Glorious Gaming - GMMK 3 PRO HE Prebuilt Wireless Keyboard

Couple things to note here. When the GMMK 3 Pro HE was released I had a bunch of Best Buy credit so I bought the board and literally returned it within 2 hours. It was that bad for the price and the SW was hot garbage by any standard. I haven’t followed it since so I don’t know if anything changed. 1) The Glorious HE board will only take the Glorious HE switches and the Gateron Dual Rails that Keychron/Lemokey uses in their HE. Wooting and Luminkey use the Gateron Jades + alternatives. Really need to pay attention to what type of switch a certain HE board takes. 2). As others have mentioned, there are much better alternatives. I don’t know what the price is now on the GMMK 3 Pro HE, but if it’s still north of $300 USD, you could return that and buy literally any other HE board which will be cheaper and better. Wooting 80 for example. The Keychron K2 HE is not a bad board at all and has the compact 75% layout which is different. I have the Keychron Q1 HE and I have 2 Lemokey non-HE boards that I really like and would have no problems with a Lemokey HE (which is Keychrons gaming division). Luminkey Magger 68 Pro is another board I have that is fantastic. 3) One of the reasons, IMO that Keychron and Wooting are better than anyone else is the SW. The SW matters for HE. If Wooting is a 10/10 for Software, Keychron would be 9/10 and Luminkey an 8.5/10. Glorious honestly would be a 1/10 for SW. In the past year the HE scene exploded with a ton of options. IMO if you are willing to drop coin on whatever GMMK 3 costs now, just go get a Wooting/Keycrhon/Lemokey and be done with it.

No problem. The only sort of good thing that came out of me owning the GMMK 3 Pro HE for 2 hours at release is they included a sample of their HE Tactile switch in the box. I read somewhere at the time that it worked on Keychron HE due to the polarity being the same. So I tested it and it did. I wound up buying 2 boxes of the Glorious tactile HE switch. I lubed them up since there wasn't a drop of lube anywhere on them - despite the packaging saying otherwise. Then I took them out after a week and they've been sitting in a box ever since. The tactile switch isn't horrible. It's what I would say is a manufactured tactility which is a completely made up term by me. And what I mean by this is there is a male metal piece around the stem I think that when you push down on the key gets friction fit into a separate female metal piece lower on the stem. And you have to line up those 2 pieces exactly after you take the switch apart. Even after doing so, if you are off a little bit the switch will feel weird as it'll contact someplace else on the female piece before sliding into the slot. It's an interesting concept and it is (or at least was at the time) the only HE tactile switch I was aware of. I hope someone can take that concept and refine / perfect it. Anyways it doesn't feel tactile like you would expect a normal tactile switch to feel like. It feels like a switch with way too much lube that wasn't put back together properly and therefore feels mushy and unresponsive. There's no crispy bump which might paint a better picture. My favorite switch is the Geon Raw HE which won't work with Glorious / Keychron / Lemokey. For those boards I really like the Gateron dual rail after I swapped in the Geon Pingless 62.5g springs. Really changed the feel for me in a good way. I do have to say though that tapping the Glorious Fox HE switch makes me think that one might be good too but I really don't feel like taking any more chances on Glorious anytime soon.

