Logitech G13 game board brings screen to the screenless

Logitech took the wraps off a new PC game accessory Wednesday morning, the $80 G13 Advanced Gameboard. Similar to products from Saitek and Belkin, the idea of the secondary keypads is to provide gamers with more fully featured controls with a better layout than you'd find on a traditional keyboard.

Logitech's G13 distinguishes itself primarily with its small LCD screen similar to its G15 Keyboard. Like the G15, the G13's screen gives you a secondary source for useful information from a variety of games and programs, such as the stats of your World of Warcraft character, or the name of the person speaking over voice chat.

We know some gamers swear by their secondary keypads for PC gaming, but we find that traditional keyboards get the job done well enough, cheaply, and without a learning curve or a reduction in desk real estate. The Logitech G13's LCD screen certainly helps it stand out, and we find that feature highly useful on the full-size G15 gaming keyboard. But desktop gamers might as well just get the full-blown G15, which you can find for roughly the same price as the G13. We can see a stronger argument for the G13 for laptop gamers, especially if you want to maintain portability and don't want to lug around a full-size extra keyboard.

Aside from the screen, the G13 includes backlighting with several color options, and the ability to save three key profiles on the device itself, handy for swapping it between different PCs. Logitech says the G13 will hit stores this month.