Gamdias Hermes Gaming Keyboard Review

Final Thoughts

Price

High-end mechanical gaming keyboards are rarely budget friendly and the Gamdias Hermes is no exception to this, with retail prices clocking in at around £100 + shipping from most major retailers. Scan.co.uk have it available for £98.45 + shipping here in the UK, but those of you in the US will get the best deal from Amazon, who have it listed for just $135.99 with free shipping. This is on par with similar offerings from Corsair, Razer and Thermaltake, although I personally think that Gamdias have the edge in terms of features.

Overview

This is the second Gamdias product I’ve reviewed recently; first I was blown away by the incredible Hephestas gaming headset, now I’m blown away by the Hermes gaming keyboard. This is easily one of the top gaming keyboard on the market right now and while I admit that it is complete overkill for most people’s needs, I am not about to mark it down for having too many features at its disposal. It can be time-consuming to get all the software settings configured, but the payoff can be huge for competitive gamers, especially those who play in tournaments as you can configure your profiles and store them on the keyboard.

While this is obviously designed to appeal to a gaming audience, there are a lot of features here that make working on it a joy too, extra macro keys and shortcuts are extremely handy in my work for things like photo and video editing, as I can set actions and filters to various keys, saving me a lot of time in the editor. Mechanical keys are also a delight to type on and the Hermes is know exception to this; typing on this keyboard with its vast wrist rest and ergonomic layout is easy work and my fingers already feel less strained than they usually do after a full days worth of typing.

The only downside I see here is that the keyboard is a little on the large size, its chassis is thick and the wrist rest really does command a desk with a decent amount of depth to it, but of course that’s something you should really check before purchasing a £100+ gaming keyboard. I do love that they wrist rest doubles as a hard-top cover, with two kids in my house frantically throwing toys at each other on a morning, it’s nice to know that my keyboard has an extra layer of protection. That being said, the keyboard is rock solid in general and even without the top panel it should stand up to some hefty knocks and bumps without any issues; which will no doubt please those who plan on chucking their keyboard into their LAN bag when travelling.

“Gamdias are quickly making a name for themselves with the gaming community and the performance, build quality, extensive feature set and overall style of the Hermes keyboard makes it easy to see why. This is easily one of the top gaming keyboards money can buy. We can’t wait to see what Gamdias come up with next, especially since they’ve already set the bar pretty high.”

Pros

• Unique aesthetics
• Cherry MX Switches
• Quiet keys (for a mechanical keyboard)
• Left and right-handed macro thumb-keys
• Dedicated macro keys
• Comprehensive customisation options via software
• OTF macro recording
• Sound notifications
• Rock solid build quality
• Large detachable wrist rest
• Wrist rest doubles as hard cover

Cons

• Large size may make it unsuitable for those with limited desk space

Neutral

• Dizzying amount of features can take a long time to configure

Thank you Gamdias for providing us with this sample.