The Logitech G Aurora Collection: gaming peripherals for people who don’t like gaming peripherals
Shame about the prices, though
Logitech have launched the Aurora Collection, a set of bright, customisable PC gaming peripherals built to be “gender inclusive”. Fortunately, that seems to be more than just pastel colours and cynical “For girls” marketing – the G375 headset, G705 mouse, and the G715 and G713 keyboards are all proper gaming-spec accessories, and they’ve been crafted by mostly female design and engineering teams based on feedback from women PC players.
The G705, then, is a wireless mouse designed for smaller hands, while the G375 headset – also wireless – is proportioned to fit smaller heads and has more space in the earcups to accommodate earrings. It’s safe to say I’m not the Aurora Collection’s target audience, but having used the G705, the G375, and the G715 wireless keyboard as my main peripherals for a few days, I can say all three are pretty swish playthings regardless of how you identify. What’s more, their light, soft-cornered aesthetic is a nice break from the blacks, greys and harsh angles that have become standard design language for gaming gear. Anyone who’s ever cringed their face inside out at a peripheral resembling Megatron’s running shoe may indeed find these more to their tastes.
Mostly, anyway. Before getting into some impressions, I’ll say that there’s not much inclusive about the Aurora Collection’s pricing: the G705 mouse is cheapest of the bunch but still sells for £85 / $100, with the G735 headset reaching £189 / $230. In the middle are the wireless G715 (£170 / $200) and wired G713 (£145 / $170) keyboards, so everything here asks for properly premium-tier money. Only some of the very best gaming keyboards, best gaming mice and best gaming headsets are more expensive, and most simply aren't.
Of the three I’ve tested, the G715 feels the most worth it. It’s not far removed from the outstanding G915 Lightspeed Wireless, specifically its TKL variant, sharing the same rock-solid wireless connection tech and a generous smattering of media keys and control buttons. The G715 is also fully mechanical, with your choice of quiet linear switches or clicky tactile switches. Mine came with the latter, and it’s a lovely keyboard for typing as well as playing, though I did make ample use of the G375 to muffle out the click-clackiness.
Like the rest of the Aurora Collection, the G715 is easily customisable too. Not just by way of macro commands and key reassignments – though you can do all that too, through the Logitech G Hub app – but with an instantly removable plastic top plate, and matching keycaps that are sold direct from Logitech’s website. The idea being that if you get bored of pure white, you can throw in some green or pink accents to personalise the look. Replacement ear cushions for the G735 are also available in matching shades, and Logitech has even reissued the Blue Yeti microphone in pink and white, so you can have a fully colour-coordinated peripheral set.
It's a neat bonus feature that takes the Aurora Collection even further away from typical dreary colour schemes, though the G715 would be a great keyboard even without it. Maybe not a perfect one – the RGB backlighting is pretty uneven – but it feels nice and crisp, and there are enough core features that you could maybe justify the price if you truly loved the aesthetic as well. It also comes bundled with a cloud-shaped wrist rest, which I did initially think fell on the wrong side of twee, though it proved comfortable enough to override my hangup.
I’ve been liking the G705 mouse as well. That’s despite it having maybe only two-thirds the mass of my everyday gaming mouse, the Razer Basilisk V3, and generally catering more to those of a more petite hand-build. I could get a decently comfortable resting position, mind, thanks in part to the thumb rest and surprisingly grippy matte texture on the left- and right-click buttons. Even the tiny thumb buttons were easily usable – I don’t recall ever hitting the wrong one by mistake.
As with the G715, the soft edges and white/pastel colours hide some respectable gaming credentials. A trip into G Hub provides full control over DPI settings, the single strip of RGB lighting, and the full array of button assignments and macro options, and even if you leave everything as default then the G715 still feels smooth and accurate enough for more demanding, twitchy games.
Still, it also doesn’t do anything exceptionally well, which at £85 / $100 is a problem. And I can’t really see where they money goes in the G375 headset, either. It does sound great, which is no small matter, and there’s enough padding that I could wrap it around my (also not small) head for hours at a time without complaint. I don’t wear earrings but that I’ll gladly take that extra roominess in the earcups, thank you very much.
Otherwise, however, it’s nothing truly special. There are loads of headsets with comfortable fits and detailed sound, many of them on sale for a lot less, and often with better microphone quality to boot. I could still come through intelligibly on the G375’s boom mic (which, like the ear cushions, can be replaced with a green or pink version) but with nothing like clarity and sharpness of, say, the HyperX Cloud II. Logitech have included their Blue VO!CE microphone tech to help out, but I actively dislike how it sounds here. It made me louder, which might’ve helped if I were playing in a room filled with background noise, but also added a heavily processed effect to my voice without clearing it up.
Credit where it’s due, I’ve been happily wearing the G375 for singleplayer games (and multiplayer sessions where I don’t feel like talking to anyone). But for this price, it needs a standout feature – see the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless and its scarcely believable battery life – and I’m not convinced it really has one.
Not that making less gamer-y gaming peripherals is any less a worthwhile endeavour. If anything it’s overdue from a mainstream manufacturer, and even in basic white the Aurora Collection catches the eye in all the right ways.
While “principally” designed for women, nothing about these peripherals is stereotypically girly unless you choose to customise them as such. For what it’s worth, thoughts of “Uhhhh am I the right gender for this?” never crossed my mind as I, a cis dude of slab hands and sprawling skull circumference, sat playing with them; it simply felt like I was using a cleanly-designed keyboard, comfortable headset and capable (if smaller than usual) gaming mouse. If, then, you’ve ever been dismayed by a sea of black plastic or squirmed at undeservedly macho product names like “DeathStalker” or “Claymore”, the Aurora Collection could be exactly what you’re after.
If only they weren’t so bloomin’ expensive, eh? “Pink tax” or no, I can’t fully recommend the G705 or the G735 at their current prices, and the G715 is at the very least pushing its luck. And that’s all just for the peripherals as-is; if you want to customise them, you’ll need to buy the replacement parts as well. G715 keycaps, for instance, are £35 / $40 for a full set, while a pink or green top plate is £17 / $20. A fully customised model will thus set you back £222 / $260.
Yeesh. There’s good hardware here, with welcome thinking behind it, but it’s hard to call the Aurora Collection truly inclusive when so many are going to be priced out of it.