Logitech - G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

I moved from Logitech, G915x keyboard felt ick and the headsets sucked. I got an ergonomic Chinese Kailh box clicky switch keyboard and a Corsair HS80 RGB headset instead for the price of returning the g915. I need a long wrist rest and an ergonomically curved keyboard like my old g710+. The g915 is a lifeless slab. I want to love Logitech design again but the last few years have fallen bad.

For office / work keyboard (which I also use for gaming) I like "Das Keyboard" - get the Mac version if you are primarily a Mac user. I used to keep this at work - but don't have an assigned desk anymore. I also have a Logitech G710+ gaming keyboard - I originally bought it because it was mechanical but quieter. That of course comes at the cost of speed. I end up using Das Keyboard for everything (also PC gaming). Couldn't be happier. Of course I like the idea of a customized keyboard with the perfect Cherry MX switches but I don't want to spend a lot of time on this.

That's muscle memory and it gets better over time. I know because I used g710+ for years and I now have a g915 x. Also, you can still assign those as the keys to their right so even if you mispress it will still be okay.

I use a Logitech G502 mouse. It's an amazing mouse if you like the shape. The two buttons for the thumb and first finger are really good for muscle memory. I bind interrupt to the button right beside the LMB, it's really fast. DPI shift is useless, I tend to bind stuns to that one. I've never tried an MMO 9-button mouse, looks like too much to me. Fewer, larger buttons are better for muscle memory imo. I use a Logitech G710+ keyboard with the 6 side keys. I use them for buffs, dash, goblin glider (lol). I also bind F1 to interact, since I target myself with either mouse over or alt. Tilde is for the extra action button. Go though all of the keybind options. It's nice to have CTRL+P/L/M/K/N to each tab on the collections menu. CTRL+S to toggle sound effects Also set up your bars so they reflect your peripherals. Put abilities on the right side if they're bound to the mouse. I can post a screenshot if you want an example

I wouldn't recommend replacing the keycaps. The Corsair K68 has a non-standard bottom row (it's not just the spacebar). I had a Logitech G710+, which was a fairly nice keyboard, but it also had a non-standard bottom row. In order to replace the keycaps, I had to blend five different sets to get everything. Now, it doesn't have to be as extreme as that, but you'll have difficulty finding a set that completely fits. Keyboards are weird. In terms of most computer parts, you're generally safer choosing big brands. But with keyboards... no. Big brands like Corsair, Logitech, Steelseries, etc are behind the curve on keyboard development and tend to use cheaper materials and over-charge for them. Cherry MX is a standard type of switch. Almost every switch is a clone of the Cherry MX standard. MX has been around since the mid-80s, so there's no protection for the design any more and anyone can just clone it. Now, you might think the originals will be better than the clones, but they're not. Cherry has stuck pretty rigidly to its manufacturing process and continues making the switches pretty much the same way it always did. The clones have improved on the design. Not all of them, by any means, but sticking to Cherry-manufactured switches isn't the path to the best experience. There's really three main switch types: clicky, tactile and linear. And those correspond to colours. Clicky are blue, tactile are brown and linear are red. There are many other colours, but they're almost always variants of 'the three' with different strengths of switches. Clicky blue switches have a 'bump' when you press them down. It's a physical sensation as you press the key. And it makes a loud 'click' noise when you do so. Brown tactile switches are exactly the same, but don't make the click. And linears, don't have the bump. Before I got my first (modern) mechanical, I heard that red were for gaming, brown were for typing and blue were more of a personal preference. None of that is true - it's all personal preference. The Logitech G710+ came with Cherry brown switches. And I could not feel the 'bump' when I was typing. When I pressed them slowly, I could feel it, but at full speed, it was not detectable to me. Many moons later and I'm using Outemu tactile switches where I can feel the bump. The bump occurs at the point at which the switch activates. You don't need to press all the way down - 'bottom out'. With linears, there is nothing to distinguish when the activation point is, so people tend to bottom out, which is noisier. Something else about the Logitech G710+ is that it is not a hotswap keyboard. To change switches means desoldering. And that's a whole pain, if you're not already into soldering. Hotswap keyboards allow you to change switches. Whilst that may seem a little odd, it can be jolly useful. On my current keyboard, I have a mixture of switches. I tend to hit the spacebar harder than other keys, so it has a stronger switch on it. And I have a habit of accidentally hitting Caps Lock (which I barely ever use) when going for the A key. So I have a much stronger switch on there, which eliminates the problem. Likewise, I have slightly stronger switches on the modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt, etc), because I tend to press them harder. It took time for me to get this balance correct and it would have been a real hassle without a hotswap keyboard. And hotswap will allow you to swap out a dead switch (rare, but it happens) when that happens. Layout also matters. I've mostly got TKL (Ten Key-Less) boards. These are exactly the same as a full-sized keyboard, but lack a numeric keypad. So I have an external numeric keypad. But why separate them? Because I can put the numeric keypad where I like. I keep it on the left. So when I'm entering a lot of data, I can use the mouse and the numpad at the same time. And I have a macropad. That's a separate pad of keys that can be configured to be anything. Very handy for a lot of things. I often have to enter repetitive text for work. And I have three monitors and like to be able to shift applications around easily. There's all sorts of uses for one. Another thing is QMK/VIA. Some keyboards can have their firmware reprogrammed by you. And for a coder, it isn't difficult. You can set up multiple layers, so that you can have multiple keyboard layouts that you switch between, or give keys multiple functions. That can be a lot of fun. I realise that none of this really helps - if anything, it makes the decision even harder.

