SteelSeries Apex M800 impressions

[stratokaster]

It seems keyboard manufacturers are steadily abandoning Cherry, and I think Cherry has nobody but itself to blame for it. First of all, they simply can not get enough switches out of the door, and second, their switches are not that good for backlit keyboards. I suspect that's why SteelSeries (which is a very reputable company who previously only used genuine Cherry switches) decided to go for Kaihl this time around.

SteelSeries claims that the QS1 switch used in Apex M800 is co-developed with Kaihl. The switch is somewhat similar to Logitech's Romer-G in structure: the LED is located right in the center of the switch and the slider has an opening in the middle to allow the light to shine through. It is a linear switch with the same activation force as Cherry MX Red (45 cN) and it's actually very similar to MX Red in scratchiness. The switches, as expected, are silent, the only sounds the keyboard normally makes are due to bottoming out. BUT: on my unit some of the keys started making squeaky noises on the second day of use, which is a bit annoying.

The design, as with all gaming hardware, is pretty awful (not surprising given the target audience). The keycaps are made of translucent plastic, coated and then lasered. They feel cheap to the touch. The backlighting is very bright and even. The keys are low profile and not sculpted at all, they look somewhat similar to the keycaps on old Thinkpad keyboards. Also I think that the huge spacebar is a brilliant idea.

Overall I think this keyboard is good for gaming, but not for typing.

[Firebolt1914]

Nice review! I could not use a keyboard that makes squeaky noises at all.