SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 gets thockier with Hall Effect switches
Fully lubed for your pleasure
⌨️ SteelSeries introduces a new series of Apex Pro Gen 3 gaming keyboards
🧲 New OmniPoint 3.0 built around magnetic Hall Effect sensors
⚡ Promises to be 11x faster and twice as durable as mechanical switches
🏃♂️🚶♂️ Bind two commands to one key with 2-in-1 Action Keys
🕹️ Counter-strafe, crouch-jump, and slide-cancel like a pro with Rapid Tap
⬇️ GG Quickset lets you download pro-gamer and community profiles
Get ready to see Hall Effect keyboards everywhere because SteelSeries is the second major manufacturer to adopt the magnetic switch technology after the Logitech G Pro X TKL Rapid.
The SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 keyboards feature OmniPoint 3.0 switches built around Hall Effect Gen 3 sensor technology. These latest generation Hall Effect sensors have a minimum actuation distance from 4mm to 0.1mm. SteelSeries also claims its new switches are 11 times faster than standard mechanical switches since they reduce response time from 6ms to 0.54ms.
Those new OmniPoint 3.0 switches should also sound a lot thockier now each switch is “factory-lubed.” Meanwhile, all Apex Pro Gen 3 have been upgraded with three layers of sound-dampening foam and improved stabilizers to help eliminate keycap wobble.
SteelSeries has also given its new Apex Pro Gen 3 series keyboards new customization options. I’m most excited about 2-in-1 Action Keys, which lets you bind two different commands to one key. This lets you trigger two keybindings with a half- and full-press for actions like walking/running or priming/throwing a grenade.
Rapid Tap is a new feature that makes complex movements like counter-strafing, crouch-jumping, and slide-canceling easier by altering overlapping keypresses into sequential ones.
The very closely named Rapid Tigger feature lets you repeatedly press the same key without having to fully lift your finger, which should make difficult button-mashy quick-time events a breeze. Alternatively, if you’ve ever fat-fingered multiple keys when you meant to hit one, Protection Mode will reduce the sensitivity of any selected surrounding keys to prevent any accidental inputs.
Lastly, if software and custom keybindings are too much trouble, users can use GG Quickset to download the keybindings, Rapid Tap, Rapid Trigger, Protection mode, and even the RGB settings from Pro-level players and the SteelSeries community of GG app users. Users can download GG Quickset profiles on a per game basis and modify them.
The SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 series keyboards are available now and can be purchased as a wired full keyboard for $239 or a wired TKL keyboard for $219. There’s also a SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 that’s available for $269.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
also the old apex also had hall effect switches btw, but the article says it replaces the old mechanical stems
FYI the picture you posted is not of the omni point 3.0 switches. Steelseries puts regular mx switches in the top row and numpad etc. Only the main body of the keys are hall effect.