Logitech G19 Programmable Gaming Keyboard with Color Display

First let me confess to being a bit of a Logitech fan. Their products have, for the most part, treated me very well over the years and so has their customer service. Let me get down to the reason I have two of this keyboard. On one fateful day I decided to remove all of the keys on the keyboard and one by one clean them out and give the keyboard a thorough cleaning using a few qtips and a bowl of water. The reason for the thorough cleaning was because I accidentally spilled a can of soda in the keyboard. The spilling incident itself did not damage the keyboard as the very little that managed to get under the plastic of the keyboard ended up on the rubber padding. Nay, what did it was the water that was left in the keys and managed to seep down to the circuitry below because I didn't wait long enough for them to thoroughly dry. A funny story, but tragic indeed. So I waited, the keyboard went on sale, and I snagged another one. What do I love about this keyboard? Well, the keys feel very nice, for the most part. They have a bit of a squish to them, but not too much. This is nice because it makes the keyboard very quiet. I prefer my keyboards to be quiet rather than loud and clicky like that of a mechanical keyboard. The illuminated portion of it is absolutely awesome. There are so many colors to choose from that I have never actually seen on an illuminated keyboard. Dark purples, oranges, and light greens, even pink! Also the fact that it sports two powered USB 2.0 ports is very convenient. I actually use them for my Tablet and Mouse. The volume dial is really cool, feels nice and it's not overly sensitive making it easy to slightly lower or heighten the volume. There is a ton of customization and profiles you can set up if you are a hardcore gamer, I haven't taken too much advantage of this, I should, but I haven't. The only major downside to this keyboard is the screen. The screen is cool, and it looks nice, but it is so very limited in what it can do. The youtube function if it is pretty much worthless seeing as I can't search for videos I might actually want to watch. However, for games that fully support it, it's really cool. The most notable game I can give that supports it is League of Legends and the support seems to be fairly new as one day it just started popping up on the screen. It even, while loading, shows the League of Legends logo and changes the keyboards color to blue! Pretty cool right? I thought it was. The nice thing about it is that it gives me all of the information on my champion. So I can quickly glance down and see certain bits of important information without having to pull up anything on the main game screen. The advantages are small, but sometimes that's all it takes is a small advantage, right? For most other games I honestly can't think of why the screen would be necessary, League of Legends is probably the only one I know of that does it right. However, there are some programs that work with it as well. One of them is EVGA Precision, a graphics card tweaking and monitoring program. I used these features to show my fan speeds, temperatures, and clock speeds while overclocking to ensure I can safely overclock without hitting a certain temperature threshold. That, too, works quite well as I can have this appearing on that screen rather than on one of my monitors. I would like to see more features like that, seeing as I can quickly slip through them on the keyboard navigation rather than doing anything on screen, so if I do happen to be playing a game I can flip between background programs using the keyboard. All I can say is that this keyboard is really good, it just needs more support for the incredible potential it has, and has had since the G15 made its debut. On a side note, to some people, like me, the keyboard may look like it's massive. It's not, it's a good bit smaller than the original G15 (G11) keyboard and might be about the same size as the current G15, I'm not certain.

