SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3: What Real Users Actually Think

This is the first mechanical keyboard I don't absolutely hate. Many years ago a friend sold me his old Corsair Vengeance K95 which was EXTREMELY clacky, and as a touch-typer I found it exceedingly annoying that I would get many phantom actuations from simply resting my fingertips on the keys. I eventually swore off mechanical keyboards for almost a full decade. The Apex Pro Gen 3 changed that for me.

I went from cherry mx reds to this, had the same corsair k70 for over 10 yrs until this passed Christmas when my lovely gf got me an upgrade. I've only had it for a few days now but I'm absolutely in love, didn't take long to get used to linear switches, you can change the actuation point to something more close to what your used to and it feels like an absolute dream, I haven't looked back once. In terms of sound and feel I could never go back to my old keyboard.

It's very easy to adjust and fun to play with, the wheels and buttons are for volume and media control, a long press of the button will bring up a menu where you can find actuation settings and more with the scroll wheel.

I had 2 Apex Pro TKL wireless and will never buy steel series again. The 1st one started ghost typing after 3 weeks, the second one did the same after 4 months. Lots of people having the same issue with the model I had, seems to be a manufacturing defect.

Yes it's a good keyboard overall. Are there betters out there? Yes you can find/build better keyboards in any aspect (build quality, sound, software, speed), or you can even find better keyboards overall (wooting 80he), but still it's a decent keyboard especially if you can find it on sale for ~160-180$. For 200$+ I wouldn't buy it.

The display is the only thing truly unique about the Apex Pro series. It's cool don't get me wrong, but I barely look at it. If I had had the time to wait for the next wooting drop I would have bought an 80HE. It's a comprehensively better product, with much better software, better product support, and build quality. Apex pro LEDs are known to break after 1-2 years.

I have been using logitech and razer high end keyboards and recently switched to this and I can only say my regret is I haven't done it earlier.

I tried many of those keyboards with fast 8k true polling rate like the 80he and I end up selling them — you will not notice any difference believe me. I end up returning to my apex 7 og with blue switches till I get my apex pro wireless gen 3. I love the height of SteelSeries keyboards, the wrist rest that comes with them, and the screen is nice to have for my PC temps.

The Gen 3 has a slightly better build (better stabilizer and less noisy), protection mode, and pre-lubed switches. The scratchy switches on the 2023 and older versions are gone. Only go through the return process if you bought the 2023 version at full price.

I've only had the keyboard for a few days, it's outstandingly good. Absolutely love it. Came from a keyboard with cherry blue clicky keys, but this is way better. As far as the screen, it can display a custom image and has controls like brightness, turning on/off macros, and changing actuation profiles.

My understanding is that the SteelSeries hall effect software is a total miss, and that's why nobody cared about hall effect keyboards until Wooting came along.

Apex PRO gen 3 is a good choice for $160, especially with the adjustable actuation. If you want a hall effect keyboard, it's one of the better ones out there.

I like this lighting.

I love it a lot. It is a dream to type on. Best Buy has the wireless version on sale right now for $199, which is a pretty good deal.

Had my tkl wireless version a few days and honestly I say push the button and get one! Initially wanted a wooting but didn't want to wait ages as my g915 finally gave up so looked into the alternatives and landed on the gen 3. It's perfect apart from the software lol but once you've managed to set it up you're good to go.

After owning one for several weeks now, if a friend asked me about getting one, I would suggest they think about another keyboard if wireless is important to them. The keyboard is nice to type on and play games with when it's working, even if the software is a little janky, but the wireless experience has been a disappointment. I usually use the 2.4 GHz connection because it's better for gaming, but it often just stops working.

Since the battery life isn't great and it takes so long to recharge, I've just found it easier to use with a USB extension cord instead.

I got the Apex pro Gen3 and only had it now 4.5 weeks and tonight it just randomly started typing the Number 1 as in properly spamming the key 1 opening random windows like Copilot as well, it basically made my pc go haywire. I had to reboot my pc to solve it, but I don't know if this is going to happen again. Keyboard overall I really do like the feel of the typing, but for sure if this is only going to last this amount of time - it's goodbye steelseries.

