Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard

I love using this keyboard on my windows machines. It is easy to set up and is very intuitive in its game settings. The added keys allow for some neat macros to be used in World of Warcraft. These allow for added pwnage against people with standard keyboards.

I tried using this on my Mac Pro OSX 10.5.x. It did function as any normal keyboard but the extra keys didn't seem to do too well. I was able to tweak it a bit but they were never as good as when I was using it in Windows Vista.

All in all a wonderful piece of kit for your Windows based machine.

Pros: The lighting is excellent. The blue is nice. Key touch is fine. Macros are very easy to record. Macros and keystrokes are very easy to assign to G keys. I love that only one USB port is needed and there are no little microphone or earphone wires hanging around. I stand the keyboard on end against the wall next to my chair when not in use, so the open holes at the top make it easy to handle. The flat ends make it easy to stand on end. The construction is substantial. The black and silver lines are attractive. There are Vista 64-bit drivers for it. It seems to work seamlessly with my new laptop. Probably more stuff, but that's what I've liked so far.

Cons: Wrist rest is floppy and useless, since I hold the keyboard in my lap. The left shift seems to skip sometimes, but that may be my touch or my laptop. I had the same problem, only worse, using the laptop keyboard. I think others have tested the onboard USB ports and found them to be USB 1, but I assume a power cord to the kb would be needed to provide enough power for most peripherals, like you have to do with USB hubs. I could use those ports. My laptop has only 3. Mouse, kb, printer. No room for scanner, backup drive, or other peripherals.

I purchased this keyboard about 6 months ago and an extremely happy with it. It's 18 programmable keys make setting up hot keys and macros a breeze with easy to use software. Plus they are easily accessible on the left hand side of the keyboard in groups of 6 keys. The back lighting makes late night gaming great and comes in 3 different levels if illumination. Two USB ports come in handy for hooking up accessories such as a headset and mouse. In my opinion much better than the Logitech G15.

I have owned this keyboard for a year now and love it to death. I have fiddled with many differant keyboards throughout the years and this is by far the best I have ever worked with. It has proven to me to be dependable and rugged as I have dragged it to lan parties, work, an even now to Afghanistan.

The first and foremost thing one should note about this keyboard is its huge size, this keyboard will consume a sizable amount of desktop real estate, and may or may not fit in many desk's keyboard trays. But with its cable management, which are little groves under the keyboard you are able to hide many wires such as speakers and mouse to make a more presentable desktop appearance.

The second thing one will notice is the plethora of programable G buttons on the left side of the keyboard, and like the rest of the keyboard they are backlit with blueish lighting that is easy on the eyes in dim light. Each key is able to be programed with the included software to perform any number of custom created macros which is pretty usefull in allot of strategy and MMO games. You also havethe ability to create on the fly macros so you don't have to leave your game to do so. With three differant sets you can program up to 54 macros that can be executed at the push of a button.

The third thing you will notice about this keyboard is the backlit LCD display that in its simplest form acts as a clock, cpu monitor, and email checker. But when linked with a supported game such as WoW can be so much more displaying in game stats such as health, ammo, lives, time played, ect. Coupled with the LCD is a very functional media control that includes a nicely done volume circle, pause, play, forward, backwards.

This keyboard also solves a common gaming issue which is the windows key. If pressed during gameplay the windows key can abruptly interrupt you play session by minamizing your game. However with the flick of a switch the G11 transforms it's self into game mode which disables this key temporarily to prevent minimization.

I have used this keyboard daily for about a year now, and one problem that is noted with backlit keyboards is the buttons eventually fade and wear iut ti the point where you can no longer see the keys. I have not had this issue with this board as all my keys remain visable and useable.

All in all if you can afford the desktop space this keyboard consumes and require an enormous amount of programable keys this is the keyboard for you. However if you would prefere a small keyboard with less programable keys check out the Logitech G15 or a keyboard from Razer.

I love this keyboard. The extra macro-programmable keys are great. The blue lighted keys look cool and enable use in the dark.

But I can't change songs in Yahoo Music Jukebox unless Jukebox is the active application (which means that feature is not useable for me). Also the software must be manually loaded when I start a game or app.