The first piece of gear that I ever reviewed for CGM was the Loupedeck Live, and it is a device I use in my setup to this day. Back then, it was a good device with confusing software, but the upside was too good for content creators. Since then, the Finnish company has come leaps and bounds with software improvements and a partnership with one of the biggest companies in the gaming and content creation space.
Now, the company has released their latest device, a smaller, more affordable version of one of their most popular products, the Loupedeck Live S. It is not an updated device, but a streamlining of their popular Loupedeck Live.
In the box, you get the Loupedeck Live S, a braided cable with a 90 degree plug on a single side, a plastic stand and all the usual documentation. The Live S keeps the beautiful build quality and thin profile of its sister devices the original Live and CT, but one thing that continued forward that I wish had not been is its underwhelming plastic stand.
They have made some improvements over the stand that came with the Loupedeck Live, including a piece of plastic that crosses the top for a little added stability and mounting points that go into new notches that are the centre of the Live S rather than clasping onto the front. The concern, however, is that it is not a particularly strong plastic and removing the stand from the Loupedeck Live S runs the risk of breaking one or more of those mounting points and rendering the stand useless.
The Loupedeck Live S has more touch screen keys at 15 instead of the 12 keys on the Loupedeck Live. Where it scales back is around the sides and bottom, where the Loupedeck Live S has fewer dials and buttons than its predecessor. The dials are scaled back from 6 to 2 and the number of buttons went down from 8 to 4. The device was made smaller as well by moving the buttons to the sides. The LED displays on either side of the keys on the original Loupedeck Live are also gone to make room for the extra column of keys for the Live S.
Now, that sounds like a lot lost from the original, but the Loupedeck Live S still maintains a ton of functionality due to the multipage ability of the device. Just swiping on the touch screen moves you to new pages, and you can add up to 14 pages per profile and per workspace, giving you hundreds of potential keys to press in any situation.
“…the Loupedeck Live S still maintains a ton of functionality due to the multipage ability of the device.”
This is all managed through their software, which is the same software that you would use for all Loupedeck products as well as the Razer Stream Controller. Its native compatibility with popular streaming software, Twitch, Spotify, Razer and Voicemod, plus copious amounts of profiles, plugins, icon packs and more available on their marketplace. All buttons, keys and dials are still programmable with countless presets based on your profiles and plugins as well as a number of windows commands and hotkeys, opening you to any kind of controls that your applications can handle.
The buttons have had their numbers replaced with backlit LED circles. They can be colour coded for easy identification of their functions. The one thing that is missing for me, however, is the display that helps indicate what the dials are doing. It is hard to know what function awaits you as you navigate through pages and workspaces in the Loupedeck Live S and that display was a big help. Losing that for the sake of space was a bit of a disappointment.
We’ve talked about what is the same between the Loupedeck Live S and its predecessors and what has been removed, but what has been added? In truth, not much really. Yes there are 3 new keys, but there are no new types of buttons or any new functionality that would entice you to move to the Live S over any other device, either within the Loupedeck family or a competitor except one thing; its new price.
At $179.99 USD, the Loupedeck Live S offers all the same great productivity tools as its predecessors, only in a smaller package. It is approximately two-thirds the cost of the original Loupedeck Live and Razer Stream Controller, certainly making it an affordable option if you are looking for a device with dials.
