Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsElegant and Best-In-Class, even if it isn’t perfect…
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2015
EDIT: I just wanted to add that the key caps started to wear off after just four months, allowing the back-light to show though I attached a picture that shows the what has happened to the"A" and "S" keys. And all of the rubber pads have already come un-glued from the bottom. I think its pretty tacky for such an expensive keyboard. If they were $20 each, I'd just buy some spares and resign myself to the fact that they don't last very long. But they aren't $20, are they? Anyway, I don't like it, so I;m knocking off some stars. My original review follows:
I will start by saying that I haven't been able to find anything better in a wired keyboard, so please take the rest of this review with that in mind!.
With that said, this keyboard seems to be artificially expensive. There are other keyboards that are better in certain ways, including some form Logitech, that are less expensive. But I want a wired keyboard. I see absolutely no reason to put up with a wireless keyboard when it is sitting two feet away from a perfectly good USB port. A simple wired connection eliminates the need for batteries and charging, and all things being equal, a wired connection will always be faster and more reliable than a wireless connection.
Sadly, Logitech's wire is not ideal...it has a bit of a memory, so it never lays completely straight and flat, even after months of use. It's not really a problem, but I'm just saying that at this price point, it wouldn't kill them to use better materials. The back-light itself is even and pleasing. It is bright enough for the most part, although I wouldn't mind if it had a bit more brightness at the top end of the adjustment range. The flat style is sleek and attractive, but not ideal for touch typists. For example, it's hard to find the home keys without looking. The keyboard has little flip-down feet intended to raise the back, but it's not really enough to be ergonomic. And the feet are tiny, with oh-so-tiny little pads on them. There are also less-tiny little rubber pads at the front of the keyboard. These pads start falling off after a few months. After a year or so, they're all gone. I know this because I've had half a dozen of these keyboards, and the same thing happened to all of them. It still works without the pads, but it kind of slides around on the desk. Perhaps it would be more forgivable on a $12 keyboard, but at this price point, one hopes for better. To my great surprise, I have not yet seen any of the flip-down feet actually break off. It certainly looks like they would, though, so I try to treat them gently.
The key travel is a bit short, but far from the worst, and the keys have nice tactile feedback. I'm not nearly as fast on this keyboard as I was on something like the old keytronic, with it's long key travel and firm feedback. But on the other hand, the back-light really does help offset the glare from my low-mounted dual monitors. Technically, being a touch typist, I shouldn't need to see the keys anyway, but for some reason, I find it crippling when I cannot. Hard to explain unless you've experienced it yourself. But then I suppose what if everyone was a touch typist who didn't need to see the keys, that there would be no reason for a back-lit keyboard, right? So I think we have to assume that there is some valid reason for eh back-lighting, if only the fact that it looks cool.
The arrangement of the keys is what I would consider to be "standard", which I very much appreciate, although I would comment that the function keys are only about two-thirds of full size. I'd like it better if they were full size. And Logitech could easily do that without increasing the footprint of the keyboard simply by getting rid of the clear plastic lip on the edge. I mean, I guess it looks nice, but I'd be happy to trade it for full-size keys. And on that note, the clear lip on the edges increases the size of the keyboard just enough so that it barely fits the keyboard drawer on one of our smaller desks. Maybe I would love the lip more if it too was back-lit...(?)
I think I've read that there are some gaming key combinations that the keyboard does not do. I'm not a hard-core gamer, but for what its worth, it works fine with the games that I do play.
I'm not really sure if this is a fault, but I think it's worth commenting that it is basically impossible to take this model apart for cleaning. It is built kind of like a notebook computer, with about a gazillion tiny screws, all very similar, but not exactly the same, so they cannot be interchanged. My last one died because it got enough debris under the keys that it started missing certain letters. I did manage to take it apart, but it's not easy to clean, even when it's apart. I managed to get it working again, but it took the better part of an hour and some compressed air to get it done, so it's not for the faint of heart...or for anyone who's time is worth more than cost of a replacement keyboard.
So, as you can see, I gave it four stars just because I can't find anything better. That makes it a class-leading product, even if it does have some draw-backs, not the least of which is the ransom that one must pay to get one. I just had to knock off a star for that, if nothing else.