For a long time, there were only a handful of brands making better keyboards than almost-disposable membrane stuff. If you wanted a good pre-built mechanical keyboard there were only a few brands like Ducky, Leopold and Filco. And they weren't cheap. Companies like Corsair and Razer realised they could make large margins on selling 'gamer' keyboards and they only had to be slightly better than their office stuff - mostly just with added RGB lights. An all-plastic Logitech G710+ with soldered-in Cherry brown switches was $150 and being sold as a serious keyboard for gamers. And then GMMK appeared. They offered a truly modular keyboard that you could buy as a barebones kit, adding your own switches and keycaps. This was quite a change. They weren't cheap as such, but they were a cheaper alternative to Ducky, etc and you could buy them in stores. But suddenly no-name Chinese companies started making keyboards with extra features and at low prices. They were able to respond quickly to trends among mechanical keyboard nerds. Things like sound-dampening foam and alternative key switches were easy for Chinese companies to offer when they were based in the same country (and probably the same city) as the makers of those components. Western big brands just weren't agile enough to be able to compete. The only problem was that it could be difficult to get the keyboard you wanted with the exact features you wanted. And then Keychron came along. Suddenly there was a company that offered a huge variety of keyboard with just about every feature and they were well-made, looked good and were a decent price. You would like a full-size wireless keyboard with a knob? No problem. You want a 60% with low profile switches? They've got that too. The big brands started to offer some of the features of the quick-to-market Chinese companies, though they were still slow to manoeuvre and tended to concentrate on features that are easy to market, like 8,000Hz polling. They've even tried getting in on HE switches. And it works well enough for them, because in most cases, consumers will go with a name they trust - or at least have heard of. Who the hell is Aula? How do you even pronounce it? Most of the innovation in keyboards tends to come from these Chinese companies. They can get a keyboard to market in a fraction of the time it takes SteelSeries. And their prices are impossible to beat. The big brands have enjoyed high profits from just increasing the price on anything labelled 'gamer'. As long as they shove RGB lights in it and tell people that HE switches and 8,000Hz polling will make them a better gamer, they'll make money. But if you want a full aluminium case, a circuit-board that supports both HE and mechanical switches, has a flexible carbon fibre plate, gaskets, layers of foam, multiple knobs, and an embedded OLED screen... then TOMAXIJIF keyboards are going to be better and cheaper. Of course their software is very basic and their customer support might not exist, but you can get a lot of keyboard for your money. The big brands have had it easy for too long and continue to sell over-priced under-specc'ed boards as though they're doing you a favour. I hope you enjoy your Aula. They're nice keyboards.