It was about one month ago we were made aware of Logitech’s latest line of gaming peripherals that are marketed toward casual gamers. While there are already a long line of keyboards and mice out there that are of high quality marketed towards people who aren’t ready to spend $200 on a top-of-the-line mechanical keyboard and mouse setup, Logitech is a brand that has popular name recognition and marketing skills to get its product into a very broad range of consumers. I decided to replace my high-end mechanical keyboard and mouse with the Prodigy line of products for about two weeks and this is what I have found:
Aesthetics/Design
Out of the box, the Prodigy G213 and G403 look very smooth. They meet the minimum requirements in all areas to be visually classified as gaming peripherals: multi-zoned LED lighting, braided cables, and edgy font design on the caps. Because reviews are opinion based I have to disclose that personally the look of the very high-end Logitech keyboards, like the Orion 910, look a little too over the top when it comes to the design. I was happy to see the Prodigy line take a more simplified approach, but it might be a little too simple.
The keyboard has a very simple design and very straight lines while the mouse is similarly very simplistic. The first design choice that Logitech made with the keyboard that I wasn’t a fan of was the inability to remove the wrist rest. While the wrist rest attached to the keyboard is fine, removal makes it easier to transport or able to upgrade later. My other issue with the keyboard is that the LED lighting is very ‘splotchy’. Since each and every LED in this board are not controlled individually, there are ‘LED zones’. You can make each zone a different color, but doing that causes some unattractive-looking color blend on many of the keys on the boarder of the zones. The other issue I have with the lighting is that due to the spill resistant design of the keyboard, there is no lighting that emanates from between the keys. The only lighting you get is from the letters on the key caps themselves, making it practically useless when playing during the day or with the lights on.
I take far less issue with the design choices of the G403 mouse because it is so generic looking in general that there is not a lot to criticize. The flip side to that is that there is also not a lot to praise either. Fresh out of the box, there is absolutely no weight to the mouse and I thought it was completely doomed until, to my relief, I found that they did include a 10g weight that was very easy to install and made the mouse much more usable. The mouse has two zones of lighting, the G logo on the body and the scroll wheel. There is a glossy black button underneath the scroll wheel to adjust your DPI on the fly and two programmable buttons on near the thumb rest.
Visually nothing about the Prodigy G213 or G403 really excited me, but beauty is only skin deep.
Performance/Utility
Much like the design, the performance of the Prodigy line left me wanting more. In general the keyboard and mouse just lacked one word that kept popping into my head throughout the testing, and that is precision.
The G213 is not a mechanical keyboard. Instead they opted for membrane keys. Having been spoiled in the world of mechanical switches for the past few years, going back to membrane was frustrating. For typing and studio work, the G213 was about twice as quiet than mechanical, which was a plus, but as far as for gaming key strikes just felt slow and sluggish. The actuation of a true mechanical keyboard can be compared to a cobra strike of pin point precision in a game, while the key strikes on the Prodigy felt mushy and slow. For clarification, I am not a believer that the keyboard can dramatically take you from being bad at a game to god status, but if you are serious about a game, you want to give yourself every advantage possible. No my performance in any particular game did not suffer after using this keyboard, but knowing exactly what I was missing out on with mechanical precision left me largely unsatisfied.
The mouse performed admirably. When comparing the Prodigy mouse and keyboard kit to my typical high-end peripherals that I’m used to, the mouse seemed to hold closer to what I’d expect from ‘gaming standards’. I think the 10g weight is still a little too light fr my taste, but the balance and speed of the click actuation where what I would expect. The devil is in the details with this mouse and the things holding it back for me. The scroll wheel is a little under pronounced and loose, meaning I would often scroll past the alternate weapon I was searching for. This scroll wheel is better for long web pages and not so much just one or two flicks to change guns. I also wish that the dps button had two buttons for increase and decrease dps rather than just moving from preset to preset. If you like to change between dps on the fly, you have to use a single button to scroll through each and every one of your presets, and by default there is no lighting indicator of which dps mode you are actually in so yo need to wiggle the mouse around to tell. All this to find out that the Logitech wired G403 is more expensive than my go-to mouse that has all of the features and more that this one lacks.
G213 Keyboard Final Reaction
The G213 keyboard excelled in its low volume and spill-proof functionality. If you are a gamer who has small children that are going to be doing homework or playing Minecraft on your gaming PC, you may really want to look into buying this keyboard. I did intentionally simulate a spill of water on the keyboard ,and it still works perfectly the way it did before. It’s by no means a bad keyboard in general, but for hardcore gamers who want to experience high-level gear, the G213 is just a little too nerfed.
Rating: 2/5 Atoms
G403 Mouse Final Reaction
The G403 Mouse certainly hits the mark when it comes to being gamer quality hardware, but the high price point and lack of features that legitimate high-end gaming peripherals have that cost less make this not a great value. There just isn’t enough to separate this mouse from the herd of great competition, and the price is just too high.
Rating: 2.5/5 Atoms
from Nerd Reactor
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