At first we would like to thank SteelSeries for offering the Apex M800 Gaming Mechanical Keyboard for testing and reviewing.

 

About SteelSeries:

"From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making high performance gaming gear used by the most demanding, top professional gamers worldwide and peripherals that provide superior quality and a competitive edge to gamers of all skill levels. We believe, as most gamers do, in winning, not trying!

 

What originally began with two people who recognized the need for superior, high-quality/performance gaming gear that would give gamers a competitive edge, has grown into a global leader in gaming and entertainment gear sought after for their high performance capabilities.

 

Fast-forward to today, and we’ve come a long way since our first glass mousepad. We have global offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, providing an integrated portfolio of products designed specifically for gaming. Fueling our growth is you, the gamer!

 

While we are proud of our technology and product innovation, we are even more excited about how these products are developed to meet the needs of gamers. Many companies may claim to develop superior gaming products but few actually do. Instead, they spend countless hours with lab engineers trying to force fit a new technology with bells and whistles and mediocre functionality for the end-user.

 

At SteelSeries, we develop our products with a small internal team and a vast network of technology partners, channel partners, game publishers, and gaming communities around the globe. We aren’t afraid of being challenged and implementing new ideas. Our main goal is to always to listen to the collective feedback of our professional gaming community.

 

We won’t bore you with cheeky slogans, trying to underline our authenticity as gamers. We fully acknowledge that the best professional gamers in the world know more about what they want and what will make them better, than we do. We are proud to be working with our partners, but we can’t take credit for their invaluable input and feedback. Instead we tell it like it is: they help us. We want to know what works and what doesn’t. For this reason, SteelSeries creates innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage for all gamers.

 

Critical to our company’s success is also our reinvestment in the gaming communities and the individuals who support them. As a result, our corporate philosophy is to take a substantial portion of our revenue and put it back into the gaming community to help spur industry growth. We support our community in numerous ways, ranging from co-hosting tournaments like Iron Lady and King of the Hill, and supporting gaming competitions of all sizes, to promoting the top and up-and-coming gaming teams/organizations.

 

Put simply, SteelSeries does not claim to invent or reinvent the gaming industry. Nor do we focus on one specific product, copy other companies or follow the crowd.

 

Instead we leave it to you, the gamer, our customer/partner/inspiration, to decide if we are deserving of such declarations and accolades. What we do promise, however, is to remain committed to you. We will continue to work with you and the gaming community to make the best products possible and give you that competitive edge. We will continue to do our best to support the growth of the professional gaming industry and give back to the gaming communities. By doing so, we don’t just talk a good game, we win!"

Engineered for Speed

 

Inspired by the design of the popular Apex gaming keyboard, we set out to make the fastest mechanical gaming keyboard without compromise. We thought of everything: from the low-profile design to the fast-reacting switches to the dual processors.

 

Unlimited Customization

 

As gamers we are all different. But whether you like to destroy your enemies, explore new areas of the latest x-pac or build a new city, the Apex M800 has virtually unlimited ways in which to customize it to make it yours. From advanced custom lighting schemes, to advanced text macro creation, to in-game integration, the M800 has everything you need to make it yours…

 

Attention to Detail

 

We are obsessive gamers. We know what works for gamers and what doesn’t. That’s why we obsessed over the angle of attack of the keyboard to make sure that your hands wouldn’t tire as quickly as they would with a traditional board. We sweated over the ideal key shape to allow you to glide faster between key strokes. We even insisted on a clear dome on the illuminated switches – so the keys would be the brightest on the market. It’s the little things that matter.

 

Newly-designed Switches

 

We partnered with experts in switch technology to create the perfect switch for the M800. The result is the incredible QS1 switch. With a smooth linear action and 25% faster actuation than the traditional mechanical switch, the QS1 is built for pure speed.

 

QS1 switches have a 3mm throw depth, a 1.5mm actuation and only require a 45cN actuation force. All of the design choices in the QS1 switch specifications were made with two goals in mind: React faster and spend less effort as you destroy your competition!

 

Low-profile Layout

 

The keyboard is built at an ergonomic low angle and with an optimally designed linear key layout that cuts down on finger travel distance. This allows for seamless, quick transitions between keys and across the keyboard for less fatigue on your fingers no matter how furiously they fly.

