Customer Reviews

Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard (Black)

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

There seems to be some reviews by users who do not actually own the G15.

I do.

As a gamer, I only need about 6 macro buttons, and they work just fine for that. The orange glow may not be quite as bright as I would like, but looks nice and does help gaming in the dark when you get the fingers on the wrong keys. The LCD is handy just in telling me the time if I'm playing some game that doesn't support the G15 (no more playing till 1AM accidentally) and in the games it does support, it's actually very handy - especially so in Lord Of The Rings Online or WoW, laying out stats in an easy to see way.

The downside to this kind of keyboard is you do miss some things. No volume knob, though you do get buttons. Been using a knob/wheel for years, so I'm really missing it. No calculator button, though I suppose I could make a macro for it. None of your usual Home or Web or buttons of that nature, though you do have a nice big satisfying mute button, and another to kill the Windows Button. Typing is fairly smooth, though since Logitech kept the New G15 the same size as a standard keyboard, certain buttons are smaller, like Tab, and it does take a second to get used to it. But it's not clicky at all, and is in fact one the quietest keyboards I've ever typed on.

Overall, I am very pleased with this keyboard after about a month of use. I could wish for a volume knob or calculator key. It took me a week before I realized when I was turning down the volume, it was actually showing on the little LCD display. It's a little quirky. But it's very handy for the gamer, without taking up the space of the older model.

I am disappointed in Logitech after using this keyboard. I have the older G15. While the keyboard itself has great functionality (if a little overkill for most gamers), beware - while Logitech offers a 3-5 year warranty on ALL of its other keyboards, it only gives a one-year warranty to its two most expensive offerings, the G11 and G15. I found this out the hard way after my keys started acting funny. Out of the blue one day a couple of keys started randomly typing out incorrect or extra characters (for instance, when I hit the X key I get X: on my screen, I have to delete the colon), and my left shift key somehow got mapped to F9 so that any time I would try to run in a FPS it would reload a savegame. This is pretty much a deal-breaker for any gamer.

I take very good care of my hardware so I was quite surprised, tried the keyboard on another computer without any Logitech software installed and it did the same thing, indicating a hardware problem with the board. A search of Logitech's forums found that several people have had this problem, and it seems there is no fix but to send in for warranty replacement - if you're still in the warranty period. Although ultimately I only have myself to blame for not paying close enough attention to the warranty terms, after paying $85 for a keyboard I expect better than a one-year warranty, especially when their $20 keyboards go for 3-5 years. The fact that Logitech chose to offer a shorter warranty on this product is, to me, an indication that they were aware of quality issues and opted to act in their own interest by offering a shorter warranty instead of taking care of their most lucrative customers. That's just bad business. While almost all of my PC hardware is Logitech and I am happy with the quality of most of their products, I am extremely disappointed in them after this experience. I now have an $85 paperweight because I can't even use it to type accurately. The long-term life of these keyboards seems suspect, and I have a feeling that's why they suddenly introduced a newer model.

The title pretty much sums up my opinion of this keyboard and the general opinion of a few of the users who have reviewed it so far. Now, I normally try to present my opinions without mention of those of other peoples', but in this case, after reading some of the other reviews of this item I really feel I must make an exception.

First of all, I'd like to point out that just because an older version of this board had a few features that were cut doesn't automatically make this one suck. Secondly, I'd like to point out that this board technically has 18 macro keys if you take into consideration that it has three different modes, and on top of that an unlimited number of profiles you can switch between with the software. Third of all, I'd like to remind everyone that a company's policies and its products are not the same thing, and should not be treated as such.

Anyway, I sincerely don't mean for this review simply to be about bashing other peoples' opinions, so now I'd like to get to explaining why I do like this keyboard. For one thing, the LCD is a lot more useful than people are giving it credit for. Combined with Trillian, answering ANY instant message from within ANY program without having to alt-tab becomes a piece of cake, which is especially nice for anyone who runs fullscreen applications and IMs a lot. The same thing goes for media playing; whenever you have a media player open it automatically switches to an iPod-like view, which is also handy when in fullscreen.

The macro keys and modes are another huge plus. They aren't limited to just emulating a few keystrokes; they can also act like shortcuts, enter a block of text, or even be assigned to a script (I haven't messed with scripts that much, but they're in Lua and are fairly easy to write. There's full API documentation included as well).

