SteelSeries Apex M750 TKL RGB Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

SteelSeries Apex M750 TKL RGB Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

SteelSeries Apex M750 TKL RGB Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

Pros:+ SteelSeries Engine Software
+ Attractive Design
+ Great Performance
+ Comfortable
+ Sturdy
+ Great Packaging

Cons:- Expensive
- Lacks Dedicated Media Keys
- Lacks Wrist Rest Pad
- Cable Not Braided

hey everyone the keyboard we have today is the SteelSeries apex and 750 10 keyless now let me tell you this as some users been with us for a while here you all know I love steel series of products I think they are just fantastic but I'm sure the question on some years mind was the same as mine whenever our shopping this keyboard is is it worth a hundred bucks give or take could be a little bit less a little bit more I think currently is film in this review it's around 94 bucks but anyways I absolutely love steel series products so I had to give it a good old tester

Rooney so let me pop it open bring it in for a couple close-ups and then I'll join back with you and we'll talk about it hey I'll be right back with you I mean good night this thing is absolutely you know gorgeous I promise I'm not gonna use that word and in Vardhan this review here I know I overdone it in the LG modern review I probably said gorgeous probably at least 15 to 20 times I promise I'm not gonna say it anymore in this review all right so now as you see we are in the SteelSeries

software and honestly I love this software across all steel series products it can be a little confusing at first but after a while you really get used to it and it flows very nicely as you see we've got configurations so you can save each setting per game or whatever you like you want to create a different effect because there's so much you can create on this keyboard it's absolutely crazy anyways I can see we're in key bindings over here and you can just all your keys if you like you can launch this and then do some macro recording if you like that also in

key bindings you can do it per zone like your function keys or your standard keys and all that stuff so and it's all that key binding stuff is there if you use that I don't use it but anyways this is where things start getting real crazy and pretty cool honestly the illumination so as you see right here we're an active now look at all of these effects you can do like holy smokes and of course you can adjust your color over here pick your own color or do color shift so just fades throughout which is really nice through it if you have multiple steers SteelSeries products

hooked up right there and then of course your speed and you can affect which way the the effect is going so this is just so much now you're probably wonder what the heck is this reactive up here so you got a reactive you'll put on fade and then you can adjust what we got color shift on but if you turn color shift off you can pick whatever color you want it to do but what that's gonna do is so let's say over here let's say I know it's getting confusing I'm going back and forth right but let's say we're on active let's say you had the wave going right then you also had reactive ripple going so say your wave is going across then you have reactive ripple whenever

you press save you press the D it's gonna ripple out from there or if you press the M it'll rip route ripple out from there depending on whichever effect you decide to choose you know and you can pick the color so if you got your keyboard set to red then you can have the reactive effect going blue or whatever it's just so cool because you can get so creative with the keyboard and then again of course adjust your settings and all that stuff and it's just it's honestly really really cool this is one of my favorites because I think it's really awesome which sets this RGB in this keyboard apart from some of the other ones we've reviewed perky static as you can see

here I just dabbled with a few just messing with it like you can press the G BAM will make it green press the Y BAM let's make it blue so you can get on here and kind of get really creative and artsy and just adjust the entire keyboard however you want like I'm looking at it down on my desk like you guys have seen it here but I'm looking at my desk wall I'm setting it because I got live preview on and it's really cool I think mostly lose yourself in here just you know setup the colors in this so as far as the RGB again in this software it is incredibly solid over here in

settings you can adjust the region of your keyboard and then the the brightness of it and again this stuff can be adjusted on the keyboard as well not some of the effects we were looking at before some of that you have to get into the software but the main effects and the color change in the brightness and the speed of the effect that stuff can be changed on a keyboard so as far as that software you saw right there super easy to use as far as my setup I use a lot of steel series of products and I do not use the light sync I leave all my stuff static at red so again I don't get into the RGB where it's all flashing and everything like that but it's really nice to have that I did test out the sink and everything and it looks absolutely gorgeous because it like flows from one

