Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

Authors Industry News S.H. Blannelberry
Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

New from Beretta, the APX Compact, and the APX Centurian.

The Beretta APX Compact and APX Centurion are Beretta’s Glock 26 and Glock 19, respectively.  That’s what they were designed to do.  Compete with the king of the polymer pistol’s mid-size and concealed carry offerings.

Competing with Glock on any front is definitely a tall order.  But it appears the Italian-firearms maker has done an admirable job.  No, I didn’t get a chance to shoot ’em yet, so it’s impossible to make a definitive judgment.  After feeling them out at the Beretta booth at NRAAM 2018, though, I walked away quite intrigued.

The biggest selling point to me is the modularity of these-striker fired pistols.  Users can swap out the backstraps to find the size that’s right for them: Small, Medium or Large.  Combine those with the guns’ front and rear slide serrations, what you have is a nicely textured and contoured pistol that handles well.

SEE ALSO: Is The M9 Dead? First Look at Beretta’s New Striker-Fired APX 9mm

Like their older brother, the original APX, both models are available in 9mm and .40 S&W.  Capacity for the Compact is 13+1 (9MM) or 10+1 (.40S&W) with a flush fit magazine.  Capacity for the Centurion is 15+1 (9MM) or 13+1 (.40S&W), again, that’s with a flush fit magazine.  Full-size APX mags fit either pistol and the APX Compact will also take Centurion mags.  In case you need extended capacity.

Features include a 6-pound trigger with tactile and audible reset, a low bore axis, ambi slide catch and reversible mag release.  Color options for the grip frame are available in Flat Dark Earth, Wolf Grey, Black and Olive Drab.

MSRP for the Compact and the Centurion is $575.  Though I’ve seen them listed on GunsAmerica in the neighborhood of $525.

If you’re in the market for a new pistol, don’t write off the APX series.  Make sure you give them a look.  For more information visit Beretta.com.

APX COMPACT

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

The Beretta APX Compact.

Specs:

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion
Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

In the hand.  I could swap out the backstrap for a more secure fit. I have rather large hands.

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

Those aggressive front and rear slide serrations.

 APX CENTURION

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

The mid-sized APX Centurion.  Both models are available in 9mm and .40 S&W.

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

These are very textured guns, from top to bottom.

Specs:

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion
Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

Sights are removable.

Feeling Out the New Beretta APX Compact & APX Centurion

This is a large backstrap, hence the “L.”  Replacing that with a medium or small is very easy to do.

***Buy a Beretta APX on GunsAmerica***

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  • Alvaro May 31, 2018, 11:45 am

    Three weeks ago I bought a Beretta compact APX and found that it is very unreliable with quality hollow points ammo (Hornady FXT lite personal defense), since it fails to eject every other round that I shoot, but honestly, it works only with FMJ jacket in the range with no failures. I called Beretta Customer Service and they proposed me to send back the pistol (which shipping will cost me $ 100 dollars) to evaluate the weapon and decide who should carry the expenses to fix the \”new\” pistol. Since it is Beretta\’s gunsmith who will decide who pays, and I do not want to spend more in the pistol because the expenses can mount to thousand of dollars, I decided not to send the pistol back to make efective the \”guarantee\” and since the weapon is too small to be comfortable shooting at the range, I better decided to cut my loss and sell it to someone else, that have smaller hands. In the meantime I will waste about 300 dollars for having selected a bad quality gun from Beretta- I have two PX4 Beretta full size and compact and they have worked very nice, but the APX is not a quality gun. I think this was the last Beretta I bought.

  • Lanik May 12, 2018, 7:03 am

    The Beretta APX Compact is taller than the Glock G26 and the M&P9c being just shy of the height of a G19.
    The Beretta APX Centurian is taller than the Glock G19 and the M&P M2.0 being just shy of the height of a G17 and the M&P9.
    The Beretta APX Standard is taller than the G17 and the M&P9.

    The Beretta APX Compact is 4.80″ tall.
    The Beretta APX Centurian is 5.19″ tall.
    The Beretta APX Standard is 5.6″ tall.

    The G26 is 4.17″ tall.
    The G43 is 4.25″ tall.
    The G19 is 5″ tall.
    The G17 is 5.43″ tall.

    The S&W M&P 9c is 4.3″ tall.
    The S&W M&P M2.0 5″ tall.
    The S&W M&P 9 5.5″ tall.

    The APX Compact is the perfect conceal carry double stack pistol that does not skimp on fully filling out the palm, or skimping on the barrel length to compensate for balance. Hope the clears up everything that was missing from the article.

  • d Staton May 7, 2018, 9:08 am

    That is not the competitor with the Glock 26. It is the competitor of the Glock 19.
    I don’t quite get the synopsis that the gun is in the sub-compact market. It’s clearly only a compact like the Glock 19.

    • Jacob kalmbach May 7, 2018, 12:24 pm

      there are two guns talked about in this article

    • BP May 16, 2018, 7:01 am

      Reading the entire article before commenting is useful. The author clearly stated there are two different Beretta offerings competing with two different Glocks. No wonder the anti-gunners are relentless, they think all of us are idiots.

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