Page 3: G710 Plus
G710 Plus
This is the G710+. It has a black and gray motif with orange accents. Logitech should consider using red in its products (there is no personal opinion in this last statement at all). It is slightly larger than a standard, generic, keyboard that you'll find for under $10 at most places. The G15 was a test for the size that the market will bear and it was just too big for most desks.
The single row of programmable G keys are a welcome change to the series. The only gamers that like to have tons of programmable keys are MMO players that have complex series of key commands. The players that play FPS or even RTS don't bother programming that many keys. You are not going to be doing something like this in a FPS... Strafe left, duck, strafe left, jump, throw grenade, shoot three bullets. It just doesn't happen over and over again to program. RTS gamers should have plenty of programmability with 18 combos. MMO gamers may want more, but it still should be alright.
The WASD keys are gray while the rest of the keyboard (save for one additional spot) is black. It is sort of useful for gamers to initially find their hand placement. The only issue is that without the backlight, the gray colored keys do not have enough contrast with the clear character text. For touch typists, this doesn't matter at all.
The arrow keys are the second set of gray colored keys. Again, you can see the contrast of the key character isn't the best. That being said, these are arrow keys and it is trivial to use. The number pad has all the normal layouts and thankfully, the grouping of INS, DEL, Home, End, PG UP, PG DN are correct. There are six keys in this group and that always should be the case! The top of the keyboard has the media keys, dual zone backlight controls (to the left), and to the right, the volume controls.
When we first saw two USB cable, we thought this was due to power requirements of the keyboard. This is not the case. The G710+ supports USB pass-through. This is different than older products like the G110 which had a USB hub in the keyboard. Pass-through gives the device more power and doesn't share it with the keyboard. It is only USB 2.0, though. The USB plug is on the top of the keyboard.
The bottom of the keyboard has the keyboard legs, and rubber feet. It also has some industry logos and such. You can see some cable management for things like a USB headset.
Compared to a standard size DVD, the keyboard is a good size. It isn't too massive to fit on most desks and isn't overly chunky, even with the tapered sides.
This is where the cost of the keyboard is coming from. The G710+ uses Cherry MX Brown tactile mechanical switches. Buried under each of the normal keyboard keys (not the media or backlight keys) are a mechanical switch. This keyboard will last a very long time and can be easily cleaned out. Each key can be removed and replaced. An easily moddable keyboard? Yes, this is.
You can also see how the backlight of the keyboard works. Each switch has a LED embedded in it to provide light for each individual key. This allows each key to have uniform lighting.
This is the G710+. It has a black and gray motif with orange accents. Logitech should consider using red in its products (there is no personal opinion in this last statement at all). It is slightly larger than a standard, generic, keyboard that you'll find for under $10 at most places. The G15 was a test for the size that the market will bear and it was just too big for most desks.
The single row of programmable G keys are a welcome change to the series. The only gamers that like to have tons of programmable keys are MMO players that have complex series of key commands. The players that play FPS or even RTS don't bother programming that many keys. You are not going to be doing something like this in a FPS... Strafe left, duck, strafe left, jump, throw grenade, shoot three bullets. It just doesn't happen over and over again to program. RTS gamers should have plenty of programmability with 18 combos. MMO gamers may want more, but it still should be alright.
The WASD keys are gray while the rest of the keyboard (save for one additional spot) is black. It is sort of useful for gamers to initially find their hand placement. The only issue is that without the backlight, the gray colored keys do not have enough contrast with the clear character text. For touch typists, this doesn't matter at all.
The arrow keys are the second set of gray colored keys. Again, you can see the contrast of the key character isn't the best. That being said, these are arrow keys and it is trivial to use. The number pad has all the normal layouts and thankfully, the grouping of INS, DEL, Home, End, PG UP, PG DN are correct. There are six keys in this group and that always should be the case! The top of the keyboard has the media keys, dual zone backlight controls (to the left), and to the right, the volume controls.
When we first saw two USB cable, we thought this was due to power requirements of the keyboard. This is not the case. The G710+ supports USB pass-through. This is different than older products like the G110 which had a USB hub in the keyboard. Pass-through gives the device more power and doesn't share it with the keyboard. It is only USB 2.0, though. The USB plug is on the top of the keyboard.
The bottom of the keyboard has the keyboard legs, and rubber feet. It also has some industry logos and such. You can see some cable management for things like a USB headset.
Compared to a standard size DVD, the keyboard is a good size. It isn't too massive to fit on most desks and isn't overly chunky, even with the tapered sides.
This is where the cost of the keyboard is coming from. The G710+ uses Cherry MX Brown tactile mechanical switches. Buried under each of the normal keyboard keys (not the media or backlight keys) are a mechanical switch. This keyboard will last a very long time and can be easily cleaned out. Each key can be removed and replaced. An easily moddable keyboard? Yes, this is.
You can also see how the backlight of the keyboard works. Each switch has a LED embedded in it to provide light for each individual key. This allows each key to have uniform lighting.