Seeing your keyboard's lighting flicker when you've landed a headshot in CS:GO, for example, isn't something that's gonna aid with your performance, but it is cool to see in action. The RGB is something that SteelSeries does well, doubly so because you can set up dynamic RGB profiles that respond to the game you're playing (if you're playing a compatible game). The RGB isn't the brightest, but the legends on the keys themselves are fairly consistent with the amount of light they let through, and color gradient effects look smooth and natural without any choppiness when they switch colors or what have you.

That whole keycap holder area seems a bit overkill, but I used it to store the receiver dongle for my mouse when I went to a LAN the other week, so that's a nice extra. On the bottom of the keyboard there's a compartment that holds a keycap puller as well, so that's always nice to see that included. Inside the box, you'll find the board, a quickstart guide, a (rather nice) braided cable, and that's it. With its small bezels it's an extremely compact keyboard that has cut down on extras (like the display that you had on the Apex Pro TKL) in order to focus on what ultimately matters with these kinds of keyboards: performance.

We see PBT keycaps on this Apex Pro Mini, for example.Īside from comparing it to the older versions, there's not a whole lot to note about the Apex Pro Mini at first sight. Slapping some subpar ABS keycaps on a premium keyboard just won't cut it anymore, for example, so I was glad to see that the people at SteelSeries have been keeping an ear to the ground and have been taking a look at what customers are expecting these days. The custom mechanical keyboard market has seen a big rise in popularity since the COVID pandemic, leading to increased expectations with regular customers. Since the release of the Apex Pro TKL all those years ago the keyboard market has moved a lot.

Steelseries apex pro tkl mini