 

Dual Processors

 

Your 600 APM would go to waste if the brains of the keyboard couldn’t keep up. That’s why we added an additional CPU inside the M800 that is dedicated only to processing key presses. No lag, no excuses. And when the gaming gets hectic, N-key rollover allows up to 256 key presses at once with zero issues.

 

Quick-access Keys

 

The left side of the keyboard features 6 quick-access macro keys. This gives you more choice, customization and control right at your fingertips.

 

And just like every other key on the Apex M800, these are also fully programmable.

 

Individual Key Illumination

 

All of the LEDs on the M800 are individually customizable and feature a centered LED and a clear switch housing. The new keys are the perfect solution to show off your keyboard’s 16.8 million colors and 8 brightness levels with crisp illumination and minimal light bleed.

 

N-Key Rollover

 

Apex M800 is a zero ghosting gaming keyboard. In game mode you could press up to 256 keys at the same time. Thankfully you don’t have that many fingers, the M800 doesn’t have that many keys, so you never have to worry about a missed key strike in the heat of battle.

 

Cable Convenience

 

Some additional features were packed in to make life easier managing your devices and cords.

 

No more worrying about cables getting in the way of your gamplay, we crafted a cable management routing area under the center of the keyboard.

 

We also built in a USB 2.0 hub to give you quick access to your USB devices.

 

Lighting Patterns

 

We built in some incredible pre-configured lighting options, like Breathe, Color Wave, Cooldown Timers and Reactive Keys that highlight the keyboard’s vibrant and crisp illumination. Further personalize Apex M800 by creating and programming your own illumination designs.

 

Powerful Macros

 

Our feature-rich macro editor is incredibly easy to use, for both casual and advanced users. We even include powerful text-based macro capabilities, for unlimited macros from SteelSeries Engine to the in-game console. M800 can also record macros on the fly with a simple button press.

 

To top it off, every key on the Apex M800 is individually programmable to any keyboard key, mouse button, media control, application or macro.

 

Custom Profiles

 

We broke the mold with the M800, ditching the typical limits on customized profiles. Configure and save as many variations in your keyboard’s lighting and programming as you want and instantly remap them with the touch of a button.

 

Fire up a game and SteelSeries Engine 3 recognizes that, instantly changing settings for you. When you change over to a different game your fine-tuned settings will switch right along with you.

 

 

The gaming peripheral market is really active nowadays and one of the manufacturers which innovates a lot in this segment is SteelSeries; a recent example is the Apex M800 keyboard, which does incorporate a brand new mechanical switch which is baptized QS1. This switch does feature a throw depth of 3mm, an actuation and reset depth of 1.5mm, while the actuation force needed is calculated at 45cN. The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box, which sports the usual SteelSeries box art styling:

 

 

 

In order to advertise the new switches even better, the box does feature a small opening so potential buyers can press some of the keys in order to get an idea of the actuation force:

 

 

 

The main keyboard components along with the integration with the SteelSeries Engine software is described on the bottom area of the box:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will get to see another plain black cardboard box:

 

 

 

The Apex M800 is held inside along with its accessories:

 

 

 

Speaking of the bundle, this one can be found in the lower layer, which is made from a plastic mold:

 

 

 

The Apex M800 was also designed for Mac OS X operating system, so SteelSeries saw fit to include some replacement keycaps for it; we will also get a small instruction manual along with two replaceable rubber feet:

 

 

 

The taller rubber feet are easy to remove and replace when needed:

 

 

 

Besides the manual we will also get some nice case stickers:

 

 

 

 

Apex M800 comes with a braided two-meter cable and the keyboard weights a total of 1390g:

 

 

 

A closer look at the layout reveals extra programmable keys and a larger Spacebar key which we did find quite ergonomic:

 

 

 

The keycaps on the M800 are a bit concave and feature clear plastic characters/digits in order to let the LED light shine through. The key travel is much less than on traditional Cherry MX switches and the switches also feature a semi-transparent housing in order to leave light shine through (RGB type). The placement of the extra programmable keys takes a while to get used to since we were often tempted to press them instead of the usual CTRL, Shift, CAPS or TAB keys but this process should only take a matter of days:

 

 

 

The Function keys also double as multimedia controls and LED brightness adjustment starting with F5:

