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Logitech MX Craft Review 2021

The Logitech MX Craft Keyboard is packed with features and includes an impressive Crown. Although it is very pricy, this keyboard presents best-in-class performance for anyone who may want a keyboard pitched towards creative professionals.

With almost two years of using this keyboard, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. However, if it is too pricey I recommend picking up the Logitech MX Keys Keyboard.

Ratings

MX Craft RatingsRating
Design9/10
Connectivity10/10
Typing Feel7/10
Use With a PC9/10
Use With a Mac9/10
Price5/10

Background

Creative professionals often look for more intuitive and natural ways to work with their photos, drawings, and more efficient editing and manipulation workflows.

Logitech has added powerful professional features with the introduction of their MX Master series in 2015 (with the MX Master Mouse), where they imagined a mouse optimized for professionals.

This vision has since been expanded upon with the introduction of new Logitech MX devices, with their travel mice (MX Anywhere), their desktop mouse (MX Master), and their Master keyboard lineup (MX Keys and MX Craft).

This peripheral system, when used in tandem – allows for access to Logitech’s Flow system, advanced gesture-based macros, and access to an in-depth yet intuitive piece of software, Logitech Options.

About the Logitech MX Craft Keyboard

Most keyboards you find on the market are just that; a keyboard. They only provide what is strictly necessary, which is a mechanism to make letters appear on your screen. While a few keyboards exist for gaming, where ultimate key feel, low latency, and low keyboard actuation distance and weight are king.

Yet only a few keyboards cater towards creative users, which is bizarre considering the sheer amount of devices, software, and professionals within this field. There is software everywhere that caters to every niche of creative professionals, from designers to photographers and writers.

You would be hard-pressed to find any keyboards that appeal to creative folk better than the Logitech MX Craft Keyboard. This innovative package comes in a lovely minimalist, wireless, backlight full-sized keyboard that ticks all the boxes of a standard keyboard while also having an ace up its sleeve – its creative dial.

Although it may not live fully up to its touted “Complete Creative Control” as claimed by Logitech, it allows for a level of organic control that you otherwise would not have been able to find in other keyboards.

It is a handy tool with an extensive feature set, which you will find creeping into your workflow and allowing for creative and more artistic expressions to be done more organically.

In contrast, productivity applications allow for a more granular and precise approach to the sliders and dials in applications. This is an excellent foray from Logitech into the world of keyboards catering to the creative individual.

Design and Feel

The first thing that strikes you with this keyboard is just how stunning it looks. For all the features that it brings, it remains surprisingly minimal and understated. The sleek, rounded edges found on the keyboard, with a polished aluminum bar on the top of the keyboard, brings a premium feel to the keyboard.

The monotone color scheme allows for it to fit in with any desktop setup, and the wireless nature of the keyboard reduces desktop clutter. The keycaps and board itself feature durable plastic with a matte finish that allows for the 16 stages of the backlight to shine through without reflection and has the advantage of not showing fingerprints.

It is quite a large keyboard, full-sized, with the length being 43cm, width 15cm, and height being 3.2 cm. It also features a slight incline for a more ergonomic experience, with less wrist fatigue.

MX Craft keys
The Logitech MX Craft Keyboard without backlighting in the day

The keyboard is on the heavy side (at 960g – measured by Logitech), especially considering it is a membrane keyboard, making the keyboard feel premium. The weight, coupled with five rubber strips on the back of the keyboard, ensures that the keyboard does not move on a desk, even with the most aggressive typing. This board exhibits no signs of deck flex.

MX Craft keys
The Logitech MX Craft Keyboard with backlighting in the day

This keyboard features dual connectivity, both through Logitech’s proprietary Unifying USB Receiver (1 of which is included in the box), and through Bluetooth (where it is compatible with IOS/Android, macOS/Windows/Linux), and on/off slider, a USB Type-C port for charging and for wired use, a handy activity light for monitoring charging and exceptional range (about 10-13m). But this is only the basic functionality of the keyboard.

MX Craft keys
The Logitech MX Craft Keyboard with backlighting at night

At the very core, the Logitech Craft’s functionality is through the moderately-sized, aluminum button/dial that is found on the top left corner of the keyboard. This subdued addition to the keyboard, which Logitech dubbed as the ‘Crown’ (seemingly taking inspiration from Apple’s Crown found on their watches and the Airpods Pro Max), is responsible for most of the creative inputs in creative and productivity-focused applications. I will discuss the crown in more detail below, but I would give its refined feel a quick mention.

Each of the keycaps also has slight indentations that are found on each key and allows for each finger to be lightly cupped. This allows for each finger to naturally be drawn to the middle of each key and, overall, feels very comfortable and reduces typos.

