This is going to be my first keyboard review despite owning several keyboards throughout the years. This is because I’m usually quite satisfied with my keyboards, unlike with the gaming mice that I’ve owned, and I feel like as long as you have a mechanical keyboard there isn’t a HUGE difference in performance from one cherry mx blue keyboard to another, or a cherry mx brown board to another. Though despite being quite satisfied I’ve owned the following keyboards.
Cherry mx blue:Filco majestouch-2
Cherry mx browns:Leopold fc200r
Zowie celeritas
Noppoo choc mini
Cherry mx blacks:Steelseries 6g
Steelseries 6g v2
Noppoo choc mini
Mionix zibal 60
Cherry mx reds:Cm storm quickfire rapid
Cm storm quickfire tk
Noppoo choc mini
Topre:Topre Realforce 88UB 45g
Keyboards I still own are:
Razer greens:Razer blackwidow tournament edition chroma
And now ofcourse the Logitech g610 with cherry mx browns!
Why did I get the Logitech g610?While I love my Razer keyboard, I need to use a numpad sometimes. In addition, I had some complains that my keyboard was too loud and do find that true.
I really like what Logitech has done with the g610. They have gone back to their roots with a more simplistic look, and a lot less gimmicky looking than their other recent gaming gear. I don’t need macro keys or many of the features that the g910 have. What I wanted was the following:
Beautiful, simple looking keyboard
Backlight
Cherry mx brown or similar
Media keys
High quality
Possibility to hold down multiple keys for gaming
No macro keys
Programmable
LooksI really love what Logitech has done here! It looks even better in person that it does in pictures. Logitech stuck to a very nice non-futuristic font that just looks beautiful, yet stands out from the more generic fonts . The print quality is very sharp and looks just perfect. The medie keys icons are simple and easy to understand. I like the faded +- next to the volume button. The G logo is the thing, that make it stand out the most design wise, and I think it looks just great. I very much prefer when companies just use their logo instead of them writing “LOGITECH” in caps like other companies are doing(steelseries, filco and others), and imo it looks much better this way.
The top of the keyboard is made in a pure plastic with a matte finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints . The sides however are glossy and do get fingerprints easily. The bottom of the keyboard is made in a // pattern and while I rarely pick my keyboard up to see how it look upside down, I think it does look pretty neat.
The LEDs are white, just like in the “"Logitech Illuminated keyboard K740" that had so much success. I’m glad that Logitech stuck to a more safe color than corsair has done with the very similar Corsair Strafe lineup which has red LEDs
So in conclusion this definitely one of the best looking keyboards I’ve ever seen, and very much what I was looking for in a “Beautiful, simple looking keyboard”. I wouldn’t have a second thought about bringing this anywhere, whether it being to a Lan party or at work.
Build qualityThe keyboard itself feels very solid. As soon as you put it on the desk it’s not going to move, unless you want it to, because of the weight and the 5 rubber pads at the bottom. There’s no key wobble and the cable is probably the thickets braided cable I’ve seen in a keyboard, so there’s no reason to think that the keyboard should fall appart or stop working.
The keycaps are made in abs plastic, which I actually prefer over pbt. There’s several reason to that. One is the feel, the other is the sound they make and last and most important, when I’m cleaning my keyboard, I’m always using a cloth with a little isopropryl alcohol, and the pbt keycaps I had got damaged from that. I never had that experience with abs keycaps.
The Cherry mx switches are attached to a plastic backplate. Some people prefer metal backplates and other prefer plastic. I’m definitely one of those who prefer it to be plastic because doesn’t feel as harsh when you bottom out, and It isn’t as noisy as on a metal backplate. Another thing to note about the cherry mx switches is that they are turned upside down. This is probably so the LEDs can be on top of the switch instead of the bottom.
