INTRODUCTION

   Cheap membrane based keyboards may still hold the number one spot in terms of sales all over the world (selling like cupcakes a friend pointed out yesterday) but mechanical gaming keyboards are actually far more popular between gamers and by a large margin. This of course is due to the continuous release of new models in the market by a large number of gaming peripheral manufacturers and their somewhat impressive at times marketing efforts. For good or bad because there are so many mechanical gaming keyboards released in the market each year it's not as easy for people to pick the right one for the job and this is usually where we come in. SteelSeries is among a handful of gaming peripheral brands that have been manufacturing mechanical gaming keyboards for as far back as i remember and today with us we have their latest Apex M500 Mechanical Pro-Gaming Keyboard.

   SteelSeries is a gaming brand that leads the market in building peripherals with quality, innovation and purpose. The company’s passion has been the driving force behind many first-to-market innovations and technologies that continue to become the industry standard and have-to-have requirements of gamers. The global brand continues to support the growth of competitive gaming tournaments and electronic sports leagues through professional team sponsorships, partnerships and community support. The company surrounds itself with the passion and the commitment to being the best. It is with this mentality that SteelSeries chooses to partner with some of world’s most respected and recognized brands that work together to push the growth and evolution of the gaming industry into an even greater proposition.

   How many of you remember the 6Gv2 mechanical gaming keyboard again by SteelSeries? Well the Apex M500 might as well be its successor since it follows the same exact concept. What is that concept? Well the original 6Gv2 model focused in build quality (sturdy plastic housing) and offered a no-thrills minimalistic design not solely in terms of appearance but also available features. Also just like the 6Gv2 the Apex M500 also uses linear Cherry MX switches with a lifetime of up to 50 million actuations/clicks but this time over instead of black (60g actuation force) SteelSeries decided to go with the more gamer oriented red ones (45g actuation force). As expected by SteelSeries the keyboard features full anti-ghosting, N-Key rollover, steel back plate, blue key illumination (per-key illumination mode is also supported), support for macros and also allows the end user to program every single key on the keyboard. Time to see what the successor of the almost legendary 6Gv2 is all about.