Hands-on with Logitech's G13 Gameboard
Posted 12/11/08 at 01:45:05 PM by Alex Castle
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Yesterday, Logitech announced that they’ll be releasing the G13, a gameboard keypad peripheral designed to streamline PC gaming by allowing one-handed access to dozens of programmable keys. It’s akin to niche controller products like the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad or Zboard Fang. Well, it just so happens that today we got a shiny new G13 delivered to our office, which we were more than happy to playtest. Read on to find out what we thought of the device.
Physically, the G13 is impressive. It’s got a nice heft to it, and just generally feels very solidly-built. Given the punishment we sometimes inflict on our keyboards during heated (read: losing) games of Left4Dead, this is a definite plus. The G13’s ergonomic design feels very natural under the hand, with a traction pad that keeps your palm right where you want it. The keypad is molded with curves along both the horizontal and vertical axis so our fingers rested comfortably on the board no matter which keys we pressed. The keys have just the right amount of travel, although they’re packed a little tightly for our tastes.
When you plug the gameboard in, the mini LCD screen and the (pleasantly subtle) LED backlighting turn on. You can change the color of both with the included software, and we’re not ashamed to admit that we amused ourselves for a few minutes by clicking around the onscreen color wheel and watching the G13 change backlight color in real-time.
The G13 packs 22 keys on the main board, plus two mouse-style buttons and a bindable analog stick located under the thumb. There are three mode buttons above the keys which switch between profiles, changing the binding of the keys and the color of the backlight. All told, you can bind up to 87 different macros onto the G13 at once.
Logitech’s gameboard also includes the little “GamePanel” LCD screen familiar to anyone who’s used one of the company’s G15 keyboards. The screen can show your system’s CPU and RAM usage, can be used as a clock or a timer, and can monitor your email and RSS feeds. If you play a game that supports the GamePanel, you can also have it display information like health bars and character stats, although why you would want to take your eyes off the screen to check out your health or ammo still evades us.
So who’s the G13 targeted at? With indentations guiding your fingers towards the WASD keys, the gameboard seems like a strong fit for FPS players looking for a more comfortable hand position. However, there are no keys above the indented “WASD” keys, so if you’re used to using the number keys to switch weapons or for anything else you’re out of luck. Also, the key meant to act like the space bar felt a little too close to the palm, which might put a crimp in your bunny-hopping plans. RTS gamers can probably find good use for the G13 as well, though if you like to use more than 22 hotkeys in the heat of the moment, you might want to stick with your regular keyboard.
Really, though, the G13 seems like an MMO players dream. Able to bind a huge number of complex macros, the gameboard is well suited for games where you need access to a bunch of skills, but not necessarily all at once. Also, the LCD display seems particularly well fit for games like WoW, where you need to keep track of a lot of data. Of course, if your guild hasn’t made the move to voice chat yet you’ll have to take your hand off the G13 whenever you want to type a message. Perhaps to remedy this, Logitech has thoughtfully included a copy of Ventrillo on the G13 driver disk.
Priced steeply at $80, will gamers adopt the G13? Hard to say, but our short playtest definitely left us with a good impression. Check out the pictures and then hit the comments to let us know what you think about Logitech’s new gameboard.
G13
Submitted by Nikoma on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 8:49am
I use a G15 keyboard and have been using a Nostromo N52 for quite some time to play WOW. I have an ingame bar mod so that I can configure my action bars to match the N52 layout. However, I really needed more keys for all my spells. So when I saw the G13 I knew I had to try it. I've had it for a week. It is very comfortable. Although the downside of having more keys is relearning the layout. And my hand placement is not quite as intuative as it was with the N52, but it is getting eaiser. Setting it up is a breeze. Much eaiser than with the N52. The minijoy stick works well. Overall I'm pleased and look forward to getting past the "hand memory" curve.
