The fastest 60 series wireless keyboard, SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Wireless experience

In fact, I learned about the existence of this keyboard two years ago. 60% compact arrangement, equipped with SteelSeries OmniPoint 2 generation switch body, can realize more functions besides trigger adjustment. Most importantly, it supports wireless connection, which helps keep the desktop clean. It’s just that the information at that time did not mention the specific name of this keyboard, and the final product is also slightly different.

SteelSeries' Apex Pro series is a maverick among all mechanical keyboards, and it is also the fastest mechanical keyboard in the true sense. This series was launched for the first time at the Taipei Computer Show in 2019. Once launched, it has won the attention of many foreign media. However, due to environmental factors in China, such as customization, separation of keys and wires, and other fashionable factors at the time, the attention is not as high as that in foreign countries. But one thing to say, it is indeed a milestone keyboard.

Whether it’s the classic black, red, tea or green, or the up-and-coming gold powder, Tiffany, etc., they just change the feel and some inherent parameters of the buttons, even if it’s hot-swappable switches, customized, or even the Alice whose grave is several feet high. The layout has moved back, but it is just seeking some breakthroughs in personalization. But are they really subversive?

In comparison, SteelSeries' Apex Pro series boldly abandons the conduction trigger of the traditional shaft body, bringing players the fastest input speed in the industry, helping players to operate faster in the game, and this speed is another totally controllable. It is a bold exploration of SteelSeries and an important milestone in the development of mechanical keyboards for decades.

I have owned Apex Pro and Apex Pro TKL myself, and I have shared my experience with you. If you are interested, you can read my historical articles. I got this Apex Pro Mini Wireless today, and I am still a little excited.

Compared with the first-generation Apex Pro, the second-generation product's axis function has been expanded to support two-stage triggering. When the button is pressed, the first trigger is the default function of the keyboard, such as the button W. You can adjust the trigger stroke yourself, such as 2.0mm; the second trigger is a custom function. When the pressing depth reaches a defined position, such as 3.8mm, it can trigger a second different operation, such as Shift+W, which is a running operation in some games.

In addition, because the keyboard is arranged in 60 arrays, setting the second trigger can also simplify the operation of the Fn key combination on the keyboard, and map some keys that do not exist on the keyboard to non-input keys such as Alt and Ctrl for two-stage trigger mapping, which is convenient for use.

In other aspects, the second generation of Apex Pro has upgraded PBT keycaps, separated key wires, and supports Quantum 2.0 wireless 2.4GHz connection and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connection. These upgrades have basically reached the level that a good keyboard should have in the past two years. The detailed design of the keyboard can also bring people a lot of surprises, but unfortunately, the keyboard does not come standard with the first-generation silicone magnetic adsorption palm rest, and you need to buy one yourself. Fortunately, the size of the keyboard is relatively standard, 293mm wide, and the corresponding palm rest is also easy to buy.

As usual, first show the appearance of the keyboard.

Because Apex Pro Mini Wireless is equipped with 60 keyboards, the packaging is still very small, and its design style is exactly the same as other SteelSeries products.

Family portrait, in addition to the keyboard body, the necessary USB cable, Quantum 2.0 wireless adapter and adapter, manual, this time SteelSeries also comes with a key puller. It should be noted that I did not explore whether this keyboard supports the replacement of the switch body, because the OmniPoint itself belongs to the category of magnetic switches, and it is completely different from black, red, tea, green, gold powder, etc., so changing the switch is meaningless on this keyboard. up. Of course, players can still match the keyboard with a set of keycaps they like. After all, the keyboard is so small, what we play is exquisite.

Although the cable for the keyboard is not the kind of paracord cable, it is really, very delicate. Not only is the cable sheath braided, but the connector is also wrapped with metal, which is full of class.

Three small items, the most important is the wireless adapter, this familiar adapter is also very important, otherwise you will know it is important when your computer’s USB-C port is not enough, so even if you can’t use it, you must Put away this adapter.

