Logitech G15

Gaming keyboards aren’t new as we have a review of one from Saitek that our reviewer Ben Berry really liked. I haven’t changed keyboards much because other than some multimedia keys, I was pretty comfortable with what I have. Logitech though is looking to change that with their new keyboard aimed at gamers. So with that we look at the next product in the G line, the G15 gaming keyboard. Let’s just get to the feature that makes this keyboard really stand out first: the LCD display. The LCD display sites at the top center of the keyboard and can be tilt adjusted or closed all the way when not in use. It’s backlit with the brightness and contrast being adjustable in three different phases. Five buttons control the LCD unit with one display switch and four general buttons. From the beginning with the drivers installed, you can see the LCD panel in action displaying the date, time, and rotating to your CPU and RAM usage. While it doesn't have temperature and other computer settings, it's still a great sample of what the LCD panel can do for you in monitoring your computer. The clock display can also be configured to display various types of clock dials as well. The information can be set to flip between various plugins or be manually cycled. There's also a setting to vary the speed at which the display cycles. Of course that’s just not all that it can display. When playing music in a media program, it can show the title and artist of the file being played whether it is a music file or video file. As you can see, there are plenty of programs that are already compatible with the keyboard: iTunes, MusicMatch, Media Player, Winamp to name a few. One feature of the LCD that I am anxiously waiting for support would be to see stats in game. The screenshot shows an example such as having all your ammo info on hand. With that you can minimize some of the HUD and have information on the LCD so that it doesn’t clutter the screen. There's only one game out right now that supports the LCD in game and that's Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood . As you can see from the screenshot below your ammo, clips, and grenades are displayed. As I was firing my gun, the ammo number went down in real time. Reloading and throwing a grenade also had the same result. It's a small taste of what can be possible in game. I'm really hoping to see some past titles support the LCD panel such as Battlefield 2 and hope more titles are announced soon. The second way is to do it through the keyboard interface. There’s a MR button that allows you to program a key without having the control panel up. This feature is similar to the old Sidewinder Commander that I loved. Let’s say you are deep into a game and find that you are using a certain macro sequence that you didn’t program for. Press the MR button, press the G key you want to program, press the sequence including the delays, and then press the MR key again. You’ve now programmed the key. But what if you want to save it for future use? No problem. Just go to the control panel after you exit the game and there’s the macro for you to save under the G key that you programmed. Your quick macros will be saved until you turn off your machine. The programming pad’s grouping makes it easy to select the key you want since it’s only in rows of two and length of three. The only thing I would like would be a little bump in the middle key like what’s on the F and J key but for the most part, I didn’t have problems selecting the one I want quickly though during gameplay. The keys responded quickly and correctly with the macros I programmed in. It became so useful that I had profiles for when I programm in Visual Studio 2005. For some of the key combinations I use a lot such as build, the macro functions help make it easy to activate with a press of a button. The keys aren't just for games and they proved useful in other applications as well. Because of the addition of the programmable keys, the keyboard is rather long. I had pr