Enlarge / Logitech G713 keyboard.
Scharon Harding
In an explosion of color, Logitech today announced a bunch of PC peripherals draped in light shades, wireless options, and, love it or hate it, RGB lighting.
Logitech’s calling it the Aurora Collection, and while the gadgets are aimed at gamers, high programmability and premium features can make them interesting to general power users, too.
Enlarge / Logitech’s Aurora Collection includes a broad range of PC peripherals and accessories.
The new series is characterized by trendy white colors intensified by RGB LEDs and high price tags. The series includes the G735 wireless headset ($230), the G705 wireless mouse ($100), the G713 mechanical keyboard ($170), and its wireless version, the G715 ($200). There are also Aurora PC accessories, including top plates and keycaps for the keyboards and new Aurora colors for some of Logitech’s previously released microphones.
And as anyone who walked anywhere near my desk recently will have immediately noticed, I got some hands-on time with the wireless keyboard in the lot.
Divisive design
The G715’s polarizing look goes beyond its polar bear white styling. Let’s start with the tacky, cloud-shaped wrist rest.
Enlarge / Fluffy clouds make for lumpy wrist rests.
Scharon Harding
It pairs well with the keyboard’s white chassis but looks childish, and it isn’t helped by the fake leather that I predict will flake off after frequent usage.
The wrist rest was surprisingly dense and supportive while typing. I wasn’t able to feel my hard desk through the wrist rest, even when pressing down forcibly. However, its lumpiness annoyed my wrists.
The G715 only comes in white, and as the white PBT keycaps on my work keyboard and white mouse can attest, white PC peripherals can easily, and visibly, get dirty. Keep this in mind when considering this expensive clacker.
Thankfully, the keyboard has doubleshot PBT keycaps, so the legends shouldn’t wear off (for more on keycaps and other terms in this article, see our guide to mechanical keyboards). Plus, they have a delicious texture that delivered a better grip than cheap ABS plastic keycaps and seemed suitable for the keyboard’s price.
Enlarge / RGB is optional.
Scharon Harding
White is the primary color here, but I was still showered in color via per-key RGB lighting that created incredibly bright legends and a glow between the keys.
An RGB strip around the G715’s underside also created a bright glow on my desktop, particularly south of the keyboard.
Enlarge / There are 16 RGB LEDs on the keyboard’s underside.
Scharon Harding
RGB evokes strong opinions, and if yours is generally on the positive side, there’s little to complain about here, except for requiring software to change RGB settings. You can even customize the LEDs on the keyboard’s underside and use premade effects.
But if you have a negative opinion of RGB or are interested in conserving battery life, you can quickly turn off the lights (without software). But considering the keyboard’s price, you should probably love most other things about the peripheral if you’re going to ditch one of its biggest features.
Mechanical keyboards aimed at gamers tend to get great media keys. And although the G715 has a truncated design, it still has a set of media keys (that can light up with RGB) in a relaxing lavender shade, including a rubber-like scroll wheel. The wheel isn’t the most tactile, however. I prefer wheels with more notched movement.
Unfortunately, like most of the G715’s keys, the media keys aren’t programmable.
Enlarge / The function row has two layers of programmability, including with macro support.
Logitech