Submitted by Phated1 on Sat, 12/13/2008 - 7:47am
You are right this would be excellent for World of Warcraft. Using this + bindable buttons on the mouse gives you almost instant access to all your most used abilities. No longer will i have to rely on clicking things when i run out of easy to access buttons. Set it on the left side of my keyboard and use this + my g5 mouse and raiding/pvp will be much more strealined.
Submitted by Shalbatana on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 7:49am
I like it, but am not a hard core enough gamer to warrant me spending that money on it when I could upgrade some other part of my aging machine.
What it is missing however are the oled keys or the option to place some sort of inserts, so one could custom label the keys. Then I'd use it for video editing.
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Submitted by Silencer on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 10:29pm
If it would let you re-map Fallout 3's close Pip-Boy key (from the Tab key) it'd be worth $80. (But I doubt it would help. KeyTweak won't fix it either.) It looks cool, but I'd be more interested later, in a cheaper and next-gen version.
Submitted by tweak41 on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 8:34pm
This would work awesome with my XIM360 on my xbox. The Saitek CCU is a pretty good unit, but this looks like it could even top that! Nice...
learned it in college
Submitted by plaskon on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 5:22pm
i push my keyboard to the far left of my desk and use my num pad.
17 buttons plus it's close to the PGUP / PGDN aux keys.
I do something very simular,
Submitted by Talcum X on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 6:30am
I use the arrow keys for movement. This leaves a nice space around them so I dont accidently throw a weapon in the heat of battle dodging lasers and rocks. This gives me all the keyes around the arrows a comfortable position for all those other tasks.
The Zboard seems a better choice for FPS with arrows keys in a good position, surrounded by plenty of buttons.
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Submitted by Centurion 41 on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 4:05pm
I've been using a Belkin Nostromo n52, now n52te, for years. Once I got past the learning curve, I can't go back to a regular keyboard for FPS games. I don't use it for anything but those. The placement of the thumb button, D-pad, and thumb button are perfectly suited for reloading, weapon selection, and jump. Looking at the G13 I'm not sure its thumb buttons can match. Other than the ability to change lighting colors, I don't see a reason to switch. There's an article for ya MPC - another gaming peripheral comparison.
Submitted by zodi on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 2:53pm
Maybe if I was a professional or mutant with 3 hands, or even possibly not a recovering addict of WOW. (thats right 16 months sober thanks to WOWA3 step program). Then this might make sense.
Instead I will settle for a g15 keyboard that hopefully santa claus will bring
Submitted by Biceps on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 12:50pm
Ok, so I might be going a little overboard here (pun intended); I already own and use a G15 keyboard, which I love. However, the are a couple of programs Logitech has running in the background to make sure the macros work correctly, and the resource monitor, etc gets the info it needs. Do you Max PC gurus (or anyone elso out there) know I can use the G 13 Gamepad AND the G15 Keyboard on the same system at the same time? This would be a blessing for all those Warhammer online macros.
Yep
Submitted by nickorooster on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 4:53pm
Yeah it can, the gamepanel or profiler software makes it really easy to set up the individual game hardware bits. I imagine there'd be the G9 in the menu as well if I had one. But yes, the G13 and the G15 (at least, Revision 2)
I'd probably not merit the purchase if I didn't get them both cheap, just get one. Having the two screens is more useless than just the one :-P. I use the G15's screen for msn when I'm in-game, and the G13's one for ventrillo.
I haven't explored this yet, but I kinda want to know if I can use the joystick AS a joystick, and then set it up to work as a rotation in autodesk-maya....
Submitted by AndyYankee17 on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 12:01pm
ok, usually my left hand is on WASD and my right on the mouse, how am I supposed to use that thing?
Submitted by rayatwork05 on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 11:57am
ummm ya compltely useless. and for $80???? GTFO
Pointless
Submitted by maniacm0nk3y on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 11:26am
Unless your only playing games all the time and for a profession, then this stuff is useless. More wasted space on a desktop, and everything else that comes with it.
I don't care about writing more, because there is really nothing to write about this.
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