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.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 We received the Apex M500 inside a long cardboard box that features a large product picture at the front.

Another product image if placed at the base of the box right next to the main product features.

Several eSports teams help SteelSeries develop their products and their names and logos are placed at the top of the box.

A large product picture is used to showcase all features at the rear of the box.

Typically the keyboard is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed inside a formed piece of cardboard.

SteelSeries bundles the Apex M500 with a quick start guide, nothing more.

THE APEX M500

 Measuring 440.56mm in length, 136.43mm in width and 39.52mm in height the 1241g heavy Apex M500 is roughly identical to the original 6Gv2.

SteelSeries has placed their logo at the top right corner of the keyboard.

F5 and F6 allow you to control the illumination of the keys while F7 through F12 also double as multimedia keys (with the help of the Fn key of course).

The company name and logo are also engraved on the left side of the keyboard.

Here we see the Cherry MX red mechanical switches and the blue steel back plate.

At the rear of the keyboard we see three rubber feet, two height adjusters and 3 grooves used to pass the USB cord.

The height adjusters are rubber coated and can lift the top of the keyboard roughly 12mm from the desk.

Unfortunately the Apex M500 doesn't feature a braided cable or a gold plated USB plug.

The moment you plug the keyboard into a USB port the keys light up at medium brightness.

STEELSERIES ENGINE 3

 
As usual since the keyboard doesn't come with a software CD you will need to download the latest Engine version from SteelSeries as seen above.

Once you install and launch the control software it will check the firmware version of your keyboard and notify you if it includes a newer version.

The firmware update procedure takes less than a minute to complete but i do recommend rebooting your system prior to performing it.

The main control screen is very forthcoming so you can program any key by just clicking on it, adjust the brightness level from the bulb, change the polling rate from the graph, choose the proper language from the world map, pick the preferred illumination effect (steady or breath) and finally you can create macros and create/delete profiles.

Above you can see the minimum and maximum brightness levels.

AUDIBLE FEEDBACK

Many people ask my opinion on what keyboard they should get for their needs. Some want a “silent” model for use in their living room or even in their bedroom while others ask for a model with good audible feedback for use in the office or for gaming. Because of this I decided to test keyboards by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically over each keyboard (5cm distance) and typing NikKTech a total of 6 times with each (after that the max recorded number - max hold - is placed in the graph). I have to admit that this may not be 100% accurate but it does give a good idea on what you can expect from each model since aside the type of switches used keycaps and keyboard material also matter.

CONCLUSION

   Just like the 6Gv2 the Apex M500 by SteelSeries is a no-thrills mechanical keyboard so it doesn’t feature a strange design and it lacks dedicated macro/media keys, USB ports and RGB key illumination. Because of that some people may call it boring (just like they did the 6Gv2) but personally I think that largely due to its size and “simple” design it will fit a lot easier on most desktops (gamers, enthusiasts and professionals alike) than many of the newest models in the market. Honestly I’ve never cared much about RGB key illumination, many different illumination modes, dedicated macro keys and USB ports what I care most is quality/durability and the Apex M500 excels at that. Of course key illumination is also important and that was perhaps the one thing I didn’t like with the 6Gv2 but SteelSeries did use a nice 3-stage (4 including off) blue one for the Apex M500 so it’s not like they skipped on that. Overall the feeling from the keys of the Apex M500 is extremely good and on par (if not better) with any other keyboard we’ve used with Cherry MX Red switches.

   With a current price tag set at USD98.19 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 105Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) the Apex M500 by SteelSeries is definitely not the lowest-cost mechanical gaming keyboard in the market and that goes double if you take into account the lack of RGB key illumination and all the other “trinkets” squeezed in many mechanical keyboards. I too believe that SteelSeries should try to lower the price of the Apex M500 (even 10% would do the trick) but overall there aren’t that many quality mechanical gaming keyboards in the market today that cost considerably less. Bottom line if you don’t care about RGB key illumination and all the various features found in other mechanical keyboards but you still care about quality then the Apex M500 Mechanical Pro-Gaming Keyboard by SteelSeries should be up to the task and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Cherry MX Red Mechanical Switches (50 Million Actuations)
- Per Key Illumination With 4 Stages And 2 Modes
- N-Key Rollover
- Unlimited Available Profiles
- Unlimited Macro Keys

CONS

- Minimalistic Design (For Some)
- Price (For Some)