Logitech took the wraps off a new PC game accessory Wednesday morning, the $80 Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard. Similar to products from Saitek and Belkin, the idea of the secondary keypads is to provide gamers with more fully featured controls with a better layout than you’d find on a traditional keyboard.

Logitech’s G13 distinguishes itself primarily with its small LCD screen similar to its G15 Keyboard. Like the G15, the Logitech G13’s screen gives you a secondary source for useful information from a variety of games and programs, such as the stats of your World of Warcraft character, or the name of the person speaking over voice chat.

The Logitech G13 is very willing to help you out, giving you 25 programmable keys and an analog stick, as well and three game modes. With three game modes and 25 keys, Logitech says you could have 87 potentially programmed buttons at your disposal. The G13 also packs back-lighting on the buttons, the ability to create macros on the fly, and a 160×43 pixel LCD that can show game stats, system info or messages from other players.

The Logitech G13 Gameboard certainly doesn’t lack the necessary aesthetic – it curves gracefully to minimise stress on the wrist – one of the pad’s largest selling points. The keys mimic the left side of the keyboard but with the added advantage of a mini-joystick for the left thumb.

The keys are excellent – arranged in a shallow concave curve that never feels uncomfortable or strange. Years of first person shooters on a keyboard may have given us tendons of steel, but the Logitech G13 certainly doesn’t take a lot of adjusting to.

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