Home page » Peripherals

Search:

Refine search for Peripherals

Despite the aforementioned slight problems, the general typing experience is very pleasant with the keys' short stroke and snappy response making fast touch-typing a breeze. It's not the best low-profile keyboard I've ever used - that honour still goes to the Enermax Aurora but it is good nonetheless. Also, the quiet operation will further appeal to those who want a practical late-night working tool or simply don't want to drive their co-workers mad with a clickety keyboard.

For the most part the key layout is completely conventional, though there are a few minor changes. The Del key is double height (a feature some of us in the office found to be welcome), which results in the Insert key being placed on the top row and the Scroll Lock function being tacked on as a secondary function of the Pause/Break button.


The right-hand Menu button has been replaced by an Fn key for activating the Function keys' secondary functions, which include things like media controls and quick launch shortcuts. An extra row of keys sits above the numpad, with the far right one used to control the all important backlighting.


The backlighting has four intensity levels, which should provide enough choice to ensure you can always find a good balance between being able to see the keys and being distracted by them.

In daylight, you'd be hard pushed to notice if the backlighting is on or off (at any of its intensity levels), as the markings on the keys are only semi-translucent and the LEDs are of fairly low brightness. At night, though, the effect is quite striking.

The keyboard connects over USB, which also provides the power for the lights. Unfortunately Logitech hasn't taken this as an opportunity to extend the Illuminated Keyboard into a USB hub so you'll be losing one rather gaining a number of USB sockets.

Ultimately, the Logitech Illuminated keyboard does precisely what you expect and for the most part it does it well, bar a few minor niggles. Certainly it fits the 'lifestyle' product mould to a T. However, even though £50 isn't an exorbitant amount of money to spend on such a keyboard, there are certainly far more comfortable, feature-rich, and better performing keyboards to be had for the money.

Verdict

The Logitech Illuminated Keyboard is stylish, well made, and is a decent enough typing tool. However, there's no denying you pay a premium for the fancy backlighting and lose some features and comfort in the process.

Add your comment

© 2003-2009 TrustedReviews & IPC Media
About Us | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy | RSS