 For 30 years Cherry MX keyswitches have reigned 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 keyswitch 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 Fresh books 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 Kaihua the famous manufacturer of Cherry MX clones The QS1 switch in the apex m800 There's little resemblance to Cherry's MX design and any similarity to the Omron and Logitech Co-developed Roamer 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 aggressive looking industrial design with a flatter than usual Interactive surface and this goes for both the keyswitches underneath and the keycaps especially when you compare to the stair-stepped profile and Contoured keycaps 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 its lack of a wrist rest with my lazy Resting a lot of my weight on the table posture and the spacebar 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 gram 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 out of 2013 But for gaming spanning spacebar and just general use There is a reason that two and a half years after steel series first introduced this spacebar 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 year old 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 you 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 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 fare like breathing reactive typing 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 Nyan 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 roamer g's qs ones are not going to be compatible with cherry mx stem keycaps so forget about customizing the keycaps on your keyboard and Like roamer g's they have a center mounted RGB LED that enables brighter more even lighting effects with less spill and They actuate at one and a half millimeters of pressing down up to 25% faster than a cherry mx But that's where the resemblance pretty much ends roamer g's have a very noticeable Revisible tactile bump while qs1s 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 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 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 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 tenkeyless, and you've 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 dollar shave club.com and join the club get high-quality 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 aftershave 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 can 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 time ha ha that's funny a butt ton of one wipe charlie's 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 dollar shave club.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 Alright guys, so I guess that's pretty much it. 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