Before inviting Logitech G513 mechanical gaming keyboard to your throne, wisdom calls for thorough investigation on what pros and cons it brings to the gaming kingdom.
Logitech, as you may already know has for a long time stuck out for gamers, marrying the best of quality, care, performance, and price in the gaming world.
This company goes out of its way to invite developers and ideators to build and test new developments in favor of delivering the best user experience.
Their idea here is to ensure that what the gaming community asks for, or rather complains about, is delivered in the most effective way possible.
Sometimes that is possible in a few days, other times, it takes months. But is this still true for the famous G513 mechanical keyboard?
Unboxing Logitech G513 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Meaning, there’s no space wasted in the sleek design. But that’s just the beginning.
The keyboard comes with luxurious 17.5 x 3.5 x 0.8-inch palm rest padded with long-lasting memory foam that ensures every successive use is as good as the first.
This pad is large enough for all hand sizes, fluffy to the feel, sweat resistant, and easy to clean. The fact that it’s unattached to the keyboard gives you the freedom to protect the specific wrist-spot you desire.
But that doesn’t give it the right to roam out of position as you indulge in your game; the premium comfort palm rest has six bottom-mounted rubber feet to keep it locked steady.
To spice the experience, Logitech G513 comes with 12 extra faceted keycaps for the most abused keys by profession gamers and other keyboard users; numeric 1 to 5, QWER and ASD.
To lessen the abuse, the keys have a deeper grove and grip making the keyboard more performance-focused and not yet another gaming peripheral out there.
A keycap puller to yank out exhausted keys when change is needed comes in the pack to ensure that you don’t break the culprit during the shift. There’s also the user documentation to complete the kit.
Chances of causing havoc on the keys within the first six months of the affair is hard though, G513 mechanical keys are built to take at least 70 million punches without surrendering!
A close examination on the surface of G513 keyboard shows that it was built for professional Esports warriors.
It’s crafted from the tough and sturdy aircraft-grade 5052 aluminum and magnesium alloy pronouncing its aesthetic beauty and ability to stay fingerprint free even after multiple uses.
Whether you end up with silver or carbon G513 keyboard, durability is guaranteed.
But looks can be deceiving, right?
What’s in Logitech G513?
G513’s unique selling point is hardly in the looks though for sure it’s got such and much more; it’s in the experience delivered by the mechanical switches.
What we think Logitech had in mind while building this peripheral was to craft a gaming keyboard that can take excess bullying till kingdom come, hence the strength, quality, and performance of its keys.
There are three different mechanical switches that are at work in this scenario; Romer-G Tactile, Romer-G Linear and GX Blue.
Chances are you have come across them elsewhere already though Logitech is putting them into better use than other manufacturers.
The first is the original Romer-G profile which gives a distinctive bump while delivering poise and exactitude during the act without being too loud.
Keyboards using Romer-G Tactile are best used in inexpensive First Person Shooter games such as Warzone Getaway 2 and 3.
The second, Romer-G Linear which is much newer dares a smooth stroke from start to finish of the actuation and not the earlier bump in Romer-G Tactile.
This makes it suitable for double-tapping or successive, uninterrupted half-presses that are so common in action games.
Think of it as the kind of abuse derived from extreme anger packaged in a game. This is what Logitech has been boasting about since Romer-G Tactile’s glory began to fade.
To end the list, GX Blue gives the traditional clicky response you feel and hear when a mechanical key is pressed. All these switches guarantee 40% more durability over the standard mechanical cousins courtesy of the set number of punches per key; 70 million.
Of the two types of keyboards in this build, G513 Silver gaming keyboard employs Romer-G Tactile only while G513 Carbon is unashamed to employ all three switches.
Each of the gaming keyboards undergoes extreme testing to ensure eminence and reliability.
This also assures fast actuation ability; the Romer-G mechanical switch responds in 5ms from a 45g actuation force while its standard competition does 6.7ms.
But that shouldn’t come as a surprise since the keys using Romer-G have only 1.5mm travel distance unlike those in standard keyboards that have 2mm travel distance.
The small difference in travel distance makes it possible for the difference in actuation speed.
The GX Blue mechanical switch employed in Logitech G513
Carbon delivers similar speed but from 50g actuation force. When Logitech G513 mechanical gaming keyboard is the weapon of assault, every light tap on the key responds with fast action on your screen; you no longer have to lose in any game.
Logitech G513 keys’ boxy nature of mechanism allows every stroke delivered to actuate evenly with steady resistance, more stability, and an almost silent stop while keeping its 25% faster promise.
This makes it more superior over Cherry MX Red that gives so little resistance, unevenness when actuated and chattering of the keys when you run your finger on them even without issuing a command.
Outside gaming, Logitech mechanical gaming keyboard isn’t shy to venture and deliver an immersive experience in the actual typing world, unlike other gaming keyboards.
This is especially true for people typing over 100 words per minute; the small but weighty keyboard serves them best.
