The Best Gaming Keyboards of 2024

• Connection: USB
• Size: Full-sized, 104 keys
• Key switches: OmniPoint

Even though the SteelSeries Apex Pro is a full-sized keyboard with a number pad, it doesn’t take up too much room on the desktop. (There is also a tenkeyless version and the SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Wireless is even smaller at 60% of the original.)

The build quality is top class, with a matte black aluminum board and an incredibly comfortable, soft-touch wrist rest that connects to the Apex Pro magnetically.

There’s a small OLED at the top right, along with a clickable roller and a large key that serve as dedicated media controls. You can make the OLED display your gamer tag or even a GIF animation, but it also offers some welcome feedback on your chosen settings and profiles, so you don’t need to tab out of your game to tweak things.

The headline feature here is the OmniPoint switches. Not only does SteelSeries claim that they’re more responsive and durable than conventional mechanical keyboard switches, they also offer customizable actuation points. This means you can configure your preferred travel distance, from the lightest of touches to a deeper press (from 0.1 mm down to 4 mm). It doesn’t change the excellent typing feel, but it does change when the key press registers.

Since you can set sensitivity per individual key, it allows you to dampen certain keys you find yourself accidentally pressing, but leave WASD super sensitive, for example. Take the time to set up different profiles for work and play, and even for individual games, and you will feel the benefit. It’s also relatively quiet for a mechanical board.

The SteelSeries Apex Pro features bright, fully configurable RGB lighting and the SteelSeries Engine 3 software is fairly easy to get to grips with. You can set main and meta key bindings, use a macro editor, tweak the actuation force, set up lighting effects and colors, and even load a custom image or GIF on the OLED screen. (Just like the Asus ROG Azoth.) There’s room for five onboard profiles.

With cable routing left, middle, or right, and a passthrough USB with its own lit-up port on the left, the Apex Pro embodies thoughtful design. Both gaming and typing on this keyboard are an absolute pleasure and nothing offers deeper customization. If you want something smaller, the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL drops the numpad.

• Connection: USB-C
• Size: Tenkeyless, 87 keys
• Key switches: Titan Linear or Titan Tactile

Some of the top gaming keyboards today are tenkeyless (TKL for short), which means they don’t have a number pad. The Roccat Vulcan TKL matches the larger 120 AIMO on quality, with Roccat’s mechanical Titan switches, short key caps above a beautiful aluminum board, and bright, fully customizable RGB lighting.

It’s a pleasure to type on the Vulcan TKL. Typing is fast, easy, and accurate, with precision N-key rollover ensuring nothing is missed. The concave keys have plenty of travel and a very responsive feel. It’s a great keyboard for gaming and relatively quiet, even when the action ramps up.

Roccat has included extras like a pill-shaped mute key at the top, right alongside a handy volume knob.

Smaller keyboards like the Vulcan TKL are easier to maneuver and much more portable. If you travel with your keyboard, then you’ll appreciate the removable USB-C cable and the onboard profile storage.

Install Roccat’s Swarm software and you can create and save up to five profiles on the board. You can also cycle through a small collection of lighting effects or take the time to create your own. The short keycaps make the lighting seem brighter than other boards.

• Connection: USB-C, Bluetooth, 2.4Ghz wireless
• Size: Tenkeyless, 87 keys
• Key switches: Kailh Box Switch V2 White

8Bitdo might be better known for releasing affordable, retro-inspired controllers, but the company’s first keyboard has more value packed into it than offerings from Razer, Corsair, SteelSeries, and other major manufacturers.

For $100 (or under $90 on sale), the 8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard includes Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz wireless connectivity, a rarity when most boards at the same price remain wired-only. It’s hot-swappable, too, meaning that if you don’t like the included Kailh Box V2 White switches (they’re clicky with a tactile bump when pressed), you can easily change them to whichever you prefer.

Not that it’s necessary. We found the stock Kailh switches serviceable for gaming and excellent for typing on. They’re a bit loud when depressed, but require the same amount of force (45 grams) to push down as the Cherry MX Red switches commonly found in other gaming keyboards. Combined with the tall MDA profile keycaps and NES, Famicom, or Commodore 64-inspired color scheme, the entire package reads like a love letter to classic keyboards from the ‘80s like the IBM Model M.

The biggest value-add is the included Dual Super Buttons pad, a two-button macro pad connected via 3.5mm jack. The keyboard supports up to four pads and can be programmed with keys or shortcuts right out of the box without downloading additional software. If you do want to get more complicated with it, 8BitDo’s Ultimate Software V2 allows for more in-depth control and customization.

8Bitdo even sells a standalone Retro Mechanical Numpad with a screen that can connect over Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless, a wired connection, or be used standalone as a calculator. It uses the same clicky switches as its larger counterpart.

The Retro Mechanical Keyboard’s all-plastic construction and lack of RGB might be a dealbreaker for some, but for everyone else, it’s a fully-featured gaming keyboard that looks and feels fun to use. It’s also the best budget gaming keyboard on the market.

Read our full review of the 8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard

• Connection: Detachable USB-C to USB-A
• Size: Full-sized, 104 keys
• Key switches: Corsair MGX Steel Grey switches

Like the SteelSeries Apex Pro, Corsair’s K70 Max RGB uses magnetic Hall effect switches with customizable actuation depth from a scant 0.4mm down to 3.6mm. Unlike the Apex Pro or its offshoots, the K70 Max RGB boasts a polling rate of up to 8000Hz for extremely responsive typing and gaming. Most people won’t notice the difference, but gamers with hair-trigger fingers accustomed to dashing around the map in first-person shooters likely will.

Not that those who game and work on the same keyboard will be disappointed, as the ability to set per-key actuation settings, combined with the polling rate, makes typing feel ultra snappy. It includes the same features that most other magnetic gaming keyboards these days have, including Rapid Trigger (which preps the keyboard for another input as soon as you let go of a key, allowing you to mash them repeatedly) and mapping multiple actions to different actuation points of a single key.

It’s for the best that the K70 Max RGB is good at everything; make no mistake, this is a large, wired-only but still fully featured keyboard, complete with a volume roller and dedicated Mute, Pause, Play, Stop, Forward, and Back media keys. The large weight, size, and rubber pads on the bottom keep it in place on your desk during even the most frantic of gaming sessions.

There’s plenty of height adjustability thanks to the three-stage feet on the back of the keyboard and Corsair includes a magnetic memory foam wrist rest in the box, which is a nice value add. There are even routing channels carved into the bottom of the keyboard, which helps keep the cable out of the way.

The design might be staid, as the K70 Max RGB looks identical to every other keyboard in the K70 lineup, but make no mistake: It’s what’s inside that counts. This is a gaming keyboard for those who value performance above all else.

Read our full review of the Corsair K70 Max RGB.