Logitech G512 Carbon GX Gaming Keyboard Brown review
Today, the test is a Logitech G512 Carbon gaming keyboard with brown GX Brown switches, LIGHTSYNC RGB controlled lighting, a USB adapter port, and other interesting features.
Exterior
The keyboard comes in a thick cardboard package with colorful and high-quality printing. The box shows the switches used, in our case it is brown GX Brown, and there are also versions with blue switches GX Blue and red GX Red, the difference between them will be discussed later. The keyboard comes with documentation and a large sticker with the company logo.
Logitech G512 Carbon has a full-size layout (104 keys) and quite familiar dimensions – 445x132x35. 5 mm. But the keyboard weighs a lot, even by the standards of mechanics – 1130 grams (this figure is provided by a powerful metal base). Looking ahead, we will say that thanks to the excellent rubber legs, the keyboard stands on the table as if rooted to the spot, it is very difficult to move it from its place (without lifting it). According to the layout, there are subtleties, such as the" two-story " Enter and plus for some reason the missing indication Num Lock and Scroll Lock. And you also need to take into account that the symbols on the keys are almost invisible when the backlight is turned off.
The lack of additional buttons is offset by the classic move-the function keys when you hold down the Fn key perform multimedia functions, such as controlling playback, volume, backlight and game mode (it is configured in the proprietary software).
What else is interesting? There is a USB port on the back side. It is pass-through, that is, there is a second USB plug on the keyboard cable (with a thick wire protected by a fabric braid). It can be used, for example, to connect a mouse, storage devices, or say a phone to charge it. It's a bit of a pity that it's only standard 2.0, and not the more modern 3.1 or higher. Also in the middle of the case is a thread (the so-called "tripod"), but its purpose is not very clear to us, and the manufacturer does not mention it anywhere. Perhaps it is assumed that something can be screwed to the keyboard, for example, a phone mount? Or vice versa, to screw the keyboard to some tripod? Although both options do not seem particularly realistic to us.
As we said above, when the backlight is turned off, you can not see either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. In principle, this is a common occurrence for mechanical backlit keyboards. This is offset by the beauty of the backlight-it is multi-color, has a bunch of customizable modes, of course with adjustable brightness.
Logitech G HUB
It is very convenient that Logitech uses a single control center for all products – branded G HUB software. There are three settings tabs for the G512 Carbon. The first one is dedicated to lighting-there are a whole bunch of modes, and not just popular shimmers and shimmers, but really beautiful ones like snowfall, sea waves and lightning. If there are other Logitech products – you can synchronize the backlight and get a single beautiful backlight. In the second tab, you can reassign the keys F1-F12. There is support for macros, various system commands, and everything else that is useful in games or various programs for executing commands in one click.
On the third tab, you can configure the game mode. If the "Win" and similar keys are usually disabled when you turn on the game mode, then in the case of the Logitech G512 Carbon, you can select any additional keys that will also be disabled. Of course, there is support for profiles, which means you can save settings for different work scenarios-separately for any games, separately for working in applications, etc.
User Experience
We have a version with brown GX Brown switches on the test. They are without a sound click, but with tactile feedback. From the classic Cherry MX switches, they differ in sound, slightly more pressing force (50 grams instead of 45) and slightly faster operation (1.9 mm instead of 2 mm). Yes, the keys are pressed a little harder than you expect, but not critically. White space stabilization is a classic Cherry.
The Logitech G512 Carbon is also available in GX Blue and GX Red switch versions. The first obviously differ in that they have a sound click when triggered, and the second-a linear course, that is, the absence of tactile feedback. So when buying, you can choose the switches that you like best.
Also among the advantages, we note the high resource of mechanical switches – it is equal to 70 million clicks. And of course, a powerful argument is the proprietary software that allows you to fine-tune the assignment of keys, and it is especially good that there is support for macros and profiles.
Conclusions
Logitech G512 Carbon is a good-quality gaming keyboard with high-quality proprietary switches of the GX series with a high resource, with a pass-through USB port that can be used to connect a mouse or say a flash drive, with powerful proprietary software and a really beautiful backlight.
Lutovinov Maxim (aka. Kok)
03/04.2021