Those are the main benefits for me; there's a couple of other neat things, like the switch to turn off the windows key and the USB ports in the back, but those aren't as major. As for durability, I don't know how other people have been abusing their boards to make them break, but I've even dropped mine a couple times and there's barely a scratch on it.

Overall, what I'm trying to say is that it's simply a great investment, especially if you're intending to buy one good keyboard for the long-run.

It sure looks awesome all lit up, and I like the little LCD which appears high tech too. And the build quality looks decent too, externally. Can't complain about the macro software (even the os x one, which I am using) or about the layout. I have one, and it's suitable for the kids, but not me.

Here's my beef with Logitech: The number one purpose of a decent gaming keyboard is rapid and precise response. And that's where this keyboard falls flat on its face. This is a non-mechanical, rubber dome membrame keyboard (examples of mechanical switch gaming keyboards are the Deck Gaming Keyboards, Steel Series 7G, or I-rocks KR-6230-KB). So what does this rubber-dome membrane "thingy" mean?

It means this keyboard uses two plastic membranes with circuit traces printed on them. There is a rubber dome membrane sitting atop, that the keys plunge down upon to make the key contact. To properly register a key, the key is squished down into the rubber dome until it collapses and the membranes contact. It's a very inexpensive way to build a keyboard, compared to the mechanical switches, but it's going to make your game suffer.

1. Key press/release latency
2. Poor tactile feedback
3. Keys unstable in movement
4. Rubber domes wear unevenly (keys WASD and whatever ability you spam, for example)
5. premature breakdown

All of these are remedied by using mechanical switch technology, like the competitors listed above. With all the other great features from the largest keyboard manufacturer on earth, with the best drivers and software, we should all be asking the question, why they are building this keyboard for a user base that is all about accuracy, speed, and reliabilty?

I think the answer was that until recently there was little user education on this topic, and there were no strong competitors in the gaming market.

That's all changed - but will Logitech rise to the changes in the market? It remains to be seen.

First off, I've only owned this keyboard for about five hours, now... and already, I'm astounded. Up until a few hours ago, I had been using a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard -- and that served me many long good years (until I was stupid/clumsy enough to spill hot coffee in to it).

Anyway, this keyboard has a GOOD feel to it... as an old Sun person, it's a feel I'd expect from a high-quality keytronics keyboard - good firm keys with a "sharp" key click, but smooth and solid down to the bottom of the stroke. The keys are a little bit smaller than I'm used to, even though part of my daily grind includes a laptop (but I have a desktop keyboard and, as I said, my home machine was an ergonomic keyboard that I enjoyed using).

The backlighting on the keys is "pleasant" -- it's not terribly bright (particularly in a dark room with a bright monitor / white background). It IS bright enough, however, to be able to glance down so-as to "clarify" where your hand position is... I don't think I'd want to be looking at it if I didn't at least have a somewhat reasonable touch-type ability (I'm not a touch typist/purist, but I also don't need to look at my fingers once I'm "set" on the keyboard, either).

As far as integration goes, so far I'm impressed with the functionality... simply being able to glance down and see things like CPU load, RAM usage, and clock are nice (no more looking for the systray on Windoze). Furthermore, the keyboard integrated directly in to EverQuest II and Ventrillo *without* me really needing to do A THING (for the gamers, that includes nice hooks that essentially move part of your UI down on to the keyboard -- such as character stats for your MMO or channel/talker info for Vent). Also, any quick search on the net would seem to reveal just how-much-more really is possible with this keyboard with "support by the masses."

My only real "critique" with this keyboard is the fact that, even with the keyboard "jacks" extended, the keyboard fees like it's laying "flat" across the desk. Again, having run slanted laptop "cooling" pads and ergonomic keyboards for a good number of years, I feel I'm more used to the numbers being "higher" than, say, the space-bar. However, I think I can deal with this...

I also like the fact that this keyboard comes equipped with /two/ USB ports in the top of it... now between it and my flat panel, I have four ports within easy reach for the inevitable memory stick I have in my hands (though honestly with three monitors on my desk, the ports in the side of the monitor aren't always easily reachable -- so these are a welcome addition for me).

So, after only a few hours... I see myself liking this keyboard -- and here I thought I'd "always" use an ergonomic/split keyboard (even to the point that I have run separate keypads at work). I've always wanted a good backlit keyboard and this fits the bill nicely... can't wait to see what else I can do with it!

