Logitech G13 Programmable Gameboard with LCD Display -

I have used both the Logitech G13 and Belkin n52te extensively, so I thought it would be useful to write a review comparing the two products.

Usage
I have used both keypads to play World of Warcraft (WoW) extensively. Typically I use the mouse to steer my character, and the keypad to do the actions on my action bar. I use the joystick to move forward, back, and strafe left and right. My hand is average to small in size.

Keys
The Logitech G13 has more keys than the Belkin n52te. In fact the main reason I bought the G13 was because I ran out of keys on the n52te. The G13 has 22 keys plus a joystick button, and two extra buttons near the joystick for a total of 25 programable items. The n52te has 14 keys, a scroll wheel up-down-click button, and two buttons by the joystick for a total of 19 programmable items. When you get advanced in WoW, the more buttons you have, the better your game will be since you can quickly do an action by pressing a button.

The n52te keys are all pretty much the same shape, and the middle key has a bump on it to help you locate where you are. The G13 has the most common keys the same shape, but other keys near the edges have a different shape. I find this helpful since I can feel the key and know where I am due to its shape. The G13 all has four keys with a concave impression to help you locate where you are on the keypad. Again, I find this more useful than the one key the n52te uses with a bumb on it.

Joystick/D-Pad
The n52te has a D-Pad that allows you to control movement in 8 directions. It has an optional joystick insertion that makes it feel more like a joystick. When playing WoW, I actually only used 4 directions, and disabled the corner directionals, since it was too easy to go the wrong way by mistake. With just 4 directions (forward, back, strafe left, strafe right), it was easier to use.

The G13 has a small joystick which allows you to control 4 directions. Comparing the two, I think the G13 is much easier on the thumb than the n52te. After hours of play, and days of gaming, this makes a big difference. The G13 moves much easier and with less effort than the n52te. The G13 also pivots more naturally, so it is much easier to switch directions with less effort. The only thing I don’t like about the joystick is the joystick button is very hard to press.

Ergonomics
I feel that the n52te actually promotes carpel tunnel syndrome in the way its designed. The problem is that it forces you to bend your wrist upward so that you are continually putting stress on those tendons. The palm rest does not help, as it simply forces this bad wrist orientation. In order to use the n52te without pain, I actually had to prop up my elbow on some books so that my wrist could be in a more natural position.

The ergonomics on the G13 are far superior than the n52te. The way its designed it allows you to keep your wrist in its natural position, as when you are typing, without having to bend it upward as in the n52te. I can use the G13 continuously for hours upon hours with no discomfort at all.

LCD
The G13 comes with a LCD display, which the n52te does not have. At first I thought I would not use it much, but now I find it to be a helpful addition. For WoW, it shows your characters stats as well as other things such as your equipment durability, so you know when it is time to repair. On battlegrounds it shows stats like how many players on each side, time elapsed, deaths, killing blows, and honorable kills. The LCD does other stuff too when you are not playing the game (time and date, cpu usage, stopwatch, rss feeds, music info, etc). So I think it is a nice bonus.

Programming
I found both units really easy to program. It is very easy to assign any keystroke or key combinations or macros to any key on the keypad.

Conclusion
Overall, I would say the Logitech G13 is superior than the Belkin n52te and would highly recommend you buy the G13 over the n52te. My feeling is that the G13 is the next generation of keypads with all the best features, while the n52te is the old generation of keypads which has now been surpassed.

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This review is somewhat lengthy, but I try to cover all the bases on this device.

Overall Impression: Very nice piece of hardware, worth the money.

Ok, let’s get started.
Physical Properties: The pad itself is of decent size for someone with average to slightly-larger-than average hands. I have long fingers and still felt very comfortable on this device. The keys press easily and are in a comfortable layout. The joystick also moves easily with my thumb. However, the joystick has a “click” attached to it when you press it down which is somewhat difficult to activate while keeping the stick still. It’s definitely a hard press.

There is a non-slip surface on the bottom to keep the unit in place which works perfectly, as well as a comfortable semi-nonslip on the wrist/palm rest.

The LCD is clear and brightly illuminated with customizable lighting. There is also an on/off button for the backlight built onto the unit so you don’t have to play with lights on all the time. The backlight for the LCD also backlights the buttons, which means that they follow the same customizable functionality.

The LCD also displays various, customizable, information based upon applications you have running on your system. It has support for all the mainstream media players to display song information, as well as RSS information, email, etc. It also has the capability to display in-game information, but the game itself must support this. Warhammer, for instance, does not offer this support (that I’ve seen), so there are no vitals displayed on the LCD. World of Warcraft does offer support, so by default you can see quite a number of stats on your screen.

Software:
The G13 has its own software for assigning functions to the keypad. It also has an application dedicated to managing the LCD display. I have not used any other LCD / Programmable Logitech products in the past so I don’t know how this compares with them.

In the software suite, you can scan your computer for available known games to the G13. I did not have luck with it finding my WAR installation, but I changed the default directory which could be the cause of this.

If it finds compatible games it will then make available a preconfigured gaming profile for that game. You are of course allowed to modify the profile if you wish or you can choose to create your own custom profile from scratch.

The profile creation is easy. It involves choosing a name and the game/application executable file.

Once you have a new profile, you can choose what to assign to your keys. Your options are key combinations, macros, or scripts. The software makes assigning each of these a snap. It only takes point and click to assign your keys under the profile, which is auto-saved.

