Logitech has launched the Aurora Collection, a set of bright, customizable PC gaming peripherals designed to be “gender inclusive.” Fortunately, that seems to be more than just pastels and cynical “for girls” marketing – the G375 headset, G705 mouse, and the G715 and G713 keyboards are all good gaming spec accessories, and they’re made by mostly females. design and engineering teams based on feedback from female PC players.
So the G705 is a wireless mouse designed for smaller hands, while the G375 headset – also wireless – is proportioned to fit smaller heads and has more room in the ear cups for earrings. It’s safe to say I’m not the target audience for the Aurora Collection, but after using the G705, G375, and G715 wireless keyboard as my primary peripherals for a few days, I can say that all three are pretty swish toys. are, no matter how you identify. What’s more, their light, soft angular aesthetic is a nice break from the blacks, grays and hard angles that have become standard design language for gaming gear. Anyone who has ever shrunk their face inside out to a peripheral that resembles Megatron’s running shoe may indeed find it more to their liking.
Usually anyway. Before I get into some impressions, let me say that there isn’t much inclusive about the Aurora Collection pricing: the G705 mouse is the 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 calls for real premium money. Only some of the very best gaming keyboards, best gaming mice and best gaming headsets are more expensive, and most of them just aren’t.
Of the three I’ve tested, the G715 feels the most rewarding. It’s not far from the excellent G915 Lightspeed Wireless, especially the TKL variant, which shares the same solid wireless connectivity technology and a generous amount of media keys and control buttons. The G715 is also fully mechanical, with your choice of silent linear switches or click-sensitive tactile switches. Mine came with the latter, and it’s a lovely keyboard for both typing and playing, although I’ve used the G375 extensively to muffle the clicking noise.
Like the rest of the Aurora collection, the G715 is also easily customizable. Not just through macro commands and key remaps – although you can do all that via the Logitech G Hub app too – but with an instantly removable plastic top plate and matching keys sold directly through the Logitech website. The idea is that if you’re bored with pure white, you can add some green or pink accents to personalize the look. Replacement ear pads for the G735 are also available in matching shades, and Logitech has even re-released the Blue Yeti microphone in pink and white, giving you a fully color-matched peripheral.
It’s a nice bonus feature that takes the Aurora collection even further away from typical gloomy color schemes, although the G715 would be even without a great keyboard. Maybe not a perfect one – the RGB backlighting is pretty uneven – but it feels nice and bright, and there are plenty of core features that you might be able to justify the price if you really liked the aesthetic too. It also comes with a cloud-shaped wrist rest, which I initially thought fell on the wrong side of the two, although it turned out to be comfortable enough to lift my hangup.
I also love the G705 mouse. That’s despite it being maybe only two-thirds the mass of my everyday gaming mouse, the Razer Basilisk V3, and generally more suited to those of a more small hand build. I was able to get into a fairly comfortable resting position, thanks in part to the thumb rest and the surprisingly grippy matte texture on the left and right buttons. Even the little thumb buttons were easy to use – I can’t remember ever accidentally hitting the wrong one.
As with the G715, the soft edges and white/pastel colors hide some respectable game references. A trip to G Hub gives you 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, the G715 still feels smooth and precise enough for the more demanding. nervous games.
Still, it doesn’t do anything exceptionally well either, which at £85/$100 is a problem. And I can’t really see where the money is going in the G375 headset either. It sounds great, which is not unimportant, and there is enough padding that I can wrap it around my (not small) head for hours without complaining. I don’t wear earrings, but that I would gladly take that extra space in the ear cups, thank you very much.
Otherwise, though, it’s nothing special. There are many headsets with a comfortable fit and detailed sound, many of which can be bought for much less, and often with better microphone quality. I could still get through audibly on the G375’s boom mic (which, like the ear pads, can be replaced with a green or pink version), but with nothing quite like the clarity and sharpness of, say, the HyperX Cloud II. Logitech has added their Blue VO!CE microphone technology to help, but I don’t like how it sounds here. It made me louder, which might have helped if I’d been playing in a room full of background noise, but it also added a heavily processed effect to my voice without cleaning it up.
I’ve enjoyed wearing the G375 for single player games (and for multiplayer sessions where I don’t want to talk to anyone). But at this price, it needs a standout feature – see the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless and its barely credible battery life – and I’m not convinced it actually has one.
Not that it’s any less worth making less gamer-y gaming peripherals. If anything, it’s too late for a mainstream manufacturer, and even in basic white, the Aurora collection catches the eye in all the right ways.
While these peripherals are “primarily” designed for women, nothing is stereotypically girly unless you choose to customize them as such. For what it’s worth, thoughts of “Uhhh, am I the right gender for this?” never occurred to me when I, a cis guy with flat hands and an expansive skull circumference, was playing with them; it just felt like I was using a cleanly designed keyboard, a comfortable headset, and a capable (if smaller than normal) gaming mouse. Then, if you’ve ever been baffled by a sea of black plastic or have struggled with undeserved macho product names like “DeathStalker” or “Claymore”, the Aurora collection could be just what you’re looking for.
If only they weren’t so 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 least trying to try its luck. And that’s all just for the peripherals as it is; if you want to modify them, you also need to buy the replacement parts. For example, G715 keycaps are £35/$40 for a full set, while a pink or green top plate costs £17/$20. So a fully custom model will cost you £222 / $260.
yay. There’s good hardware here, with a welcome thought behind it, but it’s hard to call the Aurora collection truly inclusive when so many will be priced.
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