I just got this exact one a week ago and it is really good. Got it on sale for $240 CAD and it's well worth it imo. The OLED display is quite cool, I got my CPU and GPU temps always on it and can monitor the hot spot and core temps to ensure the thermal paste is still good. Keys feel great, and LEDs are nice.

I have this keyboard and had a ghosting problem a few weeks in. Now it's been a few months and ghosting keys have happened to me twice and it just disconnected all together once. I messed up bad not doing my research. The keyboard looks and feels great but what's the point of that if you can't even play a game with a fear of your keys ghosting while playing competitive games.

My apex pro tkl wireless that my grandma paid for 2 weeks ago messes up my PC extremely. It opens pretty much all .exe files on my pc, multiple times — like Chrome opens 200 tabs at the same time. Some LEDs are twitching. It's worth 300 euro and I'm 95% sure I'll return it.

Trust me when I say this. Gen 3 is leagues above better. I own the Apex Pro full size 2019 and the 2023 TKL. The feel, sound and stabilizers of the new gen 3 are significantly better all around. The key presses feel so much smoother and the sound dampening is so nice. It has a thock sound to it when you type too. Gen 3 was worth the upgrade for me.

The Gen 3 has pre-lubed switches — the 2023 and older got scratchy switches — and the foam inside the keyboard will make it sound better than the old ones.

Actually love it, been using it for a month now. The thing I love about it is the actuation hall magnetic switches. Only thing that is annoying is the clanky sound — apparently on Gen 3 they made it sound and feel better.

I got the Steelseries Apex Pro Gen 3 TKL Wireless keyboard. Like the board but indeed I don't like the GG software. The display is kind of a gimmick and sometimes handy to switch configurations or change the actuation point on the fly. What I also don't like is that the switches are not all Hall effect and some are normal linear switches, and they aren't hot swappable. So you can't customize to your liking.

One thing about the Apex Pro Gen 3 that should be mentioned... the wobble on the keys is terrible. I'm not an enthusiast but just resting my fingers on the keys it's hard to ignore and it makes it feel cheap. I love the typing feel so much but I'm now looking at other premium options that won't have this issue.

I've used both the Wooting 80HE and the Apex Pro Gen 3, and I chose the apex pro overall for the layout looking better to me compared to the 80he, but the wooting 4 year warranty is a heavy factor.

I got the apex gen 3 tkl now but I'm returning it because the keycaps are too high for me — I get a lot of strain on my wrist and don't want to use the wrist support.

I just got this keyboard myself a few days ago. I wanted to display the CPU and GPU temps on the OLED as I had seen advertised. I learned that to do this, it was an app in the GG software called System Monitor, and for some reason a while ago they removed it for 'security reasons' and never brought it back. Fortunately, I coded a custom application for GG software that imitates System Monitor.

It's alright except I raged once and the feet broke so typical apex pro imo.

Bought it, I can't even see behind me. Love it.

Some are saying it's not worth getting because of the pricing which I can understand — it's always smart to save a bit more money — but if you want to spend $200 I think it's worth it.

I have a Wooting keyboard and everything is saved on the keyboard — you might not even need to have the program installed since they have a web version of it.

The switches can be click modded using leaves from melodics or ks-22 opticals. I did this with mine and they're so good.

Unless you're going to be chucking your board into your backpack a lot or slamming it on the desk when you lose, the Wooting's PCR case is actually fine. That said, there are a lot of other HE boards that you could check out. The Iqunix EZ63 is really premium for around the same price as the Steelseries and sounds a lot better.

If you want best of the best in everything, get Wooting.

Do you have another 2.4Ghz dongle nearby? A long shot but try distancing it from other dongles (jabra, logitech, etc) that may cause interference. Your problems sound like what I had a couple years ago with 2 dongles being close to each other. I bought a usb extender to separate them a bit and that fixed it.

I'd get the Qwertykeys Hex80. In terms of specs it's superior to the Wooting 80. Qwertykeys is known for making high quality keyboards at an entry level price — for the price, the hex80 is a clear cut no brainer over the Apex Pro.

Did you manage to display system info on the OLED? Still waiting to hear if anyone got that working without the old System Monitor app.

I've never had flickering on any of my Apex boards but the lighting is dimmer on the Gen 3. But it looks more refined — less blaring.