This keyboard really is awesome. I am a firm believer in Logitech products, and this keyboard is no exception. The keys aren't to mushy and spring back nicely to allow for quick and smooth typing. The game toggle is really nice for when you are in game to keep you from annoyingly hitting the windows key and exiting you out of the game. I love that the media keys work even when iTunes (for example) is not on the main screen. There is the option to set a different color for each of the three macro group buttons. It is also really awesome to be able to set macros on the fly. I had to reformat my hard drive recently and when I moved my music back from the external iTunes decided it needed to make duplicates of everything (my fault but oh well). With this keyboard it was no problem, because I just made a macro to go through and delete all the duplicates right on my keyboard, pretty nifty. The best part is that you can set three sets of twelve macros for pretty much every program! meaning you can have 36 macros for your default profile, 36 macros for Open Office, 36 macros for each game, etc. Everything mentioned before is great even without mentioning that it has a color lcd to view system information on. The lcd is great. I don't feel like you need to be superman to push the buttons. They feel reminiscent of the buttons that were on my old Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro (I think..). I guess what may bother some is that they don't have that modern clicky feel they feel more like buttons than keys. On to my few gripes about the keyboard. Most of which could be fixed easily with a firmware update I am sure. The lcd is compatible with Windows slideshow. This HAD great potential. The operative word being had, because Microsoft has killed slideshow. You can hardly find any slideshow apps anywhere. This is a problem, because as far as other apps for the g19 go there aren't really many of those out there either. The keyboard has been out for over two years and there haven't really been any new apps released by Logitech or the community of g19 users. The best one I found was LCD Host, because it let me kind of build my own app. The worst part with the Logitech apps is that you can't even change the color of the background on any of them to be something other than Logitech green. I just feel like Logitech in two years would have done something awesome with the screen on this keyboard. I also really think that with usb 3.0 out Logitech would have put that into this keyboard by now. All that said, the keyboard is fantastic! I strongly recommend it if you have this much money to spend on a keyboard. It has a really quick response time and a lot of great functions. If you do get this keyboard then you may be disappointed by the apps available, but definitely not by anything else!

When I spend $100 or more on a KEYBOARD, I expect unsurpassed quality. I bought a G510 and I bought two of these G19's and gifted one to a friend. I returned both my G510 and G19. Let me make this simple: Pros: --------------------- + Change back light color to your preference, very cool. + Good amount of macro keys (except there are 2 rows instead of 3 rows like the G15 or G510. Could be a con for some). + Cons: --------------------- - Backlight colors are very dull and unevenly spaced. They are bright in some spots and extremely dark in others, which makes it look very unattractive. You won't see this in the pictures they advertise. - Keyboards came with misprinted key! - Some keys would stick in when pressed (for example: typing the letter "a" will result in "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"). - The LCD screen is a joke. Besides from a few vendors, you'll have a hard time finding any decent applications to use with it. Granted, that is not Logitech's fault... Just saying, don't expect too much productivity from the screen. - The keys are domed in and feel very... squishy? They are way too soft and don't provide much response. - Mine came with a volume control bar that was dented or uneven at certain points and made volume control a disaster. - 1 year limited warranty? Are you serious? A 150 dollar keyboard and 1 year warranty? That tells me they know this keyboard is not meant to last, very sad. Summary: -------------------- There seem to be a lot of "gaming" keyboards out there at a very heft cost. The truth is, many of these keyboards are practically the same hardware as cheap 20$ keyboards with USB/audio/mic jacks and the ability to change the back lighting. I earn my money the hard way and these two keyboards I bought were a huge frustration. If you don't want a useless LCD screen (who the hell watches picture slide shows on a keyboard?), go with something else. I was about to purchase the " Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard with Backlighting " but then guess what? The more commonly used keys used by gamers are BLOCKED. This is a sad marketing strategy. They create a great keyboard but block certain key combinations so people are forced to buy the more expensive Gaming series keyboards (G510, G19, etc). To Logitech: Shame on you. I did not expect you to put out this kind of cheap merchandise at high price tags and bundle it with a 1 year warranty. Logitech was a good company back then, but obviously things have changed. This will be the last time I purchase a Logitech branded product.

