New switches feel fantastic under the fingertips and provide a super responsive and intuitive hall effect experience.
The new Gen 3 model takes that luxurious foundation and adds new actuation features and a boosted dampening design.
Theres no getting around it, though, these decks are pricey.
At $219.99 / 209.99, its up there with flagships fromRazerand more.
Then theres the Glorious GMMK 3 with its four-step actuation controls and modular design.
This is a pretty nondescript all-black affair, save for those bright LEDs pooling around each keycap.
Everything feels reassuringly dense and well supported here, without piling on the pounds.
Its a small gripe, but it does require a little maneuvering to hit the button itself.
Theres more to this party, though.
Thats always been one of my main stopping points before recommending a hall effect keyboard.
Previous options have required some consistent re-learning to make these dual-step inputs actionable and useful.
It makes spamming a lot faster and less fatiguing overall.
I was a little disappointed to find that only the alphanumeric keys feature these hall effect switches.
Instead, a set of Gateron Reds keeps these clickers bumping along.
This is also where youll find a range of dedicated apps for the OLED display.
Performance
Hall effect switches have always felt a little hollow to me.
SteelSeries has solved that problem.
When set at their shortest 0.1mm actuation point, these keys are almost touch-sensitive.
Each key runs exceptionally smoothly, with exquisitely lubed switches for a swift, scratch-free press.
Thats sometimes a tricky line for Hall effect decks to walk, but SteelSeries has nailed this feel overall.
All available actuation customizations work flawlessly and I never experienced any software hiccups during testing.
On first boot, certain keys consistently refused to join the others, always sticking to their default setting.
Should you buy the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3?
Theres a lot going on here, but there needs to be.
For more information onhow we test gaming keyboards, check out the fullGamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.
Im also on the hunt to find thebest hot-swappable keyboardsand all thebest membrane gaming keyboardsas well.
For a full setup refresh, check out thebest gaming mousemodels on the market right now.
