in the steel series Suite they're showing off the Apex and the Apex raw
and I'm going to start with the Apex raw welcome to Linus Tech tips at CES 2013
our trip to the show this year is powered by Corsair maker of quality PC
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linkis okay guys backlit keyboard has
two layers of macro functionality so check this out we got macro Keys here
you got five we have macro Keys here you've got 12 you can actually program
those in two different ways but we've seen this before the entire keyboard
itself is completely reprogrammable as well so that means you've actually got
what is essentially what something like 200 functionalities that you can
Implement depending on which layer of macros you're using they've changed a
couple of the key ergonomic things about this keyboard versus ones in the past
number one is they've added the Windows key back this is based on feedback from
Gamers remember guys Steel series is not so much flare and fluff although this is
a NIC looking product compared to the more blocky keyboards that we've seen in
the past they actually designed for pro Gamers they've got a wide variety of
teams they sponsor so this is one of the key changes that might cause some debate
but remember guys all the keys on the keyboard are reprogrammable so don't
worry too much about it number two check out this space bar it looks kind of
stupid you know what it reminds me of it looks kind of like the 7g which also
looks kind of stupid because it has that huge wrist rest you know what else my
wife refuses to type on anything but a 7g if I put anything else in front of
her she will not use it because it is incredibly comfortable things like this
come from a comfort and design standpoint not from a a visual appeal
standpoint so if you think about it in terms of typing you don't need a wide
space bar because your hands are positioned like this with the tips of
your thumbs on the space bar however Gamers you know I'm not going to
generalize or anything but come on have you ever sat up straight and gamed like
this I don't think so you slouching your seat you got your wrist down you got
your thumb lying on the space bar here
that makes it easier and faster to respond to so again good job steel
series final sort of ergonomic weirdness
is these diagonal Keys here these are a carryover from the acquisition of ideas
on a number of years back and particularly for MMO Gamers steel Series
has gotten extremely good feedback about it so this guy one zone okay two layers
of macros this is the Cadillac at 9 9.99
remember Guys these are membrane keyboards so that's why you're seeing these kinds of price points with this
kind of functionality on the keyboards it has five zones Zone one zone two zone
three Zone did I already say this one four and zone five which is the logo
right here and these lights that are on the side cool thing about this one is
it's got four layers 10 macro Keys here in addition to the ones up here and you
can actually change depending on the layer you're in what zones are
illuminated so if you go okay I'm an MMO player I have my you know my utility
class my attack class I have my healer class or whatever else you can go okay
I'm my attack character whole thing goes red so you know what you're doing you've
got you can make sure that all the macros that you're going to be hitting are the ones that are optimized for the
character you're using healer class turn the whole thing white or you can even do
things like just change one zone you can go okay I want something more subtle so
I'm going to change the yellow on the side it say 16.8 million colors or
something like that so you can have whatever you want change that to a different color on the Fly I actually
missed an ergonomic change and I think this I think this laptop went into sleep
or there it is it's properly illuminated now final ergonomic change I didn't
mention before is the macros up here are slightly raised here if I can get you to
get a good look at that these are slightly raised this allows you to
quickly perform some kind of a a combo
where you can press one of them and then the other and fall off of it like that
it's actually it's really neat the way that showed it to us and they gave us a
couple examples of where Gamers will actually use these there's a couple of
dots on the W which allows you to find your way back to WD the same way you'd
find your way to the home row key if you were typing
and sorry excuse me it's got a USB hub
built in sorry diesel are are you focused on that there we go USB hub H
built in and I think that pretty much wraps up everything I wanted to say
about this keyboard oh yeah okay so you can adjust your brightness adjust your
volume you got your media Keys over here full number pad like I said membrane
keyboard all about quickness they're advertising this as the fastest gaming
keyboard in terms of you know your travel distance the feedback that the
tactile feedback that's required to press the buttons whatever you want to
what however you want to look at it come on over here I want to show you guys a
cool prototype this is of the apex not
the Apex raw can you hit the lights sir so this one comes apart so they've
got it programmed with a variety of different colors you can see has a very
different look depending on what kind of colors you're using and this is the kind
of technology that goes inside something like this they've also updated their
software in kind of a neat way and that is they can create heat Maps where you
can set it to okay maybe you don't know exactly what keys are optimal for you
you can have it set up heat Maps while you're gaming to show you which parts of
the keyboard you're using most on the software on your screen so it might be
able to give you tips like okay most of the keys you use are in here and you're
using R for reload still you're not really using e that much why don't you
change e to reload save yourself 7% travel distance and potentially actually
make you a better gamer I think we can all agree that in the past especially
and for the most part better peripherals don't make you a better
gamer inherently but steel series is trying to change that so don't forget to
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at CES 2013 powered by Corsair Seagate
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