I’ve used my fair share of mechanical keyboards over the years, so it’s rare for me to truly be impressed by new offerings that continue to make it to market. The SteelSeries Apex PRO Gen 3 (wired variant) is one of those rare exceptions.
Included in the box, users will receive the SteelSeries Apex PRO keyboard itself, a long USB-C cable and a sturdy magnetic wrist wrest that snaps onto the device with ease. From its weighted feel to its sleek OLED screen and exceptionally smooth and tactile feel, the SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 is one of the best keyboards I’ve ever typed on. Available in both full size, and TKL (including wireless), the Apex Pro Gen 3’s key selling point is easily its hall-effect Ominpoint 3.0 mechanical switches.
Now, that might sound like marketing jargon. In truth, however, the hall effect switches allow for an incredibly durable and robust typing experience compounded by pinpoint accurate actuation. In terms of the actual typing experience, the SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 has that signature mechanical keyboard “thock” with extended typing, offering a very satisfyingly smooth feel that makes writing an enjoyable experience, even when not gaming.
Speaking of gaming, the Omnipoint 3.0 system allows the user to custom-tailor the point of actuation for keystrokes within a range of 0.1mm to 4.0mm. The range in flexibility can lead to hair-trigger levels of sensitivity, which is ideal for competitive gamers who want that extra assurance.
One of the more controversial but cool features of newer gaming-focused keyboards has been allowing keys to be held down while pressing additional inputs, trivializing pro strategies such as twitchy strafing or jiggling. The SteelSeries Apex PRO also features this function under the name Rapid Trigger.
“From its weighted feel to its sleek OLED screen and exceptionally smooth and tactile feel, the SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 is one of the best keyboards I’ve ever typed on.”
Although not advisable in competitive games due to the risk of a ban, the option is there and perfectly viable for single-player experiences. Additionally, the SteelSeries Apex PRO offers a Rapid Trigger setting, which allows the user to manage the point at which a key is reset on a game-to-game basis, mitigating the need to repeat actions for things such as scrolling through wall texts or other areas that require continued keystrokes.
Another less risky but helpful feature, exclusive to SteelSeries, is Protection Mode. Protection Mode increases the actuation distance and sensitivity of an assigned key within a row, mitigating accidental slip-ups in high-tension games such as MMOs and MOBAs, which feature many moves tied to cooldowns.
Setting up custom keystrokes, macros, RGB, and OLED settings are all done through the SteelSeries GG/Engine app, which makes it easy to change settings quickly. The SteelSeries app offers a healthy amount of interesting RGB effects, but what drew my attention was how easy it was to quickly manage and turn off the lights on individual keys or whole sections of the keyboard. This was thanks to the intuitive software, which allows the user to simply drag boxes across the keyboard to select areas to tweak quickly.
“If you’re in the market for a great-feeling mechanical keyboard with cutting-edge features, the SteelSeries Apex PRO Gen 3 is a no-brainer.”
On the topic of the OLED screen, the black-and-white display allows for custom static or GIF images to be played. To look the best, these need to be set to 128 x 40 pixels. Setting an image or animated GIF then gives you the option to use a dithering effect to smooth out any artifacts, in addition to being able to invert the values, which can lead to better visibility.
Outside of a cool but ultimately gimmicky display, the tiny OLED screen on the SteelSeries can also show some more helpful information, such as Discord notifications and Spotify track information. Long pressing the glowing key just under the volume track wheel button to the right of the keyboard opens up the config menu for the OLED display, which, although a little clunky, makes it possible to quickly change profiles without having to open up the SteelSeries app.
Generally, I prefer wireless keyboards as I don’t care for input latency and tend to type from a fair distance away from the screen. However, despite being sent the wired model of the SteelSeries Apex PRO Gen 3, the typing experience of the TKL keyboard has been fantastic, and I can’t see myself going back to one of the other mechanical options I have in storage.
In other words, if you’re in the market for a great-feeling mechanical keyboard with cutting-edge features, the SteelSeries Apex PRO Gen 3 is a no-brainer. is a no-brainer.
