for 30 years Cherry MX key switches have
rained Supreme in Enthusiast and gaming keyboards but as much as I love
Neapolitan ice cream I think after eating it for 30 years I might be ready
to at least try something new and apparently Razer Logitech and steel
series feel the same way because each of them has released mechanical gaming
keyboards in the last year based on a new made for gaming key switch by the
way drop us a like on the video to let us know if you're ready to get your
cringe on in the next part of scrapyard Wars 2 coming in 48
hours freshbooks is the super simple invoicing solution that lets you get
organized save time and get paid faster
click on my face now to try it for free
so let's get this out of the way now while it was co-developed with kaiwa the
famous manufacturer of Cherry MX clones
the qs1 switch in the Apex m800 Bears
little resemblance to Cherry's MX design and any similarity to the rron and
Logitech co-developed RoR G seems to be purely coincidental qs1 switches are
totally different feeling from anything that I've personally used before but
I'll have to return to that in a bit the Apex m800 has two braided USB plugs for
extra power a built-in USB 2.0 Hub at the top and interchangeable rubber feet
on the bottom to change the angle on the desk like the original Apex and Apex raw
rubber Dome keyboards the m800 features an aggressiv looking industrial design
with a flatter than usual interactive surface and this goes for both the key
switches underneath and the key caps especially when you compare to the
stair-stepped profile and contoured key caps of most mechanical keyboards this
was done for a couple of reasons number one to slightly reduce the travel time
between Keys although neither Ed nor I was Elite enough for the reduced
vertical distance to help in a noticeable way and without help from the
bump on F or double bump on W it did make it more difficult to determine what
row of keys you were resting on and number two to reduce fatigue something
that I personally find a bit easier to buy into since particularly for gaming
the m800 low stance reduces pressure points for me in spite of it lack of a
wrist rest with my lazy resting a lot of my weight on the table posture and the
space bar helps with this hand position as well I still don't like it for typing
that'll be a common theme for this video and thanks to the very low 45 G
actuation force of the qs1 switch under it is actually possible to accidentally
press while resting on it though not nearly as bad as the death outer 2013
but for gaming spamming space bar and just general use there is a reason that
2 and 1/2 years after Steel series first introduced this space bar to their
gaming keyboards this design unlike the
macro row above the F Keys is still here
it is better and more comfortable but let's talk macro Keys now the six macro
buttons to the left are really well spaced so they're Within Reach but far
enough away that you won't accidentally trigger a console command to change the
name of every non-clan member in your server to headshot magnet every time you
want to crouch and no you can't actually do that but you can do almost anything
else steel series engine 3 might have
ballooned to the size of a several yearold graphics card driver but damn it
I guess they've got enough functionality in the thing to justify it there's one
processor in the keyboard dedicated to just inputs up to 256 of them at a time
just in case you thought your other dimensional clone might also want to
press every single key on his m800 at the same time you are and then a
separate processor to handle lighting effects so the utility of the keyboard
is never affected by the bling bling and every single key on the keyboard
including those macro Keys is reprogrammable and can be rebound to a
keyboard function Mouse click some combination of the two a modifier a
profile changer so you can switch up everything on the keyboard mid program
instead of relying on auto profile switching when you launch an application
which engine 3 supports as well and I didn't think I'd ever hear myself say
this but steel Series has finally nailed it it's the e easiest customization
interface I've personally used for a keyboard and they managed to do it
without hamstringing the functionality good job and it looks like
they've done a great job with the illumination effects as well with all
the standard Fair like breathing reactive typing um but also some nice
little touches like three different modes of selecting which Keys you want
to configure including a handy little magic wand that intelligently grabs keys
that are already grouped and some really sick pre-done effects including a Danish
flag and a Yan cat inspired waving rainbow both of which made me smile
they've also added Cloud sync to the driver but it's entirely optional so you
don't even need to create an account you can just exit it when it first comes up
and I think that's a really nice touch okay so we've beat around the bush
long enough let's talk qs1 switches like the RoR G's qs1 are not going to be
compatible with Cherry MX stem key cap so forget about customizing the key caps
on your keyboard and like RoR G's they have a center mounted RGB LED that
enables brighter more even lighting effects with less spill and they actuate
at 1 and 1 12 mm of pressing down up to 25% faster than a Cherry MX but that's
where the resemblance pretty much ends RoR G's have a very noticeable tactile
bump while Qs 1's are a linear switch
but I still think saying that they're like shorter Cherry MX Reds doesn't
really get the point across they have a strange resistance when you bottom them
out that feels uh kind of like pushing
your hand down on a couch cushion like even even even oh yeah there's the you
know there's the base of the couch um like if you had really thick O-rings on
a cherry this makes them really quiet which is nice but also a little bit
mushy feeling so between that and the lack of a tactile bump they are purely
IMO abominable for typing at least in
this super flat configuration so I won't be switching from MX Browns anytime soon
but that doesn't mean that they're bad there's zero dead zone between the
actuation and reset which is good for gamers and from talking to edzel whose
skills are a little sharper than my own the Apex m800 felt a little cramped in
his words but it is so well tuned for FPS gaming that it would beat out the
g910 and every Cherry keyboard out there
as as his csgo Board of choice if they
had taken it one step further and left off the number pad to leave room for
more natural mousing posture and I guess
that's the conclusion here unlike many other keyboards that were designed for
gaming this one really did go all in
gaming first typing second and it shows
so well done steel series now let's see a 10 keyless and you really got our
attention not mine mind you I type on my keyboard but Ed's attention for sure
speaking of ugly faces or whatever I was talking about your face isn't ugly so
why should you treat it like it is visit
dollarshaveclub.com and join the club get highquality shaving supplies
directly to your door so you never have to go outside and shop for supplies to
get your face all looking shiny and clean because you'll have everything you
need right in your bathroom where it belongs that's fresh Razors up to the
six blade executive that's after shave that's their Dr Carver shave butter and
they even have their one wipe Charlie's peppermint scented butt wipes for men
not related to your face you could wipe your face actually you could wipe your
face with them just fine they've even got little travel packs so you can carry
them around with you something that man do I ever wish I had taken a butt ton
haha that's funny a butt ton of one wipe Charlies with me on my trip to Asia
because let me tell you bathrooms there do not have toilet paper in them and it
is a fundamental problem anyway I've gotten derailed a little bit here the
point is visit dollarshaveclub.com join the club it
only costs a few bucks a month to look great like me or if you don't think I
look great then look great like someone you think looks great that's the whole
point all right guys so I guess that's pretty much it thanks for watching if
this video sucked I think you know what to do but if it was awesome get
subscribed hit the like button please it helps us out a lot or even consider
supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon buying
a cool t-shirt like this one or even with a direct monthly contribution once
you're done with all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so
uh click that little button in the top right corner and go check out the video
where Luke and I build water cooled PCS with no off the-shelf parts for under
$500 or at least we try
to okay
nice a