SteelSeries Apex 7 Mechanical Keyboard Review

Last month I took a look at the rather fantastic SteelSeries Apex Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, which you can check out here. It’s the flagship gaming keyboard from SteelSeries with their innovative OmniPoint switches. The downside was that it’s pretty darn expensive, so what’s going on a little further down the range? That’s where the Apex 7 comes into play. It’s still the same fantastic design and comes packed full of amazing features. However, it features a more traditional (and less expensive) mechanical switch rather than the more expensive OmniPoint switches.

SteelSeries Apex 7

I’m a big fan of SteelSeries gaming hardware, as they almost always slap an OLED display on their premium peripherals. The Apex 7 is no exception and features a built-in Smart Display to show you all kinds of cool in-game updates, stats and more. Plus, you get a fully mechanical keyboard, built-in multimedia functions, aluminium construction, and even a detachable magnetic wrist rest. That’s more than enough to compete with anything else in the premium keyboard market, so let’s dive in and take a closer look at what it has to offer!

Features

• OLED Smart Display delivers information straight from games and apps
• Instant notifications from Discord, Tidal, and games
• Durable mechanical gaming switches
• Series 5000 Aircraft grade aluminium frame
• Detachable soft-touch magnetic wrist rest

OLED Smart Display

“An integrated command centre displays useful information for adjusting settings, changing profiles, and seeing on-the-fly updates. Avoid tabbing out of what you’re doing, and instead let your keyboard show you the important details.” – SteelSeries

Specifications

For in-depth specifications, please visit the official SteelSeries Apex 7 product page here.

What SteelSeries Had to Say

“The Apex 7 keyboard has mechanical switches guaranteed for 50 million keypresses. Red switches are known for their consistently smooth movement from top to bottom without any bump, allowing for lightning-fast actuation. An integrated OLED smart display with on-board storage is your command centre for on-the-fly info from your game or discord and provides software-free customization for tweaking and saving your settings. An unbreakable aluminium alloy frame makes it a standout mechanical keyboard.”

What’s in the Box?

The keyboard comes very nicely packaged in a durable and well-protected box. There’s also a plastic cover to help keep it free from dust and scratches.

The keyboard comes hard-wired with a heavy-duty USB cable, and the only other thing included is the wrist rest. It’s all just plug and play ready, but you’ll want the software suite download to update the keyboard and do your initial customisation.

The wrist rest looks fantastic with its soft matte rubber finish. Plus, there’s just a minimalistic SteelSeries logo stamped into the middle.

On the bottom, there are loads of soft rubber grips ensuring it’ll stay put. However, those two strong magnets on the back will help lock it very firmly to the keyboard too.