The keyboard body is very small and compact because it is arranged in 60 columns. The keycap is made of PBT material, with closed characters, front engraving + side engraving, and the side engraving content is the second function realized with Fn (Sairui key), such as up and down, left and right, backlight adjustment, switching configuration files, macro recording, etc., almost can Covers all key functions of the full configuration.

The top view of the keyboard, I forgot to mention that due to size limitations, the Apex Pro Mini Wireless does not provide the OLED screen and metal scroll wheel in the upper right corner.

On the side of the keyboard, you can see that the upper cover of the shaft body is transparent, which is convenient for guiding light. The bottom case of the keyboard is made of plastic, presumably for wireless transmission. The positioning plate of the shaft body is made of aviation aluminum metal.

The bottom of the keyboard is very neat, with two-stage feet.

The wireless switch on the front of the keyboard (near the screen), and the USB-C port.

Compared with another compact wireless mechanical keyboard in my hand, the Apex Pro Mini Wireless is significantly smaller.

With the effect after the palm rest.

After the effect on the machine, you can see that the backlight effect is still very OK after matching with PBT keycaps.

The 60 series will inevitably have some trade-offs in the layout of the buttons, and many buttons need to be used in combination with Fn. The Fn key combination of SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Wireless is very comprehensive and intuitive, coupled with the two-stage trigger of OmniPoint 2.0, through matching drivers, more key functions can be easily mapped.

Like the first generation, OmniPoint 2.0 still uses the Hall effect, that is, a permanent magnet is set at the shaft core, and the Hall element fixed to the PCB under the shaft senses the magnetic force change caused by the key press to determine the pressing stroke and whether it is triggered. . Compared with the non-0 or 1 design of the traditional shaft and optical shaft, OmniPoint obviously does not have such a statement, and every pressing stroke of it can be set as a trigger. In other words, the keyboard needs to monitor the data of each Hall element in real time to determine whether it needs to be triggered, which obviously increases the technical content of the keyboard.

The second-generation OmniPoint also maintains the feel of the linear red axis. The buttons have a good sense of support, without that kind of soft feeling, and it is quite pleasant to tap. The keys are relatively smooth and the sound is small, which belongs to the relatively quiet category. There is still room for optimization for the large keys, and overall the feel is very good.

driver

Compared with other brands, SteelSeries has always done a good job in terms of drivers, with a simple interface, clear function settings, and aesthetics are always online.

It can be seen that all the buttons of Apex Pro Mini Wireless support custom settings, such as the functions corresponding to the buttons, macro commands, etc. (generally not available).

In the trigger interface, all 61 keys of the keyboard can be customized to trigger strokes, as shown on the left in the figure below. Compared with the first-generation OmniPoint, the adjustable stroke range of the second-generation OmniPoint is larger, and the shortest 0.2mm can be triggered, which should be At present, the shortest trigger stroke that the mechanical hard disk can achieve.

The default trigger stroke of the keyboard is 1.8mm, which is close to the traditional switch body. If you need faster trigger speed in some games, you can shorten the trigger stroke and set it to different presets according to different games.

Dual Actuation is a two-stage trigger function. It is necessary to set the key travel required for the second trigger before setting specific functions. All 61 buttons support the setting of the second trigger stroke.

Dual Bindings is to set the specific function corresponding to the second trigger of the button. You can activate the second trigger for up to 8 buttons. As for why there are not all 61 buttons, I think the answer is not difficult to guess... Leaving aside whether the keyboard can handle such complex operations, you may be confused first... 8 buttons are more conservative, but they are enough. up.

Meta binding, that is, the function setting of the Fn combination key, this is also adjustable.

Finally, the keyboard backlight function setting entry has been moved to the top of the driver interface, which supports the adjustment of the backlight color and changing mode of each button. This is more complicated. I usually set an overall solution that I can accept...

Summary of the full text:

This keyboard feels quite familiar to me. Everything I want to say has been explained clearly at the very beginning of the article. This is my opinion and my preference. If you're looking for a really technical, compact keyboard, SteelSeries' Apex Pro Mini, Apex Pro Mini Wireless, or even the Apex Pro TKL, I'd recommend giving it a try.