By Jonathan Moser

Five years ago, I had the opportunity to try out Logickeyboard’s Astra backlit editing keyboard. While there are other backlits on the market, this one impressed me with its solid build, keystroke actions and cool look. Now Logickeyboard has come out with the next-generation Astra 2. It’s the same sleek and colorful workhorse in many ways, but it is also quite different thanks to a few significant new features.

The keyboard is rugged, and at 2.1lbs., it’s solid. With an 8-degree angle it’s also typing-friendly. The ability to work in darkened edit rooms with a backlit keyboard cannot be understated. Seeing the monitor without extraneous light is a huge plus for color correction and general workflows where you need reliable colorimetry. The keyboard’s five levels of brightness allow you to work as comfortably as you want.

Changes Under the Hood
The cosmetic differences are plenty — new bolder iconography on the keys updates the overall look of the keyboard. You’ll find other improvements as well: The function lights are larger and brighter and now include a scroll lock light in addition to the standard numbers lock and caps lock lights.

The function keys are now full-sized, making them easier to access. There are four new keys above the numerical keypad for multimedia functions and key brightness.

One difference I have mixed feelings about is that instead of two USB 2 ports built into the back of the board on the Astra, there is now one USB 3 port on the Astra 2. The company told me that USB 3 is trickier, and after several attempts to use two ports, the gain of a single faster USB 3 port was considered a good trade-off.

With USB 3 being 10x faster that USB 2, the ability to tie in other peripherals, such as external hard drives or other peripherals, makes this trade-off more than robust. It adds greater capabilites to what would have just been a keyboard. It took more than a year for Logickeyboards to work out the kinks of the USB transport, and it’s a welcome addition.

Mechanical Upgrades
The keystroke mechanism was reworked entirely, with improved scissor-switch action with each key made for 10,000,000 keystrokes (probably enough to get us through a few edit sessions, I think.) The tactile feedback is solid, with a satisfying and solid “thunk” feel.

Also beefed up are the two USB cable connectors: 1.8 meters long. Twice as thick as the previous version, the cabling is much more robust. There are two USB connectors to the CPU — the thicker one carries the USB 3 dataline. The smaller cable is the lighting power and keyboard dataline.

Compatibility
The Astra 2 supports Avid’s Media Composer and Pro Tools; Adobe’s Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop; Maxon Cinema 4D; Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve; and more.

Final Thoughts
Logickeyboard has reworked the overall build from the ground up, creating a good-looking and sleek (and dare I say it, sexy?) addition to any edit, photo or audio suite.

Logickeyboards is also producing multiple customized Astra 2’s for other companies… but I’ll be happy to stick with my Avid Astra 2. It’s fabulous.

The Astra 2 is available for Mac and PC and costs $149.90.

Jonathan Moser is an editor/producer out of NYC. He can be reached at flashcutter@yahoo.com and is open for business. Follow him on Twitter @flashcut100.