This may feel a bit odd at first, although with a few hours of practice, it is something that you will grow to get used to and subtly love. There is a satisfying response with each keystroke, and there is just enough travel with each keystroke to strike a balance between comfort, speed, and satisfaction.

The keyboard is not overly fatiguing and has a satisfying muted, low-pitch sound to it. Although this will not give you the same experience as a full mechanical keyboard, it allows for a more office-friendly keyboard that won’t annoy co-workers and more features that would not be found on a mechanical keyboard in the first place.

This keyboard allows for me to comfortably type quickly, and allows for me to keep at my pace of about 120 WPM consistently.

MX Craft
120WPM on this keyboard is possible and remains pleasant to type on

Features

MX Craft dial
The Logitech Craft’s ‘Crown’

And now, back to the highlight of the keyboard; the Crown. It is Logitech’s interpretation of other creative input devices, such as the Microsoft Creative Input Dial. It is the secret to the keyboard’s creative functionality and keeps a minimal profile, not burdening users with an excessive amount of extra buttons or sliders.

The Crown is a beast of design in itself, being touch-sensitive, a button, and a dial that can switch between a ratcheted and smooth motion depending on what you are doing is an incredible feat considering the small and minimal housing.

You can manipulate the crown to go through and manage all kinds of settings. On the desktop (both on macOS and Windows), turning the wheel will by default will raise or lower the volume, and you can press the crown to play or pause any audio media. This can all be adjusted within the included software – Logitech Options.

MX Craft software
Logitech Options – how to adjust the functionality

Within a variety of applications, the crown can have specific functionality, which Logitech has created profiles for. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, there is no support for third-party integrations that Logitech has not done themselves.

You can adjust all kinds of basic tools, and adjust settings with just a tap/click/turn. There is a helpful popup that appears which informs you about which function you are using, and you can cycle through them by simply tapping on the Crown.

When you have selected your desired function, just turn the dial to use the function. In Adobe Photoshop, for example, you are able to adjust the brush size, and specific parameters for specific tools, in Lightroom, you are able to adjust parameters such as color temperature, exposure, and contrast.

In a web browser, you are able to cycle through tabs with a simple twist of the dial. The dial cleverly switches between a ratcheted system to one that is smooth depending on the function and how much granularity is needed.

website
Switching tabs using the crown in Microsoft Edge
website
You have a variety of functions to cycle through in Microsoft Word

The Logitech Craft Keyboard currently has full support for a multitude of different pieces of software, including (as listed by Logitech):

  • Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel 2010, 2013 and 2016 – Windows only
  • Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 and above – Windows and Mac
  • Adobe Reader DC, VLC Media Player – Windows
  • Preview, Quicktime, Safari – Mac
  • Spotify – Windows and Mac

There is also minor support in many other applications, although they are not as in-depth as these ones.

As soon as you plug in the keyboard for the first time, and open the Logitech Options Software, it will scan your apps, and install profiles for all the apps that are supported.

For even more customization, if you own an MX Master mouse (Master 2S and newer), you are able to use gestures paired with the fn key, which allows for all sorts of macros that may be easier using a motion (such as switching between virtual desktops, media controls, etc.).

The easy-switch feature allows for a switch connection between 3 devices (where each can either be a Logitech unifying receiver or a Bluetooth connection), and I have never had any issues with connection, and the connection is practically instant. You are able to pair this keyboard to multiple Logitech Unifying receivers using the Logitech Options app.

Another great feature is the proximity sensor, which makes the keyboard’s backlight turn on when your fingers come near, and turn off when they leave the keyboard.

Overall Performance

There are no complaints when it comes to performance with the MX Craft keyboard. The key switches feel great and allow for enough feedback to be enjoyable to type on, without feeling fatiguing. It allows for me to stay at my very quickest when it comes to typing, and is very similar to what I would get with a mechanical keyboard.

The sheer amount of customization that is offered within the Logitech Options software allows for you to finely customize functions and how you would want to use the crown to best suit your workflow.

The crown, unfortunately, doesn’t give you full control, but through updates, the keyboard has slowly gained more and more functionality, and fingers crossed, Logitech will allow for third-party developers to integrate the Logitech Craft keyboard into their software.

Final Verdict

The Logitech Craft is overall a great first foray into the world of a keyboard that is aimed squarely at the creative professional, and still has a lot of potential growth that comes with it.

It has become a tool that I cannot live without over my time using it and allows for an organic, yet precise way to control applications that you really need to try to believe. If it is worth it for you, depends on how much use you believe you could get out of the crown, and I wholeheartedly recommend this keyboard as an investment for your productivity and allowing for you to edge slightly closer to your best work.

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