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Logitech's Romer G switches show up in professional-grade mechanical keyboard

Logitech is continuing to tout its own brand of mechanical switches, the Romer G, in its new K840 keyboard. While that’s hardly surprising, what is a bit of a surprise is the understated look of the board, giving it a much more professional look than the gamer styling which is so common in contemporary mechanical keyboards.

Eschewing those gamer looks and marketing, the K840 is said to offer an “elevated typing experience,” making it a perfect fit for a “productive environment at home or in the office.” To that end, the board sports the highly efficient and tactile Romer G switches with their slated 70 million-plus keystroke lifespan, alongside an aluminium frame which looks clean and durable.

Some features that do transfer over from more gaming-orientated keyboards, though, are media controls and a few remappable keys. The F1-F4 keys can all be reprogrammed using Logitech’s Options software, which acts as a catchall toolkit for its more enterprise-focused peripherals.

The board also supports 26-key rollover, so you can press up to 26 different keys at once without them interrupting one another. It seems unlikely that any command would ever require so many keypresses, but at least you know you can do some two-player hotseat gaming while the boss isn’t looking.

As the final selling point for this board, Logitech touts the 1.8m cable and the fact that it has a strain-relief plug at its base. That should prevent the cable from shearing off over time. There’s no pass-thru USB port, so it ends in a single connector.

Without RGB backlighting, dedicated macro switches and other features that are more commonplace on mechanical gaming keyboards, Logitech has been able to keep the price of this board relatively low. It can be pre-ordered now directly from Logitech for $80. Orders should start shipping out shortly.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
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