Logitech keyboard

A few weeks ago I finally got sick of the regular random disconnects from my Logitech MX5000 Bluetooth wireless keyboard, and bought a replacement: the Logitech G11 gaming keyboard.

Some of the nice features:

• It's wired. No more wireless disconnects.


• The keys are all backlit in blue; nice for dim environments.
  
• The arrow keys and ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn keys are in conventional layout, not the stupid new layout Microsoft and Logitech seen to like nowadays.


• Rotary volume control.


• Best of all: 18 fully programmable additional keys on the left. These can be programmed to do particular keystrokes or keystroke sequences or run apps or do various things, all specifically in particular apps, if desired. That's a lot of combinations! I have some of my keys set to run programs, and others to do certain things. For example, the very convenient G13, G14 and G15 keys do copy, cut and paste; so much easier than Ctrl C, Ctrl X and Ctrl V. I have one key set to do a Ctrl A Ctrl C in order to select all and copy; this is so that when I type up a long post response and click post, it doesn't disappear into the ether when our flaky Internet connection drops the connection.

On the downside:

• The keyboard comes with two built-in auxiliary USB ports. This would seem useful, except that they're not USB 2.0, so no use as all for flash drives or hard drives. Might be handy for a mouse or joystick though.


• The soft-touch keys don't have the best tactile feedback around.

Otherwise, great device.