SteelSeries Apex 3 TKL RGB Gaming Keyboard – Tenkeyless Compact Form Factor - 8-Zone RGB Illumination – IP32 Water & Dust Resistant – Whisper Quiet Gaming Switch – Gaming Grade Anti-Ghosting

Product Information

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

The biggest feature splashed across the box of the SteelSeries Apex 3 TKL is its waterproofing. This device has been designed to offer the most protection against accidental spills possible, which is fantastic for the price and well worth the peace of mind. Low friction switches for near silent use and unmatched durability, with performance guaranteed for over 20 million keypresses.Designed with IP32 Water & Dust Resistant for extra durability to prevent damage from liquids and dust particles, so you can continue to play no matter what happens to your keyboard. 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.

After looking at these keyboards, I realized that the Apex 3 would be a great keyboard to bring to work even if you’re not a gamer because it is extremely silent, dirt cheap and water-resistant.Like their name implies, these switches are silent, and that’s partially due to them being membrane, rather than mechanical. Before you jump ship, let me tell you that I actually really enjoyed these switches, and I do not usually enjoy tactile bumps that much. Reactive Layer: These are RGB effects that trigger when you press on a key. Use the drop down to determine what kind of effect happens. For example, Line will make an effect go across the whole keyboard, in the color you selected (the icon next to the drop down.) You can lower or increase the speed to adjust the effect. You can use this to apply a specific color to your numpad keys, for example, or all the number keys, the Function keys, and so on. Get creative and make your dream keyboard RGB setup!

Selecting the Layer changes the applicable effects. Let's go through the Active Layer first. Active Layer (while using the keyboard) 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. 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. 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. Unlike too many gaming keyboards, we have dedicated media keys here. While they’re a bit awkward to operate, they are better than nothing.Lastly, you can save all these settings and toggle between them easily with the On-Board Profile customization. To save the RGB settings of your keyboard, use the drop down menu at the top (the three dots). You can Add New, Rename, Duplicate, or Delete the preset. You can save as many as you want and toggle between them in this menu. 7. That's it. You've learned how to adjust the RGB of your SteelSeries keyboard! 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. 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.