Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard Review
Introduction:
I designed this review as a sort of encyclopedic critique of the each criticism I’ve found in the reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere. To prove my nerdiness conclusively, I’ve indexed my responses to each criticism so you don’t have to read the whole thing. You can just pick out the issues that concern you and get my scoop on them.
Introduction
1: Comfort
2: Large/Small hand friendliness
3: Keys Hard to Reach
4: WASD Keys Unmarked
5: Keys Hard to Press
6: Thumbstick Hard to Press
7: Thumbstick “loose” Feeling
8: Thumbstick not Analog
9: Thorny Thumbstick
10: Weak Game-recognition
11: Installation/Stability Issues
12: No In-game Profile-switching
13: LCD Weaknesses
14: Only One Brightness Level
15: Short Cord
16: Learning Curve
17: Size
Conclusion
1) Comfort
First thing I hear a lot about is ergonomics. People say the joystick is in a “cramped” or “alien” position, and act like your thumb is going to snap off after five minutes of play time. They have no leg to stand on as far as I’m concerned. True, your thumb will not be resting on the side like a mouse, but this isn’t a mouse, and it’s not the N52, and yet, somehow, it feels perfectly comfortable to me.
2) Large/Small Hands
Alongside ergonomic complaints I’ve read a number of people saying the G13 “isn’t made for large hands” or “isn’t made for small hands.” Evidently it was only made for medium-sized hands. I have huge hands, and I consider that my main advantage when using this board. Small hands I can see being a handicap, but I don’t know for sure. If anything, this was made for big hands.
3) Keys Hard to Reach
In line with the above, many people say that the keys can be hard to reach. Well, first off, if you’re getting a gameboard with a monstrous 20+ keys to press, some of them are just necessarily going to be further away than others. The only keys I have found took some practice to get to were the far left and bottom row keys since these are accessed by your pinky finger snaking way on out there. However, all the keys are so well defined that they take very little practice getting used to. Even before memorizing them you can quickly feel your way around due to their excellently clear demarcations. You can see that from the picture. Also, you can hear your fingers feeling across each key, if you listen carefully, so you have auditory cues on top of tactile ones as to where the keys are relative to your fingers. In short, I have never, ever, once gotten lost on this thing despite its vast array of keys.
4) WASD Keys Unmarked
Another key-related complaint is that the central “WASD” keys have no bumps on them to find them easily. This is extremely misleading. No, they don’t have bumps, what they have are indentations for your fingertips. Thus, even if you WERE blind and couldn’t see their clear, glowing labels your fingertips would slip into them almost without you knowing it. And, no, they aren’t labeled, “W” “A” “S” and “D” firstly because they don’t have to be mapped to those keys and secondly because, as I said just now, they have indentations clearly setting them apart from the other keys.
5) Keys Hard to Press
Also, people have said that the keys are hard to press. That’s a real jaw-dropper. Unless you have some dehibilitating, degenerative, terminal finger-disease you will quickly discover that these keys are some of the most comfortable, responsive, even satisfying buttons you have ever pressed. And by “satisfying” I mean, whenever you press one your finger will go down with a nice, rich feel and a glorious “tap” sound will emerge. The depth of the keys simply defines them for your fingers to find their way around more easily and in no way affects their responsiveness. It is not at all like one of ye olde timey keyboards that you had to mash down on to get anything going.
6) Thumbstick Hard to Press
Another criticism you will find commonly thrown at this thing is that the joystick is hard to press down. I agree with these points. The joystick is extremely hard to press down. About the only thing I would use it for were switching between walking/running modes or following someone, stuff you don’t do all the time.
7) Thumbstick “loose” Feeling
I’ve heard it said that the joystick is kind of floppy and cheap feeling. That is entirely subjective. Yes, it is very easy to push around, but I never would have thought of it as “floppy” or “cheap” without hearing it.
Thumstick not Analog
Honestly I’m not sure exactly what this means, but I have read the thread on the Logitech forums on this topic and they released a patch that enables you to put the joystick in “joystick mode” which, I presume, was the solution since nobody posted about it after that.
9) Thorny Thumbstick
My main complaint with the thumbstick is that it is just not comfortable. If you look carefully you will see it is shaped like a little tower. Correct that impression, it is shaped like a thorn and feels like it, too. You can’t really control it from above like a console stick, and it does take getting used to for this reason. BUT it is entirely worth it to be able to move just with your thumb and free up all your other fingers and mouse for actions and targeting and so forth.
10) Weak Game-recognition
Lots of people are having trouble getting it recognize games and give them an automatic key mapping for their games. This is true. It has yet to find one game on my computer. BUT, the one game it did find provided an absolutely ludicrous mapping setup. So basically, my question is, why would want it to automatically map game for you? As far as I’m concerned automatic keymapping is a silly idea in the first place. Assigning your own keys the way you want them is the best way to learn what all your keys are mapped to and ensuring that you can play the way that is most efficient for you. Everybody will want slightly different mappings.
11) Installation/Stability Issues
Another problem people are having is just getting the thing to install and remember profiles. Most of these people are using Mac systems, which I don’t use, so you should probably be concerned if you are trying to install this on a mac. The people with Windows OSs that complain about the software must just have had very little experience with anything computer related. I found, and the majority of reviewers I’ve read, the software to be extremely intuitive and easy to use. You select the key you want, you tell what you want it to do, you click okay, you’re done. Macros are fantasticaly easy as well. As for losing profiles and such, I have had no problems whatsoever. I make a profile, I map it, and it’s there whenever I want it from then on.
