1,198
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #7,526 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Great keyboard, but suffers from a deal-breaking design flaw
First, let me just say that this keyboard is awesome. It has a sleek design and great illumination settings. Also, it's the first in its class to offer the "white" lighting as opposed (in my opinion) to the obnoxious blue and red lighting of some of the other light-up keyboards. Another appeal is the laptop-style keys. If you're a fan of the laptop-style keys, and like the "bling" of the lighting effect, this keyboard is a dream come true.
Unfortunately, the hardware designers over at Logitech have built a critical design flaw into this keyboard - one which will render it almost useless for fast types. Logitech has ended up creating "phantom key blocking" on a few series' of commonly used keys. In short, "phantom key blocking" is a hardware control where if 3 keys are pressed at the same time, in some cases the 3rd key will get dropped. Most manufacturers put up this "key blocking" on infrequently used sequences of keys, like "dgf." So, most of the "key blocking" will never be experienced by the user. Logitech, however, has put up "key blocking" on these sequences of keys: "n't" and "ine" -- this means that when fast typers type words like: don't, won't, can't, etc, the "t" will get dropped from the output, because the "n" and apostrophe will "block" the letter "t." Also if you type words like: fine, dine, wine, etc, the "e" will get dropped. Please see my video review for a lengthy explanation of this phenomenon, and just how it is impossible for fast typers to type certain words with the Logitech illuminated keyboard.
So, I can't recommend this keyboard to anyone who's a fast typer, because I consider it highly frustrating to go and retype common words just because the hardware behind the keyboard was poorly desinged. Hopefully Logitech will correct this issue, but do note that "key blocking" is hardware related, and cannot be resolved through a driver update.
I hope this review has been helpful. If you still are pressed on getting this keyboard, make sure you have an easy means to return it in the event that you experience the key blocking. Also, I did test 6 keyboards, all from various sources, and they all contained the key blocking. You can also get some cool programs, like "keyscan" to actually test the hardware - all of which are used in the video.
October 2008 · Electronics