Speedlink Ludicium Gaming Keyboard Review

In an age where every single peripheral is slapped with the “gaming” tag, it gets a bit hard to define what actually deserves the describer. Often, RGB lightning and a black coat of paint are enough to earn the moniker, but aside from the latter, Speedlink’s latest “gaming” keyboard has actually no game related features.

The Ludicium Gaming Keyboard, as it is called, is a simple USB plug-and-play device. Manufactured by German company Speedlink, the keyboard aims to deliver the most basic of needs in a cheap package, but I am unsure of what gap in the market was the company actually aiming for. Though slapped with the gaming tag, the peripheral is an utterly ordinary piece of equipment.

As a keyboard, the Ludicium is a capable device, though far from deserving the “gaming” classifier. The peripheral lacks any sort of actual gaming function, like macros, extra keys, or -- in fact, aside from the WASD and arrow keys being coloured red, there is nothing even tangentially related to games.

Aside from the standard keyboard keys, Ludicium features five “hotkeys” on either side of the device. Located on the extremities of the keyboard, these 10 rubber keys provide access to the now staple array of shortcuts, from “My Computer” and calculator to multimedia functions and volume controls. Installation is simple enough, even with the operating system running -- you plug in the USB cable, wait about 15 seconds, and that’s it.

Said cable, for some egregious reason, is unreasonably short, measuring only 1.2 metres. Any non-office computer requires much more flexibility than this keyboard provides, compounding the use of the “gaming” tag as a seemingly joke. Making matters worse is the complete lack of backlighting -- gamers of all ages often experience the medium in darkened rooms for immersion or during late night play sessions, and the lack of backlit keys is a severe deficit on this so-called “gaming” device. While I personally find configurable RBG illumination a senseless frivolity, the ability to see the keyboard keys in the dark is invaluable.

Spending a week with Speedlink’s latest, I came out fully unimpressed. It feels and looks cheap right out of the box, and while it works absolutely fine as keyboard, it offers absolutely nothing outside of the ordinary. At £19,99, I find it hard to recommend it to anyone -- it is certainly not worthy of the “gaming” tag -- and you can get better keyboards with backlighting (and even wireless features) for less than Ludicium’s RRP.