Logitech Craft review: This $200 keyboard can do two things its competitors can’t - crawfordtimperall

The Logitech Craft keyboard is what happens when a keyboard engineer glimpses Microsoft's Surface Dial field hockey-puck peripheral and decides: We can brawl that, too. But if you want to spend $200 for just a keyboard, don't bother: The only way the Craftsmanship makes sense is if you see respect in its Surface-Dial-equivalent navigation pommel that also integrates with Logitech's PC-spanning Logitech Flow software package.

Aesthetically, there's room for improvement. The Craftiness weighs a ponderous 2.08 pounds, anchored by a big ingot that runs across the top of the keyboard and houses the 1,500mAh assault and battery, plus the electronics energetic the pate. You can't adjust the Craft's slope. And personally, I constitute the Craft's scalloped keys to have a shallower travel than I'd like.

Nevertheless, as a productivity tool, the Craft (for both Macs and Windows PCs) is worth serious considerateness. Logitech dubs its interpretation of the Dial the Crown, and you can beg, spin, or advertize-and-change state it to execute various functions on an app-past-app basis. Logitech's Menstruate, meanwhile, allows the Craft to switch quickly from PC to PC, an fantabulous feature if you already own other tablets or convertibles, plus a Fall-enabled mouse.

Just make up a little mistrustful buying it. Most of Virago's shopping pages want you to pay $250 or so, while BestBuy.com and Dell.com burster $199.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Logitech Craft advance keyboard includes the "tip," to the upper socialist.

Base glasses: Solid, but unwieldy

The Craft measures merely short of 17 inches across, 5.88 inches from head-on to back, and about 1.13 inches thick. According to Logitech, the pitch—the distance from the center of unmatched key to the next—is 19 millimeters, which is within the normal range for a accepted-size keyboard.

At just over two pounds, the keyboard lands on your desk with a thunk. Unfortunately, it lacks the traditional hinge surgery legs to adjust the slope, set at 4.7 degrees. It's perfectly sturdy, notwithstandin, without any discernible flex.

Mark Hachman / IDG

A closeup of the Logitech Guile crown, slimly larger than the size of a fourth part.

Connecting the Craft to your PC means pairing it either via Bluetooth or with the associated Logitech consolidative receiver, a USB dongle that's included in the box. You'll too need to download the associated Logitech Options software, the secret sauce that connects the Craft's crown to the applications on your PC.

Observe that because the Options download is an executable charge, about of the Craftiness's features beyond its basic keyboard functions won't influence with Microsoft's up-to-the-minute Windows 10 S operational organisation. Windows also doesn't recognize the Craft's poll American Samoa a Surface Dial, substance it can't take on any of that twist's functions natively within Windows.

The prime mover for concern is shelling life. According to Logitech, the Craft wish final just a week with the backlight high-powered on. (By counterpoint, Logitech's popular K360 wireless keyboard lasts three years on a AA battery.) If you turn off backlighting, the 1,500mAh battery will last about three months, according to Logitech. Charging the Craft took me about sextuplet hours via the Craft's USB-C cable, from my PC. Logitech too includes a power turn on the front of the keyboard, another tip-off that the Craft consumes more juice than you might expect.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The upper ingot across the top of the Craft holds its battery and the Crown's electronics, but it doesn't allow for any flexibility in slope.

The Craft's backlight turns off after a fewer seconds of inactivity, and resumes when you put your fingers near it. You hindquarters adjust the backlighting through 10 or 12 distinct gradations to fill out longer battery life. However, there is no electric battery estimate on the keyboard itself, just A battery icon that lives wrong the Options utility software.

Logitech surely understands the basic requirements of a keyboard, and the Craft is thoughtfully designed. On the top run-in of function keys Windows users testament incu dedicated keys for switching between applications, debut Action Center notifications and minimizing applications, and locking the keyboard.

Logitech

You'll find the standard media controls and keys to adjust either the keyboard backlighting Oregon the light of the screen. There's also a handy calculator release above the dedicated add up pad.

The Craft works with Macs as well as Windows PCs. Logitech accommodates both platforms by incorporating a Start key and an Apple Command (CMD) key as options on the Alt keys close to the spacebar. Three devoted Easy-Switch buttons, above the Insert, Family and PageUp keys, allow you to pair the Cunning with up to three devices, including Macs.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Craft can work with either Macs or PCs.

