★★★★★Great entry mechanical keyboard with solid feel and comfort
I bought this for my 14-year-old, and it’s been a great keyboard for both gaming and schoolwork. The hybrid switches feel clicky and responsive without being overly loud, and the RGB is bright and customizable enough for their setup. The included wrist rest adds real comfort and doesn’t slide around. No issues with software or macros so far. It’s a well-rounded keyboard that feels more premium than its price suggests.
Ibrahim Amir · 2025-12-08 · via amazon
★★★★★Outstanding, with a possible caveat
Five months into owning this keyboard and it's easily my favorite keyboard I've ever had. Reasonably heavy so it easily stays in place even banging out page after page of typing documents, but doesn't feel like a slab of lead. The entire assembly is well put together; the keyboard has a nice, satin texture across the body and the keys, which feels great under the fingers, though it does show some oils more easily so I recommend regular cleaning/wipedowns.
This keyboard uses an odd hybrid system between mechanical/membrane, some proprietary/trade secret Steelseries BS, though honestly, if this wasn't pointed out to me after the fact I probably wouldn't have caught on. This uses cherry stems and switches, and the keys are naturally a cherry profile, so finding aftermarket replacements/decorative keycaps is easy as well. The keys feel responsive and clicky, delightfully so, when gaming or typing for general purpose. But there's a catch; it's a hybrid, so not truly mechanical. It does feel very good, but I have concerns that the membrane will wear down in time as opposed to a true blue mechanical keyboard, which will stay responsive and snappy for a lesser eternity where membranes begin to show wear after a year of heavy use. Time will tell.
The lighting is phenomenal - the LEDs are bright, responsive, and have great color depth and range compared to a lot of RGB hardware out there. You can use Steelseries' own software to customize and program this keyboard outside of the 5 existing presets saved onto the board's memory, but you can also use other third-party RGB control software like SignalRGB.
All in, it's a quality keyboard for a great price; one wire connects everything, you have a stop/start button, a wheel for volume, and a built in profile-swap button, which is entirely unnecessary but quite nice.
Ken · 2025-01-17 · via amazon
★★★★★Great Keyboard and Great Features!
This keyboard is probably the best one I've ever had. It is built so well. It is made mostly of some sort of aluminum. It does not bend at all and it just feels very nice. I have had a keyboard that was so cheap that it bent even when I was typing normally (I don't type very hard), so this was a nice change. The metal volume dial is very high quality, and yet again, just feels well-built. There is also a little button that controls 4 things. It will pause and play your music, skip to the next song, go to the previous song, and open up menus in the OLED display. The OLED screen is very nice. It could be a little brighter, and the larger pixels make it harder to display certain things. But, what makes up for that is that with the program you can install, you can download apps that will change what the screen says. My 2 favorites are Discord and System Monitor. They RGB lighting is really nice. Each light can be its own color and with the program, you can make your own lighting configurations. The keys sound very nice. They are clicky, but too clicky. They are also easy to press, but not so easy that I could see myself accidentally pressing one. It also comes with a wrist rest. It magnetically attaches and feels very smooth and high quality. Overall this keyboard just feels very premium and super high quality. I would recommend it to someone who wants a good keyboard with some very nice features from a good brand and does not mind spending the premium cost.
Barbara Smoyer · 2024-08-19 · via amazon
★★★★★Good quality, tactile and finger friendly
Genuinely pleased with both the keyboard and mouse - makes my Corsair keyboard and RGB mouse garbage in comparison. I write a lot and this keyboard just feels far better than my Corsair RGB keyboard ever did. (I liked those too, but this series is leaps ahead.)
After running with the Corsair mouse with weights, I was worried that this lightweight mouse would throw me off, but to my surprise, it's exactly the opposite. Even with matching DPI, this Steelseries Aerox 5 mouse blows the old one away - performant, responsive and the buttons are very thoughtfully positioned (no more accidental DPI / profile switches like I had constantly with the Corsair.)
Software wise, the layouts and options are great. I will note that there's a momentary 'blink-out' from time to time where the keyboard blacks out then returns after a 1/2 second. I really like the ability to set a custom profile for each game / app.
Cons:
Menu for setting individual key colors is less than intuitive and online documentation is behind.
Scrolling volume wheel feels a bit sketchy - works, but isn't smooth feeling and is akin to feeling like its rubbing against the housing or something.
Overall: 4.999 stars out of 5.
