The keys need the gentlest of touches to actuate. The keys actuate at 2mm which is about halfway in the keys overall travel and you can feel the slight bump and resulting click.

While it might sound like a gimmick, it feels really smooth and satisfying. The Hybrid replaces those with a cheaper but durable membrane actuation. Most modern mechanical switches require traditional gold-plated circuits to transfer signals when pressed. These keys are a big reason for the Apex 5’s lower cost. You still get the tactile and clicky feel of a mechanical switch but the way it bottoms out makes the key feel more, cushiony. The “TLDR” is that it combines a traditional blue mechanical switch that bottoms out on a sort of traditional membrane to complete the circuit. The big thing about the Apex 5 is its Hybrid Blue Mechanical Switches. You also get an OLED screen to display your custom graphics or just silly GIFs.īut in a sea of excellent gaming keyboards, is the Apex 5 worth its $200 asking price? SteelSeries Apex 5 Hybrid Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review What you get is an extremely solid hunk of tech made from aircraft-grade aluminium alloy housing Hybrid Blue mechanical gaming switches.

It sits in between the flagship Apex Pro and the more budget Apex 3. I’ll get to the Apex 3 in another review.īut this review is all about the Steelseries Apex 5, a premium-ish full-size mechanical keyboard. Thankfully, our friends at Steelseries reached out to us with a pair of keyboards for review - the Apex 5 and Apex 3. So the keyboard is the one thing I probably use the most, after my mouse. I spend the vast majority of my PC gaming and work on a powerful laptop of some sort.