Logitech G610 Orion Brown - Review
TL,DR: 9/10, would buy it again.
LINUX USERS: there’s a section dedicated to you at the end of the text
Quick disclaimer: I have been enlightened to the way of the mechanical Nirvana nearly a year ago from our Lord and Saviour /r/mechanicalkeyboards. Up until now my only mechanical keyboard has been an hand-soldered, customized Planck with Gateron Blue switches.
Franken-Planck: Unit-00
* Arduino Pro Micro + TMK firmware
* Hand Wired
* Gateron Blue Switches
* Workman Layout
* G20 blue dyesublimated + G20 Blank Black from PMK
It’s Black Friday time and that means that pockets have to be emptied on not-so-necessary goods. Enters the Amazon Italy deal on the Logitech G610 Orion with Cherry MX Brown, a lightning deal cut of 35 Euros from it’s original price of 105.
I was perfectly happy with loud and clicky my Franken-Planck however considering the high cost of Cherry Switches, keycaps and other components I could not resist buying, with the intent of eventually cannibalizing, what turned out to be a hella-sturdy well built keyboard for just 70 Euros.
The Logitech G610 Orion Brown comes in a simple yet resistant package, without any extras (shame on you Logitech, you could have added at least a key puller!) if not for a simple installation manual.
Artsy Shot, no floating keycaps here
The keyboard is full sized, a black slab of thick plastic, it seems really resistant and for its weight I could have mistaken it for a steel one; the black nylon cable is NOT removable, the design is a no-flashy-gamers-things minimalistic one, sporting a simple backlit Logitech logo in the upper left corner of the keyboard. The keycaps are standard OEM sculpted profile, black with white shite-through legends. Each key has its own white LED and is customizable via the Logitech software (not available on Linux), the G610 Orion also sports a volume controller, media keys, backlight controller and a Game Mode key, which by default is set to disable the super(windows) and menu keys but is configurable through the software, all these extra keys are backlit as well.
Overall I was really impressed with the extreme sturdiness and no-nonsense build quality.
The Cherry MX browns feel great and while I still prefer the blues on my Planck, being more silent means I can use them even at night without being yelled at by the sleeping girls on the bed. It should be noted however that the space bar and the enter key, while having a nice stabilizer are slightly louder.
While the amazon description and the pic on the box show an American layout, the keyboard has a bigass ISO key. I personally don’t mind it (I am used to Italian keyboard), the otherwise American layout is simply better customization than any other nation-specific layout.
Lowest level of brightness
In the end I am really liking it especially for coding at night, if you can find it cheap, if you are fed up with the crazy-RGB-this-Gamer-That-horrible-design too, and if you want an extremely well built peripheral, get an Orion now!
LINUX: as a fellow Linux user, I should warn that the Logitech Control Software does not work natively on any Linux distribution I know of. However the keyboard is recognized, its extra keys work perfectly without any extra configuration needed (at least on my Ubuntu Mate 16.04 LTS). The keyboard ships with a backlit wave-effect enabled by default, customization via the Logitech Software works only while the software is running. In order to configure it on Linux please refer to this simple memorandum.
Light Switch + 0 - Fixed Light mode
Light Switch + 1 - Wave mode, left to right.
Light Switch + 2 - Wave mode, right to left. Light Switch + 3 - Wave mode, center out.
Light Switch + "Plus Key" - Increase speed of effect.
Light Switch + "Minus Key" - Decrease speed of effect.