Thanks to the simplicity of the device, set up was nice and easy. There are no double USB cables or wrist rests to deal with, the only choice you need to make is feet up or feet down.
Getting right into it, and this is something we feel is important to any keyboard, whether primarily aimed towards gamers or not, is its daily usability. The first thing that struck us immediately is the absence of the wrist rest which comes as standard with the full-size version - this hinders the comfort of the keyboard enormously; quite frankly almost to the point of ruining the feel entirely. Sure, there are plenty of people out there who are happy without a wrist rest but this is a big mark down from myself. If you paid close attention to the side angle photo in our Closer Look section, you’ll see the keyboard is relatively tall, this requires you to angle your hand back against your wrist quite a bit just to get over the space bar and to the WASD. The lack of the ten key buttons also hinders daily productivity a little, depending on your use-case of course, but you knew that already.
Following on from the daily use section, one weird omission from the Apex 3 TKL is the print screen button, something I’m sure most people use on a very regular basis, I certainly do. SteelSeries don’t appear to include this on any of their TKL keyboards, instead keeping keys like PGUP, PGDN, END and HOME. Of course, the GG software allows you to set up your own key shortcut for print screen, or you can use the one that’s built into Windows, but it still comes as an odd choice not to include it anywhere on a function row or similar.
The Apex 3 uses SteelSeries’ Whisper Quiet Switches, which is a fancy term for synapse switches. These don’t offer the tactile feedback or rapid response of mechanical switches but, as with all things, one of the big advantages is a much cheaper production cost, having said that, they do feel very nice and unless you use a proper mechanical board on a daily basis, or are replacing a mechanical keyboard, we feel you’ll be perfectly happy with the switches. SteelSeries use highly durable POM rubber for the rubber domes which provide some tactile feedback but they do need to be completely bottomed out to actuate. As promised, they’re pretty quiet, despite being bottomed out (which can often bring its own noise problems), so late night gaming sessions shouldn’t cause big problems for the people you live with.
And now for the gaming tests, we played about with the keyboard for around a week and a half, mainly jollying around in Sea of Thieves and kicking butt in Borderlands 3. The key switches feel surprisingly good considering their rubber-dome design, and the rigid construction, despite being entirely plastic, is very reassuring. As mentioned earlier on, the lack of a wrist rest seriously killed the vibe with this keyboard, the height of the keys from the desk was just too extreme for my wrists, so it scores almost 0/10 for comfort.
Build quality feels decent for a keyboard in this price bracket. You obviously don’t get the same stiffness that you’d expect from a keyboard with a metal plate but at no point during the testing did it feel cheap or flexible. The key switches have amazing lateral stability, beyond even that of a mechanical keyboard, so typing feels tight and secure.
As for lighting, a key feature that any self-respecting gaming keyboard must have these days, is a genuine strong point. The adjustability, while limited on paper, really doesn’t cause any problems in the real world; effects are still lovely and fluid across the keyboard and the RGB LEDs pack a decent punch. If you like your per-key illumination for setting up different profiles for specific games, you may want to look elsewhere, but that is a niche use case for RGB in most cases.
Getting right into it, and this is something we feel is important to any keyboard, whether primarily aimed towards gamers or not, is its daily usability. The first thing that struck us immediately is the absence of the wrist rest which comes as standard with the full-size version - this hinders the comfort of the keyboard enormously; quite frankly almost to the point of ruining the feel entirely. Sure, there are plenty of people out there who are happy without a wrist rest but this is a big mark down from myself. If you paid close attention to the side angle photo in our Closer Look section, you’ll see the keyboard is relatively tall, this requires you to angle your hand back against your wrist quite a bit just to get over the space bar and to the WASD. The lack of the ten key buttons also hinders daily productivity a little, depending on your use-case of course, but you knew that already.
Following on from the daily use section, one weird omission from the Apex 3 TKL is the print screen button, something I’m sure most people use on a very regular basis, I certainly do. SteelSeries don’t appear to include this on any of their TKL keyboards, instead keeping keys like PGUP, PGDN, END and HOME. Of course, the GG software allows you to set up your own key shortcut for print screen, or you can use the one that’s built into Windows, but it still comes as an odd choice not to include it anywhere on a function row or similar.
The Apex 3 uses SteelSeries’ Whisper Quiet Switches, which is a fancy term for synapse switches. These don’t offer the tactile feedback or rapid response of mechanical switches but, as with all things, one of the big advantages is a much cheaper production cost, having said that, they do feel very nice and unless you use a proper mechanical board on a daily basis, or are replacing a mechanical keyboard, we feel you’ll be perfectly happy with the switches. SteelSeries use highly durable POM rubber for the rubber domes which provide some tactile feedback but they do need to be completely bottomed out to actuate. As promised, they’re pretty quiet, despite being bottomed out (which can often bring its own noise problems), so late night gaming sessions shouldn’t cause big problems for the people you live with.
And now for the gaming tests, we played about with the keyboard for around a week and a half, mainly jollying around in Sea of Thieves and kicking butt in Borderlands 3. The key switches feel surprisingly good considering their rubber-dome design, and the rigid construction, despite being entirely plastic, is very reassuring. As mentioned earlier on, the lack of a wrist rest seriously killed the vibe with this keyboard, the height of the keys from the desk was just too extreme for my wrists, so it scores almost 0/10 for comfort.
Build quality feels decent for a keyboard in this price bracket. You obviously don’t get the same stiffness that you’d expect from a keyboard with a metal plate but at no point during the testing did it feel cheap or flexible. The key switches have amazing lateral stability, beyond even that of a mechanical keyboard, so typing feels tight and secure.
As for lighting, a key feature that any self-respecting gaming keyboard must have these days, is a genuine strong point. The adjustability, while limited on paper, really doesn’t cause any problems in the real world; effects are still lovely and fluid across the keyboard and the RGB LEDs pack a decent punch. If you like your per-key illumination for setting up different profiles for specific games, you may want to look elsewhere, but that is a niche use case for RGB in most cases.
