You can adjust the RGB on this board, but it is not on a per-key basis. Instead, it’s on an eight-zone basis, like a pizza! There are eight segments on the Apex 3 where you can adjust the RGB, and I think this is fair and looks great. The biggest feature splashed across the box of the SteelSeries Apex 3 TKL is its waterproofing. This device has been designed to offer the most protection against accidental spills possible, which is fantastic for the price and well worth the peace of mind. The SteelSeries Apex 3 is ultimately a very humble gaming keyboard because it doesn’t try to do too much and it doesn’t bring anything groundbreaking to your battlestation. But it does do more than I anticipated, and I love it for that. The Whisper-Quiet membrane switches are very relaxing to type with, the plastic construction is very solid and it doesn’t creak like a door in a horror movie like in other boards I’ve used.

For instance, in the example above, the Chasing Ghosts preset is applied to most of the keys, but the arrow and DEL, END, etc. keys have a single, red color. The Apex 3 has six onboard macro-keys. I set up one of them to boot up OBS studio, which allowed me to conveniently start streaming the trek to round 50 on Cold War. Gaming-focused consumers are likely to decry SteelSeries’ choice to opt for membrane switches on the Apex 3 rather than mechanical ones, especially considering the fact that there exists a market for budget-minded mechanical boards. Admittedly, this was a primary concern of ours as we unboxed the unit, and it persisted even as we began typing and gaming. After using mechanical boards for so long, the Steelseries Apex 3’s softer switches felt slow and chunky. RGB is one of the most attractive feature of a keyboard, and all the SteelSeries gaming keyboards come with beautiful, customizable, 16.8 million colors to feature in your dream setup. Lastly, you can save all these settings and toggle between them easily with the On-Board Profile customization. To save the RGB settings of your keyboard, use the drop down menu at the top (the three dots). You can Add New, Rename, Duplicate, or Delete the preset. You can save as many as you want and toggle between them in this menu. 7. That's it. You've learned how to adjust the RGB of your SteelSeries keyboard!This keyboard’s software is pretty similar to Razer’s Synapse software as it lets you add some apps to it like PrismSync, which can be used to match your Apex 3’s lighting to any of SteelSeries’ compatible peripherals and even some motherboards. Unfortunately, my motherboard wasn’t cool enough to work with PrismSync, but that’s alright.

Like their name implies, these switches are silent, and that’s partially due to them being membrane, rather than mechanical. Before you jump ship, let me tell you that I actually really enjoyed these switches, and I do not usually enjoy tactile bumps that much. Think of the settings as "Layers." The Layers drop down has three options, Active, Reactive, and Idle. Active simply means you are at your keyboard (not AFK). Reactive is for effects that happen while you press the keys. Idle is:, how do you want the keyboard to look when you're away? You can have a specific preset of RGB effects when you're away from it. The heavier keys here may be enough to dissuade against use in longer typing sessions and faster-paced action titles, but if you're looking for an everyday keyboard that will help you get into some of the functions of your game with a little more ease, there's little to lose in this low price. Typing with the Apex 3 was relaxing; I am so used to fat tactile bumps and ASMR-like linear switches that the feeling of membrane switches feels foreign. Unlike most membrane switches, though, the Whisper-Quiet switches do have some tactility to them, which made the typing experience feel elegant and responsive. After looking at these keyboards, I realized that the Apex 3 would be a great keyboard to bring to work even if you’re not a gamer because it is extremely silent, dirt cheap and water-resistant.Reactive Layer: These are RGB effects that trigger when you press on a key. Use the drop down to determine what kind of effect happens. For example, Line will make an effect go across the whole keyboard, in the color you selected (the icon next to the drop down.) You can lower or increase the speed to adjust the effect. We've converted this review to Test Bench 1.3, which overhauls how key input is evaluated. We've added new tests for Single Key Latency, Multi Key Latency, Data Transmission, and Chord Split. We've also introduced a new Raw Performance usage and adjusted how the Gaming and Office usage scores are calculated. You can see the full changelog here.

There are various ways to adjust the RGB settings. You can start with several presets before experimenting more. Unlike too many gaming keyboards, we have dedicated media keys here. While they’re a bit awkward to operate, they are better than nothing. Note: Our newer keyboard models have a new system for adjusting illumination called Prism, which will allow you to tune it for all the compatible devices. If you have an older keyboard from us, you will instead see Illumination settings alongside the top menu near key bindings, macros, key actuation, and more.You can use this to apply a specific color to your numpad keys, for example, or all the number keys, the Function keys, and so on. Get creative and make your dream keyboard RGB setup! Selecting the Layer changes the applicable effects. Let's go through the Active Layer first. Active Layer (while using the keyboard) There isn’t a whole lot I don’t like about the Apex 3’s design, but I didn't appreciate that the company flipped some of the legends around. For example, the 1 is above the exclamation mark, where it typically is underneath it. The settings are overall quite similar for the older models, but with some small differences. Stay tuned while Prism is still in Early Access. 4. Now you can adjust RGB settings of your SteelSeries keyboard, from presets for all the keys to any individual. Don't forget to press the Save button in the lower right when you're happy with the changes. 6. Save your Configuration and switch between saved RGB presets easily.