Summary: Logitech has given us a chance to take a look at one of its latest creations, the Logitech G13 gameboard. It’s a real jewel for game addicts like us.

Logitech’s G13 gameboard is a revolutionary peripheral, and well worth a look.

INTRODUCTION

Gamers spend a lot of time using keyboards specially designed for gameplay, called gameboards. Although Logitech entered this market only a couple of months ago, it has used all its experience and knowledge in the world of keyboards to give players what is possibly the best gameboard on the market.

The Logitech G13 is a small board that brings together a large number of keys, a small joystick, and a big LCD screen that gives you all the information you need about your game.

Let’s see exactly what Logitech says in its packaging for the G13:

Dig in. Get comfortable.

• Naturally contoured design: Follows the natural shape of your hand and fingers for increased comfort during long sessions.
• Large, concave buttons: Let you locate buttons by touch on the home row.
• Solid, stable design: Helps assure that your gameboard will keep up when your game gets intense. Strategically placed feet. Stable weight (650 grams).

Take command.

• Twenty-five programmable keys: Customize keys to suit your style of play.
• Quick macros: Assign complex actions to single keystrokes—on the fly.
• Programmable mini-joystick: Maneuver quickly and easily. The control you need is under your thumb.
• Backlit keys: Let you easily locate the right key in low-light conditions or lights-out play. Plus, you can customize the keys with any backlight color that you want.

Go mobile.

• Onboard memory: Saves your profiles so you can take your personal preferences with you.
• Portable design: Keeps the game going wherever you go.

Stay informed.

• High-visibility GamePanel™ LCD: Gather tactical information, including live stats, system info, and communications from fellow players.
• Public software development kit (SDK): Upload the latest enhancements developed exclusively for GamePanel™ by the Logitech open-source community.

Logitech’s G13 can definitely be a special gameboard for the most interesting games on the market, with features that are clearly superior to the competition’s.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

As soon as we saw the packaging of the Logitech G13, we thought, “this looks great!” The serigraphy is striking, with nicely contrasting colors. The back briefly lists the main features that Logitech has given the product: its ergonomic shape, keys with configurable LEDs, LCD screen, and many other features that we’ll cover, little by little.

The back of the box describes the G13 in six languages and explains some references included in the description.

The images on the package don’t show a lot, but they don’t need to, since you can see almost the entire product without taking it out. When you open the box, there’s not much to see: just the gameboard, user manuals, and a CD with G13 drivers and programs. That’s all you need, so we won’t say anything more here.

A DETAILED LOOK AT THE LOGITECH G13

At first glance, the G13 is very impressive. Though you may not notice it at first, it’s pretty big. But even more than by its size, the G13 impressed us by its large number of keys, its built-in joystick, and the large LCD.

Logitech has worked hard on the G13. You can see it in its shape, which is designed to provide the greatest possible comfort. The wrist rest has a rubber base, which keeps your hand from slipping during long gameplay sessions.

The built-in joystick is to the right of the keyboard. It’s well located so you can use it with your thumb. But at first, it was somewhat hard to use the joystick and the two joystick buttons at the same time with the same thumb.

The most important thing is the keys, right? That’s what dominates most of the gameboard. There are 22. They’re large, and quite high. The main ones, which you would use to move around in most games, have a notch that lets you easily recognize them by touch.

The area below the LCD screen has four rectangular function keys. You can use the first 3 to load profiles that you’ve created. The round keys let you turn the LCD and the keyboard LEDs on and off, as well as navigate the various applications that you can use with the G13 and see on the LCD screen.

The screen may be the G13′s strongest point. As with Logitech’s G15 or its newer version, the G19, it can display lots of information, either from programs supplied by Logitech or by others. It displays 160×43 pixels. You can completely customize the lighting color for the LCD and the keys, within the RGB palette.

There’s nothing notable about the base of the G13, although Logitech has installed a fairly large metal plate with the model name on it. The gameboard is supported by 6 feet, of which 2 are on the upper part, 2 below the joystick, and 2 on the lower part. They all have a small rubber pad, which ensures that the G13 stays securely on the table, offering a perfect grip.

INSTALLING THE G13 SOFTWARE

As soon as we connected the Logitech G13 to our Windows PC, the system automatically recognized it. But to use it, you still have to configure many options. The installation process is pretty standard, but the interface is outstanding. We opted to install only the Logitech software.

After the installation is done, you are offered various options. These include two configuration screens. The right-hand picture is in Spanish, but English is of course available. The screen shown there thanks users for buying the product. It lets users see compatible software online, gives information on profiles and macros, offers info about the LCD screen and included applications, and lets users create profiles.

Before you do anything else, we recommend that you watch the Flash presentation that Logitech has created for G13 users. It explains all of the gameboard’s important features and shows some of the things you can do with it, like saving game profiles in the unit’s built-in memory.

The left-hand “Global Configuration” screen lets users configure what they see onscreen in various ways. The right-hand one lets users set how to switch between applications, and adjust the screen’s brightness and contrast.

Among other things, the screen show above lets users activate and deactivate various included Logitech programs, such as its LCD countdown program, a multimedia function, a performance monitor, an RSS reader, and an e-mail application. You can also configure programs that you install yourself.

The screen above shows the result of searching for user-configured profiles for various games. The first two lines are “Find new games…” and “The profiler has completed the search.”

The key configuration screen offers incredible customization power. You can configure the lighting for the LCDs and the keys, customize all of the programmable keys, and create time-saving macros. You can also save profiles here, using the G13′s built-in memory. This is very useful if you use the unit with more than one PC.

The screen above lets you configure profiles for various games.

PLAYING WITH THE LOGITECH G13

Logitech is noted for giving users practical, high-quality solutions. The G13 is no exception. When we started using it, it took us awhile to adapt, especially because of the lack of references for the various keys, and because it took awhile to learn to handle the joystick well. We suppose that’s normal, since it always takes some time to adapt to new peripherals, or at least it always takes us awhile.

The screen above shows the LCD countdown on the left and includes a chronometer on the right.

After over 3 weeks with the G13, we’ve become accustomed to its feel, and the location of its keys. Above all, we’ve learned to handle the joystick. The G13 offers so many keys and possible configurations that it’s almost not necessary to use the macros, or to change profiles during play.

It’s clear that you can use this gameboard in any type of game. But in our experience, its virtues are clearest when you play FPSs or strategy games, since in both genres you use many action keys and lots of motion, just what the G13 offers.

Logitech offers practically unlimited options with its G13, and we’ll surely use them all at some time, though not intensively. The LCD screen is tremendously useful when you need information about a game, such as the FPS rate or CPU memory use. It can also be very useful beyond games, for checking if you have new e-mail or seeing what time it is.

CONCLUSIONS

Logitech is always improving its products. Because it understands users’ needs, it released the G13, a special keyboard for gamers, with great materials quality and finishing.

The options are almost infinite, thanks to the 3 profiles that you can create for each game, along with customized macros, which give you complete control over any kind of game. However, our testing shows that it will give you the best performance in strategy games and FPSs.

The LCD screen is another of its great advantages. It lets you monitor a multitude of system options, from e-mail, to the use of system resources, to the FPS rates you get while you play.

Any videogame fan who wants to have the best tools and get extra performance should keep the Logitech G13 in mind. It’s the best gameboard on the market today.

The final score is 92 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Logitech G13 Gameboard” our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks to Logitech for letting us try out its G13 gameboard.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Ed Winograd