Virtually a year agone Logitech announced its most of import gaming keyboard to date, the G910 Orion Spark. The G910 was an of import product for Logitech that was designed to assist it stand out in the ever growing pack of companies pouncing on the gaming peripheral market.

Logitech claimed that the G910 was the culmination of years of ongoing development past its applied science squad. With feedback from gamers and eSport athletes the company set out to develop the next-generation mechanical primal and the end issue is what it calls Romer-G mechanical switches. While anybody else was busy ordering shiploads of Cherry MX switches, Logitech went almost creating its ain.

For the most part, the G910 received positive reviews, though the chief sticking points were the keycaps and the palm residual. The not-unified keycaps were by far the near criticized part of the keyboard and I have to admit that we didn't really savour them either. The uneven wrist pad was besides horrible for typing and only suited for gaming -- ii were included and they both sucked.

Whereas the Cerise MX switches have a solid feel and in many versions a nice clicking noise to go along with it, the Romer-Gs feel squishier and have a hollower sounding click if you lot will. That said, a lot of gamers actually liked the switches while others said they could live with them if not for the keycaps.

Since pushing out the G910 some eleven months ago now we are yet to see some other Romer-G enabled keyboard from Logitech. That was of course until it announced the G310 Atlas Dawn, a meaty Romer-K mechanical keyboard.

Equally the name implies, the G310 is a slimmed down version of the G910. Gone are the macro keys along the side and top of the board, as are the media control functions. The number pad has too been given the kicking. The reason for removing these features has been to develop a lightweight and compact keyboard that's better suited for travel to LAN events or to fit into smaller gaming spaces.

Almost everything about the G310 is smaller than the G910 but i thing in detail isn't, the price. The G910 originally retailed for $180 but has since dropped to $140 where information technology is much more competitive. The G310 on the other hand is starting with an MSRP of $180, the same price its bigger brother once sold for. Naturally we are wondering if the G310 is worth paying more for than the G910.

Pattern & Features

The G310 Atlas Dawn is 33% smaller than the G910 measuring 390.5mm long, 185.2mm wide and 35.5mm thick. It's also l% lighter tipping the scales at just 765 grams.

The Romer-Grand switches are garnished with the aforementioned mishmash of keycaps that nosotros saw on the G910 and personally I don't like the feel at all. To me, they experience rubbish to impact/push and spoil what might otherwise be a pleasant experience with the Romer-G switches. Not merely do they feel uncomfortable under finger, just I struggle to move across the keyboard without getting caught on keys.

On the plus side, the keys are center-illuminated with blueish backlighting and the brightness can be controlled at the push of a push button or even disabled. For the price yous might take expected the same RGB lighting as the G910, simply sadly that isn't the case so information technology's bluish or naught.

There aren't whatever programmable keys and we feel like for the price at that place should be, there is no reason why Logitech couldn't accept included some on the far left side of the keyboard, much like what Cougar did with their 700K mechanical gaming keyboard.

Instead Logitech decided to include an unnecessary cut out feature on the left side which looks a flake similar a handle, simply unless y'all have kid-like fingers you aren't going to be using it equally a handle. Information technology seems like Logitech could have made the G310 at least 20mm shorter and information technology wouldn't have impacted the functionality, just the aesthetics.

The side by side issue, and for me it is a rather large one, is the palm rest or lack thereof. The G310 is a tall keyboard, especially at the front end where your hands rest, then the palm rest is extremely important.

Unfortunately, the G310 might likewise not accept a rest. Like the G910, information technology only has a half palm rest for your left hand that would typically go after the WASD keys when gaming. Nevertheless, the rest is and then short and so steep that your palm doesn't actually fit on information technology.

I would describe the keyboard as having a double claw grip-like feeling, your palms virtually have to hover in the air to avoid clawing away at the G310.

The ARX dock makes a comeback and this time it is fully removable which is pretty absurd. The downside being that in lodge to use the dock it has to be fully removed, so not that smashing for saving space and so. Had the dock worked as it did on the G910 and been removable that would have made it a worthwhile feature.

Other than the ARX dock the only other noteworthy characteristic at the summit of the G310 is the ane.8m long USB cablevision which isn't braided. Moreover there isn't any kind of USB pass-through feature on the G310 or anywhere to plug your headset in for example, which would take been a prissy bonus for a compact gaming keyboard.

Underneath the G310 has been given a baby blue pigment chore and 4 safe pads for grip. There are also 2 legs that can exist folded out to increase the user'south angle of assail.

And then far the G310 Atlas Dawn has been quite disappointing for a gaming keyboard selling for over $150.