The Logitech G19. A stunning keyboard at first glance, but (image courtesy: Logitech)

Everyday I sit down at my desk I stare into an LCD monitor, some days for hours at a time.  It’s not everyday that I sit down at my desk and stare into an LCD on my keyboard, but that’s exactly what’s presented in Logitech’s G19 keyboard.  A top-of-the-line, top-shelf keyboard with a price to match ($199.99).

The G19 is stunning.  Practical? A necessity? Maybe not, but stunning, yes, very much so.

So with it’s high-price and high-browed features, is the G19 worth it? The answer is maybe.

Center of Attention

It’s no surprise really, anytime someone came by my desk they shared an exclamation about the G19.  “The keyboard has an LCD in it?” was common.  The LCD in the middle is definitely the center of attention on the G19.

The display, while not huge, sports a decent 320×240 resolution.  Logitech says it shows “unprecedented levels of information—both in- and out-of-game—including game stats, system information, VOIP communication data, video playback, image slideshows, and many other items.”  While this is true to a certain extent, it really depends on the game you’re playing.  The full list of supported games can be found here: www.logitech.com/gamepanel. The number one game that stands out is one included in the box, World of Warcraft (a 10-day trial DVD ships inside the G19’s box).  Some big name games on the list include Crysis, Sid Meier´s Civilization IV, but absent on the list are some of my most played games, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Dawn of War 2.

The G19 keyboard does not come with levitation abilities. (image courtesy: Logitech)

This is actually one of the biggest complaints I’ve seen for the G19.  In his review “Keyboard Can’t” Devin Coldeway at Crunchgear says “If Logitech is going to roll something like this out, they needed to roll out big or customers are going to see that they’re paying for a fantasy device.”

I agree completely.  The support for in-game features just isn’t that deep.  There’s a nice list of games there, but when my two personal favorite FPSs aren’t on the list, that’s disappointing.  As a gaming keyboard, the support in-game for the LCD is lackluster, but the LCD does have some built-in features.  It has YouTube channels built in.  You can sync it to your RSS feed.  There’s a video player (though it was not friendly with my episodes of Battlestar Galactica). The picture viewer played nice with every picture I threw at it.  There’s a performance monitor, akin to something you’d see on a Vista Sidebar, a clock and a timer.

Are these things worth the extra green you’d shell out on a keyboard? Probably not.  That’s why there needs to be better in-game support to make the Logitech G19 worth the price on the sticker.  It’s not ideal to watch videos on a tiny screen when you’re sitting at a desktop that’s mammoth-sized by comparison.

Managing cables, mess-free. (image courtesy Logitech)

Then there’s everything else…

The LCD panel aside, everything else on the G19 is pretty solid.  The thing sports 12 fully programmable “G-keys” and you can assign 3 macros per key. Similar to other keyboards you can also record macros on the fly.

The keyboard supports multi-key input, which is important for any gamer.   You can press five keys at the same time and retain control.

One of my favorite features on the G19 is the switch that turns off your Windows/Context Menu buttons on the keyboard.  It’s just nice to not have to worry about the Start Menu popping up when you’re trying to track someone down.

There are 2 USB 2.0 ports on the back, which is more than some keyboards I’ve gotten my hands on lately and a definite plus.  Also, if you’ve a mess of cables running along your desk, the G19 may be able to help.  On the backside of the keyboard there’s enough space to run cables to help contain the clutter, but maybe not all of it. I also enjoy the different lighting options available for the G19.  You can choose the backlight that matches your mouse, an option I wish the backlight of the Sidewinder X8 had.

The G19’s media controls were standard fare, with one-touch controls for volume, play, pause, forward and reverse.

If your power sockets are full, the G19 may not be for you.  Since it sports the LCD, the standard power from a USB port isn’t enough to turn the  thing on.  You’ll need to plug in to a socket in order to use it.

Installation is a breeze, pop in the CD, install the drivers and you’re ready to go.  The G19’s background processes may be a bit many for some users, though they didn’t bother me.  There were 8 processes running that were eating about 90MB of memory.  Of the 6GB that I have, 90MB wasn’t all that much, and if you’re on a more memory constrained system this probably isn’t the best way to spend $200.

The G19's cable management system in effect.(image courtesy Logitech)

A great keyboard, but…

The Logitech G19 is a great keyboard, but only if you’re going to get your money’s worth out of it.  The LCD is probably not worth it if you’re just checking out the standard features.  If you’re playing World of Warcraft, Crysis, or any of the dozens of other games on the list then it may be worth it.

I’m asking Logitech to keep me apprised of any other games that add support for the G19 and I’ll be sure to post those on Twitter when I get them.

Questions, comments? Hit the section below.