thing to the other thing it's just you know it feels like you had to disco but while we're on the topic of RGB let me tell you what 100% this is probably the best RGB yet out of any keyboards I mean other keyboards have had fantastic RGB but this is just very clear every key has a different color like you saw in a software you can program each key to whatever color you want you know and you really notice that whenever it's changing through whether it be the rainbow kind of leg is doing right now or any other flashes you really notice it like some of the other keyboards have done the same effect and they flash and kind of a rotate around the board and

everything which they look great but uh honestly this one it really transitions very very smooth it's just it's really hard to explain but again you just see it kind of fade from the key to the next one it looks again it looks very very good now one other thing as far as the RGB and I promise I'll get off the subject of RGB I just wanted everyone know as you were just seeing all those effects that we were just showing there you can set this keyboard to your static color whether it be red blue green whatever you decide and then it'll do all those effects as well in your static color so really cool to have that feature so you don't have to just have it all you know sparkly in the rainbow cuz if you want to just solid red you can still take advantage of those effects it feels

built very solid for sure but again is it's not really heavy I almost expected it to be a little bit heavier you know I don't know I guess something that's hundred bucks should be heavy I don't know anyways again maybe it just feels a little bit lighter not cheap by any means now the back of it is all plastic and I don't know if you caught this in the closest while back you have you little grips right down here on the bottom and then up top here these are your little feet I guess you'd say and then your grips as well and they just pop out of that hole right there if you get seen right here and then again here's the little foot that just clips right in there and actually in your box over here I don't use them but these are really really big extra feet right here that'll raise

the keyboard up for you again it becomes very high with those so I don't even use them but just like this with these see right here it is perfectly fine it doesn't slide around anywhere there's no flexing aboard at all again it feels like it's built very solid now let's go ahead and talk about the keys now real quick off the bat the key caps are covered with a UV coating I'm not too sure what the heck that is but they says it prevents wear I don't know it has a slight hint of that soft touch kind of like their headsets do but not an overdone amount you do get a couple fingerprints on it but not I mean I haven't noticed anywhere yet you know I mean I'm cycling through so many keyboards anyways but uh I mean it feels fantastic it really does it's smooth

the fonts are real nice as you can see right here and again it feels incredibly solid to me I guess you know UV protection I guess hey it's not gonna get sunburn right now as far as the switches they use that qx2 the SteelSeries switches in there now they partnered with Gator on to make these guys here now the only difference is I could find about them is that they used a clear housing let me pop one off here and show you it will look right down there if you can see that on camera as you see it has the clear housing down there the other thing they said they have is a copper click leaf whatever the heck that is and then some softer plastic I don't know what I can tell you is I use cherry Reds all the time and that's kind of what they compare these two these

are similar to the Cherry MX Reds and Cherry MX Reds are my preferred switches so I can tell you from using a lot of Cherry MX keyboards then using this one they feel very very similar now what I can tell you as far as a difference using these qx2 steel series switches compared to the Cherry MX Reds is these are a little bit smoother they go down the Cherry MX Reds might have a little bit more resistance it feels like I don't know again it is so incredibly minor like very very minor I really I mean there's almost no difference but these do feel better than regular cherry MX Reds again by just that minor bit let me go ahead and give you a sound test and you'll probably be able to tell what I'm talking about here so anyways let me bring it back a bit

there we go about two feet from the mic here so as you can tell they sound very similar to the Reds is again it's so hard to tell but it's even harder to tell through the camera here but they are a little bit smoother again I'm not sure if you could tell on the camera but they are a little bit smoother and they do feel very very nice now one thing I'd like to point out as well we've been reviewing a lot of keyboards here right we've done some 160 percents with these steel bass and everything and this is where you can kind of tell that difference a lot of those cheaper keyboards I don't want to say cheaper but off-brand keyboards they found that real tinny

sound whenever you're hitting your keys right you don't get that with this guy I mean it is solid it feels like it's built throughout the entire keyboard and again you get a very nice sound you hear your keys you feel your keys and again nothing feels chintzy on it by any means so let's answer that hundred dollar question right is it worth a hundred dollars and yes I do think it is worth a hundred dollars and let me catch you right there I want to let you know why I think it's worth it do we have reviewed many good keyboards on this review reading from around 30 to 50 bucks and they all have been great but where this guy differs is again everything feels solid on it it really does from the keys to the switches to the build it fails a

