GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB Optical Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Pros: First impressions: The Hermes E2 7 color is a compact, 10 keyless mechanical keyboard. Although it does have full size mechanical keys, and the layout is standard sized, it is compact due to the lack of the number keypad and the size of the base. The base has an aluminum top plate, so it gives a feeling of quality. It's a nice minimalist design. Backlighting is multi color, however, the colors cannot be changed -- there is only one color per row. Function row is green, number row is blue, etc. Looks good, though. More on that in other cons. There are two color modes, breathing and steady. The breathing mode can be adjusted fast to slow (just 3 levels), and the overall brightness can be adjusted or turned off. Keyboard settings can be locked. Color modes are set from the keyboard itself, no software is needed. Keys are mechanical blue. While not claimed as “Cherry”, they seem of good quality and are called “Gamdias certified mechanical” so are probably just from some other manufacturer. Properly clicky, and work great. The keyboard has excellent rubber feet. Flip out stands at the back also have rubber feet, which is nice. Gamdias’ typical gaming features include lack of the windows key to the left of the spacebar, and the ability to put into gaming mode, disabling the right side windows key so you don’t accidentally minimize your window. Additionally the arrow keys to the right can be put into WASD mode, another high end touch. Once you get used to that, it's hard to go back.

Cons: There are a couple of cons.. First, the one you’ll notice right away is that the usb cable is thin, not braided. Length, however is decent. Call the thinness a feature for compactness, I guess. The backlight programmability is very limited, but the lighting and keyfonts are legible and certainly a step up from single color, stylewise. The rainbow look is nice. The windows/game mode key behaves oddly, lighting wise. It doesn’t seem impacted by the dimmer setting, and it breaths independently from the other keys. When adjusting settings, it flashes. I may be missing something here. The full size keys sit proud of the top plate, as with many mechanical keyboards, which makes for easy cleaning and a nice industrial look. In this case, the compactness of the keyboard base, and proximity of the keys to the edges makes it easy to pop off key tops. If you travel with the keyboard, extra care should be taken how you pack the keyboard so as to not lose keys. It's called a 7 color keyboard. I count six. Maybe I’m missing something. The colors are Green, Blue, Purple, Violet, Orange and Red. Maybe “off” is the 7th color. (If someone knows, tell me!) The package didn’t contain any instructions, but you should be able to figure out the functions through trial and error. A quick start guide is available from Gamdias website, but it lacks info on backlight features.

Overall Review: This is a respectable, solid, compact gamers mechanical keyboard with a nice design. The cons are mostly due to this being more of an entry level mechanical keyboard. I wouldn’t call it cheap, but its well under a C note, and probably will go on sale for less than a half-C. I personally prefer to have the windows key left of the spacebar since I use it a lot when not gaming, and that’s the more standard configuration for business users. If you are looking for a nice compact mechanical keyboard, with a bada@ss Gamdias pedigree, this might be yours. Looks better than its pictures. Very minimalist. I typed this review on it.

Pros: The good stuff... + Solid build + Sturdy keys + Quiet for blue switches + Really, really compact Tenkeyless + Detachable USB cable + Standalone software option + Profiles, macros, and sounds The Hermes M3 is very well built. It has a solid and compact construction. The brushed metal surface is a nice touch. With the exception of the space key, the keys do not have much wiggle and even then the space key does not wiggle much. I'm a fan on how well this keyboard was constructed. The keys really do have a short drop to activate and I think that contributes to how quiet the keyboard is considering it has blue switches. I am used to red switches and I was concerned that the blue were going to much louder. I would say that it isn't any louder that the red. It just has a tiny metallic click to them. Much like snapping a safety pin. The little click has a nice feel. I am a big fan of tenkeyless keyboards. I have never used the ten keys much on a standard keyboard. I felt like that much more keyboard was a waste of desk space and it pushed out my mouse unnecessarily. I am really impressed how small they were able to make this keyboard. On another computer, I have a compact keyboard that does not have the cursor, home, delete, etc. keys and that keyboard is only an inch and a half shorter than this keyboard. Despite its size, I do not feel like I am typing on a compact keyboard. Designing the keyboard to have a detachable USB was a great idea. Between the small size and detachable USB, the Hermes M3 would be ideal for portability if that's your need. I like that the Hermes M3 is not dependent on the Hera software to run in the background in the systray. You can program the keyboard and the configuration is stored on the keyboard itself. Another boon for portability. I do not have a use for the multiple profiles, macros, timers, and sound triggers, but they are features that I think someone would find useful. Especially fn+F4 to remap the WASD keys to the cursor keys. That's pretty cool. However, if they spent the time on practical RGB lighting effects as they did on these features, I think I would like this keyboard a little more.

