These days, most tech is black or somewhere on the spectrum of grey, but there was a time where white, beige and eggshell were the most popular choice for computers and computer peripherals.

As anybody who used tech in that era can recall, white is not a very good colour for peripherals you’re touching every day. It tends to get very dirty very quickly unless you’re constantly wiping your gear down.

However, Logitech recently launched its new Aurora range which is a collection of all-white peripherals designed expressly for gamers. The brand offered Hypertext the G715 ten-keyless wireless gaming keyboard in White Mist and the G705 wireless gaming mouse from that collection for review and for the last two weeks, we’ve been using the pair.

Here is what we experienced.

Mechanically sound

Starting with the G715, our review model featured Logitech’s GX mechanical switches. You can opt for your preferred GX switch and our review unit was fitted with the loud GX Blue switches.

The one gripe we have is just how loud the keyboard is. At home alone you will grow accustomed to it but if you’re around others while you game or type, the mechanical din is going to annoy them. Lighting is handled by per key RGB on the keys and 16 perimeter LEDs. There are also dedicated media keys and a volume roller which is rather helpful and wonderfully precise.

As for the mouse, the G705 is compact with six programmable buttons, three lighting zones and the now expected, but still welcome, DPI switching button.

These peripherals feel incredible in the hand and to the touch. The G715 has kickstands that allow you to fine-tune the angle of the keyboard and Logitech even includes a cloud-shaped wrist rest which is a nice value proposition we suppose. The wireless dongle can be tucked into a compartment on the rear of the keyboard while travelling and a single USB Type C port is available for charging and wired connectivity.

The G705 can store its wireless dongle in the mouse itself with a single USB Type C port available for charging and wired connectivity.

We sadly need to highlight a problem we encountered with these peripherals. Despite claiming that users can use a single dongle to connect their mouse and keyboard, specifically these two peripherals, we could never get this to work. Unplugging either peripheral simply disconnects them. Switching between Bluetooth and wireless connectivity didn’t yield any results. It seems then that you’re going to need to use a dongle for each peripheral or use Bluetooth connectivity exclusively.

As for battery life, using both peripherals for between nine to 10 hours a day, we only had to charge the peripherals every third day in the morning. Thankfully, charging this gear up takes a little over an hour depending on the remaining charge. What’s great is that you can charge these peripherals up while you use them.

As for using this kit, well that depends entirely on what you like.

Moody Blues

At Hypertext, we consider ourselves fans of Logitech products. Many in our team have purchased Logitech products with our own money because they are high-quality products. With that in mind we don’t dislike Logitech G Hub, we loathe it.

While we understand why it’s needed, we are also constantly made aware of the fact that if you don’t manually switch your gear to onboard memory, you won’t be able to use the keyboard or mouse until the software has loaded. This sounds like a small pain until you hit the UEFI BIOS screen and can’t interact with your PC.

The software is slow, requires updating far too frequently and worse, is limited in what it can do. Lighting options for the G705 are far too limited compared to the G715 and it just feels bad having a glorious keyboard lighting preset next to a relatively boring mouse. Give the user more freedom please Logitech, as fans, this software needs a rethink.

Our whining aside, G Hub allows you to control the lighting of the G715 and G705 as well as the sensitivity of your mouse. Using G Hub you can also set the increase in DPI for each press of the relative button.

The G715 keyboard is quite nice to type on with a satisfying tactile feel as the key press registers. Our review model was rather loud, too loud in fact with folks in the office often remarking on the volume of the keyboard. This comes down to the switch though and given we couldn’t choose our review unit, this is something you can avoid or lean into if you like the sound.

The G715’s media buttons are a nice touch although we consider this a bare minimum requirement for gaming keyboards these days. We do like that these are dedicated buttons rather than Function keys though.

The mouse feels good in the hand with a palm grip but this will come down to personal preference and your specific grip type. Logitech says it designed the mouse with smaller hands in mind but again, your grip type will determine the most comfortable mouse for you.

Reaching the end

Now for the worst part of this setup, the price.

The Logitech G715 currently has a retail price of R4 599 on Takealot while the Logitech G705 retails for R2 399, also on Takealot.

That brings this kit up to a total of R6 998 which is quite a bit of cheddar. That’s especially true when you shop around and find similar, although not identical wireless keyboards for less. This Logitech G Pro RGB keyboard at Evetech is R2 120 less than the G715. Even the G705 feels overpriced when you consider that you can pick up one of the best Logitech mouse peripherals, the G502, with wireless functionality for R1 799 from Wootware.

We also have to mention that white is a terrible colour for gaming gear unless you are meticulously cleaning your peripherals after each and every session or you’re going for an all-white setup. We often found ourselves marvelling at how much dirt we had accumulated on the keyboard after every day so just remember we humans are quite dirty. Thankfully, cleaning is easy thanks to a removable top plate and easily removable keycaps but it’s going to become a daily chore.

The G705 sadly only has one removable plate so it’s a matter of switching the mouse off and wiping it down with a damp cloth to clean it.

The battery life is good and using the peripherals feels great but this can be said of any number of mouse and keyboards that don’t collectively cost as much as an Upgrade Kit from Evetech.

Unfortunately, we can’t recommend you purchase the Logitech Aurora G715 keyboard or the G705 mouse as there are simply better options available to you at a better price. The white colourway is striking but it also makes any dirt stand out like a sore thumb.

Our advice is to give these two a miss and look for something a bit more affordable and less likely to make you think that you really ought to be washing your hands more often.

FINAL SCORE: 6 OUT OF 10.