Disassembly

Disassembly of the SteelSeries Apex Pro keyboard is fairly easy with multiple countersunk screws underneath specific keycaps keeping the aluminium frame connected to the bottom plastic case panel. A precision Phillips head screwdriver comes in handy when removing a total of 16 screws, which allows for the two main pieces of the keyboard to be separated by enough to access two internal USB cables that need to be dislodged, as well as a grounding screw that has to be removed.


A daughter PCB on the ABS plastic bottom case panel houses the USB Type-A pass-through port. The primary PCB is black and has the switches soldered through the aluminium frame to effectively make this a single piece. Solder quality is really good, and we see quite a lot of capacitors strewn across the length of the PCB here, as well as two magnets at the bottom that help keep the magnetic wrist rest in place as seen on the previous page.


I tried to get a better look at the OLED display, which meant removing the second daughter PCB that controls the volume wheel above it. Unfortunately, the OLED display is behind four tiny interlocking plastic tabs which did not feel like a reversible process to dislodge, so I gave up at that point. Powering the keyboard is an STMicroelectronics STM32F103VC ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit USB microcontroller with up to a 72 MHz operating frequency, 512 KB of onboard flash memory, and 64 KB of SRAM. There is a second STMicroelectronics STM32F103RC ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit USB microcontroller with the same specifications, and it helps with the more complex pre-programmed functionality onboard the keyboard. All components, including the switches, LEDs, and capacitors, are soldered to a multi-layered PCB.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.