Cons: The not so good stuff... - Limited RGB effects - Windows key on the right side The Hera software does not provide much customization with the RGB lighting effects as one would expect for a device touting RGB. I would say that the majority of the options are reminiscent of "Yes, we're open" sign. Swirly lights, sliding in, ripples, etc. None of which I found to be useful. I finally settled on setting the color to something I liked without effects. I thought about cracking an egg for the lack of options for a keyboard advertised as an RGB device, but there are so many great features on this keyboard that I couldn't bring myself to give anything other than five eggs. This is more of a personal preference, but I do not like that the Windows key is on the right-hand side. The function key needed a place. I just would have preferred the other side.

Overall Review: I am a big fan of tenkeyless keyboards. I have been using the Corsair K65 RGB tenkeyless for over a year. I thought the K65 was pretty small, but the Hermes M3 outsmalls the K65 significantly. (Yea, I just made up outsmalls.) The Hermes M3 does not come with a palm rest and I was concerned with how that was going to feel, but the keyboard is so compact and low that it wasn't that noticeable. If you found this review helpful, please let me know.

Pros: +Nice brightness. Much nicer than I was expecting it to be. Letters are clear so that the light shines through them, plus the light shines around the outside of the keys. +I really like having specific keys for certain actions. It has specific keys to open File Explorer, Default Browser, Email, Cortana search (in Windows 10), Play/Pause, Volume Mute, Volume Up, Volume Down. There are unknown keys on the keyboard itself, I need to search for more info on it.

Cons: -Enter key is shorter but taller. Although I’m sure I will get used to reaching slightly farther over time. -No instructions included in the box at all. No information on anything, no info on what certain keys do, unless it was just this review keyboard that doesn’t have it. No link where to download the software, I had to click on the newegg link to their website then search for the software. -Volume up and down keys seem backwards, but maybe its just me. The volume down is on the right side, the volume up is on the left side.

Overall Review: First I would like to say, unlike another review by another person, there is no “pounding” of keys. You push just as far as you do on any other keyboard. The keys are not loud like mechanical keyboards, but they are not silent either like laptop type keys are. The software for me kept crashing on Windows 10. I emailed them and they did reply back, with a new version of the software to download, version 2.8.1. I don’t know if they officially added it to their site yet but the software works now. It allows you to choose different colors or patterns. Even the default white lighting looks very good to me. I can’t give this keyboard 5 eggs just due to the fact of there being no instructions with it. There are a lot of keys with graphics on them that I don’t know what they do. But overall I like the lighting on the keyboard

Pros: * It seemed sort of heavy for a keyboard, but this is actually a good thing. When gaming, keyboards have a tendency to move and slide around. * I ran into zero problems with that on this keyboard. * The shell of the keyboard seems to be made out of aircraft aluminum and has a gunmetal grey finish on it. This gives it a great sleek and stylish look. * The raised mechanical keys on the keyboard mesh well with the metal back-plating. They are strong and sturdy. With an impressive 50 million click lifetime cycle, these optical mechanical keys create an impressive lifespan for the keyboard. * Blue LEDS are built in under the keys and are great to look at. They are a little softer than most of the comparison keyboards in this upper range class. Which for me, was a godsend as the majority I feel are far too bright. I found it to be way easier on my eyes. * There is no software to install. The plug and play kit built into the keyboard makes it easy to create your own LED patterns and colors. * With features such as RGB LED’s, multimedia keys, on-the-fly macro recording, various profile, a built-in wrist rest, and a metal key-cap puller, this keyboard is definitely worthy of your attention! Solid 5 out of 5 eggs.

Cons: No cons on this bad boy!