First.. read a bunch of the reviews here. Other people have said it better and more completely than I plan to. The short of it is that this is a very cool keyboard, but it has some drawbacks that you should consider before buying. Years ago I got my girlfriend a Saitek keyboard.. the Eclipse I believe. She's a big gamer and is pretty hard on keyboards. Her keycaps were wearing down, she had spilled some stuff at some point and the keys were feeling a little gummy. Basically it was time for a new keyboard. The criteria were "gaming keyboard" (so something semi reliable" and "nice backlit keys", she liked the multi-colors that the Saitek provided. It's a little thing, but when it's for a gift, sometimes a little "pretty" and "flashy" is fun. I looked at the Razer Lycosa, but there was concern about it's rubberized keycaps wearing and since she's pretty hard on keyboards, that was a definite concern so I looked around and found... nothing. Some people will contest this statement, but there really aren't that many really cool gaming keyboards out right now that would make good gifts. I thought about getting her another Saitek Eclipse (I don't like the aesthetic of the new Saiteks) or a different Razer keyboard (didn't care for those either) and the new super fancy Old Republic keyboard with the OLED keys and touch screen was a bit pricey and not out until shortly before Christmas, so it was out of the question. So the G19 was really one of the few options left. I dislike the G15's antiquated display, so I had high hopes for the full color QVGA(?) LCD display of the G19. Some pros and cons, already mentioned in other reviews, but here's what I've noticed so far: Pros * Backlight can be made just about any color. Not limited to red/blue/green/purple. You actually have a color picker type thing like in a paint program and it changes in realtime. Very cool and flashy. You can even switch between three profiles (maybe the wrong word, still figuring it all out) that have different lighting colors. I think it's so you can set up different profiles within the same game profile to switch between and have a backlight color associated with each one so you know which one you're using. Think about switching about solo/raiding/healer/tank/etc for an MMO without changing to a different game profile. * Game profiles are pretty extensive. You can attach actions/key sequences/mouse clicks/etc to one of the "G" keys. Lots of modern games already programmed into it and the ability to write our own scripts in LUA scripting (which WoW modders will be familiar with) or simple key sequence programming for non-programmers built into the configuration program. Should be easy enough to use for most gamers * Volume control and mute - It's been ages since I've had this on a keyboard and I severely missed it. (bought myself a G19 with Christmas gift card money after I bought one for my girlfriend as a gift and had a chance to take a peek at it). This is a necessity for gamers. Using the volume on your speakers sucks and using in-game volume settings is best done once and left alone. You really need access to system volume control from within a game so you don't have to alt-tab out to get to it. It seems like a little thing, but when it's missing, it's a burden for any gamer. * LCD display - Yeah, I'll put this in the pros column, despite what I'll say in the cons. It's flashy, it's cool, and even though it's limited (unfortunately) it's still got a great geek wow factor to it so if you're getting this keyboard as a gift or just love geeky things, it's a little cherry on top of it all. It *is* limited, but the driver disk comes with the SDK and there's a G19 and G15 LCD emulator built right into the control software, so if you have any programming chops and access to Visual C, it looks relatively easy to develop for. I plan on giving it a shot myself sometime soon. * All the keys are in the right places - Most gaming keyboards have this feature, but this is one of those deals where when stuff isn't right, you notice. I had a Logitech Wave wireless keyboard/mouse combo and a couple other keyboards while waiting to figure out what I wanted to buy and the INS/DEL/HOME/END/PGUP/PGDOWN cluster was "wrong" on all of them. I do a lot of programming and use those keys a ton and when they're not in the classic configuration, you have to re-learn them and I'd have to switch between work (where they were correct) and home (where they weren't) and it was quite annoying. Thankfully the G19 has them in the right place. Just need to get used to the extra space where the G keys are. Keep hitting one of them when I try to find the ESC key by touch. * Some great games support the LCD display directly, some apps/games need a plugin or update, but there is some support for the G19 specifically and G15 applets will work with it as well (they just don't look very nice on the G19's fancy display.. they look all blocky because they're made for the more limited G15 display). Even some apps like Ventrillo and Mumble have support for the display. Oh! And Media Player Classic will make use of the display, showing up as an app after you run it once after installing the G19. It doesn't appear in the apps directory, but somehow hooks into the system to show up on the apps list. Apparently iTunes also supports this display, but I don't use iTunes. Cons * Biggest disappointment for me, a super geek, out of the box was the limitations of the LCD display. It comes with some applets that do some ok stuff. Not sure I'd ever watch YouTube videos on it. The performance monitor, possibly the RSS feed or image rotator might be handy. If you dig around the internet, you'll