Thanks to the generous individuals at Logitech, I now have the opportunity to try out the G513 Carbon and see how it compares to its more generic counterparts.
Looking at the areas of the box that the circles are attached to, you'll find that one has some slightly raised writing on it. This, we will term as the top end of the box for the purposes of this process.
Slide a finger under the edge of the circle that faces inwards from the top end towards the middle of the box and move the edge so part of it is able to be gripped between a finger and thumb. Firmly pull this tab and the rest of the circle should detach itself from the large flat face of the box. Full removal of the circles is not required to continue the process.
Now the circle is partially detached, slide a finger into the gap where the circle was previously and pull the top end's flap down and to your right, opening the exterior box.
Extracting the main package from the exterior sleeve is as simple as putting a hand in to the box, gripping the central package firmly and pulling the sleeve away with the other hand. This shouldn't require more than one person to complete.
Flip the box horizontally so what was the top end now faces to your left instead of the right. With that done, look at the front of the box and you'll find a flat edge going down that isn't attached to the rest of the shell directly. Slide a finger or two into the gap and pull upwards and towards you, pushing the main larger flap away from you in the process.
Underneath, the G513 Carbon itself is revealed, wrapped in a plastic layer. Removing it is achieved by placing two thumbs at the front and reaching down underneath the edge, lifting it up and away from you until you can get a proper grip to lift it free, along with a cardboard cable holder attached to the back. This is removed by pulling the left-hand side free, along with making sure that the two ends that will appear as well emerge from the oblong cardboard holder to the right-hand side.
Lifting the whole cable assembly free lets you put the keyboard to one side and continue with the rest of the unboxing.
Within the oblong box for the cable you'll also find a long piece of plastic wrapping containing what appear to be several spare keys. This layer is easily removed by carefully holding an area where there aren't any items and pulling gently upwards and towards you so that both sides emerge through the gap.
The final elements you'll find inside the main box, tucked under where the other items were originally housed are compliance and warranty information and a sticker saying about RGB mechanical keyboards. The limited instructions contained on said sticker indicate the device needs two USB ports and that you should go to www.logitech.com/support/g513 for more information.
The rest of the plastic that will allow you to open the product is found the other side of the USB cable in a similar area underneath the unit. Pull this bac and you should be able to gently grip the top edge of the keyboard with one hand and pull the wrapping away with the other.
The cable for the unit, referenced earlier, is held together by two rather intricate cable ties. Twisting both the correct way will allow the cable to come free, but it might take a bit of working out to remove them.
As it turned out, it didn't seem to matter as to whether I knew what I was doing or not. The keyboard worked straight out of the box, with no additional setup required. It felt rather odd and unusual, even when I had taken it out of the box for the first time, let alone used it in situ.
Instead of the additional information on the unit (such as the specs and what the second USB port is for) being at the address previously referenced, it's actually at this page on the US Logitech website.
The first main gaming test was with Killer Instinct, a game that's stereotypically designed with a controller in mind. I had played this title with a keyboard before, both when I didn't have a controller to hand and to see how well it performed under such circumstances, but I'd faced issues with those previous attempts. Specifically, only with the number of keys you can use at once.
The G513 gave me no such issues other than a couple of moves that I only failed to execute because of a mistimed button press or two on my own part. Fireballs, uppercuts and jumping attacks, as well as the sweep (which is hard to pull off when a standard keyboard only lets you use two keys at once as opposed to 3) all appeared on-screen as expected and proved that the G513 was a force to be reckoned with.
Gears of War 4, a shooter that ported to PC as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program (and recently introduced an accessibility feature for its Horde mode) was the next game to test. Utilising the G513's passthrough port, I was able to plug a standard wired mouse in with little to no effort, other than the USB port itself being a little tight (something I'd rather have in order to avoid any potential issues with devices disconnecting later down the line).
The game itself had some initial trouble recognising the mouse, not because of where it was connected, but because for whatever reason, the cursor wasn't appearing. Once I'd solved that issue with sighted assistance, the keyboard and mouse combination felt relatively natural to me, in spite of the lack of games I've played under that control method.
The palm rest, I discovered through my periods of testing the unit, is pretty much a necessity. Given that the keys are higher in the first place, the palm rest serves to elevate your hands to be in a relatively normal line with the unit's home keys.
Through utilising the keyboard for any number of daily tasks including but not limited to writing reviews such as this one, web browsing and navigating my way around Windows 10, I eventually adjusted to the new dimensions of this high-grade product and I began to think less about where my fingers were having to move to compared to the keyboards I was used to beforehand and just typing as normal.
The very tactile feedback from the keyboard is much appreciated, as it actually makes you feel like you're putting in work rather than just tapping a series of keys.
I did have one question after installing the keyboard for the first time, specifically what would happen when Windows was reinstalled for whatever reason. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about in this instance, as the keyboard carried on working, even when the Logitech Gaming Software had been removed from the drive.
If you're looking to move away from the computer keyboards of previous generations and to something a little different, which might give you an improved experience not just in gaming but in general day-to-day usage as well, you should definitely consider the G513.