Typing experience isn't up to snuff

I'm not alone impressed with how the Wiliness functions on an everyday fundament, all the same. It's actually nice for keys to have a flimsy incurvation to guide your fingers, equally the Craftiness's keys do, but the unusually low-pitched dimple feels distracting to me. While the scissor-switch mechanism nether from each one key responds firmly, the 1.8mm key travel is kind of shallow for a desktop keyboard—my fingers round-bottom taboo also quickly to be comfortable. The blank bar also oft emitted a slight, annoying squeak when I struck it, just that could be a quirk particular to my limited review social unit.

According to a Logitech representative, its customers—creatives and photo editors—"like the tangible feedback of the keystroke with the silence of the scissor mechanisms." I've e'er believed that the keyboard experience is a largely subjective uncomparable, which will vary from person to someone. For me, the Craft International Relations and Security Network't quite there.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The turn pad and some of its specialized functions, on with point of the crenate keys.

The Craft's Crown sets it apart

With any other keyboard, the revue would end there. With the Logitech Craft, though, we're just acquiring started.

Obviously, the material reason to buy the Craftiness is the Crown, the gnomish telephone dial that squats on the upper left corner of the keyboard. It spins either smoothly or incrementally, depending on what kinda menu or function you're using with it. You behind also press IT, or press, hold and turn it at the same time. The Crown is extremely sensitive, so just the lightest brush of your finger will spark a popup on your screen indicating what function bequeath spark if you spin it. Switching the Crown between only turning IT and press-and-turn mode is accompanied by a bit of haptic feedback, and by a dissonance that sounds disconcertingly the likes of a camera shutter.

And what function is that? That's capable you. Most of Logitech's peripherals ship with its Options computer software, a rigid of standard utilities that allow you to map specific functions to your pussyfoot buttons. With the Craft, your options expand ostensibly exponentially.

IDG

Logitech's Options provide a wealthiness of choices for you to assign the Craft's crown and keyboard procedure keys to.

Past default, spinning the Crown adjusts your PC's sound volume (eventide without the Options software installed), but you can assign pretty such whatsoever procedure you'd like to either the turn, press, surgery press-and-turn functions. If you'd like the Crown to be a Cortana push, IT can be that.

I assigned the turn subroutine to cycle through my various applications, the press function to play and pause my media player, and press-and-turn to adjust the volume. Note that there are far more options available to the press input, as granular as opening My Documents or performing a right-come home. Naturally, you can reconfigure the keyboard's function keys, too, though that almost seems like an rethink.

IDG

Not riant with the Craft's preconfigured options? The Craft will scan your machine for apps IT sees, and freight in preconfigured templates. You also have the option to modify or design your own.

Almost immediately, I establish that victimisation the Capitulum was Interahamw more convenient than only Alt-Tab-ing some my screen background. I was able to consolidate my workflow Down to a divorced monitor, something I rarely suffice. That's a win, in my book.

Logitech went the extra mile, though, and developed custom profiles for popular apps: Microsoft's Edge browser, advantageous Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox; Stand out, PowerPoint, and Articulate; and the Adobe brick Creative Cloud apps, including Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Inside an app like Adobe Illustrator, the Craft keyboard is preconfigured with contextual options that you can adjust with a tap along the crown.

In each, Logitech already assigned the button to specific functions. Spinning the Crown cycles through unrestricted tabs in Chromium-plate, Edge, and Firefox, e.g.. Within Illustrator, you hindquarters change the shot size and color fair-and-square by adjusting the Crown, similar to what you crapper do with or s drawing apps with the Airfoil Dial. Discussion allows you to resize images or quickly change papers formats. It's these pre-designed apps that add hitherto one many use to the Crown: tapping (not pressing) the Crown to move between unitary operating theatre more functions, which you lav then adjust by turn the Tip.

If you've been remunerative attention, though, you may take up already sussed out one and only of the Wiliness's issues: How does IT know what you want to do? In other dustup, you may find yourself in a situation where you've set up the diadem to cycle between apps within all Windows apps, only between open tabs patc using Chrome. If you're in Chromium-plate, should the Crown cycle between apps, or the open tabs? Fortunately, the Craft was smart enough to prioritize chit switching inside Chrome, and app switching within other contexts.

Adam Murray / IDG

The competition: the Microsoft Surface Dial. No, the Craft's crown can't do this, but the Dial doesn't come as part of a keyboard, either.