find plugins for apps and some minor attempts at making new applets for this, but a lot of the websites are dead or links are bad. Seems like everyone got really excited when it came out then they all gave up due to lack of support or something. There's a G15 plugin for Trillian, but it's for like Trillian 4 and they're up to 8 now. It doesn't do much and is G15-ugly and seems to lock up my Trillian when close it (Trillian) so I won't be using it. * Addendum to the LCD issues above. This keyboard supports Windows Sideshow, which is a way to have a tiny external screen to display small bits of data. The idea was to allow you to use cell phones or even a tiny external display on a closed laptop lid like what you see on flip phones. The big issue? This was a feature in Windows Vista that was removed/buried in Windows 7 and it doesn't look like they plan on supporting it. So don't use this as a selling point unless you have Vista, I guess.. even then.. I don't know if it'll actually work or if support was removed from the newer drivers. If you go into Windows Help on Windows 7 and search for "Sideshow", you can find a link that will open the Sideshow configuration in Control Panel (it's hidden in regular Control Panel views). But the keyboard doesn't show up as a device. Someone needs to write a display driver similar to a MIMO or Liliput USB display for this thing. * Some people question the durability. These keyboards aren't heavy duty military issue and maybe they'll only last a year as some people say. Then I guess I know what I'll be buying my girlfriend next year for Christmas. :) Really, keyboards wear out. How hard you are on them has a lot to do with how long they'll last. And keyboards get nasty even if you clean them and don't eat around your computer. The idea of replacing a keyboard every couple years is fine with me. It is a very "pretty" keyboard, though, and just like how we both really like the Saitek Eclipse, I think we're going to like this keyboard and be sad when it's time to replace it unless there's something better than what's currently available or we replace it with another G19 or Eclipse. Summary: I'm disappointed that "Sideshow" is a complete bust. They should remove it from any product literature as it's highly misleading. The LCD is pretty, but kind of limited usefulness (even outside the Sideshow thing). But all in all, I think $140 for an above average gaming keyboard with a bit of flashy style and still some potential isn't too bad. I'd rather have paid $100 but it was $140 for the gift I bought and $100 for the one I bought after the Amazon gift card I used, so I'm not complaining. I give it 4 stars assuming it won't die in 3 months or something dumb like that. I had high hopes for Sideshow, but ignoring those high hopes, this feels like a pretty solid gaming keyboard that I really love so far and I think it makes a great gift as something that's a little more expensive than what you'd normally spend on yourself with some bells and whistles that aren't important but are kind of fun to have. I think those are the ingredients for a great gift.

Okay, generally speaking, I really like this keyboard. I've had it for a few weeks now, and it has performed pretty well. I do have doubts about its long-term sturdiness, however. Recently, I have started having problems with the display screen going bonkers. It will start flashing the white logo screen and becomes completely unresponsive. When this happens, all of the features also quit working. The keyboard itself continues to function as a normal keyboard, but nothing else works, and the constant screen flashing gets REALLY annoying. I went through all the normal troubleshooting steps. Looking at the gaming software that accompanies this and the gaming mouse, I noticed that my computer was not seeing the keyboard at all, so I tried rebooting. Didn't work. Next step, I tried unplugging and replugging the keyboard from the electrical outlet (yes, you plug this keyboard into the wall... I was surprised too), then changing USB ports... still nothing. I even went out and re-downloaded and reinstalled the driver software for the keyboard. This also did nothing. As a final cry for help, I turned to the interwebs. I found in the comments of a Youtube video (made to ask for help and document the same problem I had) a tip that "tapping on the display screen" would fix my problem. Of course, my first thought was "that is just nuts, like something out of a sci-fi comedy." Regardless, I tried tapping on the screen. The first time, it did not fix the problem; but I noticed that for a moment, the screen froze and appeared to be trying to "boot up." So, I tried it again. I tapped on the display screen about 6 or 8 times, and low and behold... it worked! My computer made the little "bloop-bloop" noise that tells me it found a USB device, the flashing screen stopped flashing, and the clock display returned. When this happened, all the fancy little feature keys started working again too. Now, I am no rocket surgeon, but it seems to me that if the only viable fix for a hardware failure is to essentially beat on the thing until it works again; well, you're not dealing with a very high quality piece of machinery. It also really makes me question just whether I'll get 150 dollars worth of use out of it before it dies completely. And the fact that there are multiple sources citing the exact same issue (and the exact same fix) suggests that this is not just a fluke. All in all, the unit is nice, but buy with caution. If you don't make a habit of throwing away large sums of many on questionable craftsmanship, then this unit may not be for you.