 

 

 

 

On some samples, reviewers have reported the Spacebar key to be squeaky but we did not observe this with our revision; probably they have got samples from the first batches which were affected by this issue:

 

 

 

The SteelSeries key must be pressed in order to work with the double function F keys:

 

 

 

Here is a close look at the other usual keyboard keys:

 

 

 

 

A large SteelSeries illuminated logo is placed where the NumLock, ScrlLock and CapsLock activation LEDs should reside, but in this case the LED lighting makes monitoring of these keys much easier:

 

 

 

LED lighting is also present on the laterals of the keyboard for an even nicer effect:

 

 

 

If we do look in the frontal keyboard area, we will discover additional interfaces:

 

 

 

Two USB 2.0 ports are available for connecting additional peripherals or low-powered devices:

 

 

 

The bottom area of the Apex M800 does not lack style and is built with round curves in order to fit perfectly with the rest of the design:

 

 

 

As we have mentioned before, if we need the keyboard lifted at an angle, we can always use the extra set of rubber feet:

 

 

 

 

The USB connectors are sporting the SteelSeries branding too:

 

 

 

In order to take advantage of the customization of the M800, it is necessary to download the latest version of SteeSeries Engine 3 from the manufacturers’ website; after the product has been detected, it will be shown in the list and a firmware update may also be required in some cases:

 

 

 

The dedicated GUI for Apex M800 will show the keyboard in the middle, while configuration settings are available on both left and right:

 

 

 

The keys can be remapped with a ton of functions; a pop-up menu will appear right after we click on one of the keys; first we have the Keyboard Buttons menu:

 

 

 

 

Previously defined macros can be easily assigned to the keys:

 

 

 

Next, we would like to remind of the Media Buttons:

 

 

 

Mouse buttons setting is pretty self-explanatory:

 

 

 

A key can be also deactivated at will:

 

 

 

Special keyboard functions can be also assigned to other keys:

 

 

 

We can launch an application of our choice to launch when pressing a defined key:

 

 

 

A profile can be also loaded when a key is pressed:

 

 

 

SteelSeries has not forgotten to include OS shortcuts:

 

 

 

We can also define a key for recording Macros on the fly:

 

 

 

Of course, Macros have also a dedicated section of their own for a more advanced configuration:

 

 

 

If we do click on the Illumination section, we will get to see that we have Active but also IDLE states, which is a LED behavior we have also seen with the Corsair Utility:

 

 

 

 

Light effects for each key can be selected from a drop-down menu along with colors and reaction speed:

 

 

 

 

Several LED lighting templates can be also checked out right away for looking at the configuration possibilities of the software:

 

 

 

Even the predefined LED lighting effects look very nice, which are pre-programmed for both Active and IDLE modes:

 

 

SteelSeries really succeeded to make a difference with the brand new mechanical switch design, which is capable of lower 1.5mm actuation, a 3mm throw and 45cN force (similar to Cherry MX switches). The central LEDs now allow a more uniform lighting of the keycap while the lettering/digits are made from semi-transparent plastic in order to allow LED light shine through. This is not all! We do also have a larger, re-designed Spacebar key for easy access, extra keys for programming, replaceable bottom feet, a dual-CPU configuration for allowing N-key rollover (up to 256 key presses at once, overkill) and dual USB 2.0 ports for connecting multiple low-powered devices.

 

The keyboard really shines when it is paired with the SteelSeries Engine 3 software, which will keep our keyboard ready at all times with the latest firmware and allows configuration options to the highest detail. The Apex M800 comes with one of the most fluent LED animations we have seen to date and thanks to the easy to understand interface, it does not take ages to create our own lighting setups.

 

We have worked with the keyboard quite a lot in order to write other review articles, for playing games like Star Wars The Old Republic, Carmageddon Reincarnation, a bit of Fallout 4, GTA V, Wolfenstein The Old Blood and we can say that Apex M800 performed quite admirably.

 

The only negative point we could notice is the lack of a customized key puller in order to replace the necessary key caps for transforming it into a Mac keyboard.

 

Even better, SteelSeries has operated an important discount on this keyboard model so it can be found online for about 149.99 Euros.

 

SteelSeries Apex M800 Gaming Mechanical Keyboard is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to SteelSeries for making this review possible!