SteelSeries Apex 7 TKL Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – OLED Smart Display – USB Passthrough and Media Controls – Linear and Quiet – RGB Backlit (Red Switch)

Perfect for gaming and anything else that involves a keyboard. Super easy to use features, not to heavy but heavy enough to be stern and still. Really comfortable too.

What a bummer, I used to really like Steelseries but I just cant recommend them anymore. It seems they have very little grasp on quality control. This keyboard is so aesthetically pleasing, but other than that its nothing special. My issue is that the quality per switch ( I have the reds) doesnt feel consistent. I havent even had this keyboard for more than a month and a couple switches have noticeably more resistance, and are also giving off a grinding like sound. Too bad Steelseries, lost a loyal consumer today, not to mention customer support is an absolute joke. If you plan on spending this much on a mechanical keyboard Id suggest looking elsewhere.

I got this keyboard 3 months ago and was happy from day one. I love the size, the looks, the feel. Everything was great. But today I noticed the LED for the S key was a bit off white while all the others were white. Several hours later and it has gotten progressively worse. It is now a very pale yellow which tells me the blue diode is fading. Its really quite disappointing considering the price of the keyboard. I have some replacement leds on the way so I am hoping I can do the repair. The necessary leds arent extremely easy to come by and I was only able to find common anode at a reasonable price and shipping time. Hopefully common anode is the correct pin out.

Update: Ive given up on this product, and Ive written of SteelSeries. I plug in my older Corsair and have 0 issues. No matter how fast the USB hub connection is, it will NOT work. Plain and simple. I have all USB 3.0 hardware, but I even tried a USB 3.0 type B to make sure I had enough speed to suffice this, and nope, it just crashes. Constantly. Once it crashes, there is NOTHING you can do except unplug it. What an utterly useless product. I literally re-wired my whole set up to try to get it to work. This product will only work if you go directly into your PC, but honestly, I wouldnt even recommend it with that level of shoddy workmanship. Go with a different brand. Original Review - 2 Stars: Ive never seen a keyboard crash before. Ive been using keyboards through this USB switch for years. The moment this guy gets plugged into my switch, which is used to toggle between my work and home PC, it starts to randomly crash. I dont know if its the screen that makes this different or what, but Ive seen other people with this same issue on forums and Reddit. The keyboard becomes unresponsive and wont get better until you unplug and plug it back in again. Its a shame, I really like this keyboard otherwise... I have to find a replacement now, and it wont be SteelSeries anymore. Im going back to my Corsair keyboards.

Quick to the point, the key layout is to close in space, more like a laptop keyboard. The biggest issue I had was not having an Fn key on the keyboard. Instead, there are two Windows keys on each side of the space bar. I reached out to customer support via email and they stated there is no way to customer program the key default (I was trying to program the right side windows key to work as a function key). I was able to find a work around by plugging in a separate keyboard and using that to customer program the key function with the software. But I still ended up returning the keyboard. The biggest issue is the close proximity of the keys. Trying to use the keyboard for work during the day and gaming at night proved not to be a good combination. If you have smaller hands, the keyboard could work for you.

This keyboard is great if you use it properly, you cannot use the Keyboard part of the cable through a USB hub. the keyboard will not function... at all... if you plug in the keyboard through a USB hub it will not work. you may plug in the USB PASSTHROUGH through a USB hub but thats it. if you absolutely need to use it though a hub you need to have another keyboard to get into your computer with. the keys will not work until you log in to the pc and let every driver load in and then update the keyboard firmware in the software. (steelseriesengine3) the keyboard will flash until that is done. if you plug in the keyboard directly to your pc everything will work fine 100% of the time. other than that, the lights look absolutely insane (good) the switches are fine (SteelSeries browns) but the only problem I have with them is that when you press one down you will feel the slight tactile bump but then you will need to press the key like 1/100000000000 of an inch more to get it to actuate. if you pretty much only ever type you wont REALLY feel a difference and if this is your first Mechanical keyboard you definitely wont feel a difference but when your gaming and you dont press the keys down all the way 80% of the time youll sometimes feel it. its not tooo big of a deal though. but if you absolutely couldnt deal with that you could I guess swap the switches out (I think their hot swappable but I could be wrong) and maybe even treat your self to some holy pandas or something along those lines. but for a big summary, switches are decent, the wrist rest is nice but if you slam the top down the whole thing will go backwards, I have generally large hands from my experience (G502 mouse if a bit short in length for me in a claw grip) because I often find myself moving the wrist rest beck a little, OLED display is totally overkill but totally sick (on AMD processors the app system monitor doesnt work for now but possible update coming) and stabilizers are nice, form factor is also nice.

I bought the Steelseries Aex 7 tkl with high expectations, I was going to use for multiple fps games, and I had watched alot of youtube videos, praising the keyboard, for ergonomics, typing, and gaming. Needless to say, my high expectations were fullfilled. I bought the apex 7 tkl with Cherry MX Red switches, linear and quiet, the sound was alright, it was certainly quiter than Cherry MX Blues, but it was still a bit loud, the reaction speed is amazing, and it almost feels like the switches are touch sensitive. Rgb and the little Oled screen were cool, not outsanding, but they were still cool. The Steelseries engine 3 offered alot of rgb option like Colorshift, Static Color, etc.... The media controls in the upper right corner were also a nice and at sometimes pretty useful detail. Anyways summing up my thoughts I would give it 9/10 and would definitely recommend.

Perfect mechanical keybord but got few soures of light, that can not be regualted. First is USB Pass Through that is a little projector, that can not be turned by program way, the only way to turn it off is to plug out it from PC USB pass through connection. Second source is multimedia button that can not be turned off any way at all. In my case it was very important to turn off all led with working pc sometimes, and that is this keybord just can not do at all.

Im all for steelseries, so Im a bit bias. I first had a pair of Arctis 3s loved them to death. I just built my first PC and for my mouse and keyboard I went steelseries. Best decision, the software is easy to use and has a lot of extra things you can do. Im no pro, but the switches are great and I have no complaints. Easily the best part is the RGB, Ive had it for about 6 months and have had no issues. Great build quality, just great everything. Maybe a bit pricey but 10/10 would recommend!

I love the durable cord that this comes with but I do wish it was detachable