The first is the presets tab where there is a drop-down menu of lighting effects. Each that you pick will have its own options for setting the colors, speed, direction, and more. The freestyle page is where you can control the lighting individually to set up your own design. I run static lighting often but sometimes I will use this to set all of the alpha keys to one color and the modifiers to another contrasting color. They make it simple, you pick a color and click on single keys or drag and select multiple. The last page is the animations page and these are similar to some of the effects on the presets page only these are longer and more intricate. You can also create your own animations here as well but by default, you have 5 other effects.
I’ve mentioned it a few times, but part of making a small board like the G Pro X 60 Lightspeed possible for their Pro lineup was on the software side of things. The main feedback they received from the pro players was that they would need full control over not just what your main keys do but also for the function layers as well and G Hub would have to change to make that possible. For all of those new changes, Logitech has a specific walkthrough that pops up the first time you go to the programming keys section, just like when you first open up the G Pro X 60 Lightspeed in GHub. They run through what is new showing off the remapping, that you can assign up to 5 different things to just one key using modifiers and you can even pick which modifiers you get to use. It isn’t just locked to your function key. Because GHub works with other Logitech peripherals you can even bind that modifier to things like your mouse for its side buttons.
The Assignments section is what they call that section and when you get in there on the right you have a full picture of the G Pro X 60 Lightspeed. Then on the left, you have tabs for each of your layers. There are three, you have the base layer, the function layer, and the G-Shift layer and our G-Shift has a dot above it to let you know the G-Shift key or button hasn’t been set to anything yet. You can create your own profile here letting you toy around with something but to go back to a profile that you know works. From there you select a layer and on the right, you can go to a key and reprogram it. Remapping a key opens up a menu with what looks like a little math. You have modifier + Event Type = Assignment. Here you can pick a modifier, decide if it is the key press, hold, or release, and then pick what it does. Because of the different modifiers and event type you can set one key to do multiple actions. Then picking what action you want has a CRAZY number of options. You start with 6 different menus just to pick what type of action it will be. The actions menu for example opens up tie ins with other programs like OBS, Overwolf, Discord, and Streamlabs. Each has a list of default actions created but there are more options when you dive in, for example with Discord you can set it up to move to a specific voice channel or leave the channel in addition to muting yourself and deafening yourself. System actions can be things like mouse clicks, changing your mouse DPI, playing or pausing media, volume controls, and even fine tuning audio settings if you are using a Logitech based audio device. The commands section has yet another drop-down menu for productivity, editing, windows, and navigation. There are just too many options to show or talk about but just as an example with windows in addition to anything normal you might be able to think of, you can even open up the emoji panel. Then the lighting section lets you control lighting for a Litra Beam key/background like if you have one hooked up.
The macro section is also there where you can create your own macros. You can set it up to repeat while holding the button, toggle it on or off, run a sequence or never repeat. In macros alone, you can do most of the same actions we saw in the previous section but with a macro, you can tie those in with other actions altogether. The simplest of these is recording your keystrokes and being able to play it back. You sometimes see this being used in games where someone will spam their Twitch channel or something similar. But you could set up a quick buy for your guns and ammo in CS:GO or a similar game or even program sequences for Helldivers 2 if you want to make it easier to promote democracy
The third menu is just a settings page for the game mode which is a switch on the right side of the keyboard. They have a default setup that turns off the Windows keys on both sides but you can add to it by turning off any other keys as well if needed.
The gear in the bottom left is the settings page and there is a lot more going on than you might expect. In the top left corner, you have the current battery level and the power consumption which is broken down by the keyboard and the lighting. This also lets you know how many hours of battery life left you have and the total number of hours at max charge with your current power usage. On the top right, you have the current firmware for the keyboard and wireless dongle and an option to check for updates on those. In the bottom half, you have a few settings specific to how the Pro X 60 handles inactivity. You can pick the lighting effect when inactive, the brightness level, and when that goes into effect. By default it will switch to that with 1 minute of inactivity and all of the lighting turns off at 5 minutes. Then on the bottom right you can turn on the onboard memory mode which will save all of your settings and profiles to the keyboard and not require the software.
For actual testing on the Pro X 60, I have been using it as my main keyboard for two full months now. I’ve been a big 60% keyboard user for years now but most of that use had been focused on using it for my LAN setup and with our test benches because they save space in those situations. For my main keyboard, I have always preferred a full-sized keyboard, only because I spend a lot of time inputting numbers. Transitioning to the Pro X 60 full time did require some adjustment there but it has opened up a lot more space on my desk. It also means you have more flexibility on where you put your keyboard, especially when gaming. With the significantly smaller size, you can put it closer to your mouse or move your mouse and mousepad more to the left if that is what is comfortable. I’m a big guy so this has been less of an issue for me, in fact with the Pro X 60 I have found myself tilting it when gaming so it would line up better with my left hand whereas with a full-sized keyboard by default it was farther to the left so that wasn’t as needed. There were a few growing pains when gaming. For some reason when playing League of Legends and having my fingers on the QWER keys, I kept unknowingly pushing the control button down which I’ve never had that issue in the past. I also ran into issues where when moving the keyboard around I would accidentally crank the volume up with the volume knob on the left side. But over time I did adjust to both of those problems.
The GX Optical Linear switches on our Pro X 60 have performed well. There aren’t any rattles or issues and they don’t twist or move out of place. I am curious if the Tactile keyswitch option might have been a better option for me. I prefer something close to a Cherry Brown which is tactile but not clicky, they have that listed as tactile but I don’t know if that just means it is clicky. The linear switches have been smooth though. The big move with the 60% does mean that a lot of your normal keys are hidden in the function layer and for the most part those are easy to figure out because they are printed on the front edge of the keys. Logitech’s software improvements also made it easy to program your own key layers as well. For my use, that wasn’t needed but I know for some that has been the deal breaker for compact keyboards like this for years. The backlighting has been great with the only issue I run into is that because this is wireless the backlighting turns off when you stop using it and it is always a gamble when I start back up if I have my hands in the right place. This isn’t on Logitech, they still have the bumps on F and J I just still use looking at the legends to orient myself when I shouldn’t.
Speaking of wireless, the wireless performance has been flawless. This isn’t a surprise given how well Logitech’s wireless has been with even more latency-dependent things like mice. But you would never know you aren’t plugged directly in when it comes to latency. It only really was even a thought when the lighting turns off or when the battery dies and you have to plug it back in. But for me even that was each because it uses a standard USB Type-C connection so plugging in my phone charger was all that was needed. It charges at 2 watts, which isn’t fast but fast isn’t needed. Even using the Pro X 60 all day every day I haven’t needed to charge it very often. With my lighting settings, it projects 66 hours of battery life on a charge which is an hour more than the specifications list and I get every bit of that time. That is 66 hours of the keyboard being in use, all of the time where it powers down in between things adds up and I really only charge it once a week and I am at my PC ALL of the time.
