Steelseries Apex M500 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

I bought this for my Steelseries Apex Pro TKL. It fits quite well despite being designed for the Roccat Vulcan TKL.

It gives you the nice, clean feeling of a mechanical keyboard, but it's silent!!

Great entry level mechanical keyboard

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The Logitec 845 is a great example of a modern mechanical keyboard. It has the clickity clack one would appreciate plus several queues to the previous generations of keyboards. An added bonus is the illumination patterns to let all who use it know that this Logitec is up to date. I have it plugged into an HP monitor hub with a usb-c hot port so anyone can plug in their laptop and instantly begin using the keyboard. The keyboard works moderately well with macOS (use the windows key as cmd) and is smooth with any Windows and Chrome machine. Build quality is solid as well. Value exceeds price. Great product.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I needed another keyboard for my camp, and in my home office I use an earlier version of this keyboard with the red mechanical switches for fast touch typing. Relaxing at the camp and using the computer in the evening, I decided to go with the illuminated keyboard, and the softer Brown mechanical switches. I am very happy with this choice. For smooth touch typing with ease, this full-size mechanical keyboard is superior.

(This review was collected as part of a promotion.) Gives that old-school mechanical feel without being an expensive, loud mechanical keyboard - not 100% comparable to a full mechanical, obviously, but better key engagement and feedback than most keyboards I've used in a long time. I used to try and get by with an older Apple keyboard even on Windows and when my workplace installed these I had to get one for home as well. Reminds me of the older PS/2 keyboards from the 90s/early 2000s that came with every desktop computer - solid, quiet, and no ridiculous gaming backlighting or RGB options. Built like it will last a while, and hopefully does as my Microsoft keyboard had 5+ keys with worn letters after 2 years.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The old keyboard I inherited at work was almost flat on the desk (even with feet raised) and had very tight keys making it hard to type quickly and accurately. The Lenovo Preferred Pro II has a little bigger footprint than I was expecting, but the lift is higher which works much better with the desk I have and they keys are a lot smoother to type on with responsive keys more like what I wanted. I still prefer my mechanical keyboard I use at home, but the noise can bother others in a work setting and this keyboard is much closer to what I'm used to with my mechanical keyboard without the sound. This is a huge improvement over the old one that I initially was given (I believe it's an old Dell).

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The pop keys mechanical keyboard and pop mouse are easy and functional. We have switched them between devices with little to no wait time. We also find the noise to be therapeutic and will be gifting to victims of domestic violence.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This is great keyboard. I used to like IBM Thinkpad mechanical keyboard. And this exactly replicates the behavior when I press the keys. I recommend this to anyone for daily use.

I've switched to this after 1.5 years with AW3423DW, because Apex and Rocket League have been the majority of my gaming hours. The productivity loss wasn't that bad, and the stand shape leaves room for another monitor if needed. The visuals seem on par with the Dell, but the smoothness is a noticeable upgrade. It is especially clear in Rocket League with its rough transitions when playing the ball cam (like you normally should). 540 Hz monitors with strobing have even better motion clarity but I won't put up with ghosting nor the hit to image quality. The timing around Apex's vulnerability deprived me of the most relevant comparison, but even a similar frame rate looks better in The Division 2. Unlike Rocket League, this must come down to a massive improvement in total latency from superior processing time. AW34D3W was unusually bad for OLEDs, while this MSI tops the charts. The monitor supports 4K input for downsampling the image from modern consoles and media players. The flipside is that PC games detected the monitor as 4K when using exclusive fullscreen, but the borderless option is taking over anyway (DX12 doesn't even have exclusive fullscreen). The connectivity is an upgrade as well: 2 genuine HDMI 2.1 and a 90W PD USB-C are amazing to have. There are also the usual 2 USB-A ports and a backup DP 1.4, too. Software-wise, this is completely fine out of the box unlike certain Samsungs and Dells were. A DSC toggle and separate color profiles for SDR & HDR should come with a future firmware, and the only other quirk is monitor turning off rather than going back to standby after a pixel refresh on idle. For pure gaming performance, this is the best OLED at the joint lowest price for this panel. I haven't been able to identify a caveat here. It is a great time to be an OLED aficionado.