Review by: j.c. campbell

The SteelSeries Apex M500 mechanical keyboard is a good mechanical keyboard at an excellent price. $99 buys you a full-size backlit mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX red switches. Unfortunately, there aren’t many options: you can have any keyboard you like as long as you like blue blacklighting and Cherry MX red switches. The Cherry MX reds are mechanical key switches with zero tactile feedback and zero audible feedback, unless you count the feeling and sound of the key hitting the end of its travel, or “bottoming out.” There is zero feedback when the keys actuate or make electrical contact and send a signal to your computer that a key was pressed. Because of this, we found ourselves pressing the keys down all the way all of the time just to be sure. Many people prefer this type of key for gaming, especially in first-person shooters, where you aren’t typing as much as holding down keys for precise amounts of time to move in the game. However, it isn’t considered optimal for typing by most people, so if you plan on spending any significant amount of time typing this keyboard might not be the best.Read More