Physical quality of the keyboard is fine. But the main keys stop working at random intervals requiring a reboot. Alternately keys will stick, making you run out of control in games. It isn't just my keyboard either, there are plenty of complaints at the Logitech forums. Something is screwed up either in the software or the chips. I recommend waiting until the problems are sorted out.

Received next day as promised with rush delivery thanks to Amazon Prime, packaged well and as expected. Great backlit keyboard, and fairly bright but not too bright orange backlit keys. I actually can't stand having the orange glow turned off while typing now even in the day time because I'm so used to it. I bought and use it for general use as well as gaming (World of Warcraft). I don't use the function keys as much as I hoped. They're out of my comfort zone for reaching, but it's still a nice board.

The issues people have had with the gamepanel display software are true, hence not 5 stars. It has trouble detecting keysets, my "game mode" toggle switch to disable windows buttons while in games does absolutely nothing, and I have once or twice had the entire board (and mouse as it's plugged into the USB hub) lock up on me for no reason and had to reconnect it to fix. Not a huge deal to me, but it isn't perfect.

Also, the USB hub seems to freeze up and reset the board and connected devices for about 30 seconds whenever I connect a new device to it (flash drives particularly), but this could be something with my USB controller I guess. I don't use USB 2.0 on this system.

The negative said, I think it's still a nice keyboard. Comfortable to use, easy to see, no problems with lettering wearing after a month of heavy use. Oh, and the gamepanel (when it decides to work with it) is very sweet to have in Wow...it tells me when people whisper me and what my main stats and % are in current combat form and gear. (The supposed ventrilo feature of seeing who's talking has never worked for me yet.)

I see a lot of reviews hammering this keyboard for the lack of its predecessor's macro keys. It has 6 macro keys which can increased to a total of 18 via the memory buttons. I seriously doubt there are many people who really need the 54 total macro keys the previous G15 had, and I think 18 would be sufficient for most. Also, the narrower size makes this a better fit for my setup.

I like the orange lighting of the LCD, and it not having it flip-up is fine for me - less chance of something breaking. Logitech toughts this as a gaming keyboard, but this is really suitable for just about anything computer related requiring a keyboard. The keys have a nice feel for me, not too soft or too hard to press. Price is a bit on the high side, but if you can get it with the rebate then it's not bad considering what this keyboard offers - the LCD, backlighting and macro ability.

Searching the web, I found quite a few applets available for the G15 that I was interested in - Trillian, TeamSpeak, BF2142 and others. And it looks like more are in development. This is the only keyboard I'm aware of that offers this LCD capability, and it was great to find a lot of my apps are already supported.

I gave this keyboard 5 stars because it suits my needs perfectly. Everyone's different, but definately check this out if you're in the market for a decent keyboard that's not just for gaming.

My G15 keyboard started glitching within 8 months of purchase, my Enter, K, and I keys were the 1st to go, then keys started double typing and when I contacted Logitech's customer support they had me hook it up to a 2nd pc without there software. I hauled the keyboard
into work and hook it up (what a pain!)and yup the keyboard is junk.
Logitech's customer support had me fill out a bunch of info but I didn't have my receipt so I'm out my 80$, I went back to my old keyboard, its 10 years old and still works perfectly!
Logitech should be ashamed of them selves for selling substandard products at inflated prices! No matter how many bells and whistles a keyboard has it should last longer then 8 months!

I have an update- I worked with a very nice customer support person at Logitech and even without my receipt they worked with me to get a replacement keyboard! That's the good, the bad is that the new keyboard is the newer G15 and it seams to be a shadow of the original g15 that I had. I liked the flip up screen and disc volume control, the larger keys/keyboard. Everything about this new g15 is just less then the original G15 and I don't think they should be calling it a G15.

The previous version of this keyboard was gigantic. But this revision is very close to a normal sized keyboard. I really like the built-in bright LCD which shows time and date. It also automatically shows music track information when playing music tracks. And there's a very convenient mute button on the keyboard. There's a few programmable macro buttons to the left -- they are handy for anyone who wants to turn several keypresses into one keypress.

Like any tech gadget you get more out of this device the more you put into it. If you _read_ the manual and have some light tech background, its likely you'll love this keyboard. For the uber tech geeks, there's a fairly active forum where folks have uploaded applications that run in the LCD window.

I'm very picky about keyboards and the only reason this doesnt get 5 stars is that the software is mildly kludgy (but the software's defaults work fine).