12) No In-game Profile-switching
One guy mentioned that he wanted to switch profiles in-game but couldn’t. First off, you’ve got THREE instantly switchable key maps for EVERY profile you make using the above-top-row keys just below the LCD. True, you will not be using these on the fly and will probably (*gasp*) have to look at them to switch, but if anybody needs more than 3 sets of 22 keys for any given game, they have something set up entirely wrong. I never need any more than the first set of 22 keys.
13) LCD Weaknesses
Speaking of the LCD, lots of people have complaints aimed at that. Some people can’t get it working, some say it’s too small, some say it’s just useless, some say it’s not bright enough, some say they can’t see it at certain angles, and some even say it’s too bright (as I remember). My experience is this: yes, it’s gimicky, but it has it’s uses and works well at what it does. What does it do? Pretty much anything. All the applets that were written for the G15 LCD will work with the G13. You can do anything from manage music to display in-game vitals (the latter of which seems super-pointless to me, but the LCD likes to do it automatically anyway). I use it for two things, mainly: keeping track of the time and monitoring my internals (of my PC, not my biological ones…). I found the screen very easily viewable for both these purposes and except for my GPU internals (for which I had to get an applet) CPU, RAM, and clock applets came with the device.
14) Only One Brightness Level
Some people complain that there’s only one brightness setting for the keys, but, honestly, why would want more when the one it has does its job perfectly. I can see every key clearly and at a glance. Why would I want to start screwing around with it myself? I would, in all probability, simply get haywired and go back to the default anyway. It’s like messing with the gamma/brightness/contrast settings in games. You end up just wanting to switch back to the defaults in the end.
15) Short Cord
I read one reivewer who said the thing has a “cripplingly short cord.” Obviously he was trying to play at a “cripplingly long distance” from his computer. The cord has got be at least five feet long. It’s more than enough to comfortably play it on the left of your monitor with the computer set on the right side of your desk.
16) Learning Curve
The final, and most legitimate, criticism I’ve heard is that the G13 has a learning curve, and I agree, basically. It does have a learning curve. The key-rows are lined up with one another, not staggered wildly like on a keyboard, and you do have to memorize which keys do what (which I why I recommend setting up all key-mappings yourself from scratch rather than use the silly pre-made ones). However, this learning curve depends entirely on the individual. For me, the learning curve was very mild, but it may take longer for others. I can’t speak for them. What I can vouch for (and what you will find said in other reviews) is that once you get used to it, the G13 becomes second nature. At this point, I’ve almost entirely forgotten that I’m using controllers at all. It all just comes instinctively after a few hours, and then you start simply putting your will in action fluidly, effortlessly, and continuously.
17) Size
A number of people have mentioned that the G13 takes up a lot of desk space. Yes, it does have a hearty footprint. About the size of a size-10 shoe I’d say, but nobody has mentioned yet that it takes up way less room than a keyboard. A G13/mouse combo is infinitely more portable than a keyboard/mouse combo. Now, you may say, “I still need my keyboard for chatting, so what we’re really talking about is a G13/keyboard/mouse combo.” Yes and no. Because your keyboard is only used for chatting, it no longer needs to be instantly accessible. In my case, I now have the keyboard up on the desk while I lounge back like a console-gamer in my chair with my keyboard-tray removed from my desk and sitting across my lap comfortably holding my G13 on the left and my mouse on the right. When I need to chat, I simply lean forward and type my message real quick and then flop back in my chair and keep playing. I could never do that with a mouse and keyboard because, first of all, my hand would have to be cramped up in front of my stomach to work the keyboard right and second, my lap-desk would have to be skewed way off to the right to get the mouse out far enough to be in a usable position. With the G13 and mouse my hands just rest easily to my right and left. If I weren’t killing things I would probably fall asleep it’s so cozy.
Conclusion:
So, is it worth 80 bucks? No. Is it worth 50? Maybe. It really depends on what you do and how much of it you do. If you are a hardcore MMO-er, then I would say it’s worth it absolutely. Otherwise, do what I did: wait for it to go on sale and buy it with the gift card you got last Christmas. The G13 has totally changed the way I game. I no longer feel like I’m “manipulating” anything. I feel like I’m playing the piano and the game is responding to my every whim. I’m virtually unconscious of my controls now, they are “transparent” if you will.
Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard Feature
- Naturally contoured design follows the natural shape of your hand and fingers for increased comfort during long sessions.
- Onboard memory lets you program up to 5 ready-to-play profiles, so you can take your personal preferences with you.
- Customizable backlighting lets you choose your colors and easily locate the right key in low-light conditions or lights-out play.
- 25 programmable keys allow you to assign keyboard functions to suit your style of play and create macros on the fly
- The high-visibility GamePanel LCD displays game stats, system info, and communications from fellow players.
Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard Overview
The Logitech G13 advanced gameboard gives you game-changing comfort and control. Naturally contoured design follows the natural shape of your hand and fingers for increased comfort during long sessions. Onboard memory lets you program up to 5 ready-to-play profiles, so you can take your personal preferences with you. Customizable backlighting lets you choose your colors and easily locate the right key in low-light conditions or lights-out play.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 05, 2010 13:16:39
Recommend : lcd hdtv digital camera gemstone Canonprinter Happy in summer
anderson