hundred percent solid now of course you know I couldn't resist mentioning fluff and yes you are paying for fluff this keyboard that argue be you are paying for it is one-of-a-kind I mean this is just some extremely sharp RGB and it looks so good where I'm gonna go off my usual track and I'm gonna say it's worth paying for it because honestly it looks that good me I'm not gonna use it it's gonna be lit up rent on me all the time with no effect going on so sure that kind of stinks for me but if you love RGB this is the way to go because I mean this thing is absolutely stunning so that's why I think it is worth it again you're paying for that fluff but it is very very good fluff and all in all like I said in the beginning I use a lot of steel series products and I really love pairing my stuff whether it be with Corsair or steel series or whatever I like all of my

products that kind of be on the same line so then again I only need one software running I don't have to have IQ running here and then steel series over here you know to mean I can have everything sink through one software click on it BAM and control everything right there very nice and convenient but all-in-all I honestly give this keyboard a win I really like it I was kind of leery about spending a hundred bucks at first again right now I think it's on sale for 94 and I really think it's worth that price now this keyboard does also come with the 10 keys as well and I believe it's maybe like 10 or 20 bucks more but again it does come with the 10 keys so hey let

me know down in the comments are you looking at picking up the SteelSeries m 752 10 kilos or the world 210 keys hey i'll leave the link right down in the description for you but again i think you're gonna be extremely happy with this keyboard if you pick it up again it is just extremely solid and it is totally worth that price tag but a please do let me know in the comments if you picked it up and what you think of it .

SteelSeries Apex M750 TKL RGB Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

Switch Specifications

Switch Type:	SteelSeries QX2	Cherry-MX Red
Peak Force:	45 cN – Linear	45 cN – Linear
Switch Life:	50 million	50 million
Debounce Time:	?	5ms
Tactile feedback:	No	No
Audible feedback:	No	No
Travel Distance:	4mm	4mm
Actuation Distance:	2mm	2mm
Reset point:	?	1.9mm
Keycap stem:	MX (cross)	MX (cross)

Specifications

Technical Specifications
Company:	SteelSeries
Model:	M750 TKL
N-Key Roll Over:	104-Key (All)
Anti-Ghosting:	100% (Full)
Illumination:	Individually controllable per-key RGB including whole-keyboard patterns and reactive typing effects
Programmability:	Fully Programmable with Key Rebinds Key Press Macros Text Based Macros
Height:	160 mm
Width:	370 mm
Depth:	35 mm
Top Material:	5000 Series Aluminum Alloy, Matte Black Finish
Weight:	1.9 lbs
Cable Length:	2 m, 6.5 ft
Switches:	QX2 Linear RGB Switch
Durability:	50 Million Keypresses

gaming keyboards are everywhere and you might find it hard to pick one out for yourself but I have the apex M 750 from SteelSeries and I'm gonna tell you why it's one of the standouts with game tech we break down the tech that drives a game to your love so do yourself a favor and subscribe to GameSpot for more of our content now into the keyboard first things first the M 750 is 140 dollars now that's actually a little bit cheaper than most full-size mechanical keyboards with full RGB lighting but the most important part of a mechanical keyboard is the mechanical switches now the M 750 uses SteelSeries is own oh snap damn yeah the qx2 is steel

series's own mechanical switch which is a linear switch similar to Cherry MX Reds there won't be any tactile feedback and it's a nice buttery smooth keystroke look at that and they even color-coded these red so there ain't no confusion the cubix do has similar specs as the Cherry MX Reds 2 millimeter actuation point 4 millimetre travel distance and 45 gram actuation force as someone who's partial to linear switches the QX 2 is actually one of my favorites because it's buttery smooth but there is one thing you need to take note here with the M 750 is that the keys are loud loud it's a flaw actually they're not that loud but they are allowed now these aren't gonna be as loud as Cherry MX blues where you can hear every single click but these are

