STEELSERIES APEX 7: Excellent keyboard

It costs a lot, but there are almost no significant flaws - the shortest description of SteelSeries' excellent mechanical keyboard

Apex 7 is one of the luxury mechanical keyboards, which means that it has high-quality materials and many additional features, but also that, like all such models, it carries a hefty price. It will cost you around $200, and the mitigating circumstance is that you will get a really great keyboard for the money spent, almost every aspect of which has been carefully thought out and impeccably realized.

The Apex 7 is a full-size mechanical keyboard. It is also available in a tenkeyless version, devoid of a numerical part, simply called Apex 7 TKL. Its base is made of thick and solid plastic, and the upper side is covered with a dark, pleasantly rough aluminum alloy plate. This combination of materials results in an extremely robust and stable keyboard, weighing almost one kilogram, no part of the case rattles or resonates when hit by mechanical switches.

The aluminum panel on the front edge of the keyboard is rounded and lowered to the work surface. It is a pleasing aesthetic detail, which also has a clear function: the enclosed palm rest is magnetically attached to this rounding. The rest area itself is one of the best we have had the opportunity to use, both because of the strength of the mentioned magnets and because of its dense rubberized surface, which in practice proved to be extremely comfortable. 

Thanks to the quality of the palm rest, as well as the excellent impact of the keyboard tilt and the design of the keycaps, the ergonomics of the Apex 7, are impeccable. Even during marathon typing sessions, those that can be stretched to double-digit hours, we felt absolutely no fatigue in our wrists or fingers.

The natural inclination of the keyboard is 4 °, and with the feet on the bottom of the keyboard, it can be increased to 10.5 °. Lifting the keyboard does not negatively affect the stability of the palm rest - the magnets continue to hold it firmly in place.

In addition to the legs, we also find cable ducts at the bottom. With them, we can independently determine whether the cable comes out of the middle of the back of the keyboard, or closer to its left or right edge. At the end of this 1.9-meter, rubberized cable are two USB connectors, which should be connected to a computer. 

One connector, though, “gets it back,” via the USB 2.0 passthrough port on the back edge of the keyboard. In it, we can connect a mouse, headset, or any other peripheral. Interestingly, the frame of this rear port is illuminated with white backlighting, to make it easier to find in the dark.

Above the numeric keypad is one unusual accessory - a small OLED screen, measuring approximately 4x1 centimeters and a resolution of 128x40 pixels. Next to it, there is a metal wheel and a multifunction button, which, like the aforementioned rear USB port, is always illuminated by white light. As you probably guessed, the screen is used to display information from supported apps and games. 

For example, when listening to music via Tidal, the name of the artist and song and the song duration bar will be displayed on the screen. CS: GO players will see the homicide ratio and the amount of money on the screen, and Discord users will see the name of the person currently speaking. 

When an application is launched with which SteelSeries software does not have this level of integration, arbitrary black-and-white graphics are displayed on the screen. It could be the SteelSeries logo, the image you uploaded (it automatically turns black and white and pixelated), or something you drew yourself, inside the company’s official driver.

SteelSeries once offered the so-called Engine, an eye-pleasing and functional driver with all the necessary options for quick and easy management of company peripherals. Unfortunately, the Engine was at one point integrated into a more extensive software solution, called SteelSeries GG. GG is designed as a place where you will be informed about the company's new products (with the possibility of direct purchase) and participate in current prize games. 

There’s also a separate Moments section, which features a recorder of the best moments from the games, similar to Nvidia’s Shadowplay and a number of other similar solutions. Among those categories was Engine, which retains all its well-known features, only it is now more difficult to access.

Either way, among the options of Apex 7, in the Engine, you will find options such as changing the functions of each key, creating macros, controlling the OLED screen, and choosing the effects and colors of the built-in lighting. If you decide to change the functions of the keys, you will have an impressive number of options, such as assigning multimedia or system controls, controls for launching applications, and so on. 

The keyboard can store up to five user profiles, and the active one can be selected without opening the Engine, via the OLED screen and the keys next to it.

With the combination of the mentioned multifunction key and the wheel, which can also be pressed as a key, through this screen it is also possible to control the effects and brightness of the backlight, shoot macros, switch between user profiles (keyboard remembers up to five), restore the keyboard to factory settings, and similar.

We consider the aforementioned OLED screen to be the only vague aspect of the Apex 7. First and foremost, its low resolution and black and white display detract from the impression of luxury that the SteelSeries keyboard leaves in every other respect. But there is also the problem of screen usability, which is questionable, to say the least. 

Namely, if you are reclining in a chair in front of the monitor, the top row of keys on the numeric keypad will cover it for the most part, so there is no chance of seeing what it says - until you straighten up.

Ultimately, instead of a screen, we’d rather see a quality set of separate multimedia controls. Although the wheel can be used to control the volume, and pressing the multifunction key starts and pauses the music, the keys to jump to the next or previous song are missing. True, the SteelSeries driver allows you to add them to any other key, but we believe that separate multimedia controls would still be more appropriate - all the more so when you consider the ambition and price range of the Apex 7.

FLAWLESS TYPING

Fortunately, what is not in the multimedia controls, Apex 7 returns many times over in terms of all other keys. The button caps rise above the aluminum plate and are made of double-injected ABS plastic. This makes them extremely durable and, in combination with precise and perfectly fixed stabilizers, at the same time extremely comfortable to press. Whether you're trampling your opponents in your favorite web shooter or frantically punching code, the Apex 7 will never answer you with an unpleasant rattle and hollow sounds from your gut.

Apex 7 is available in variants with mechanical switches SteelSeries QX2 Red, Blue, and Brown, which are very similar to the same type of switches Cherry MX, only they are slightly softer, and many will be even more comfortable to use. We tested the performance with SteelSeries QX2 Red linear switches, which have a stroke of four millimeters, trigger halfway (2 mm), and a compressive force of 45 cN. The Blue and Brown switches have identical specifications, only they are tactile and sound different - Blue clicks loudly and Brown is muted relative to them.

The layout of the keys in the tested model was ANSI, therefore, with Enter in one row, which some domestic users will not like. If you are one of them, be sure to choose a copy with the ISO key layout, which is marked UK (the model with ANSI layout has the US mark).

The backlight is controllable at the level of each key, but it should be noted that the colors of the rear USB port frame and the multifunction keys below the volume wheel cannot be changed - they are always white. The markings on the keys are precisely and qualitatively illuminated, and as the keys are raised above the aluminum plate, the lighting spills over into the area below the keys, so everything live looks even more attractive.

The Apex 7 is a luxurious and almost flawless mechanical keyboard. We think that the integrated OLED screen is superfluous and below the level of the rest of the keyboard, but in every other respect, it is a device according to the taste of the fan.