Mechanical minimalism
Logitech G Pro
A capable and well-designed gaming keyboard for those who favor simplicity.
If you’ve grown weary of large, over-sized gaming keyboards with ostentatious designs, the Logitech G Pro tenkeyless mechanical keyboard will feel like a breath of fresh air.
It is designed expressly for professional players, which means that form takes a backseat to functionality. Superuous bits are thrown out, and if it doesn’t serve a purpose, Logitech hasn’t included it.
The result is a fairly minimalist keyboard that is blissfully free of garish branding or other protruding bits of plastic. It follows a tenkeyless design, and its smaller footprint means you’ll have a larger mousing area – good for low-sensitivity gamers – and makes it easier to center. The keyboard itself is built mainly out of plastic, but it feels robust and well put together. The detachable, braided cable also speaks of quality, and goes a long way toward making transportation easier.
It uses Logitech’s own Romer-G switches, the result of a partnership between Logitech and Japanese switch maker Omron. The rationale behind many gaming keyboard manufacturers’ opting for their own switches is that the more common Cherry MX switches were never designed with gaming in mind (though there are newer Cherry MX Speed switches with shorter actuation distances, but those are still quite uncommon).
Romer-G switches have an actuation distance of 1.5mm, compared to the 2mm on Cherry MX switches. This allows for quicker execution of key presses in theory, but there isn’t much of a tangible di erence in our experience. The switches are also fairly light, with an actuation force of 45g. They are best compared to Cherry MX Browns, but with a lighter (actually barely perceptible) tactile bump at the beginning of every keystroke. Ultimately, we found the keys to be fairly comfortable, although we’d have preferred a crisper feel.
And even though we said that the G Pro focused mainly on the essentials, it does still come with customizable per-key RGB backlighting and the Logitech Gaming Software adds a ton of functionality. This includes a programmable function row, custom game profiles for a wide range of titles, and the ability to assign complex commands to specific in-game controls.