After reviewing countless keyboards, I sometimes ask myself, which one was the best. After all, I’ve seen most of what today’s industry has to offer, from wild mechanical beasts to miniature ones you can put in the pocket of your jeans. Today we take a look at the Logitech POP Icon included in the POP Icon Combo along with the POP Mouse. Maybe not the best keyboard ever, but possibly the absolute champion for the price. It’s a slick combo that’s both affordable and functional, but how does it feel after using premium keyboards for so long?
Design
The first thing that has to be discussed is the designs. The Logitech POP Icon comes in a few colours, including black and light green, pink, and white and orange. The design is quite remarkable and it immediately sets these models apart. The same can be set about the predecessor of the POP lineup, the mechanical POP keys. That one, too, had its gimmicks, but more on that later.
The Logitech POP Icon is lightweight, thin and compact. It’s not made for travelling (we strongly recommend the Keys-To-Go 2) but feels perfect in the remote working setup. It features the familiar concave laptop-style membrane keys that are, unfortunately, not backlit. You can’t use it wired — in fact, there’s no port of any kind since the keyboard uses disposable batteries. Nothing new for Logitech which strongly believes that this is the most ecological way of doing things. Still, it boasts a 36-month battery life, so I am not complaining.
Read also: Logitech MX Creative Console review: Loupedeck, reincarnated
The keys here are a bit weird — that is if you’re not used to Logitech’s layout. At the top, we have the function keys, which by default allow you to change the brightness, look for the right emoji, make a screenshot, etc. But the most interesting keys are located on the right edge: these are the Action Keys. They stand out for a reason, as these are the buttons Logitech wants you to rebind in their software. But overall there are 15 customizable keys.
The POP Mouse is not a new model, but it looks right at home next to the keyboard. It’s lightweight (possibly the lightest mouse I own) and easy to use, with a nice simple design. There’s one programmable button which I set to minimize windows. Like the keyboard, it’s not rechargeable.
By the way, the keyboard comes wrapped in a texture bag, and Logitech actually says you can reuse it for when you take it with you. It’s not technically made to be portable, but if you want, you can. Personally, I don’t think the bag will survive a lot of trips, but it’s still neat.
Read also: KiiBOOM Loop 65 Mechanical Keyboard Review: In One Word, Gorgeous
Typing and software
There are a lot of people who consider membrane keys beneath them, and to them, I can say… nothing, really. They will never change their mind, so why even try? But to everyone else who appreciates laptop-style keys, I can recommend the Logitech POP Icon. It feels different to the MX Keys, but not too much. They keys are not mushy at all, offering some resistance, making typing effortless. Most keyboards force you to relearn and readjust, but the POP Icon felt right immediately. After numerous keyboards, I can say with certainty that I type the fastest on this type of key.
While I can only praise the feel of these keys, Logitech did not stop there. For them, hardware and software are intertwined, and no new mouse or keyboard is fully utilized until you install the Logi Options+ utility. I know, I know — it has a bad rep. But I can’t deny the convenience of it: the UI just might be the best in the biz, and even more complicated actions are easy to do. I find myself spending more and more time in the app, adding more Smart Actions and modifying this and that. By this point, I’ve amassed a vast amount of Logi hardware, including mice and keyboards, and all of them work with the updated software. It’s nice seeing how with time, I get even more options for customizing my older hardware the way I like it.
Read also: Logitech Casa Pop-Up Desk review: It’s weird, but it works
It’s not all perfect, of course. The veterans will tell you about certain issues that arise from time to time, usually when software updates. While I’ve been mostly happy, just this month I saw my MX Master 3S lose all my custom settings out of the blue. Logi Options+ then promptly rewrote the cloud backup with the new empty save, making cloud saves completely pointless. Infuriating, but point me to a flawless piece of software.
Anyways, what is that that I actually do with the software besides typing? During the presentation, Logitech urged us to play with the settings for the four Action Keys, painted in bright orange on my sample (it’s also the correct colour in the app – a nice touch). Particularly, they wanted me to test out the fresh Smart Actions: automated tasks designed to boost productivity by eliminating repetitive tasks. It’s more than just macros — it’s a way to fully automate certain actions. Was it done before? Of course. But I like how easy it is to create the perfect action right in the app.
I am still figuring out the best way to utilize this feature, but I already use these new Action Buttons in a way I did not anticipate (despite the name, Smart Actions work with any programmable button on your keyboard or mouse). For example, one button now is responsible for launching Perplexity: it opens up my browser, creates a new tab and enters the site’s name in the address bar. Opening up a certain website is the default template, but I wanted to see if I could do it with an obscure browser — because I would never use such a default option as Chrome, right? Since I am using the Zen Browser right now, I modified the command to work with it, and… it did it perfectly. I also created another command just for opening Google, and it sped up my work immensely.
Verdict
Logitech POP Icon Combo is a great set for remote workers who want to add a little more colour to their setup. It consists of a great keyboard and a mouse, and for $69.99, I would be hard-pressed to find a better option.