The software is also where you are allowed to modify the LCD backlight color. Using the windows built-in color chooser, you can select any value of RGB to backlight your unit with. Each memory setting (1 – 3) can have its own backlight. This gives you an easy way to distinguish quickly which profile you’re on.

Macros:
Macroing on the G13 is pretty straightforward. You can launch the macro editor and begin recording keystrokes and mouse clicks and then save them into the macro list. You are then able to assign the macros to G-keys on the board. The macro editor also allows you to add custom durations between events in the macro you’re recording, or it can record durations between keypresses as you do them. I find it easier to record the macro first and then add delays later. This is very helpful for Warhammer since it has a global cooldown on all skills.

Scripting:
The G13 has an implementation of the LUA scripting language available for use. It includes most of the math libraries, strings, and some tables. Using the LUA language, and some custom Logitech event functionality (which are documented) you can create scripts to drive almost any aspect of the G13. They allow you to control the LCD, moving the mouse, emulating keypresses, etc. Once you create a script, you can assign it to a G-key very easily by choosing it from a list.

I think that about covers the G13. I am very pleased with having spent the money to order it. Something to keep in mind. The G13 is fantastic for gaming, but also has many practical uses outside of gaming. As a programmer, I find the G13 works well inside of my IDE for quickly running commands (compiling, debug, synchronization, etc).

I hope this helps you out! I am also not affiliated with Logitech in any way, but I do like their product.

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Introduction:
I designed this review as a sort of encyclopedic critique of the each criticism I’ve found in the reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere. To prove my nerdiness conclusively, I’ve indexed my responses to each criticism so you don’t have to read the whole thing. You can just pick out the issues that concern you and get my scoop on them.

Introduction
1: Comfort
2: Large/Small hand friendliness
3: Keys Hard to Reach
4: WASD Keys Unmarked
5: Keys Hard to Press
6: Thumbstick Hard to Press
7: Thumbstick “loose” Feeling
8: Thumbstick not Analog
9: Thorny Thumbstick
10: Weak Game-recognition
11: Installation/Stability Issues
12: No In-game Profile-switching
13: LCD Weaknesses
14: Only One Brightness Level
15: Short Cord
16: Learning Curve
17: Size
Conclusion

1) Comfort
First thing I hear a lot about is ergonomics. People say the joystick is in a “cramped” or “alien” position, and act like your thumb is going to snap off after five minutes of play time. They have no leg to stand on as far as I’m concerned. True, your thumb will not be resting on the side like a mouse, but this isn’t a mouse, and it’s not the N52, and yet, somehow, it feels perfectly comfortable to me.

2) Large/Small Hands
Alongside ergonomic complaints I’ve read a number of people saying the G13 “isn’t made for large hands” or “isn’t made for small hands.” Evidently it was only made for medium-sized hands. I have huge hands, and I consider that my main advantage when using this board. Small hands I can see being a handicap, but I don’t know for sure. If anything, this was made for big hands.

3) Keys Hard to Reach
In line with the above, many people say that the keys can be hard to reach. Well, first off, if you’re getting a gameboard with a monstrous 20+ keys to press, some of them are just necessarily going to be further away than others. The only keys I have found took some practice to get to were the far left and bottom row keys since these are accessed by your pinky finger snaking way on out there. However, all the keys are so well defined that they take very little practice getting used to. Even before memorizing them you can quickly feel your way around due to their excellently clear demarcations. You can see that from the picture. Also, you can hear your fingers feeling across each key, if you listen carefully, so you have auditory cues on top of tactile ones as to where the keys are relative to your fingers. In short, I have never, ever, once gotten lost on this thing despite its vast array of keys.

4) WASD Keys Unmarked
Another key-related complaint is that the central “WASD” keys have no bumps on them to find them easily. This is extremely misleading. No, they don’t have bumps, what they have are indentations for your fingertips. Thus, even if you WERE blind and couldn’t see their clear, glowing labels your fingertips would slip into them almost without you knowing it. And, no, they aren’t labeled, “W” “A” “S” and “D” firstly because they don’t have to be mapped to those keys and secondly because, as I said just now, they have indentations clearly setting them apart from the other keys.

5) Keys Hard to Press
Also, people have said that the keys are hard to press. That’s a real jaw-dropper. Unless you have some dehibilitating, degenerative, terminal finger-disease you will quickly discover that these keys are some of the most comfortable, responsive, even satisfying buttons you have ever pressed. And by “satisfying” I mean, whenever you press one your finger will go down with a nice, rich feel and a glorious “tap” sound will emerge. The depth of the keys simply defines them for your fingers to find their way around more easily and in no way affects their responsiveness. It is not at all like one of ye olde timey keyboards that you had to mash down on to get anything going.

6) Thumbstick Hard to Press
Another criticism you will find commonly thrown at this thing is that the joystick is hard to press down. I agree with these points. The joystick is extremely hard to press down. About the only thing I would use it for were switching between walking/running modes or following someone, stuff you don’t do all the time.

7) Thumbstick “loose” Feeling
I’ve heard it said that the joystick is kind of floppy and cheap feeling. That is entirely subjective. Yes, it is very easy to push around, but I never would have thought of it as “floppy” or “cheap” without hearing it.

Thumstick not Analog
Honestly I’m not sure exactly what this means, but I have read the thread on the Logitech forums on this topic and they released a patch that enables you to put the joystick in “joystick mode” which, I presume, was the solution since nobody posted about it after that…

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