So I thought I would give my full thoughts and experiences after a day with this keeb. For reference I have only been in the hobby for a few months. While I have used mechanical keyboards for a while they were the likes of Das Keyboard and other non custom boards. My current board stable: * Q1 Max and Q0 Max with Baby Kangaroo * Q1 HE with Gateron Nebula switches. \*Daily driver\* * 2x Nuphy Air V2. One with Cowberry and one with Moss. * Womier SK65 that I got on a flash sale for my server rack but I don't count it. * I had a second Q1 Max with Holy Pandas that I just sold * GMMK Pro and Inland MK Pro and a Corsair K65 Plus that I ended up not keeping So while my experience is limited I have played with a few boards in the short time I have been in the hobby. Most of the boards have some level of customization, mainly tape and Force break mods. **My use case:** I am a gamer and am also in front of my computer for work a large part of the day. My keyboard is connected through a KVM to my Macbook Pro and my Custom Built Gaming system. This is one of the reasons the previous GMMK pro wasn't great for me. The Mac/PC switch is game changing for people like me. All 12 of us. LOL So that brings us to where we are now! So lets get too it! **Build quality:** Good. Very good! It feels better than the original GMMK Pro and more on par with other full aluminum boards. It has less ping than the old one, Much closer to the Q1 series although slightly higher pitched. I am not a fan of how the base flairs out slightly. It is subtle but it is there. I am also counting style under here. And the board looks good. Mine is silver with the white keys. I hate silver. I don't hate this. I am either going to order a white top case or have mine cerakoted white if I keep it. **Keycaps:** Ok I probably have more problems finding keycaps that I like than any other single components. Proper to them here. These keycaps are really good quality with great shine through while not allowing any light to leak through the white keycaps themselves. Do you know how hard that is to find?! I like them enough I ordered the back shine through ones so I can panda up the board. What can I say, I like the back and white mixed key look. Otherwise the big thing I noticed is the media keys in MacOS mode. The legends don't follow the standard apple layout but the the inputs do. It is a bit confusing if you look. But I go by muscle memory for this so it isn't the end of the world. Just something that seems a bit overlooked. Props to them for including MacOS modifier keys. I prefer then for my daily usage. **The layout:** They ALMOST had it. But then decided a bit of form was preferable over function. While there is no "standard" on 75% boards, most use a very similar setup. An overall normal main layout 2u Shift key, and 1u Alt/Fn/control on the right side of the keyboard. Then you have the F keys with a delete key to the right of them and 3 or 4 1u keys for page up/down/end/home underneath the knob. Glorious decided to be different even when different doesn't mean better. To the right of the space bar is a 1.5u Alt and Fn key. Where the delete key was you now have a completely useless LED and badge. And the delete key is relocated to the right of the backspace key. This row of keys has also been jammed up against the rest of the keys instead of having the slight separation most boards do. We expect this on compact boards but not \*full sized\* 75% boards. Ironically if they did away with that flared base and went to strait sides while keeping the same footprint they would have regained the space to do a more normal layout. But as it stands the right side feels very claustrophobic. **Switches:** Mine is the generic pre-built version with the unlubed Fox HE switches. They are not as nice as the Gateron Nebula double rail switches in my Q1HE. They just feel like slightly better generic reds and have a very scratchy feel to them. I will probably try lubing them to see if that helps but they are more likely getting replaced. There are also no light diffusers leaving them very weak at that point when trying to remove them. These are the equivalent of generic cheap cherry red knockoff that you get in a budget board or on amazon in a pack of 105 for $20. There are a couple important notes in this section though! First off removing these from the stock alumi9num plate is pure hell. I damaged multiple switches trying to get them out. I am going I think the only way to safely do it is to completely disassemble the board and carefully remove each switch from the plate. More importantly though Glorious had these switches designed for them. So we have all wondered what the compatibility would be. These share polarity with the Gateron Double rail magnetic switches used in Keychron boards. I have successfully swapped and tested switches between the two. All features on both boards work perfectly including rapid trigger, adjusting actuation point, etc. In the long run I will probably order a set of switches from Keychron to put in here if I use it long term. **Typing feel:** The meat and potatoes where it all matters! And it is ok at best. For some mind boggling reason the stock configuration also includes the stiff gaskets and an aluminum plate. Honestly it is kind of like typing on a concrete block. I ordered some replacement flex Gaskets and a PE plate and we will see if that helps. But there is no excuse for shipping a premium stock board like this. And the stabilizers.... Yikes. I don't know who thought these were ok but I have seen better on a sub $100 board I am pretty sure that neither the switches or the stabs were ever even in the same room with lube. **Sound:** For many of us this is just as important as typing feel. I know for me it is right up there. And again it is meh to ok. The sound is very flat. And I think this has a lot to do with the same issues that cause the feel issues. Aluminum plate and firm gaskets along with unlubed switches and stabilizers just leaves it lacking. **Customization:** Lets be real here. It is a standard custom keyboard. You can do anything and everything you want to it. I do want to give props to Glorious for having so many options available at launch instead of some nebulous coming soon thing. I know they are touting this as the most customizable board ever in marketing. But other than some additional options on case color and the badge, it really isn't any different than Keychron, Wooting, or a number of other companies. Yeah you can get some cool keycap sets strait from the factory but Custom keycap sets and even custom keycaps are so easy to come by you will trip over them. Amazoin, Drop, even Etsy has so many options that you can spend hours just picking out different ones you want to buy over time. And you can spend as little as 20 bucks for an acceptable quality set. You can select north or south facing LEDs for the backlighting! This is great. Unless you want the HE board with south facing LEDs. It isn't an option. This is another one of those what the heck were they thinking moments. There is no excuse to not have this option. I get that a lot of non enthusiast don't understand why this is important. But trust me it is fairly common circumstances where the problem pops up. Now we have the one thing that this board really does do that I haven't seen. If you buy the HE version you can use both HE and mechanical switches. This is a VERY nice feature for anyone who likes to tinker. This brings us to the software customization. Well it exists I guess. That is about the best I can say. While Core 2.1 isn't iCue levels of bad, it isn't great either. I appreciate they came out with the MacOS version as well. But it is counterintuitive to use at times constantly logs me out and won't save settings properly. One thing I do like is per key LED lighting, this is something I really wish VIA offered since I like to set up zones such as WASD or have certain keys lit differently for easy visibility at night when gaming. **Value and final thoughts:** The elephant in the room that we all know about. There is nothing that this board offers that justifies the cost. Its closest contemporary is the Q1 HE I have setting next to it. While the GMMK 3 Pro HE has some features that are really nice like per key lighting adjustment there is nothing here that is revolutionary or ground breaking with the one exception being the ability to user mechanical or HE switches IF you get the HE version. This is a $200-$225 keeb plain and simple and only if they fix some of the issues. While the base is indeed premium a lot of the "custom" decisions made are not. * Unlubed cheap feeling switches without light diffusers and unlubed stabilizers that impact the PCB leave it feeling clacking and scratchy. * Aluminum plate and extra firm gaskets give a very harsh typing feel and contribute to the above sound. * North facing only LEDs on the HE version means that you will run into interference issues with some switch and keycap combinations. If you want the board I your best bet is to buy the Barebones (wired or wireless) version. Order yourself a set of Gateron Nebula switches and the keycaps of your choice. This will put you right around 250 bucks and is a much better value prospect. https://preview.redd.it/yib1asavjgod1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=719fd599999c644d69e2a06158eba18f53a5f080