Overall Review: * The 8 foot braided cable gives you plenty of room to attach to your tower. It was a little too long, and I would have preferred 6 feet. * The design and look are far superior to any keyboard that I have ever owned or tested. Way to go Gamdias!

Pros: Good feedback from the blue switches, feels sturdy and is extremely comfortable to type on

Cons: lack of a number pad is the biggest con I only counted 6 colors in the lighting

Overall Review: For my review, I took this keyboard to work to really get a feel for typing. I've used Cherry Black switches for my main keyboards for years and MX Reds at work so the click of blues is a weird feeling for me. I've installed .2mm o-rings which prevents bottoming out the switch. This eliminated the complaints of my coworkers that the typing was too loud and also made the keyboard that much more comfortable for me. One little side note, the key caps seem pretty cheap and thin when I pulled them off as compared to the corsair k70 I have. I initially swapped the caps to see how the o rings (already installed on the k70) felt and sounded on this keyboard. I sincerely doubt it will ever be an issue, though.

Pros: Before I begin I want to state that I do my best to remain objective with these reviews. This is one of those times I reviewed a product I personally don't like but it works well and delivers on everything it claims to deliver on. ie, Gamdias doesn't mislead you with what this keyboard can and can't do. - Keys are responsive and definitely gives this keyboard a gaming feel. - Small footprint making this easily portable for a LAN party. - Function shortcuts built directly into the keyboard for things like lighting adjustments (brightness only; more on this in cons), or simply locking the keyboard itself. - No additional software needed; just plug it in and play! - Tactile clicky feel! I have 2 different mechanical keyboards at home for my PC's. One doesn't make any noise and the other audibly clicks. I prefer the later.

Cons: - If you do ANYTHING on a regular basis with the numpad on a keyboard, do not even consider this one. - If you want to adjust the colors, you can not. What you see is what you get. IE the rainbow look. - If you want a keyboard to program macros, look another way. - While the price is lower by comparison to other mechanical keyboards I don't find it justifiable. I would rather spend a little more for a full sized mechanical that includes the features I mentioned are missing in the cons section here.

Overall Review: It's a small footprint mechanical gaming keyboard. There's not much more to say because it was designed to be simple: And it is. I gave myself almost 2 weeks to see if it grew on me: And it didn't. But... If you are looking for the mechanical keyboard experience on a budget and don't have a lot of room on your desk then the Hermes E2 delivers. But literally this is the only one scenario I would recommend it. I'm not saying to go buy another brand, I'm only saying if you like Gamdias's design buy one step up for a more complete experience; it'll be worth it!

Pros: - I kind of like clicky MX Blues so this definitely is a win for me - Compact - Back lighting

Cons: - No customization whatsoever - no DIP switches, no programmable macros, etc. - Doesn't come with a USB/PS2 adapter

Overall Review: I own a WASD keyboard and I actually kind of like the design of this a bit better. It's also been a little while since I've owned an MX Blue clicky keyboard and this does the job quite well - everything feels incredibly responsive. Only gripe I have is that it's not very customizable - lighting is static and there's no DIP switches to toggle on/off certain functionality. But hey, for a Windows mechanical keyboard that's nice and compact, I can't complain at all.

Pros: The Hera customization software is nice, easy to work with, and somewhat fun to experiment with. Updating the software was easy, the firmware I had was the current version, so it did not need an update. The back lighting of the keys was bright enough without being overkill, I had no eye strain. The rubber feet on the bottom are soft and sticky so it reduces the keyboard movement many smaller keyboards can have. I did like the feel of the key travel and resistance, it felt nice to type fast. I did not experience any key conflicts during a gaming session. The size was perfect to fts into my laptop bag and light enough for travel.

Cons: The keyboard cord is more rigid than most, it is not braided, causing it to sometimes gets in the way because it does not lay flat and catches on other items. The logo indicators for caps-lock/numpad are weird, I found hard to know which ones meant what. The sound on/off and volume controls work fine, but they require multi key clicks instead of some type of one fingered wheel like other keyboards have. When I had to hit mute, I needed look to make sure the correct keys were selected.

Overall Review: The key click sound may to too loud for some people, it did not bother me, but I use a keyboard for a living so I am used to click sounds. During a fun gaming session, my wife had agro from the key click sound. The luminescence software animation on the three selection types is a bit annoying.