Logitech G710+ Mechanical Keyboard

Update Saturday September 20, 2014 The rate of key breakage seems to be leveling off. Since February I have only had one more key break off (F12) as soon as a key starts taking more than one tap to register, you can figure its done and you might as well change it. I've been using Max Keyboard blank keys as replacements. I going to buy this replacement set since the blank keys seem to be fairly durable... Max Keyboard Universal Cherry MX Translucent Clear Black Full Keycap Set (Top Print) The cherry brown switches seem to be fine and this is a quick keyboard to type on. But really, such crummy key caps. After buying new key caps this is a $190 keyboard. I will post a review of the key caps after I've tried them for a while. Update Thursday Feb 06, 2014 I am now missing six key caps. i.e. both shift keys, the tilde key, the tab key, and the F5 and F8 keys. All have broken off. The keyboard itself is fine to type on but for gaming, these keys are just too easy to break off in the heat of raiding. First they wobble then they are gone. I'm limping along on no-name, no label keys from another vendor on Amazon. I'm going to contact Logitech and ask for a replacement keyboard. Update: Saturday Nov 16, 2013 I still like this keyboard. However, both shift keys and the escape key have broken due to the mounting post in the key cap splitting. This makes the key wobble slightly and then soon after, break off. Logitech has been unhelpful in sending new keycaps. They insist that I must RMA the whole keyboard. However, I don't want to give it up for as long as it might take them to turn me around another keyboard. Plus, these key caps break easily. Its clear by now that I would be doing this several times. Why not just make the darned key caps available? Original Review... I posted this at Tech-Report on Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:48 am and I am re-posting it here... I just received my new Logitech G710+ mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown keys. I'll be updating this post with some comments a little later as I get used to the layout. However, my first impression is very good. I am upgrading from a Logitech K800 which I loved, being wireless and LED backlit. Especially the way the backlighting came on when your hands got close to the board. But, over the last year I have been playing a lot of WOW and it became clear to me that I need some audible/tactile feedback as to when I have hit a key. Also, it seemed like the K800 sometimes could not keep up with keystrokes. This board is supposed to have 26-key rollover. Finally, I wanted to be able to touch type more rapidly and the low end Dell keyboard at work is superior for typing compared to my K800. From reviews here at Tech-Report I decided I needed a mechanical keyboard and that only Cherry MX Brown keys would suffice. From my experience with the K800, I required LED backlighting. So when this new keyboard was announced; I knew I had to have one. So, I played WOW for the first time with it last night. The layout required a little bit of stretching since the keys have significant vertical travel compared to the K800. But it took very little time for it to feel natural and I am sure it will only get better. As to touch typing, well its just superb. There are 6 macro keys which can each be assigned three macros. I have not tried them yet because they only work if you download the logitech support software. I don't know if WinXP-64 OS is supported. There is a windows menu lockout key for gaming and it lights an LED when it is enabled. This really feels great for touch typing! There are four levels of backlighting (and dark). One button controls just the WASD and arrow keys and the other button controls all the rest of the keys. Only the top half of shifted keys are backlit. The numeric keys have the shifted characters below instead of the numbers so that only the numbers are illuminated. However, for touch typists, this is not a problem because the keys behave properly. I applaud the choice because I like having the numbers prominently visible for the gaming aspect. The keys are black matt finished and you cannot feel the lettering. There is a volume roll bar and volume on/off button, both of which work without needing any software support. The cable (good length but did not measure, but I need a long one) comes out through the middle of the back of the keyboard and is quite heavy. There is a separate USB2 pass through rolled into the cable (two USB2 plugs at the PC end) and the pass through USB2 port is close to the center of the back of the keyboard where it is out of the way of my mousing surface to the right of my keyboard. Using it for my mouse at the moment. The keyboard is heavy compared to any other board I've owned. The frame is rigid and It feels volumetrically dense when hefted. If you clocked somebody with this board, they might not get back up very quickly. Only my M-series is heavier. The wrist rest feels comfortable and hooks to the board. Hooks for the wrist rest look a little frail but no stress on them unless you are gonna move the board a lot. Flip out legs on the back of the board give a good slope. Although the back feet are not rubberized; the front and back corners of the board have large soft pads. This board is not going to shift on your desk. I don't think I will bother getting any second market wrist rest; as this feels pretty good. Finally, all the keys you would normally type in use are Cherry MX Brown switched, including the arrows, numbers, function, and G1 through G6 macro keys. In other words all the keys you would find on a regular keyboard are mechanical on this one. Only the special use function keys along the very top of the keyboard feel like they are not mechanical.