Logitech G915 X LIGHTSPEED TKL

A few keyboards were introduced at LOGI Play a few weeks ago and today we’re going to take a look at the Logitech G915 X Lightspeed TKL. This tenkeyless keyboard is a follow up to their popular G915 keyboard released about four years ago. The G915 X comes in a few versions including those that want a numpad and Logitech was kind enough to send the white tenkeyless version for review.

A low profile keyboard, the G915 X Lightspeed TKL is a super thin wireless keyboard. The white version has a very nice looking brushed aluminum on top that makes it look really premium. The keys come in three different variants: tactile, clicky, and linear. Logitech sent along a tactile one for review purposes.

Coming in at a height of 22.5 mm or .88 inches in height, the thin keyboard is reinforced by a 1.5mm aluminum top plate. The top plate’s thickness has increased by .3 mm from the previous offering and I can tell you it makes for one sturdy keyboard. There’s absolutely no flex, give, or creaking sounds when I was trying to bend it. While the underside is plastic, the top plate’s construction where it wraps around down the left and right side makes it feel rock solid.

The TKL design allows the keyboard to take up a relatively small desk area. We’re talking 360 mm(15.2 inches) in length and 150 mm (5.91 in) from the bottom of the keyboard to the top edge. The small footprint does do well if you’re one who likes to keep their desk space neat or don’t have that much room to begin with. At 860 grams, the weight, to me, is good and it doesn’t feel heavy when lugging it around. It’s actually slightly lighter than the G515 LIGHTSPEED I reviewed a few months ago.

You can have the keyboard laying flat, but the legs have two different angles as well that you can prop it up to. For me, I like using the higher of the two angles so I extended both feet out when typing. A slight angle can be achieved by folding the outer leg flat and keeping the inner leg extended. Each leg has a small strip of rubber on it to keep the keyboard from moving around should you use this option.

Logitech has made several improvements on the keys themselves to alleviate some of the problems that owners of the previous version have voiced. The new GL switches now incorporate a cross-style stem, replacing the hook system of the past. With that comes the ability to more easily replace the keycaps with ones you want. Taking off the keycaps is pretty easy and you can see in the picture the round cross in the middle with the RGB light shining above it. I know for people who want to customize the keyboard to their liking, this will be a welcome change.

Key wobble is supposed to be reduced with the stem style change. I don’t have an older G915 to compare though. From what I can see, there’s still a minor wobble to it when placing my finger lightly on top and moving around, but not enough that I think that will bother anyone when typing and gaming. In fact, I’m typing this review up right now on the G915 X and I don’t notice any difficulties or annoyances with my ability to type quickly and accurately.

Each keycap has a slight textured feel to it, which feels nice when typing. While the originals were made from ABS, the G915 X Lightspeed keys are created using a double-shot PBT process. This should improve the durability of the keys with the double-shot process and also allows for a much improved legend quality. The light really shines well through the keycaps on the G915 X Lightspeed and because of the double-shot process, it should last and not rub off like some of my past Logitech keyboards that I own. Each key’s RGB looks very uniform and sufficiently bright.

Pressing down on the tactile keys produces a nice satisfying feeling and a muted sound. The brown like switches have an actuation point of 1.3 mm with a total travel distance of 3.2 mm. An actuation force of 45 gf is needed to depress the key, putting it right in the middle between the linear and clicky versions. I found the key pressing to be easy and soft although I do type pretty forcefully no matter what keyboard I use as pointed out to me by my coworkers. In any case, I really liked the feel of the tactile switches that came with the review unit as they felt nice under my fingertips both resting on the keys and when typing.

To the right of the RGB Logitech G logo on the upper left are some functional keys to switch the wireless operation, turn on game mode, and change the LED brightness. The G915 X Lightspeed and connect to your device either using the included dongle or via Bluetooth. If you connect this to multiple devices, it’s pretty easy to switch between the two with a push of a button. These round keys feature a nice soft rubber feel to them and are chamfered on the edges.

Media controls are located on the top right along with a smooth rolling volume dial. Just like the wireless and game mode buttons, the media keys are also the rubber round chamfered style allowing you to skip, pause, rewind, and mute. All of the keys have a very nice legend on top that also glows brightly from the RGB LED underneath. I really like the smoothness of the volume dial and its elongated size. It’s a continuous scroll and is responsive when rotating.

For the wireless version, there’s a USB-C connection that you can use to charge or plug into your computer for wired use. During the press briefing, there seemed to be a few cheers for this so I’m guessing the older model had a micro-USB connection. Thankfully, we’re now in the USB-C age and the G915 X Lightspeed will include the universal connector. Included in the package is an almost 6 feet long USB-C to USB-A cable so you should have plenty of length on the cable should you want to keep it plugged into your PC or if the charging option is at a good distance away from the keyboard.

Battery life for the TKL version was rated at 46 hours of continuous use and I would say that’s about accurate. I started out on a Saturday using this keyboard and by about Thursday, Logitech G-HUB was reporting that the keyboard had around 15% power left. This is me using the keyboard for a good 10+ hours a day and I didn’t turn it off at night, letting it go to sleep. The G915 X Lightspeed had no problems waking up each morning when I tapped on it and it brought my computer out of its slumber as well. Logitech said that reducing the RGB brightness to 50% will more than double the battery life and turning it off completely will give around 1000 hours of continuous usage, which is pretty insane for a wireless keyboard.

Using the Logitech G915 X Lightspeed TKL for the week for both gaming and productivity, I found it to be a solid performer. When coding in Visual Studio, I found it to be a joy to type with. I do miss having dedicated programmable keys though like on my old keyboard and the full size version of the G915 X Lightspeed does have nine dedicated G buttons that I would use for various Visual Studio and Photoshop functions. So on that front, if I was looking for a keyboard for both work and play without having to switch out, I’d go with the full size keyboard myself. You can mitigate this with the Keycontrol software that’s available for the G915 X Lightspeed and assign multiple functions to keys. Still, there are times I do want some dedicated keys for macros and programmable functions on the productivity side.

When gaming, I played through various first person and third person games using the keyboard and one of the new Logitech mice that I’ll be posting about in the near future. Keys were responsive in each game and I didn’t notice any lag whatsoever in wireless usage. I tested only in Lightspeed mode for gaming and the connection was solid throughout my time using it.

Compared to the G515 LIGHTSPEED TKL I reviewed a few months ago, I did find the G915 X LIGHTSPEED a little more to my liking. I didn’t notice the difference in actuation point as the G515’s actuation point is .1 mm higher than the G915 X. Total travel distance is the same between the two. I do, however, like the additional media buttons and volume dial on the G915 X that the G515 does not have and the aluminum top plate compared to the plastic one on the G515. Thus, you can see what the price difference does give you between the two.

The G915 X LIGHTSPEED TKL comes in at $199.99, so it’s one of the more expensive keyboards from Logitech. The full size version comes in at $229.99, so a $30 premium for the extra keys. For me wanting to use a keyboard in both a work and gaming environment, I’d shell out the extra $30 for that one if you have the desk space. Otherwise, the G915 X LIGHTSPEED TKL does offer a solid performance for a mechanical keyboard that feels great in the hand and lasts long on battery.