Logitech G910 Spectrum Gaming Keyboard Review

I don’t do tons of product reviews, but recently I have purchased a few new things and also had a few things around for a while that I think I need to say something about. In this case, the Logitech G910 Spectrum is a keyboard I have had for a while now, and I really think I need to talk about it, if for no other reasons to remind myself why I should never have bought it!

Sorry to give away the finish at the start, but let me begin and the start. I was looking for a new keyboard to replace an old Microsoft board I had been using. I used natural keyboards for a long time because of wrist pain, something that seems to mostly have gone away with age (weird, I know). I have also found that most of the modern natural keyboards including the Microsoft ones aren’t anywhere near as good as the old ones were. They most certainly lack in feel, the key strokes just aren’t satisfying or easy to confirm as you go. The Chiclet version of their natural was a real bust, I had one for only a few months before I just about tossed it out the window. Horrible.

So I tested out with a couple of normal (non-natural) keyboards and found I could tolerate them pretty well. But I needed something with some key feel and something that would be tough enough to handle both game play and hard runs of typing, coding, and the occassional frustrated bang. All signs pointed towards a very few that fell in that category, and the one that caught my eye was the Logitech G910 Spectrum. The Spectrum and Spark are very similar, the Spectrum has a bit more of a wrist rest but otherwise they seem to occupy about the same part of the market.

I really love typing on this thing. The keys are remarkably clacky, positive feeling, and have just enough wiggle to them to allow for a slightly inaccurate use. I am a semi-touch typist, so I am not perfect. But with a good keyboard I am like 40 words a minute and this one certainly had me there really quickly, even after years on a natural keyboard.

Within a month, the escape key broke. When I say broke, it sort of detached from one side. I thought it was just the key cap coming off but no, it was actually the whole frame that holds the key and forms the outer part of the mechanism for the key click that broke. Looking at it later, I could see that it was a pretty narrow and brittle piece. It’s that way because this keyboard is RGB with “light through the middle”, so the RGB part is in the middle and the mechanics of the keystroke go around it.

Thankfully, without too much effort, Logitech RMA’ed the keyboard and I got another one. In my case, I had to take it to a service center to do that, otherwise it would have been weeks in the mail. I was okay with that because they did it fairly rapidly. That keyboard went a while, but met a somewhat untimely death when it fell off my desk, destroying a couple of keys. My fault, but the fall wasn’t very hard. I was sort of surprised, but I had been enjoy the keyboard so I went to get another one. Now, at about $150US at the time, these are not your typical Chinese $10 keyboards. I tolerated buying a second one because I thought it was my fault.

Fast forward about 6 months. The “new” keyboard ain’t new at all. The 8 key on the top row is broken. The G9 key (function) is broken. The – on the number pad is broken. The W key cap broke completely (I salvaged one from the other broken board) and recently the S key did the same (yes, the gaming keys… you would think these would be the toughest, but no). A couple more keys are intermittent. It’s gotten to the point where I am looking for a replacement, and I doubt I will pay this sort of money again for a keyboard.

What I find odd is that the Microsoft natural I used before that went 4 years, the one before that longer than I care to remember. My usage hasn’t changed much (slightly more gaming, slightly less typing) but these Logitech 910 Spectrum keyboard just don’t seem to be up to the task. It’s weird because they are gaming keyboards, you would think they would be engineered to be tough and able to handle some serious abuse, after all gamers do get a little emotional at times. But these things have not been anywhere near as impressive on that level, which is really too bad.

So I am off looking for my next keyboard. It sucks really that these Logitech ones can’t seem to make it work out.

My recommendation: Unless you are a super soft user, these pretty keyboards may not live up to your use patterns. Your Mileage My Vary. Objects in the mirror are closer than they appears. Don’t run with scissors.