Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum Review

April 6, 2016

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The G810 Orion Spectrum follows the G910 Orion Spark but, with its matt black finish and simple design, it has a more grown-up, understated feel. The material picks up fingerprints easily, but it’s undeniably solid. The feet can also be set to two different heights, which is useful, as the G810 feels flat without them.

The key feature is the set of Romer-G switches. With a 45cN actuation force and tactile feedback, the closest comparison is Cherry MX Browns and, after spending some time with the Romer-G switches, we’ve become big fans of them. They feel fast and responsive, and the subtle feedback is appreciated when typing. The action consistency is good too, the keycaps are pleasantly shaped and it’s easy to glide your fingers around them. Gaming is just as good too; fast, repeated taps don’t feel hindered.

The keys have noticeably less total travel than Cherry switches, although we didn’t notice a difference in the actuation point. A clear difference is noise, however; the G810 is considerably quieter than most of the keyboards on test. We can’t say these switches are better than Cherry ones, but they’re just as good and a viable alternative. Similarly, 26-key rollover is just as good as n-key, practically speaking. There are notable omissions from the feature set, though, with no USB ports or wrist rest, for example.

The G810 also sports dedicated game mode, RGB lighting and several media keys, including a volume wheel, all of which have a good action. There’s no secondary function key, nor any dedicated macro keys, but all 12 F-keys can be assigned as macros through the software. The G810 is fully dependent on this software for any tweaking other than basic plug and play effects though – no settings can be saved to the hardware.

Thankfully, the Logitech Gaming Software (LGS) is fast and user-friendly. The homepage presents a simple key map with the function, gaming and lighting keys glowing ready with the relevant sub-menu. LGS scans your system for almost 600 games, each of which has a set of pre-made commands that you can assign to the F-keys. Naturally, you can add your own games and commands too; the macro editor is missing a couple of minor features but it’s still powerful and intuitive.

You can create as many profiles as you like, tying them to one or more games or having multiple profiles per game – the G810 really makes the most of having just 12 programmable keys. Each profile has a game mode, which is activated with the dedicated button. This mode not only disables the Windows key, but also any other keys you choose. Other features include a heat map and stat tracking (which is off by default).

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Meanwhile, the backlight button can only turn the LEDs on or off, but each profile can be customised with one of three LED modes. The complexity is nowhere near that of Razer or Corsair’s lighting systems, but there’s a solid selection of effects, you can create your own per-key static colour patterns and even the lock indicators feature RGB LEDs. Alternatively, certain games can control the lighting for game-specific effects. With the LEDs centred beneath the keycaps, the lighting on each key is extremely even, although your viewing angle has an influence too. There’s no bleed between the keys, and white lighting has a slight blue tinge from the colour of the switch housing.

The G810 wins our favour with its understated design, solid build quality and Romer-G switches. It’s doesn’t offer the most complex customisation features, but the software is excellent and it does its job well. It’s a solid keyboard if you don’t mind a software-driven approach, but its high price and comparatively slim feature set see it miss the sweet spot.