The Logitech G Litra Beam LX is a new entry in Logitech’s growing batch of streamer and gamer friendly products designed to enhance your gaming space. This one takes some inspiration from the original Logitech Litra Beam, but adds a bunch more features to its repertoire. Among the offerings that the Litra Beam LX has, you can expect dual lighting, one of which is RGB capable of 16.9 million colour combinations, Bluetooth setup, a suite of features through Logitech’s G Hub desktop app and visual synchronicity with applicable products. For example, I still have the Logitech G Yeti GX microphone that I reviewed previously and will be testing colour syncing (aka Lightsync) during this review.
While I will have some pictures below, you might be best off watching the accompanying review video to see how well it all syncs to work together.
For this purpose of transparency, I will be testing the Litra Beam LX on a PC. The product is also compatible with Macs.
Logitech G Litra Beam LX unboxing and setup
The base of the light comes unassembled and requires very little effort to get it together. Inside the box you’ll find:
- The Litra Beam LX Light featuring front and back light surfaces (up to 400 lumens)
- Mounting arm
- AC Power and a USB-C cable
- Base stand
- Streamlabs Ultra trial offer
- 2 year hardware warranty
You can configure this light in two different ways based on how you screw it into the base. You can either run a horizontal mount that would typically sit above your monitors, or you can set it vertically to create a bit more ambience in your gaming space. I’ll say that I found myself doing this about 50/50 each way. There are screw holes on the light itself that allow you to align it quickly and then adjust with the multi-directional hinge on the mounting arm. Since the light itself is really lightweight, the base handles both configurations well and the light is safe and secure without worry of tipping in any direction. You can also feed wiring underneath the base if you use the wire clip on the bottom of the base. The AC power cord is pretty long so if you need to hide some of it away, you can loop it in the storage on the underside about four times over.
As with the Logitech G Yeti GX microphone that I recently reviewed, the majority of the product is made of plastic. This was slightly off-putting to me when I was reviewing the Yeti GX microphone since I had other microphones in the line when they were owned by Blue (and had metal exterior cylinders and chambers) but isn’t an issue for me here. It makes the light extremely lightweight and easy to move around. In addition, the material composition makes it so that the overall creation of the product has been deemed carbon neutral.
Operating the Logitech G Litra Beam LX
While you can reasonably just plug in your light and go, you will not see the best results from it unless you plug it into your PC and sync it up with the Logitech G Hub desktop app. If you just plug it straight in and turn it on using the manual switches, it will still work fine. You can turn both lights on and use the switches at the top to manipulate the light patterns. On the white side, you can dim or brighten lights using the +/- switch, while the other buttons cycle through the five different shades of white that can adjust depending on your existing lighting situation. On the RGB side, the same dimming and brightening effects are in play, but the other buttons cycle through solid colours. If this is enough for you, then so be it, but you’re missing out on the fun that G Hub brings.
Logitech G Hub desktop app
G Hub is really the proverbial key that unlocks all of the neater lighting features of the Litra Beam LX. You can cycle through the same lively lighting options you see with products like this (i.e. cycle waves, breathing, etc.) and can pace it through over 16 million different RGB colour options. This light also comes equipped with Logitech’s Truesoft technology, meaning that lighting won’t be harsh on the eyes and is tested to handle long streams or long exposure. I’ll say that the brightest whites are a little too bright to sit in front of for my eyes, so I’m glad there are dimming options available.
You can also sync up your light through Bluetooth to operate it and push changes wirelessly, which is a helpful feature if you have your Litra Beam LX sitting behind you or somewhere nearby lighting up the space. However my favourite feature is that you can sync lighting between applicable G Hub products with some of the lighting options. This means that the Yeti GX microphone, for example, can be synced with this light and can follow the same colour patterns. Have a look at the image on the right as an example, with the micophone’s LED ring matching the Litra Beam LX’s red. This doesn’t work for all of the different lighting offerings, so play around a bit and find what works best for you if you have multiple applicable Logitech products that support Lightsync. (My older Yeti X microphone has customizable lighting features in G Hub, but it doesn’t support Lightsync.)
I’m going to assume the Lightsync feature also works if you decide to buy more than one Litra Beam LX. I did not have a second one to test this with, but I have to assume that if it works seamlessly with the Yeti GX, it should work just as easily with a second Litra Beam LX too.
Litra Beam LX brightness
Due to the odd lighting configuration in my office area, having the Litra Beam LX’s front light actually solves a huge problem for all of my blog videos. In the past, I’ve had to turn every light on in the room so that I didn’t appear too dark. Now I can just flip the Litra Beam LX on and be good to film. The image below shows a before and after comparison during the day, and then underneath it, straight on and side angles of the light by itself. The light on its own works so well that I only need it at about 60-70% of its full brightness.
What is the Litra Beam LX useful for?
For me, using the horizontal setup of the Litra Beam LX on top of my monitors only works best with the front, non-RGB side. I don’t have a wall close behind my monitors so the back RGB lighting isn’t super useful in that configuration. However, as a vertical light behind me, it looks great up against the cabinets that I sit in front of. This is the best use for the rear light—to enhance the visual space behind you. You could use the RGB lights facing front if you wanted, but I don’t think it’s the best use for the Litra Beam LX.
In my opinion, the Litra Beam LX is best used as ambient back lighting similar to what you would get from LED light strips around your TV or the perimeter of your desk. The flexible hinge on the arm of the mount also gives you the freedom to shine it at different angles, be it straight on, upward, or downward. If you spend a lot of time on video camera, it’s a great way to cast some dynamic ambience.
Litra Beam vs. Litra Beam LX
While on the surface, the stock photos of both of the Litra Beams make them look very similar, what both of them offer under the hood is very different. They’re about the same size, can both output around 400 lumens and both have Bluetooth connectivity. The Litra Beam outputs in white, while the LX has that back RGB lighting and many color palette options and presets I spoke about earlier. The Litra Beam LX is also AC powered as opposed to Litra Beam’s USB power. Lastly, the Litra Beam LX has the two lights compared to the single light of the original Litra Beam. Here’s a quick snapshot of the similarities and differences between the two:
While there is an obvious price difference between the two, the added features of the LX make it worth leveling up and spending the extra for it if you are a streamer, gamer, or just want more ambient lighting for your computer and video camera set up.
Do I recommend the Logitech Litra Beam LX?
I’d say at the end of the day, this is a really cool light for what it offers. My workspace at home has no overhead lighting, so I have to supplement it with the lights behind me as well as lighting from the other side of the room. This solves the “other side of the room” lighting issue for me.
The ability to change how easily it configures is helpful too. During the day, I quite liked having the RGB light on in a vertical position behind me providing a little bit of ambience and life to the room, while at night it was helpful to have it back up horizontally behind my monitors so that I didn’t need to turn all the lights in my kitchen on. I found Bluetooth to be a bit spotty on my light, but I’m willing to accept that it might have been a problem with my review unit as I read a few other reviews to see if it was a known problem and it seems to be a problem with my light specifically. My workspace is all fairly close quarters though so this didn’t take anything away from the experience for me.
If you have a need for better lighting in your gaming space for your content creation, this is a really good light to have and I think that it’s worth spending on.
The Logitech Litra Beam LX is now available at Best Buy and online at bestbuy.ca.
