Brief review of the Logitech G413 TKL SE mechanical keyboard

When I purchased my M2 Pro Mac mini, I didn’t want to reuse peripherals I had lying around for my new setup. I bought a new display, new keyboard, and a new mouse not because I was feeling wasteful, but because I wanted to create a specific setup that could prove useful for my type of work, and which could have a minimal footprint because space is always at a premium on my main desk.

I talked more at length about this setup back in June 2023; what I can say after 9 months is that, overall, I’m quite satisfied with it. The portrait LG display has been a particularly good choice, and it’s great to work with a lot of text documents with such a display.

The Razer Basilisk V3 X Hyperspeed mouse has served me well, too. I knew it would because I had already purchased one for my Legion 7i gaming laptop. However I must add that it’s not the sturdiest I’ve owned. One day it accidentally fell from my desk. It was just a 72cm drop, yet the impact caused an internal component (the metallic part that comes in contact with the negative pole of the AA battery) to become loose. The mouse is still functional, I just need to be more careful when replacing the battery and ensure that a proper contact is established.

The major letdown has been the keyboard. The Razer Blackwidow V3 Mini Hyperspeed (which I’ll refer to as “Razer B‑V3-MH” for brevity from now on) is an attractive 65% keyboard with nice-feeling linear and silent switches. Created as a gaming keyboard, it is supposed to be sturdy and have several gaming-friendly features, such as anti-ghosting, ultra-responsive input, durable keys and switches, and so forth.

Unfortunately, after three months or so, this keyboard developed an annoying issue that only got more and more annoying over time, to the point that I couldn’t work with it or around it anymore: keys began to repeat randomly, leading to dual typing or triple typing even. I had to slow down my typing speed to avoid hhavving seentenncess lloook likee thiis. I need precision for my work. It’s also a nightmare with passwords, as you can imagine.

This issue is not isolated. Some using the Razer B‑V3-MH on PC claim that a firmware update greatly mitigated the problem, others say it didn’t. Someone else in that afore-linked forum thread said:

I finally found a solution for that. This is not a software issue but a mechanical one. Just remove the keycaps (keyboard off), and put few drops of isopropylic alcohol on the switch and spam it so that the liquid penetrates well. Let it dry 30/40 min. The operation work fine for me (double E typing every time). If this could help some and prevent them from throwing away their keyboard or worse buying a new one from razer.

If razer reads this: beautiful keyboards shouldn’t hide a shitty conception, no need to guarantee 50M hits when they barely do 10%.

Exactly. We’re talking about a €180 keyboard. Not ultra-deluxe or artisanal mechanical keyboard pricing, but not cheap either. A keyboard like this shouldn’t present these issues so early.

And don’t get me started on the fact that Razer refuses to provide their software applications for the Mac platform. Good thing I also have Windows PCs, otherwise updating this keyboard’s firmware would be a problem.

Anyway, last month I decommissioned the Razer B‑V3-MH for good. Maybe I’ll try the trick quoted above, when I have time. With the Razer keyboard gone, I had to find a replacement, and quickly.

I love mechanical keyboards, and I know there are a lot of well-made models out there that are superior to Razer’s products. I constantly keep an eye on Drop’s mechanical keyboards section and I receive the latest updates via email. I could lose hours or even days patiently sifting through custom mechanical keyboards, but the cold truth is that I hate group purchases and I hate to basically pre-order something that I can’t personally try and have to wait 4 months before it gets to my doorstep.

On the other hand, finding suitable keyboards in local brick & mortar shops hasn’t been easy either. Typically you find a lot of inexpensive ‘office PC’ membrane keyboards, some flat, Apple-looking offerings, and gaming keyboards from Razer, Corsair, Steelseries, and similar brands.

I was looking for a small-footprint mechanical keyboard, possibly with wired and wireless connections, to avoid cables and having a USB port on my Mac mini permanently taken. The hunt was proving fruitless. Then I found a good-enough candidate, the Logitech G413 TKL SE. I was able to try one at a local department store and — while I still think the keys of the Razer Blackwidow keyboards feel better — I found the G413’s keys to have a surprisingly good feel and feedback; and I found the G413’s build to be surprisingly good for a keyboard that costs €68. It’s about 1/3 of the price of the Razer B‑V3-MH, but honestly the latter doesn’t feel like a three-times superior product.

The store was out of stock for the G413, so I turned to Amazon, and I was lucky enough to find it for a slightly discounted price. I paid €59 and got it the next day.

This is a tenkeyless keyboard, meaning it’s like a standard extended keyboard except it doesn’t have the numeric keypad. This makes it slightly bigger than the Razer B‑V3-MH, though its general footprint doesn’t make it that much bigger. The G413 is slightly lighter, too, at 650 grams against the 725 grams of the Razer B‑V3-MH. It’s nonetheless heavy enough that it doesn’t move around as you type.

It only comes with a wired, USB 2.0 connection, and while I would have really preferred a wireless option, at the end of the day this wasn’t a huge deal-breaker.

As per the manufacturer’s specs sheet, the Logitech G413 TKL SE features tactile mechanical switches, 6‑key rollover anti-ghosting, PBT keycaps and durable aluminium alloy build. It also has only white backlighting. Compared to the Razer B‑V3-MH, it’s a less sophisticated product if you will, and has a more spartan feel, but I actually don’t mind it. Having only white backlighting is okay for me, I’m not really a fan of and I don’t quite understand the RGB backlighting obsession in gaming products.

About the switches, I’ll steal this quote from The Verge’s review of the keyboard:

The Logitech G413 TKL SE might use Cherry MX-style switches, but they’re not original Cherry models. Instead, they’re Longhua switches made by Kaihua. There’s also only one choice of switch, “Tactile,” which is roughly equivalent to Cherry’s MX Brown switches. There are no linear or clicky options here, and nor is the G413 TKL SE hot-swappable, meaning you’ll have to use a soldering iron if you want to change its switches.

The part of that review I most disagree with, however, is about the typing feel:

Unfortunately, these switches simply don’t feel as nice to type on as more premium keyboards and are the main place you feel the Logitech G413 TKL SE’s affordable price tag. As a whole, it can feel a little rattly. Keypresses generate hollow thuds rather than crisp taps, and the switches just feel off in a way I struggle to put my metaphorical, if not physical, finger on.

Sure, there are a lot of better mechanical keyboards out there, with better switches and better typing feel, but after a month of use, I can’t say this feels like a cheap keyboard. I don’t find it ‘rattly’, and while it’s true that keypresses can sound a bit hollow, the switches don’t feel particularly ‘off’ to me. And more premium keyboards can be hit-and-miss too. Perhaps most mechanical keyboard nerds won’t consider Razer keyboards premium products, but they certainly don’t have consumer prices. And they have their share of issues.

What’s important is that I’m finally back to typing quickly and accurately, and I haven’t encountered any issues with the G413 TKL SE. The keys feel homogeneous, both when pressed and in the acoustic feedback they produce. The font used for the keys is nice and legible (no sci-fi themed gaming crap). And overall I’m liking the tenkeyless layout more than Razer B‑V3-MH’s 65% layout. I like having separate Function keys on the upper row, and the little island on the right with the arrow keys and the Insert/Delete, Home/End, Page Up/Page Down pairs.

€59 is the least I have paid for a mechanical keyboard, but even at €68 or $70, I think it’s still good value for the money. It may make a mechanical keyboard connoisseur raise their brow, but from a pragmatic standpoint, I find the G413 TKL SE to be an honest, dependable, functional option.