I ended up re-lubing the stabs and they are much better now. So that will help with the space bar. I also replaced the stock aluminum plate with a PC plate and the switches with gateron Nebula. It’s now my daily driver and I love it. Still not worth retail but a great board. Mine is the HE so no pins to bend with the switches I am using. But I did notice the slots for the pins when using mechanical switches do look tight so I cools see that being an issue. This is very much a luxury board and not for anyone looking for bang for the buck. Those people need to consider Keychron or similar. The GMMK pro is flashier and you pay for that.

I only briefly owned an OG GMMK Pro. I replaced it with a Keychron Q1 Max after a week or two. Switches aside the GMMK 3 Pro is a much better board if for no other reason than it takes into account many of the lessons all custom keyboard companies have learned over the past couple of years. Modability is much better as is the feel of the board itself. I have been daily driving mine since the day I got it with the only change being the switches. I am still flipping back and forth between the Gateron Nebula Switches and the Glorious Panda HEs. Both feel and sound really good so I just just can't decide, but other than that the board is stock. Honestly if we put aside the broken software and the high price it is really a great board and a big improvement over the OG Pro.

I will second that taking switches out is a tremendous pain...also.. The switches like to go in wrong if you aren't careful and it's super easy to bend the pins on the switches...I bent 10 pins on 10 different switches before I became super frustrated and careful. The spacebar felt mushy and it's rebound was slow and it felt TERRIBLE. It appears to have corrected after a couple hours of use...but it has me concerned enough I may return the board.

I have both. I had the same reaction to the GMMK 3 Pro. Its the Fox HE switches, they are horrible and scratchy. I had some Gateron Dawn dual-rail HEs, which were much better. Then I tried some Glorious Lynx HEs (both silent and normal), they were better than the Gaterons - both on the GMMK 3 AND on the Lemokey P1 HE. The Lynx Silents are smooth as silk. I switched my LemoKey P1 HE AND my GMMK 3 Pro to Glorious Lynx HE (Silent)... its a personal taste thing. Anyway the headline is - It's the Glorious Fox HEs - they SUCK! Also, the shine through PBTs that came with the GMMK 3 are also not great. The ones that came with the LemoKey P1 HE are much better quality. Not a huge issue for me because I always use GMK sets anyway.

Nothing it's a fine keyboard for 99% of users.

Err... no it wasn't. It was terrible LOL... and yes... I have one.

The gasket mount doesn't work.... at all - it's as stiff as a tray mount. It has THIRTEEN cheap, fine pitched screws holding the plate and PCB together when it actually required none (if you exclude the ones holding the LED diffusers in place), The plates are poorly designed and put excessive pressure on the PCB warping it. The stock stabilisers were dreadful. The sound is uneven across the board, and the Glorious as a company is morally questionable. Machining quality isn't stellar either. \[edit\]... Oh, and the plates wouldn't accept many third party stabs either, which is particularly bad, as you needed to replace the stabs due to the stock ones being so miserable. I had to actually do metal work on the plate to fit a set of Durock stabilisers. I also had to machine the chassis to get the gasket mount to work, basically correcting their shoddy design. Every time a gaming company tried to muscle in on the "custom" scene, they fail hard. They should stay in their lane.

Yours is 3 Pro, you cannot even use QMK or VIA in that one.

ok help me !!!!!!! i just got my gmmk 3 HE....ok. i set the rapid trigger etc but the switched on time i see turn it off but the HE doesnt work via the strafing games. is there a setting im not seeing or ? it works out the box or require tinkering? other wise ... I FKN LOVE this keyboard man LEMME TELL YOU !!!

EDIT: actuation is at 0.1mm for all across and 8000hz polling with 0ms response. feels fast and snappy? OR am i just missing something ? lol ty in advance.

I have the pro with some foam mods, tape, new stabs, box whites, polycarb plate, and it doesn't sound too horrible. On occasion it won't pick up a key press or double inputs a key press though. Admittedly, id never buy one again though, but it's not "horrible".

Same, first hot swap mechanical keyboard

Lets clearify Something, you are not an normal average hobbyist. I have an gmmk 3 he 75% and it feels amazing .. i really dont know what you mean by typing feel is okay, it Feels way better than my old mechanical boards Like a skiller skg3, Corsair k70 or a ducky one 2 Mini. I dont think any of these hall effect Keyboards are worth the price except ones for 100$ which are already pretty good. Im a casual gamer on pro level and play about 3 hours a day, and i find it completely disjointed and crazy what you guys are feeling on a keyboard.