I tested this claim and found that the keyboard did indeed spring back from half a bottle of water splashed over its surface (after letting it dry first, of course). This means that 'vertically dripping water shall have no harmful effect when the enclosure is tilted at an angle up to 15° from its normal position.' In practical terms, this means that if your keyboard is tilted upward (it has two adjustable feet in the back), it can probably survive an accidental water spill. One feature that is worth discussing is the Apex 3's IP32 water resistance. I tested the Apex 3 alongside the SteelSeries Rival 3 mouse, but there was no way to sync the lighting or to create gaming profiles that would encompass both gadgets.

There's also not much synchronicity between devices. None of the colors are especially vibrant, and the lighting effects are pretty tame. But the lighting itself looks a little anemic, especially in bright rooms. This is par for the course among cheaper keyboards. Instead of per-key lighting, you get 10 different 'zones' to customize. On the other hand, the RGB lighting leaves a lot to be desired.

In fact, you can reprogram almost every key on the device, which is something that even many fancier keyboards don't offer. You can use this software to adjust the lighting, program macros and remap keys. That's because it runs on SteelSeries Engine 3, which has been one of the better gaming-peripheral programs on the market over the last few years.

SteelSeries Apex 3 featuresįor a $50 keyboard, the Apex 3 has fairly robust software. This difference is negligible, considering my familiarity with the latter device.

With the Apex 3, I scored 117 words per minute with 98% accuracy on a test, as opposed to 119 wpm with 98% accuracy on my regular Logitech G913. Even though they’re not that comfortable, the keys are effective for typing.

Steelseries keycaps