If I were to compare it with my previously owned keyboards I would put it high. I would rank them this way
Topre Realforce 88UB 45g
Filco Majestouch 2
Razer chroma tournament
Logitech g610
Cm storm quickfire rapid
Mionix zibal 60
Leopold fc200r
Cm storm quickfire TK
Zowie celeritas
Steelseries 6g v2
Noppoo choc mini
Steelseries 6g
Overall I’m very satisfied with build quality and I can see this keyboard lasting for a long time. My only worry would be the media buttons, because they aren’t mounted on a cherry mx switch, so there’s no way of telling how long these will last. However I’m very happy these buttons are included because they make it much easier to switch to gaming mode, change the backlightning, turn the volume on/off, start/pause a video , stop a video, forward or backwards in a video.
BacklightningI’ve made a short video to show all the preset lightning modes in the Logitech g610. Here’s the first one showing all the different light levels you can choose between.
And here’s the other one that show all the modes you can choose between. You can of course also make your own.
The only thing I don’t like about the backlighting is in the media keys. The media keys are somewhat illuminated but not nearly as bright as the cherry mx mounted keys. This can be seen in this picture
Typing experienceFor typing I still prefer cherry mx blue, razer greens or topre but this is the smoothest typing experience I’ve had besides topre. The swtiches feels so smooth compared to all the other browns I’ve had and especially the linear switches. This makes me think that these switches are already lubricated or cherry has done some changes in the making of the switches. Since the keycaps and the backplate is in plastic, it doesn’t feel so bad to bottom out as many other keyboards. I’ve recorded a short video of me typing with the Logitech g610 and Razer Chroma tournament edition. As you can hear, there’s barely any sound coming from the Logitech g610 except from the spacebar.
Typing with the Logitech g610
Typing with the Razer Chroma tournament edition
I also tested both the Logitech g610 and the Razer Chroma tournament in typing speed to see if the increased bump and audible feedback from the razer would help me type faster or more correctly. Here I used this typing test:
http://typing-speed-test.aoeu.eu/?lang=enI tested both keyboards 10 times and I did get better results from the Razer keyboard. With the Logitech g610 I was doing 90-96 words per minute while with the Razer Green I did 97-105 words per minute. I also did slightly fewer typing errors with the Razer keyboard. This is my own experience and I know that many people actually type faster on cherry mx browns or even linear switches, but I still slightly prefer Cherry mx blue, Kaihua green(razer switches) or even topre.
Gaming experienceI wouldn’t have a keyboard that doesn’t give me a good gaming experience and thankfully this one does. You can hold down 26 keys simultaneously which is about 16 fingers more than I have so it should be plenty. There’s a gaming mode button that will turn off the two windows button + the menu button. If that isn’t enough you can make it turn off any keys you want.
Additionally you can program the keys in any way you want, which is a nice feature but honestly It’s something I rarely use.
The keyboard also works with other programs such as Overwolf, where it will blink every time you are recording in a game.
I won’t go as much into the switches themselves since there’s already very well explained in the mechanical keyboard guide, but in my opinion cherry mx browns are just as good for gaming as cherry mx reds. In fps games it definitely feels a bit easier to use than cherry mx blue or razer greens, because of it being a bit easier to double tab and the light actuation force helps with spamming keys.
ConclusionSo in conclusion there’s a lot good things to say about the Logitech g610 and very few bad things. If you are looking for the same kind of keyboard I was then this is pretty much perfect and there’s no really bad things about it. Even if you just wanted a Logitech keyboard without the romer-g switches then this would be the one to get. Either way I will try to list all the good things about it.
The goodBeautiful looking keyboard. This is a gaming keyboard that you can bring to work without it looking out of place. At home you can still impress all your friends with all the modes for the backlightning.
Backlight – Beautiful white backlightning with many options for customization.
Cherry mx brown – Very smooth cherry mx brown switches. Feels good for both typing and gaming.
Dedicated media keys – Much better than what I see from other companies that make gaming peripherals. I really love the wheel where I can turn the sound up or down.
High quality
Possibility to hold down multiple keys for gaming
No macro keys
Programmable
Things that could be improvedNo usb-pass through, like seen in similar priced models like the corsair strafe.
USB cable not detachable. This is weird because in the Logitech g610 manual it seems to be detachable.
No way of knowing if you have turned gaming mode on.
If there’s any questions or anything you want to see feel free to ask.
PicturesLink to full galary here
https://www.flickr.com/gp/haiiyaa/ttEtL0