LIGHTSYNC RGB Aspect in Logitech G513 Keyboard
Besides the thrilling mechanism, Logitech G513 mechanical gaming keyboard uses light sync technology to breathe life into your gaming experience.
The technology allows dynamic and customizable illumination that ‘breathes’ hand in hand with the content of your choice; games, video, and music.
By customizing the illumination of various keys on your keyboard, you can synchronize the keyboard’s lighting with the game, video or music playing on your source.
Logitech G513 offers you up to 16.8 million colors to create your own advanced animation effects or use the preset effects to add vigor to your gaming environment using Logitech Gaming Software.
You can even light sync all devices possible in your gaming throne beside the G513 keyboard; mouse, speakers, and headset.
If you are wondering where to apply Lightsync, when there’s an explosion, damage, healing, approaching enemies among other actions, the keys on Logitech G513 keyboard blast or simmer light to add color to the action.
You can even set amazing effects to celebrate your victory every time you win!
Unlike Roccat, one of Logitech G513 biggest competitors, not all keys are individually programmable; an inferior feature that gamers hate in this keyboard.
But with the amount of programming that’s possible, you can set the keyboard to light a group of keys that are pressed different from all others.
Among the preset effects are; ripples, color waves, color cycle, twinkling stars on a night sky or even controlled brightness among others. In each preset, the key lighting can cycle through all the 16.8 million colors.
Analysis of Easy-to-Ignore Functions of the Gaming Keyboard
Besides the mechanical switches and Lightsync aspect, Logitech G513 has its keys elevated off the chassis in a floating manner instead of embedding like standard keyboards.
This makes it easy to clean food crumbs, hair, and dust likely to settle on the keyboard with compressed air when needed.
This and the fingerprint-free aspect of Logitech’s blend of Aluminum and Magnesium guarantee you of an easy to clean gaming keyboard.
On the rear end of the keyboard neighboring the 6-feet connecting cable is a USB pass through you can use to connect your Logitech gaming mouse.
Sad to note, it only operates USB 2.0. While the port can be used for wireless adapters and thumb drives.
Logitech G513 gaming keyboard fails to employ the ubiquitous USB 3.0; a technology that has been in operation for over a decade. That would enlarge its list of possibilities.
And while Logitech G513 is thought to take over from its younger brother Logitech G413, a major fall is seen on its pricing which lurks around $129.
This leaves many gamers ignoring the enthroned mechanical switch niceties to salvage for cheaper gaming keyboards in the neighborhood.
Logitech G413 backlit mechanical gaming keyboard with USB pass-through was built with the gamers’ pockets in mind. That explains the $50 approximate price on most websites.
For any gaming keyboard manufacturer yearning to entice gamers, the presence of dedicated media keys is a must.
This is not the case in Logitech G513 mechanical gaming keyboard; a key combination for media controls FN+F9/ F10/F11/F12 is the best there is.
While you can use Logitech Gaming Software to invert the key combination to leave out the Function key in Game Mode; FN + F8, this sounds like a long process while playing.
If you must use dedicated media keys, Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum RGB mechanical gaming keyboard with USB though much heavier and bigger, is an excellent choice.
There’s one more unique aspect in Logitech G513 gaming keyboard; the quarter-inch thread at the back of the keyboard that is easily mistaken as a misplaced hole by most gamers.
While it’s not mentioned in Logitech’s main website, the hole is used to mount a vive tracker so you can track your keyboard in your VR.
That brings efficient typing or manipulation of the keys when playing your favorite game into the virtual environment.
Winding up on the little-seen features, when you turn Logitech G513 keyboard upside down, there’s a cable routing channel running from the top to the bottom.
Consider it a safety trench where you can sink the cable of your plugged in a headset so that it doesn’t run wild and unmanaged on the keys.
The little U-groove next to it is meant to restrain your mouse cable for easy management. The keyboard also has six rubber feet protecting it from scratches on the lower side and preventing unnecessary movement on your desk.
And like older keyboards, there are two lockable latches to elevate the keyboard to a certain degree while you are gaming; an aspect of ergonomics.
G513 or Elsewhere?
With the growing number of professional gamers, it shouldn’t surprise you that new demands keep popping up every time a new gaming keyboard is born.
For example, with the possibility of adding a vive tracker to your keyboard to take the real-world peripheral into the game’s virtual world, a new need is born.
Meaning, there will never come a time when a gaming keyboard or any other peripheral for that matter will solve all problems in its area of service. So, where does that leave you?
As long as the price isn’t the key determinant as to whether to settle for Logitech G513 mechanical gaming keyboard as the gaming weapon of choice, this keyboard qualifies to join the battle.
There’s no good reason as to why a gamer should walk away from a keyboard with excellent linear key switch despite not using the most recent USB 3.0.
Neither should the inability to program all the keys with the light sync technology become the determining factor for rejection.
When all the positives are ganged together, Logitech G513 gives a rightful shot at what every professional esport gamer considers as the best tool.