The Logitech G515 Lightspeed is a low-profile TKL wireless Hyperspeed keyboard from the manufacturer Logitech. Built from the ground up with the latest design philosophies from Logitech the G515 aims to be a powerhouse of precision, speed, and performance. With redesigned switches for reduced travel distance, improved dampening foam, and pre-lubed brown or red linear switches the G515 looks to be a premium wireless keyboard at a budget-friendly price point.
Taking it a step further Logitech has thinned out the profile to a mere 22mm at its thickest point making the perfect companion for both work and gaming. With three modes of connection and a host of other impressive features, it's time to see if the G515 lives up to the hype. So grab that coffee, kick back, and check out our review of the G515 from the good folks over at Logitech.
Specifications
- Current Price: $139.99
- Profile: Low Profile
- Switch Type: Tactile Browns(reviewed) or Linear Reds
- Key Switch Actuation: 1.3mm
- Actuation Force: (B)45g, (R)43g
- Total Travel Distance: 3.2mm
- RGB: LIGHTSYNC RGB Lighting (per key lighting)
- Battery: Rechargeable Lithium Polymer
- Battery Life: Up to 36 Hours
- Connectivity: 2.4 GHz LIGHTSPEED, Bluetooth, Wired
- Dimensions: 368 mm L x 150 mm W x 22 mm H
- Weight: 880 g
Sleek and Minimalistic
The G515 has a beautifully minimalist design. Despite its thin profile, the G515 is impressively weighty coming in at 880g. Comprised of a hard plastic outer shell the G515 feels sturdy to use despite its thin frame. Aside from the keys themselves, there is very little flair to observe. Three small rubberized switches rest horizontally along the left edge providing easy connection swapping as well as quick access to the G515s Game mode profile. Additionally, on the right, there are two small light indicators for caps lock and battery status.
The back edge of the G515 houses the USB Type-C port for charging and wired connection while the right side houses the power switch. Turning the board over there are two sets of adjustable legs (4° and 8°) a single imbedded storage point for the wireless dongle and rubberized pads to help steady the board and offer additional shock absorption while typing. It is a simple design but intentionally so, the result of which is a highly functional, low profile, mechanical keyboard that can function in office space by day and easily be your main gaming keyboard by night.
Thanks to the fully customizable LIGHTSYNC RGB built into the G515 there are still plenty of options for customizing the look of the board. Individual key light control, thanks to Logitech’s GHub (more on this later), means you can easily swap lighting profiles to fit the situation or even the game you are playing. The result is a highly customizable lighting experience that shines through nice and bright.
The G515 looks gorgeous with RGB engaged. The minimalist backdrop of the board's design helps the RGB pop creating a sharp-looking keyboard. Thanks to the low-profile design, quality build and smart overall design the G515 is a premium looking and feeling board.
Features and Functions
Speaking of profile, the most impressive design feature of the G515 is, of course, the insanely thin profile especially considering the mechanical build of the switches. Measuring only 22mm thick at the highest point, the G515 is a thin keyboard. While there are other thin profile boards on the market such as the excellent Logitech MX Keys S, not many house mechanical switches. This requires a special low-profile brown or red linear switch similar to what we see in the excellent G915. While the G515 does feature a slightly different POM stem design for easier keycap removal the overall switch is similar. To ‘cap’ it all off, Logitech has included double-shot PBT keycaps as well as new sound-dampening foam layers all of which work together to both reduce sound and wobble while typing.
The G515 keyboard is durable and exceptionally nice to type/game on. We were given the Brown tactile switches for review and they responded exceptionally well in testing. Thanks to the thin profile of the switches, the travel distance to switch actuation is impressive measuring only 1.3mm. The keys respond as I would expect brown tactile switches to, offering a similar sound profile and tactile response as the other brown switch boards in the office. In testing the keys were lightning fast to respond and never missed a beat as I frantically played through DOOM Eternal on Nightmare - this isn’t a boast but just a great way to test my frantic keyboard mashing as I run around trying not to die constantly.
Another reason for the lightning-fast response time is thanks to Logitech’s LIGHTSPEED wireless connection. This 2.4 GHz USB dongle allows for an impressive response time suitable for gaming as well as everyday use. Additionally, the G515 supports Bluetooth and wired connection giving gamers lots of options for connecting the G515 to their setup. For those needing a little more adaptability in their setup, the G515 can be connected to two separate devices at the same time leveraging both the wireless and Bluetooth connection. Thanks to the aforementioned connection switches on the board, swapping between connection types is a simple button press away.
A unique element of the 2.4 GHz wireless dongle is the ability to connect supported LIGHTSPEED Logitech mice to the same dongle used for the G515. Essentially this allows for two connections via one USB port freeing up a much-needed USB port on your setup. This can be exceptionally helpful for laptop gamers where USB ports are few and in high demand.
As a primarily wireless keyboard, the G515 comes with rechargeable lithium polymer batteries that on paper are rated for up to 36 hours with RGB on and up to 600 hours with no backlight engaged. While the 600-hour test is still a way out, after testing with full RGB backlight since receiving the G515 two days ago it's safe to say that it should have no problem reaching that 36-hour mark.
One of the more impressive features included and tested on the G515 is the KEYCONTROL programming. Leveraging the power of GHub gamers can customize the inputs on the G515 with ease. Key remapping, key assignments, and three layers of programming can all be programmed. This allows for an impressive amount of control over what the G515 can do and thanks to multi-profile saving the board can be adapted to better suit your needs across an array of games and productivity suites.
In testing, programming was a straightforward affair that was easy to understand and implement. The easiest and most useful element of the system came from the G SHIFT function which allowed for a single key to be assigned to swap out the whole or partial keyboard profile on the fly without needing to load a whole new profile via the GHub. It ended up being much more helpful when jumping between editing and typing as I was able to assign specific keys for editing in Davinci Resolve and then assign the Tilde key to activate them when needed. This allowed for easy typing and editing without a lot of extra work.
KEYCONTROL is an impressively powerful tool that offers a serious amount of customization to the G515. More impressive still is how easy it and the rest of the customization for the G515 is. This is, of course, thanks to Logitech’s GHub software. While I’ve tested a lot of peripheral software over the years GHubs UI, speed at recognizing hardware and overall ease of use make it one of my favorites. Even managing more complex tasks like programming commands or reassigning keys is made simple through the software. If we gave our awards for peripheral software GHub would get my vote.
Final Thoughts
The Logitech G515 Lightspeed Wireless keyboard is a solid piece of hardware. While it's true that other companies offer similar hardware options, Logitech has done a great job at housing all of this hardware into a sleek and functional package. From its low profile design to superb typing experience and solid battery life the G515 is an excellent wireless gaming keyboard that easily feels right at home in an office space as well. The mechanical low-profile brown switches are tactile and responsive and the tri-connection gives gamers a lot of options. If you’re in the market for a new wireless keyboard then I can recommend taking a look at Logitech’s G515. Priced at $139.99 the G515 is a solid new entry to the Logitech lineup.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
