SteelSeries Apex Gaming Keyboard

I've had this keyboard for a little over 6 months and it's been less than a perfect experience. There's several reasons not to like it. Firstly, it's a massive keyboard. It's thick, which makes it look like it should be a mechanical keyboard, but it's not. It's also far less sturdy than it looks. It's the widest computer I've ever used, which is deceptive considering how the keys appeared to be placed. It looks like it has a compact key design, with all the keys being close together will little gap in between, but it's actually just the keycap (which are replaceable with normal keycaps) that are stretched. Then, there's the supposed RGB of the keyboard. It's fine, it's not bad at all, but it's not true RGB. It has separate zones that all light up differently and are all configurable. The keys themselves are not individually back lit. That's not really a problem for me, but what happens because of this is that the keyboard is very very dim. At night it's fine, you'll be able to clearly see the keys, but compared to any other light source the colors just don't pop. I got this keyboard because I prefer a flat key, short travel design. My ideal keyboard is similar to a laptop keyboard, so most of what I just complained about doesn't really bother me, but I'm far from done. When I first got the keyboard, the first problem I ran into was that the male USB end was bent. I couldn't plug in my brand new keyboard out of the box. I had to take pair of pliers and bend the port back to normal before plugging it in. Then after that it didn't even work. The lights would flicker, then nothing. No response, couldn't type. I had to take it apart for it to work. While I was in there I noticed several wires connected poorly. Stretched wires, misaligned part, etc. I fully expected to put it back together and it be dead but I guess I was lucky, cause it sure wasn't skill that fixed it. I overlooked it, I had a working keyboard, and that's all that mattered, until I downloaded the software. The software is fine. It looks fine, it's not hard to navigate, it's not hard to setup, it's not hard to use. This goes for customizing the RGB, and the several programmable hotkeys. The first problem I ran into is the supposed integration with other apps. The only one I tried was with discord. It says you can get the keyboard to light up differently depending on notifications from discord. If enabled, it just doesn't work. Beyond this, it overrides all of your custom RGB settings. But whatever, I didn't need discord integration. The second problem I ran into with the software was when I started my computer a week or so after getting it set up, and all my macros and custom hotkey settings, along with RGB setting, were just gone. Sense setting it back up again, loosing it all again, reinstalling the software, and setting it all up again, it's been working okay. Definitely not great. There's 2 problems that's persisted ever since I bought it. They both have to do the with RGB, I think, but affect the functionality of the keyboard all a whole. Switching between the different RGB profiles caused the RGB to "break" in certain areas. I have a profile set that fades between all available colors, then another that fades from off to orange to red before going back off. Like a breathing effect that other keyboards have. If I switch rapidly between these profiles half of the RGB "zones" will get stuck with on profile and the other half with the other profile. This breaks the keyboard. The other problem has to do with adjusting the brightness. If I rapidly press either buttons to lower or raise the brightness of the backlighting, it'll flicker, cut out or get stuck, then stop working. Again, similar to the other problem, this causes the keyboard to stop working. So, I only use one or two RGB profiles, never adjusted the brightness, and for six months I had a functioning keyboard with some quirks. One of the worst quirks was a tendency to hold down the ALT key, I never did figure out what caused that. So, why am I writing this review now? Because for no reason whatsoever, it's started having a new problem that is arguably the most annoying thing it's ever done. Similar to one of the first problems I ever had with it, it will flicker then go out. The RGB locks up or dies, and I can't type on it. The only way to fix it is to unplug it and plug it back in. But it does it randomly weather I'm using the keyboard or not. I was using the keyboard to type this review, and it would flicker and get stuck holding down whatever key I pressed last. I finally changed to my old keyboard after nearly throwing the damn thing after it happened while I hit backspace and started deleting this review. I had to dive over my desk to get to the back of my pc to unplug it. I'm done, I've been more than patient. I've dealt with so much unnecessary crap from this keyboard and I would never recommend a steelseries product again. Especially considering that when I bought this keyboard, it was $95. The version of this keyboard without RGB was listed at $80 dollars and the same version I got listed at something like $150 on other sites. I thought I was getting a bargain, but the price has dropped by half of what I originally though payed. If you're considering buying this keyboard I would wait for it to drop by half again so that way you're not throwing away all your money.