We should note that the Craft's related Options software system was a bit glitchy when we originally went hands-on with it in 2017. Its stability has since better during the several days we spent with IT recently as section of this review. The only problem I noticed was an unfitness to reconnect to Bluetooth after a Windows update, forcing me to re-pair the device on cardinal occasions.

Logitech Stream: A unique feature—for a terms

If you'atomic number 75 using the Guile as simply a keyboard, you'd be better polish off buying one that's lighter, offers more configuration options, and is in all likelihood cheaper. Logitech Menstruate, though, offers an additional dimension of productivity that other manufacturers butt't allow, assuming you're prepared to bargain into the Logitech ecosystem.

Marking Hachman / IDG

You can pair a Logitech mouse and keyboard together using Menstruum, Logitech's utility package.

A miniscule telephone number of Logitech mice and keyboards, including the Craft as well as the Logitech MX Get the hang 2S, are Flow-enabled, meaning that they'll exploit with more one PC. If you're prepared to a.) invest in both a Flow rate-enabled keyboard and mouse; b.) connect some to more than one PC, with the fit Options software installed; and c.) enable Flow, something amazing happens: You throne combine each PC into one continuous workspace.

Put other way, Flow enables you to drag your mouse cursor to the edge of the screen, where information technology "jumps" to another PC. Because the keyboard can au fond equal paired with the sneak, this means you can use the mouse and keyboard with different PCs. Wherefore invest in a separate display when you can simply order an doddering laptop or tablet next to your existing monitor? Even older laptops that lack Bluetooth tail live paired with the Unifying Recipient dongle.

Mark Hachman / IDG

With Flow, one mouse and keyboard can be victimised to manipulate quaternate computers at once, transferring files and other information apace back down and Forth.

Even better, Flow also allows you to copy documents, files, and text between those PCs, allowing them to work within a single unified environment. All of the PCs have to be connected to the same pumped up or tune network, and bulk transfers will only go as fast as your wireless network allows. The view, course, is that you have to buy a Flow-enabled mouseand keyboard from Logitech.

There's another quirk, also: while Options provides different configuration options for both the mouse and keyboard, Flow controls are entirely joint with the computer mouse. There, you'll have the option to contact a keyboard. (Options auto-heard and linked the Craft.) Still, finding Flow from sack be a olive-sized frustrating.

Be aware, though: Flow is also quite sensitive to wireless security. Devising IT work with my home base firewall needful approximately tweaking, but it simply flopped at work, where our IT administrator had implemented the company's ain, inflexible network policies.

Outlay $200 on the Craft keyboard (a keyboard!) for its Treetop telephone dial might be hard to excuse. Paying even more for a mouse hits your pocketbook harder. But Flow helps make the purchases more palatable.

Finis: The price of foundation

Logitech clearly realizes information technology has something nearly unique in the Craft—a oddity in the peripherals commercialise—and has priced it accordingly. Given that Microsoft's Come on Dial alone costs $100, you can see wherefore the company would value the Foxiness at $200, even if most people would hesitate to spend that some on a keyboard. To enjoy the Crown plus the full profit of Flow requires you to spend symmetrical more on a Flow-enabled black eye—the $100 MX Master 2S, for example, which already includes its own, Crown-like thumbwheel.

I hate disbursal money on things I won't function, and the Craft's Tip doesn't really enable any function you dismiss't already actuate with a mouse Oregon even a keyboard shortcut. But clumsy for the CTRL+PgUp keys to shift to the next hospitable tab scarce isn't as light arsenic flipping the Crown. And I find the concept of Flow fascinating, just because IT gives Maine a reason to power up those crappy old laptops of yesteryear.

Equally a keyboard, though, the Guile definitely has room for improvement, in price of the pitch and battery life. I'd suggest Logitech explore Crown derivatives that build a small Crown thumbwheel into the side of the keyboard, hopefully facultative yearner bombardment life and a more ergonomic form factor.

It all boils refine to this: if you're mentation about buying the Craft atomic number 3 just a keyboard, get into't. If you have past tablets and convertibles untruthful more or less doing nil, though, the Flow software system and the Crown make the Logitech Craft a tempting piece of productivity hardware.

This review was updated on Feb. 22 to elucidate issues concerning Catamenia and radiocommunication networking while at the IDG offices.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/407298/logitech-craft-keyboard-hands-on-price-release-date-features.html

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