Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard V2

A Closer Look

   Let us start off the Closer Look section by flipping over the keyboard and looking at the bottom. What we see here are a few channels placed into the belly of the G15. What in world are these for you ask?  They seem to going in the wrong direction to route the USB cable for keyboard threw; well you’re right. These grooves are for you to run your headphone and or mouse cabling threw. This helps eliminate desk clutter and improve cable entanglement. Not a bad feature if you go to a lot of LAN’s. 

 

Two risers are used to elevate the Logitech G15 keyboard and they are located on each end towards the top section. There are only two positions, folded and tucked away or extracted which raises the angle of the keyboard by one half an inch (1/2 “). At first the legs look, well, cheap but I was able to put quite a bit of force and body weight on to them without and defection. The height was just about right as it did not feel like I was raising my hands upward in an awkward position. 

 

Moving to the front side of the G15 we are giving two USB ports, SWEET! You can never have too many USB ports. The two ports are located in the center of the keyboard and underneath the LCD screen. This makes it convenient to plug in you thumb drive, USB mouse, or any other USB devices. 

 

Finally we take our first look at the top side of the keyboard. If you have or remember what the old G15 keyboard looked like you will notice that it looks quite different. First off the “handles” have been removed. Giving the overall appearance a cleaner look and style. 

No more flip-up LCD screen. This version of the G15 keyboard has the LCD screen built in to the keyboard and looks muchnicer. Newly designed multi-media buttons cap each end of the display. The actual screen size is 2 3/8 inches (60cm) wide by 7/8  of an inch (18mm) tall. 

  

We will take a brief trip across the keyboard and I will point out the features. Starting with the left side of the G15 keyboard we see a vertical row of keys which are labeled G1 through G6. Just above the these are four horizontal keys that are labeled M1, M2, M3, and MR. All ten buttons are used together to give up to 18 different functions. Through the Logitech G15 software you can assign marco’s (A series of commands and procedures that are carried out in response to a single command or keystroke, or identified by a single name) to do tasks for you while either in a game or working at the desktop. This is very handy if you have certain applications that you like to use a lot, a single button press can start up the program and do other actions. Continuing across the top there is a silver switch that has a old style gaming joystick on it. No its not so you can play your old Atari games, its even better than that. It will disable the dreaded “Windows Key” (You heard me M$).

Gone is the flip up LCD and it has been made a permanent fixture in the keyboard. All though the older style looked cool, this is a much better idea and I think it really adds a great touch to the overall appearance.

Placed on the right side of the G15 are all the normal keys that we have become accustomed to with a few extra thrown in across the top. Just above the row of 3 keys (Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break) is the twin silver switch of the one from the left side. This key is only use to Mute the sounds from you audio device. One step to the right we run into the Back Light Key which controls the brightness of the keys and LCD screen. Sitting next to the right are 3 indicator lights to show if you have the Caps Lock, Scroll Lock and Number Locks on.