Logitech G Pro X TKL Rapid Review: Analog Switches at Last

Logitech arrived late to magnetic switches. Rivals had been shipping Hall-effect keyboards for some time before the G Pro X TKL Rapid appeared, and the interesting question was never whether Logitech could match them on paper but whether the implementation would be any good. In an independent group test of 126 gaming keyboards it held the overall lead for a long stretch before being displaced, which is a reasonable summary of where it stands: no longer the outright winner, still one of the most sensible high-end boards you can buy.

This is a tenkeyless design — effectively a full-size layout with the number pad removed — so it takes up more desk space than the compact boards that now dominate the category, while giving you a full set of function and navigation keys.

The case is mostly sturdy plastic with an aluminium plate seated beneath the keys. That plate is the reason the board feels rigid without being a slab: at 920 g it is not light, but it avoids the weight class of something like the Asus ROG Azoth, which is more compact yet 260 g heavier. The testers rated it a sensible middle path that does not sacrifice build quality. Black is the default finish, with white and pink also offered.

The keycaps are translucent PBT with a slightly textured surface, and the feel of them was one of the board's stronger points. There is a real flaw here though: the transparent section of each cap is dark enough that the legends are hard to read with the backlighting off. On a wired keyboard that matters less, since there is no battery to protect and no reason not to leave the LEDs on — but it is a design compromise rather than a feature. More disappointing is that the tertiary legends on twelve of the keys are only simply printed.

Six round auxiliary keys sit above the main cluster in Logitech's usual arrangement: game mode and lighting brightness on the left, media transport on the right with back, play/pause, forward and mute. These use hard plastic rather than the rubber Logitech chose for the G915 X Lightspeed, which is the better decision.

Rubber does appear on the volume roller. It grips well and it attracts dust with some enthusiasm. The roller spins freely and could do with more tactile feedback, though it works well enough in practice. Underneath, two flip-out feet set the board at either 4 or 8 degrees.

Logitech does not say publicly which magnetic switches it uses. What is measurable is that they are linear with a 35 g actuation force, which makes them very light and notably smooth to press.

The actuation point is adjustable anywhere between 0.1 and 4.0 millimetres through the G Hub software, and the test found this worked accurately with no deviation between the setting and the behaviour. That range is the substantive difference between a magnetic board and a conventional mechanical one: at the shallow end a key registers almost on contact, at the deep end it takes a deliberate press.

Rapid Trigger — Logitech calls it Schnellauslöser — is adjustable in 0.1-millimetre steps between 0.1 and 2.0 millimetres. This sets how far a key must travel back up before it counts as released, which is what allows very fast repeated inputs.

SOCD is also present, marketed elsewhere as Snap Tap and named "highest priority" by Logitech. It governs what the keyboard reports when two keys are held at once, and it offers five modes: the most deeply pressed key, the most recently pressed key, absolute priority to either one of the two, or neutral, where neither is favoured and the inputs cancel. One practical warning from the test that is worth repeating: check the rules of any multiplayer game before enabling it, because this function is sometimes treated as cheating.

The one specification that lags is the polling rate, capped at 1,000 Hz. The 8,000 Hz figure appearing on newer boards remains the exception, and it only confers an advantage at the very top of competitive play, where every other device in the chain is also operating at minimal latency.

A genuinely unusual strength is how much can be configured without installing anything. Lighting, the actuation point and Rapid Trigger can all be set from the keyboard itself. The key combinations for doing so are not intuitive and the manual is worth reading, but the capability is rare enough to count as a standout feature.

Everything is also manageable through G Hub, and the test is unexpectedly complimentary about it. G Hub does not have many admirers, yet the testers judged it considerably more usable than Armoury Crate, SteelSeries GG, Razer Synapse or Corsair iCue — the clearest laid out of the group, and the one that does not bombard users with advertising for the manufacturer's other products. Up to three profiles can be stored on the board itself and work without any software running in the background.

Two things beyond the dark keycap legends. It is louder than the current test winner: nothing rattles and the sound is at least consistent, but it is more "clack" than "thock", which is a matter of taste rather than a defect. And the detachable cable supplied in the box is a very basic one.

Set against those, it lacks hot-swap sockets, so the switches cannot be changed without soldering, and the polling rate sits below the newest boards.

The G Pro X TKL Rapid is what most people looking at a high-end magnetic keyboard should actually buy. Every key carries a Hall-effect switch with an adjustable actuation point, Rapid Trigger and SOCD are properly implemented rather than box-ticked, the typing feel and keycap quality convinced the testers, and the software is the least irritating in its class. It gave up the top spot to a cheaper board with more features, not because anything about it got worse.