Logitech Illuminated Keyboard Review

Wired USB keyboards still have an appeal in the market of USB peripherals due to no battery dependencies, no link disruption due to other wireless devices operating in the near vicinity and better compatibility with USB hosts than wireless keyboard variants. Even though they are primarily intended for professional gaming, there is still a lot of room for improvement as our operating systems migrate from our computer room into our bed room and living room. Today we will trial Logitech's newest keyboard entry featuring backlight key illumination and aimed at gamers and office users alike. Let's find out if its sleek looks, thin profile and illuminated keys can steer users back to wired USB keyboards.

Thin and small profile
Good key travel
Bright back-light; virtually no light leakage
4 step back-light brightness control
3-year limited hardware warranty

DEL and INS buttons are too small
No integrated USB hub
Awkward height on bottom row of keys
Excessive USB power consumption
No button to increase light intensity
Caps, Num, Scroll Lock LEDs hidden below numpad
Cannot adjust keyboard feet height

Keyboard Layout & Design
The Logitech Illuminated Keyboard comes well-packaged against possible damage from shipping and works straight out of the box with any operating system capable of supporting USB HID devices including USB keyboards. Both keyboard and embedded back-light are powered through the USB port on the computer as this can supply up to 500mA. No additional power transformers are required for the back light functionality or keyboard operation. With its thin 9.3mm profile, the keyboard can easily slip into a backpack for use as a travel keyboard but could be an even more revolutionary product should Logitech ever offer it in a fold-able variant.

The keyboard - unlike the MS NEK 4000 - follows a non-ergonomic and near standard key layout with the Page Up, Page Down, Home, End and Del keys all mapped above the cursor control keys. The numeric keypad layout is also pretty standard with the only non-standard feature being the addition of separate buttons above the numeric keypad to control back-light intensity, sound volume and sound mute. The Enter key is also more similar in shape to a notebook keyboard with a reduced foot-print which can sometimes be hard to reach when you're in a writing frenzy.

9.3mm thin Illuminated Keyboard beside a pen.

The typewriter keys are well-spaced and feature a slightly better angle than some notebook keyboards. The only two disadvantages to the key layout here is the increased height of the lower row of keys compared to the rest of the keys which does take getting used to especially if you have bigger than average hands and the lack of a second Function (Fn) key on the left-hand side to access the media key functionality easily if you only have your left hand free or are left-handed to begin with.

While wrist-rest is nice, it isn't removable.

The bottom base of the keyboard features a palm wrest to help reduce any strain induced on your wrists while typing office letters or hardcore gaming. Unfortunately, the palm wrest is not removable should you want to use the keyboard with a reduced footprint on your desk. A set of raise-able feet also allow you to raise the keyboard elevation to match your wrist posture and get the best comfort fit to the palm wrest.

I am glad to see Logitech also included a good 1.8 meter / 70 inch cable-length USB cable length with the keyboard for those of us who prefer to use the USB ports on our computers rather than relying on USB hubs which only end up cluttering our desks. The cable is permanently attached to the keyboard and non-replaceable which would have helped users looking to attach a 5 meter USB cable instead, the maximum cable permissible length allowed by the USB specification.

Illumination at Work
The back-light functionality is impressive and lighting is well distributed along all key characters. There is little to no back-light leakage between the keys which helps reduce the impact the keyboard may have in your office/house-hold ambient lighting should you wish to use it's back-light functionality. The back-light is controlled through a single key mounted in the top-right corner of the keyboard and causes the back-light to gradually shift light intensity down in 4 stages until completely switched off. Pressing the back-light key again will then cycle the back-light back to full intensity.

One recommendation I would have for any successor product with back-light functionality is to enable the back-light to shift focus between the F1, F2, F3... F12 characters or media shortcut characters when the Function (Fn) key is pressed to identify which key set is currently active. In its current incarnation the back-light on the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard will only light up the media shortcut characters mapped to the F1, F2, F3... F12 keys, regardless if the Fn / Function key is pressed or not.