I guess it's about time I wrote a review. I've owned this piece of hardware for about 10 months now, and I must say I am very, very satisfied with it. I, like some of you out there, am a very fast typist. Previously on my laptop keyboard I could push 80+ WPM easily. Once I got this in, I immediately could type upwards of 100+ WPM without breaking a sweat. The key layout is so incredibly comfortable and natural for my hands, it's ridiculous. I love it. The response of the keyboard, everything, is like it was made for me. If I could only use one keyboard for the rest of my life, it would be this one, hands down. Everything on it is amazing. Everything. I don't ever use the macro keys on the side so I can't speak for their usefulness. I do, however, utilize my keyboard screen for two things: one, to see the title of a song I am listening to in iTunes or to see how much time is left in it (saves me from alt+tabbing if it's just sitting on the screen), and Ventrilo. I definitely use the screen for Ventrilo most of all. It is incredibly convenient, if you're in-game and want to see the username of the person chatting, you just look down on your keyboard and it tells you. It also keeps their name on the screen for an extra second, in red, after transmitting, which is nice also. It also displays recent events (like "user" has connected, disconnected, changed channels, etc.) It's incredibly useful. If you're an admin of your ventrilo, you can also do things like kick and ban and mute players, although I've never used that specific feature. If I want to ban someone I don't think I would do it from my keyboard. Ever have someone drop into your vent for a second and leave and you wanted to know who it was? This keyboard tells you. So, to summarize, this screen was practically designed for Ventrilo. It is incredibly nice to have. I like how I have the option of shutting off the lights and screen on the keyboard just by pressing a button. If I'm going out to lunch, to work, whatever, I just press the button and it turns off. Very nice to have in case you're one of those people, like me, who likes to have all the lights off when leaving for an extended amount of time. You can set the display color of the keyboard to whatever RGB value you want, which is very nice. I just use the default green, because it seems to match the keyboard and my setup nicely. You can use whatever color you can dream up in your head though. It's awesome. iTunes is nice with the play/pause, back, backward and forward buttons on the top right. I use them frequently when I don't feel like alt+tabbing and just want to skip to the next song, or if I want to pause the music really quick to hear someone's quiet voice in ventrilo. This entire keyboard was made for convenience, I swear. There are some TINY issues with this keyboard. For one, my volume scroll doesn't work, never has. I don't know if I need to enable it in options or something, but I've just never bothered with it because I just don't care about it, really. I would never get into the habit of using it so it's basically useless to me. It looks nice though. The only other con is the button that looks like a little gear near the bottom left of the screen is off-center with the backlight, but seriously, who cares about that? Not me. Definitely not enough to warrant knocking a star and barely worth mentioning. I love this keyboard. Definitely one of the best purchases in my setup. If you find yourself in the realm of spending this much money on a keyboard, go for it. Either this one or the new "g19s" model, although I can't speak to the usefulness of that product because I have not used it. Buy this.

