You'll Want to Twist the Big Knob on Logitech's New Keyboard

Here's something creative types will be eager to take for a spin: Logitech's newest keyboard, which has a wheel on it.

The Logitech Craft is a sturdy and comfortable wireless keyboard for Mac and Windows that has a wheel in the upper-left corner, just above the escape key. This wheel—or the "Crown input dial," as the company calls it—works straight out of the box with Adobe's Creative Cloud apps and (only on Windows PCs) Microsoft's suite of Office apps. By pressing or spinning the wheel, you can adjust an image's brightness in Photoshop, change stroke width in Illustrator, or zip through your timeline in Premiere. Taps and twists of the Crown can also replace keyboard shortcuts for OS-level tasks like switching desktops or alt-tabbing between open apps.

The keyboard ships in October for $200. The controls for Adobe and Microsoft apps are all you get at first; native support for other apps will be added after launch. Just like some of Logitech's other high-end keyboards, the Craft can also be programmed to work with multiple devices, so you can jump between different computers—and even a phone or iPad—by tapping one of the input-switcher keys in the top row.

Wheels as input devices, though still esoteric, have a long history. Power users will not soon forget Griffin's puck-like PowerMate, now old enough to drive, which can be programmed to scroll, zoom, or click within any macOS app. Similar in concept though much larger is Microsoft's Dial for Surface Studio, a wheel that works as a color picker, brush switcher, and zoom tool within Windows's premiere creative apps. The Dial is probably the closest in spirit to Logitech's spinner, since it performs only basic functions most of the time and only comes to life inside a creative app. While Logitech isn't the first company to graft an input wheel directly onto a keyboard—one notable ancestor is the Das Keyboard 4—most of those wheels were just for scrolling through web pages or changing the volume of your Hendrix bootlegs. The Crown does much more.

The Craft is capable enough as a keyboard, though the typing experience doesn't come close to a mechanical keyboard with fancy switches beneath the keys. The Craft's keys are square with circular depressions, and offer just slightly more travel than a laptop keyboard. Presses are a bit squishy, but unless you're a stickler for key travel, typing is just fine. The chunky aluminum knob, however, feels tremendous. There's enough heft and friction in each twist to make app-switching feel pleasurably determined. I could spin it all day.