Logitech Pop Keys review: Reliable wireless mechanical keyboard with a divisive style

Mechanical keyboards might be intimidating for newcomers. The sheer variety of choices—keyboard dimension, the sort and the producer of the switches, the type and materials of the keycaps, amongst others—could make it arduous to know the place to begin. And but, when you do begin utilizing a mechanical keyboard, there’s lots to like, from the superb key journey and typing really feel to the satisfying clackity-clack of the switches to the customizability of the keycaps.

As we talked about in our overview of the Razer Professional Kind Extremely, good wi-fi mechanical keyboards are nonetheless arduous to come back by. That’s doubly true in the event you’re searching for one from a extra established firm that may present US-based technical and guarantee assist and well-maintained, truly helpful software program. Which is why I’m glad to see Logitech increasing its mechanical keyboard choices with the $100 Pop Keys Bluetooth keyboard.

The Pop Keys is certainly not for everybody. Its high-contrast, high-saturation colour palette, rounded typewriter-style keycaps, and devoted emoji keys will immediately flip off individuals who simply need a keyboard-looking keyboard. Its keycap high quality leaves a bit to be desired, too. However as a starter mechanical keyboard, or as a mechanical various for different Logitech Bluetooth keyboards just like the budget-minded K380 or the MX Keys Mini, it’s an aesthetically placing possibility with dependable connectivity and a good really feel.

Typing really feel

The Pop keyboard is harking back to Logitech’s low cost, easy K380, one other round-keyed multi-device Bluetooth keyboard. The K380’s scissor switches are on par with a decent-not-great laptop computer keyboard; it’s not as agency as Apple’s Magic Keyboards, nevertheless it’s additionally a 3rd of the value. And that’s the enchantment of the K380—it’s respectable, it’s rock-solid dependable, a pair of AAA batteries can final for years, and it prices $30.

The Pop Keys takes that primary template and provides TTC Brown mechanical switches (Logitech doesn’t specify which sort of switches it makes use of, nevertheless it’s printed on the switches if you look). As with the Razer Professional Kind Extremely, one of many stuff you quit if you go along with a extra mass-market mechanical keyboard is the flexibility to select which change you like. I do suppose Browns are a stable selection for lots of people, they usually’re what I personally use on the MagicForce Sensible 2 and Varmilo VA87M—they’re tactile switches with a extra refined bump that helps scale back noise, and I discover that they ship a pleasant clicky mechanical really feel and sound with out being obnoxiously loud about it.

That mentioned, in comparison with each the Gateron and Cherry MX Brown switches within the different mechanical keyboards I take advantage of commonly, the bump within the Pop Keys’ TTC Brown switches is terribly refined, to the purpose the place I puzzled if it truly used linear switches the primary time I used it. Now that I’ve been working with it for a couple of days, I can undoubtedly really feel that tactile bump, and it’s doing its job—I don’t have to backside out the keys to get presses to register. However in the event you had been fearful about disliking the keyboard as a result of Brown switches don’t have sufficient of a bump for you, the Pop Keys might disappoint.

Logitech’s keycap selection additionally leaves one thing to be desired. I’m not speaking a lot concerning the rounded form of the keys—although this does take some getting used to, and even after a couple of days of typing I nonetheless discover myself making extra errors than I do on a typical keyboard—and extra because of the ABS plastic used for the keycaps. The flippantly textured ABS plastic is extra vulnerable to carrying down and changing into shiny, clean, and slippery over time in comparison with extra sturdy PBT keycaps, and Logitech has additionally printed the legends onto the keys somewhat than molding them into the plastic. The printed legends on my K380’s keycaps haven’t worn off after a couple of years of intermittent use, however I’d be extra fearful about them for a keyboard I used to be utilizing all day day-after-day.

Good software program, dependable pairing

Just like the K380, the Pop Keys might be paired to as much as three totally different units through Bluetooth, and the keycap legends cowl each Home windows and macOS/iOS/iPadOS layouts. If Bluetooth isn’t responsive sufficient for you, or in the event you simply wish to join the keyboard to a fourth system, Logitech does embrace one among its Logi Bolt USB wi-fi dongles within the field, so you possibly can join as much as six appropriate Logitech keyboards and mice utilizing a lower-latency wi-fi connection. The Bolt dongle may pair the Pop Keys with a fourth laptop, if the three Bluetooth connections aren’t sufficient for you.

I’ve by no means had an issue with Bluetooth reliability in a Logitech keyboard, and the stable low-latency connection is one factor that units the Pop Keys aside from different $100-and-under wi-fi mechanical keyboards I’ve used. I expertise random disconnects on a number of computer systems whereas utilizing the Magicforce Sensible 2, so although that keyboard is a bit cheaper and feels higher to kind on general than the Pop Keys, I successfully find yourself treating it as a wired keyboard more often than not.

Logitech’s software program can also be fairly good, as keyboard software program goes—higher than the barebones or nonexistent software program for no-name keyboard imports but additionally extra streamlined than Razer’s bloated do-everything Synapse package deal. The Pop Keys keyboard isn’t programmable through {hardware} DIP switches or firmware customization, so it’s essential to depend on the software program for any and all keyboard customization, together with associating the proper emoji characters with the emoji keycaps.

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You probably have completely no use for devoted emoji keycaps, the excellent news is that these 4 buttons (often devoted to some mixture of the web page up/down, finish, insert, residence, or print display buttons on a typical 75 p.c keyboard) might be programmed to do absolutely anything, together with functioning as different emoji. I do want Logitech had included some keycaps for these keys’ conventional features alongside the extra emoji keycaps in order that individuals who need these buttons to do regular issues may achieve this with out messing up the look of the keyboard. However finally, having keys whose legends don’t match their features is a shortcoming you possibly can stay with in the event you’re pleased with the remainder of the choices that Logitech made right here.