louder than most linear switches and other keyboards that I've used but as you can see look at that pretty backlighting you'll notice that the M 750 has exposed key caps so you'll see the RGB lighting kind of flowing out through the chassis see how do you get these pretty colors in these nice effects will you use SteelSeries engine software that lets you program how these keys act and react it's some of the best software I've used especially with all the RGB options you get now I won't go through all of them but I love using the color shifting wave effect and the ripple reactive effect on top of the software lets you turn the backlighting into an audio visualizer and program of gifts color palette to play out on the keyboard itself now these are just novelties but

other lighting features can be useful for example you can program a backlit reaction to certain things that happen in discord like a certain person disconnecting or hopping in a channel the gamesense feature lets you program in game events to a back lighting scheme now as a big Counter Strike global Offensive Player I mess with having my ammo health and armor count indicated through a colored gradient of course this info is on the screen in the game but it was neat to have those colors visible in my peripheral vision to remind me of the in-game situations if you're someone who uses other SteelSeries devices you can program all their lighting effects to work in unison in terms of design the M 750 is built with an aluminum alloy chassis which

does two things for it it's light weight lighter than most mechanical keyboards and it's very durable but I can't really test that out because I don't want to break the keyboard do I want to break the key one I'm sure it's durable I don't want to find out how durable it is because I like this keyboard we don't break things here at GameSpot we should though , now wait might not matter much for something you don't pick up to use but it does let me show you the nice grooves and curves and the sleek design of the keyboard looks pretty sweet huh you'll notice this keyboard has a basic feature set you won't have any macro keys you can program

yourself and you won't get dedicated media keys which is something I like a lot though if you press down the function button it'll highlight each key you can use for media which makes finding the proper key a little easier overall I like what the apex M 750 has to offer but as a reminder it is gonna cost you $$ and it only comes with linear switches so if you're like me who's really into linear switches and likes the feel of it you'll feel right at home with this

keyboard if you're scoping out other mechanical keyboards be sure to check out our reviews of the Logitech G for 13 and the Corsair k68

SteelSeries mechanical keyboards well luckily you're able take was able to send over the apex M 751 of steel series this new top of the range keyboards but now because it's top of the range it is going to be quite expensive on rebel sake or on Amazon now there are a bunch of other keyboards at that price range as well so what does the M 750 have that will make it a better buy than all of the others well let's find out right after this

prices and I stock all the major brands like a sous msi gigabyte Corsair and many more you're also able to get destiny - when purchasing selected nvidia gtx 1080 or 1080 TI graphics cards so check out the link in the video description to go get yourself a new graphics card and a new game first off let's take a look at the design of the M 750 the body is made out of an aerospace aluminum which gives it a very sturdy frame a with little to no flex at all and it also keeps it relatively light at 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds SteelSeries try to keep the design as keen as possible with a sleek black top and a slight curve to the back they also kept the side design off the apex

M 800 but the M 750 just does not have the light up LEDs on the sides which is kind of a disappointing but what's more disappointing is that M 750 does not feature any audio or USB pass-through I would have expected a keyboard at that price range to have at least a USB pass-through but no you don't get anything like that here but now moving on to the switches the M 750 comes out with stills you this custom qx2 switches which they co-developed with gator on these switches features corporate clicker leaves and Urich on thermoplastic stems which is guaranteed to deliver up to 50 million click prices this custom qxs research are also still series

equivalents to MX rates with the 2 millimeter actuation point and four millimeter total travel distance the switches also needs 45 grams of actuation force to press down and then the M 750 does also feature 100% and key roll over and ghosting so you can press as many keys as you want and all of the commands will go through also like most mechanical keyboards these days the M 750 stem or compatible with cherry MX compatible key caps so you can get custom ones if you really want to the M 750 does also feature some secondary functions which you can use by pressing the SteelSeries logo which is kind of like the F key which also changes the colors of

the secondary function keys so you can't spot them easier the secondary function seat kid is a 5 and F 6 which adjusts the backlight brightness between 20 levels and then F 7 to f12 is your media function keys like skip and pause and in the volume up and down adjustments then you do also get six additional function keys just above the arrow keys which lets you change the effects color and speed of the backlights firstly the M 750 has two sets of lighting effects you have the active which is always on and then the reactive which activates when you press a key so the first column controls the active effects and in the second column controls of their reactive effects the top key cycles the speeds the middle key cycles the effects and then the lost key cycles the colors so if you didn't really install the engine through software or just quickly want to

