Logitech Pop Keys keyboard review: 75% keyboard, 100% ?❤️??

Logitech, as a leading manufacturer of office peripherals, has introduced numerous wired and wireless keyboards over the years, but perhaps something unexpected is that they have never introduced a mechanical keyboard for office use, but are more focused on Its own scissor-foot thin keyboard is technically. The only one that can be counted in the office series is the K840 derived from the G413 gaming keyboard, but also because of its gaming background, it does not have the wireless design or special features commonly found on Logitech office keyboards. .

Therefore, the Pop Keys published a few days ago can actually be said to be Logitech’s first mechanical keyboard for office use, and some unexpected ingenuity has been added to the design. What is the difference between Pop Keys and what is ingenuity? Let us take a look!

Exterior

Pop Keys is a “75%” mechanical keyboard. As the name suggests, its number of keys is between the more common 60% keyboard and 80%. It is basically on the far right side of 60%, with six buttons in a row. In addition to ensuring the size of the four-direction keys, this design has 5 more keys, which are generally used to place editing and moving keys such as Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down. However, most people probably won’t use these four keys, so Logitech will set them as “Emoji Dedicated Keys”-this part will be introduced later.

In the design of the keys, Logitech uses a round keyboard with exposed mechanical keys. This design is generally nicknamed a “retro typewriter” keyboard, but I think the overall design is because of the bright color matching and the simple design of the buttons. It is not so much retro, as it is a kind of modern Playful style.

The keyboard I reviewed is “Cool Yellow” with black and yellow contrast as the main axis. The function keys on the left and right sides are gray, while the Esc key is metallic gold, which is particularly prominent. Pop Keys also has two different color combinations, one is the “dream purple” color combination of white, green, yellow, and purple; the other is the “glamorous peach” combination of three pink series, all of which are very different in style. Big difference. On the packaging box, Logitech mentioned that this is a member of the “Studio Series” product series. It should be in addition to the “Pop Mouse” that was announced at the same time. This series will have more peripheral products of the same color series in the future. Buyers make up a set.

Because Pop Keys is a wireless keyboard, in order to save power, it does not have a backlight. Only the three buttons on the upper left to select the connection device have a small LED indicator; there is also a small indicator on the caps lock button. Lights up. The power switch of the keyboard itself is a lever on the right side. When it is turned on, there will be a small LED light in the upper right corner to show the power status.

Turning to the bottom, you will find that it does not actually have an adjustable support stand, which means that the inclination angle is fixed. Above the middle is the battery compartment, which is powered by two (included) AAA batteries, and there is also room to store the wireless receiver. The whole keyboard is quite heavy, and it is not easy to be pushed when placed on the table.

Emoji dedicated keys

The biggest selling point of Pop Keys is undoubtedly its dedicated emoji keys. In addition to the ???? which is installed on the keyboard when the box is taken out, there are four replacements in the box. According to Logitech, these eight are the eight most commonly used emojis used by post-modern people in their survey. Of course, users can replace them with more emojis of their own in the software settings, but there is no corresponding keycap. These four emoji buttons are actually invalid when the keyboard is directly taken out of the box. They can be set after installing Logitech’s Options software, but the fifth button will open the emoji menu built in Microsoft or Apple by default, so directly Can be used.

Since I don’t use Emoji very often, I find it a little difficult to evaluate it. For people who often type Emoji, especially these eight symbols, this is simply not convenient, but it seems a bit wasteful for people who don’t use Emoji often. Fortunately, Logitech allows various functions including media control, copy and paste, system commands, etc. to be set in Options. It can even be set to PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, etc. 75% of the original most common keyboards Buttons (but need to be connected to another keyboard with these buttons to set) so essentially it can be seen as five more customizable buttons.

Not only are there five on the right, a row of function keys from F4 to F12 can be freely set in the Options software, and there is also a dedicated “dictation” key on the right of F12. This button will directly start the built-in dictation function of Windows or macOS, but since Windows dictation does not currently support Chinese, it can actually be used for other functions. If you like to use Emoji very much, you can actually install all 8 buttons. The Options software really provides good flexibility in this regard.

Pop Keys uses TTC tea reels. The touch feel is basically the same as Cherry’s tea reels. They are all slightly tactile, but they are not as noisy as the green reels. Logitech has always believed that the tea axis is the most suitable key axis for the office. It can strike a good balance between the feel of typing and the look of the colleague next door who wants to kill. However, Pop Keys unexpectedly did not put too much effort into ergonomics. In addition to the inability to adjust the inclination mentioned above, there is no wrist pad or accessory accessories. Therefore, users have to worry about setting up the use environment.

Logi Bolt wireless technology

Like most recent Logitech business keyboards, Pop Keys also provides three wireless connections, which can be connected to the built-in wireless receiver or Bluetooth. But unlike other past models, the receiver attached to Logitech does not use the well-established Unifying technology, but a brand new “Bolt” technology.

According to Logitech, the technology behind Bolt has changed from the original 2.4GHz wireless to BTLE Security Mode 1 and Level 4 based on Bluetooth. The closed and encrypted communication ensures that data will not be stolen during transmission. Due to encrypted pairing, Bolt is no different from the previous Unifying in actual operation. Also in its own closed system, a receiver can be paired with up to six devices and has a stable transmission distance of 10m. Logitech also claims that Bolt will switch between devices more quickly, but I didn’t feel the difference is too obvious (it still takes about a second).

It should be noted that the Bolt receiver is not compatible with the previous Unifying, and it still uses the USB-A interface. It cannot be plugged into a thin and light notebook that only has USB-C in the near future. At this time, you can only use Pop Keys. Connect via Bluetooth connection.

In the Logitech Options software, it will also show which device the three connected devices are connected to, and what operating system it is. Sometimes when there are more devices connected, it is easy to forget which machine is on the next number of buttons. It will be much clearer with the prompt.

Concluding remarks

Although it is the first mechanical keyboard in the commercial keyboard series, Logitech never disappoints in product design and the addition of wonderful new features. Whether the Emoji dedicated key is practical or not, I think different people have different opinions, but anyway, even those who don’t use it can set it as five additional function keys, in short, it won’t be wasted. Leaving aside the dedicated emoji keys, in fact Pop Keys is essentially a fairly standard small mechanical keyboard. Although the introduction of the new Bolt wireless technology, for users, it is no different from the previous Unifying receiver in use, plug in The computer can be used.

Pop Keys can be regarded as the main part of the problem, or in human factors engineering. For those who are accustomed to Logitech’s low-profile keyboard, Pop Keys has a bit of thickness, and the key shaft is protruding above the keyboard body, so that its keycaps are not small from the desktop. This is actually not very rare in mechanical keyboards, but people who switch from a low-profile keyboard will take a little time to get used to it. For those who are accustomed to general mechanical keyboards, they will find that the keycaps of Pop Keys are completely flat, there is no suitable arc, and there is no height difference between rows. The editor felt that at first it was a bit of a subtle sense of discomfort, but after finishing this review, I was almost used to it.

Pop Keys is priced at RMB 799, which is actually quite a competitive price for a wireless mechanical keyboard. But the real deciding factor depends on whether you have any ❤️ for ?.