Following its acquisition of Steam Deck competitor Loupedeck last year, Logitech is launching a $199.99 MX Creative Console that can control Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The control panel includes a Stream Deck-like keyboard and a dial pad with an analog dial and numerous buttons to speed up creative tasks.
Logitech has created custom plug-ins for its MX Creative Console for Adobe apps like Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Illustrator. In Premiere Pro, you can use the dial to scroll through a timeline, and there are four buttons around the dial that let you activate features like undo.
There's also a scroll wheel for navigation that lets you easily adjust the zoom level in a Premiere Pro timeline for more precise edits. In Photoshop, you can rotate the main wheel to adjust the brush size or use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
The main button panel works similarly to a Stream Deck and has nine customizable LCD buttons that you can use to launch apps or control various functions in apps like Photoshop or Premiere Pro. There are also two side buttons at the bottom, so you can create 15 pages of buttons for each app.
All controls are fully customizable through Logitech's app. You can drag and drop presets onto the buttons in each app, making it easy to automate repetitive tasks that would normally require a few clicks or memorizing numerous keyboard shortcuts with a single button press.
While this kind of hardware combination certainly speeds up creative tasks in apps, if you already have the muscle memory of knowing a variety of keyboard shortcuts, Creative Console might be a little less useful. The dial pad alone might make this $199.99 device worthwhile for some, thanks to the precision dial and roller tools that are different from controlling apps with a mouse or keyboard.
Logitech is launching the MX Creative Console in light gray and graphite and is even offering a three-month Adobe Creative Cloud membership. The main keypad connects to a PC or Mac via USB-C, the dial pad via Bluetooth or Logitech's Bolt dongle (sold separately).