change an effect you can use these function keys to do now I'm personally not too crazy about the qx2 or cherry mix red switches I like to know when I've actually pressed down a key so attacks on a bump feels better for me but again that is just my personal taste the image rates like the QX twos are very popular towards gamers because of how quick and light they are but now something that M 750 is really lacking here is a palm rest if it was cheaper I would have understand but because of the price range I would have liked at least to have one now you can get a free one if you buy directly from SteelSeries this website but it is also more expensive there and nowhere else do you really get that special so it's kind of just a letdown for me as for the

clicky sounds most mechanical keyboards make the QX tears are relatively on the quad side but here's a quick sound taste for you now I'll take a look underneath the m7 50 UK two rubber pads at the bottom and then instead of flip out keyboard feet you get those removable pads just like the m8 hundred I don't know why still series went with this design again but I'm not really a fan of it switching between the pads is a pain and it's just not a quick job so if you quickly want to switch players and the other player wants a lower angle it's kind of maze I would have just referred to have the standard flip out keyboard feet just because of how quick and easy it is as for the cable it is not braided and it's 2 meters or 6.5 feet long and not that it's really a big deal but the cable is quite thick for a keyboard with no paws through which I found

kind of it weird now taking a quick look at the SteelSeries Engine 3 software which with the first tab allows you to remap every single key on the keyboard to something else you can create a custom macros as well to add or Link any program to a certain key which was very nice the second tab is for all of your lighting effects again you get the active and reactive lighting effects so for active you have a bunch of effects you can choose from a like static wave ripple a boom and a bunch of more then as for the reactive again you have a bunch of effects like fade Ripple hexagon or run out and a few others for most of these effects you can change the colors speed and directions so you have a bunch of cool lighting effects you can apply next up you have the settings tab that allows you to choose the keyboards region change the polling rights brightness

and then also change the engine app color which was the orange keys that you saw and pressing the FN key some additional software features SteelSeries have added to their software is the inclusion of apps that links to other applications or games an example of this is the audio visualizer that actually shows the frequency levels on the keyboard then another one is the prism sync that allows you to sync all of your prism sync enabled Hardware together a foreign in sync lighting show you do also have some apps linked to the games but unfortunate very limiting and it's only linked to about five games so you don't really have a lot of options you do have it for dota 2 & counter-strike so if you play those games you can use it for them now in the end the M 750 is a nice keyboard but it's a bit too expensive for my liking again around the

same price you can get a few other keyboards that has more features like a palm raise a USB pass-through or even separate dedicated media controls the m-715 ease based features are very good but there's not really anything that makes you stand out above a lot of the other keyboards but now let's quickly take a look at some of the good and bad aspects of the keyboard firstly some good ones that are liked the frame is very sturdy and that you do get a bunch of cool lighting effects with the SteelSeries engine software it does have an attractive design to it you do get that hundred percent in key rollover an anti ghosting which is always

very handy and then the feature full software which you can unlink all the apps and all the games which is very nice but now then unfortunately the bad ones are firstly of course is expensive you don't really get a palm rest which sucks the keyboard feet I didn't really like because of how long it takes to just switch around you don't really get a braided cable which usually adds a bit more of a premium feel to it you don't really get any dedicated macro keys you can use F 1 2 F 4 and reprogram it to like your custom macros but then you don't really have an F 1 2 F 4 so dedicated macro keys would have been nice then also again the USB and

audio pass-through which again for this price range I would have expected it to have and then lossy the custom audio controls I would like to have instead of pressing the FN key to access my media controls I refer to I would like to have it in the top right corner like a lot of other keyboards so in conclusion if you are a SteelSeries fan you can go for the m 750 and you will probably like it because it is a good keyboard but if you're somebody who wants to get the most for your money i can't really say that the m 750 is going to be that for you so yeah that's pretty

much it from our view of the SteelSeries apex M 750 I hope you guys enjoyed it if you did please like share comment comments .