Glorious’ new gaming keyboards give the curious a taste of the hardcore

The enthusiast mechanical keyboard country has perpetually evolving tastes and trends, and erstwhile you bid a fancy bespoke committee done a limited-run radical buy, different 1 springs up for hyped-up fans to clamor over. Glorious is looking to streamline a interaction of that fervor with a brace of caller gaming keyboards, each decked retired with a boatload of user-selectable customizations, and they whitethorn beryllium cleanable for the keyboard sicko-curious retired determination — nary tedious radical buys necessary.

The caller Glorious models dwell of 2 keyboards, the GMMK 3 (starting astatine $119.99 bare-bones, meaning nary switches oregon keycaps included) and GMMK 3 Pro (starting astatine $239.99 bare-bones), with each disposable present successful 3 sizes (full-size 100 percent, 75 percent, and 65 percent) and with either accepted MX benignant hot-swappable switches oregon magnetic Hall effect (HE) switches. Boards equipped with the second are besides compatible with MX switches, allowing you to usage immoderate of your existing collection, but the choices support going if you privation Glorious to physique you thing much unsocial done its caller Boardsmith configurator site.

Boardsmith is wherever the existent magic for the funny lies. It includes myriad options for each kinds of the GMMK 3’s interior and outer components, and tinkering with chaotic (or ugly) configurations is fractional the amusive of this keyboard. It’s similar going to Porsche oregon Lamborghini’s tract and seeing however ridiculous a supercar you tin enactment together. You tin customize the materials and colors of the apical and bottommost halves of the board’s chassis, switches, keycaps, cables, knobs, the power sheet (the supportive interior sheet basal that sits beneath the switches), gasket mounting materials (little swappable pegs that beryllium debased wrong the lawsuit to springiness the apical platform and keys a steadfast oregon pillowy feel), and Glorious’ logo badges. 

While determination are galore aesthetic choices to marque based connected colors and keycaps, the chosen operation of the committee tin greatly impact the typing consciousness and sound. This isn’t caller if you already prosecute successful immoderate radical buys from companies similar Meletrix, Qwertykeys, oregon Owlab. The quality present is that Glorious has a greater absorption connected gaming and volition physique and vessel your configured keyboard without making you hold the amended portion of a year. Plus, the keyboard arrives afloat built, arsenic opposed to a DIY kit.

The process is besides overmuch much novice-friendly, arsenic choices connected Boardsmith person little tooltips to assistance you measurement minutiae similar power sheet worldly and Glorious’ assorted switches. It should beryllium adjuvant for those without tons of anterior mechanical keyboard experience. And if you extremity up with a spot of FOMO aft your committee arrives you tin bid further parts to easy swap retired yourself (including the full apical and bottommost frames). 

Glorious aimed to marque the caller GMMK procreation reasonably casual to unfastened up and tinker astir inside, with lawsuit screws accessible beneath rubber feet that popular disconnected and backmost on. It’s a committedness Glorious truly delivered on, arsenic the GMMK 3 is 1 of the simplest keyboards I’ve ever disassembled. Once you region those lawsuit screws the chassis simply separates successful half, and you instantly person afloat entree to conscionable astir everything — without having to region a azygous keycap oregon switch.

Lots of keyboards retired determination necessitate you to region each the keycaps each clip you privation to dive into it, and that’s a immense symptom constituent if you’re a small lazy similar maine oregon don’t privation to walk a chunk of clip to trial retired 1 tiny tweak similar seeing however your keyboard sounds with little foam. Here, you tin beryllium trying retired mods oregon antithetic gaskets successful specified minutes.

Much of what Glorious is tapping into with the GMMK 3 and 3 Pro are the trappings of the enthusiast mechanical keyboard community, wherever feel, aesthetics, and dependable are apical priorities connected boards utilized for typing and productivity. But Glorious’ pedigree comes from PC gaming (the brand’s sanction used to beryllium the cringe-inducing “Glorious PC Gaming Race”), and the caller GMMK boards support a gaming space — peculiarly the Hall effect models.

If you opt for HE versions of the GMMK 3 oregon GMMK 3 Pro, you summation each kinds of unsocial tricks done the Glorious Core software. You tin customize theactuation constituent from a scope of a ace shallow 0.1mm to bottoming-out astatine 4mm (the default is acceptable to 2mm), and this tin beryllium acceptable crossed the full committee oregon connected a per-key basis.  You tin besides acceptable up to 4 bindings to a azygous cardinal travel, 2 connected the mode down and 2 connected the mode up, with selectable actuation points for each. There’s a batch of fine-grained settings you tin tweak and customize here, though Glorious Core is incredibly clunky and poorly designed (which is sadly par for the people among Glorious’ competitors similar Razer and SteelSeries too). You tin apt hammer your mode done it with a clump of trial-and-error testing, but it’s a acold outcry from the beginner-friendly intuitiveness of Boardsmith.

I’ve been investigating a full-size, 100 percent GMMK 3 Pro successful a highly-specced configuration with an all-metal lawsuit (it weighs a hefty 5.6 pounds), HE Fox switches (Glorious’ go-to for linears), 2.4GHz wireless, steadfast silicone gaskets, and FR4 power plate. I usually similar a deeper, punchier typing dependable connected overmuch smaller boards, but this config has a half-throated clacky code that’s softly heavy upon bottoming-out but brighter erstwhile each cardinal is released. It’s not rather the “raindrops connected a window” dependable that immoderate radical covet, but it’s playing successful that ballpark.

I whitethorn personally loathe full-size keyboards (I’ve grown accustomed to the fig pad-free life), but it’s chill to spot a 100 percent committee with truthful galore customizable options and aesthetics. Most different “gaming” keyboards this size are disfigured all-black oregon all-white monstrosities wherever RGB lighting is the only aesthetic colour choice.

I’m coming distant mostly impressed by the GMMK 3 Pro, but going all-out with the Glorious Boardsmith is going to truly outgo you. This committee soared up successful terms to $490.99 erstwhile afloat configured, which is simply a acold outcry from the starting kit terms of $149.99 for a wired GMMK 3 implicit with MX switches and keycaps, and getting dangerously adjacent to Angry Miao territory. At least, if you spell a small chaotic with the configurator and walk a batch connected your imagination GMMK 3 it seems you’re getting a prime keyboard with a smattering of the latest innovations successful the mech keyboard space, arsenic good arsenic a 2 twelvemonth warranty and existent lawsuit work — not conscionable a Discord server and a GitHub repository to benignant done for DIY troubleshooting. You tin travel to the GMMK 3 for the specs and aesthetics, but you whitethorn privation to enactment for the simplicity and bid of mind.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge