Unlike too many gaming keyboards, we have dedicated media keys here. While they’re a bit awkward to operate, they are better than nothing. You can adjust the RGB on this board, but it is not on a per-key basis. Instead, it’s on an eight-zone basis, like a pizza! There are eight segments on the Apex 3 where you can adjust the RGB, and I think this is fair and looks great. Don't forget to press the Save button in the lower right when you're happy with the changes. 6. Save your Configuration and switch between saved RGB presets easily. Gaming-focused consumers are likely to decry SteelSeries’ choice to opt for membrane switches on the Apex 3 rather than mechanical ones, especially considering the fact that there exists a market for budget-minded mechanical boards. Admittedly, this was a primary concern of ours as we unboxed the unit, and it persisted even as we began typing and gaming. After using mechanical boards for so long, the Steelseries Apex 3’s softer switches felt slow and chunky.

There are various ways to adjust the RGB settings. You can start with several presets before experimenting more.

Water-resistant, media keys and only $45

Note: Our newer keyboard models have a new system for adjusting illumination called Prism, which will allow you to tune it for all the compatible devices. If you have an older keyboard from us, you will instead see Illumination settings alongside the top menu near key bindings, macros, key actuation, and more. The Apex 3 has six onboard macro-keys. I set up one of them to boot up OBS studio, which allowed me to conveniently start streaming the trek to round 50 on Cold War. Typing with the Apex 3 was relaxing; I am so used to fat tactile bumps and ASMR-like linear switches that the feeling of membrane switches feels foreign. Unlike most membrane switches, though, the Whisper-Quiet switches do have some tactility to them, which made the typing experience feel elegant and responsive.

We've converted this review to Test Bench 1.3, which overhauls how key input is evaluated. We've added new tests for Single Key Latency, Multi Key Latency, Data Transmission, and Chord Split. We've also introduced a new Raw Performance usage and adjusted how the Gaming and Office usage scores are calculated. You can see the full changelog here.

There isn’t a whole lot I don’t like about the Apex 3’s design, but I didn't appreciate that the company flipped some of the legends around. For example, the 1 is above the exclamation mark, where it typically is underneath it. This keyboard’s software is pretty similar to Razer’s Synapse software as it lets you add some apps to it like PrismSync, which can be used to match your Apex 3’s lighting to any of SteelSeries’ compatible peripherals and even some motherboards. Unfortunately, my motherboard wasn’t cool enough to work with PrismSync, but that’s alright. For instance, in the example above, the Chasing Ghosts preset is applied to most of the keys, but the arrow and DEL, END, etc. keys have a single, red color. The SteelSeries Apex 3 is ultimately a very humble gaming keyboard because it doesn’t try to do too much and it doesn’t bring anything groundbreaking to your battlestation. But it does do more than I anticipated, and I love it for that. The Whisper-Quiet membrane switches are very relaxing to type with, the plastic construction is very solid and it doesn’t creak like a door in a horror movie like in other boards I’ve used. Think of the settings as "Layers." The Layers drop down has three options, Active, Reactive, and Idle. Active simply means you are at your keyboard (not AFK). Reactive is for effects that happen while you press the keys. Idle is:, how do you want the keyboard to look when you're away? You can have a specific preset of RGB effects when you're away from it.