Gaming Keyboard Roundup: Logitech, OCZ, and Razer
Next on the block is Logitech’s famous G15. While the G15’s keys are not rubberized, the keys are coated in a low-slip semi-gloss finish. The G15’s keys are also taller than those of the Lycosa, giving a different tactile experience that may appeal to users of more traditional keyboards. These higher-profile keys are, counterintuitively, a bit quieter than the Lycosa as well. The keys are backlit in orange with off, medium, and high settings.
Unlike the Lycosa, the G15 does have hardware macro keys and a mute button. The G15 also matches the Lycosa’s remaining keys with a toggle to disable the Windows keys and a multimedia control cluster. The real feature of the G15, however, is the GamePanel. Logitech claims support for Command and Conquer 3, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory, LoTR Online, Neverwinter Nights 2, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, Battlefield 2142, WoW, and more. On top of that, it offers a clock, countdown timer, performance monitor, media player info, Ventrilo support, and a wide variety of community-produced applets. Even the popular CoreTemp application interfaces with the G15 as you can see in the images. The keyboard also comes equipped with USB 1.1 ports on the rear edge of the keyboard, but the recessed ports make interfacing with wide USB devices like chunky flash drives impossible without a USB extension cable.
The multimedia keys flank the GamePanel, while the mute button is situated above the printscreen cluster. The game-mode slider which disables the Windows keys sits to the left of the GamePanel while the mute button sits to the right. Six macro buttons — G1 through G6 — line the left side of the board from the escape to control keys. Above them are three buttons — M1 through M3 — which determine which macro set you’re using, giving you a grand total of eighteen keys with which to map macros.
The “MR,” or Macro Record, button allows on-the-fly macro recording. The on-the-fly macro record does not, however, record mouse actions. Activating a macro displays the name of the macro on the GamePanel, but this functionality can be disabled per user preference.
Unlike the Lycosa, the G15’s standard keys cannot be remapped. Apparently, the macros for the G15 can be of practically unlimited complexity: a single keystroke, a function (email, web, media), a shortcut to a program or location, a block of text, or a script. I tested the macro length by slamming random text into the macro editor for half a minute; in the end, I had the most fantastic four straight lines of gibberish in the history of macros. In the editor, you can allow or refuse delays, insert your own, or (as opposed to the on-the-fly macro recorder) insert a mouse click by right clicking after you’ve recorded the keystrokes. It’s slightly unintuitive, but makes sense after some use.
Like the Lycosa, you can create profiles and link them to certain executables. Furthermore, I’m not sure if there is any limit to how many profiles you can have. They’re certainly not limited to F1-F10 like the Lycosa, which likely means you could create 18 macro setups for every program you own and go to town. The GamePanel manager also controls what programs show up on the panel and, if preferred, how quickly the programs will switch amongst themselves.
As for the bad: The macro recording is a bit clunky, but far from unworkable. The community for the GamePanel is small, but the SDK is available for anybody with the determination. Finally, the media keys flanking the GamePanel are shaped such that they’re a bit tricky to line up perfectly, and it’s rather noticeable when they’re not. Compared to the other keys, our test G15’s “previous track” media key was misaligned, and was fairly obvious thanks to the design.
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