I had high hopes for this keyboard, but had to send it back even though the LCD display worked and it was not crashing my system. I got it for only[...]. considering it was[...]. with a [...]. rebate, but it still wasn't worth that, and it was disfunctional as well. This keyboard does not work right with Win 7 64 bit. But, I am 100X better off without it and here's why. First some Pros: The colorful backlit keyboard looks great. Customizable G keys, and the LCD is sharp, colorful and a nice gadget. I was glad it accepted info from the Afterburner video overclocking utility( but not the graphs). My aging EVGA 680i motherboard did not have problems. In fact, I had this and my old MS Natural keyboard, which also servs as a USB hub, working fine at the same time. Those X58 mobo manufacturers need go go bact to the old drawing board. BTW if you have an X58 you do not want this keyboard, do your research. The cons: 1. The keyboard did not work right. The m key typed "M&A", the L key typed ",l8", and the p key did a page up and then typed "p". This was consistent, even after an uninstallation and reinstall and after installing the latest drivers. 2. I absolutly hated the keyboard layout. As others noted, keys are small and not spaced apart well, It was like using a laptop, seriously. Gaming keybard my foot! The space bar is close to non-existant. The G keys are too close to the keyboard and you will hit them when using shift or control. All non letter keys are small, i.e. Ctrl, Alt, Win key. It is a hassle to game with and definitly not suitable for everyday use despite its high price. You say that's OK, I want it for gaming. But you can get Logitech G 13 for gaming for just one third this price, and be 100X better off!! 3. This keyboard is lightweight, especially compared to the Microsoft keyboard I was using, and top end Steel series keyboards. This thing is low budget cheap, probably because they sunk too much into the colorful LCD. The plastic extention piece is cheesy, thin, not padded, and fingerprints smear it. The lifters in the back are useless. There is no curvature to the keyboard. I know it is not a natural keyboard, but come on, this is a top dollar keyboard, they could have enhanced it with a little natural curve to it. 4. The LCD software does not work right with Win 7 64 bit, (probably why they do not list it on the box or web site). Come on Logitech, its been out for over a year now, and you had pre release versions for a year before that. There is no excuse for such incompetency! The first few days the software worked, but then for no reason, all but 2 mini programs in the LCD disappeared and I could not get them back. I had to reinstall. I also suspect that programs that clean up your cookies, cash and temp files delete programs that run on the LCD. Again shoddy programming, they should not load essential program functions in temp folders. 5. Beware, all the little gadgets that run inthe LCD are eating your memory, about 100K and more depending on what all you load (you can control what loads). They also load automatically on boot up. Nevertheless, thank Heavens, all this worked out for the good for me, and possibly for you too. I discovered that the Logitech G 13 gameboard (which is superrior to the Belkin n52te, do your research) is incomparably better than the G 19 for gaming; like light years ahead. Then get yourself a real keyboard to use with it. I found the Microsot Natural 4000 on sale here at Amazon. It is one of the best, most commented on keyboards in the world (note comments here and at other sites). So I'm happy, I got a far superrior gaming tool, and a great keyboard. Forget the G 19 it is not ready for primetime yet, and the cost is a ripp-off for what you get.

This keyboard may seem a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. It is extremely solid, and well built. Though it s purely aesthetic, I love being able to change the color of my keys, to pretty much anything you can find on a normal color spectrum. Some colors show up better than others. The little screen is awesome. The keyboard comes with an on board media player, which enables you to watch movies/slide shows while you are doing other things on your monitor(s). Playing TF2 while watching Shaun of the Dead is an entertaining way to waste time. The screen has a few apps built in with the keyboard, and some games I've seen come with apps pre-loaded for this very board. However, other games where you might think to find some cool apps, the finding can get hard, if it is possible at all. -Gamer Warning- If you are buying a keyboard like this to create/use macros in games, double check and make sure that the use of macros is legal by that games standards. Yes you can create a macro to just about everything for you in SC2, yes it makes you faster and more efficient, and YES, it can get you banned in multiplayer. Do your research before you go macro crazy. Overall, this keyboard delivers good action, awesome features, and levels of convenience normal keyboards never come close to. If you game, just spend a lot of time at the computer, or find yourself constantly distracted by bright shiny things, this may be the keyboard for you.