I have a love and hate relationship with mechanical keyboards, though I do appreciate them when it comes to gaming, however most of the time I will be hammering my keyboard away on e-mails and my writing job, that clicky sound would easily annoy my colleagues in the office, which is why I was forced to switch to a simple Logitech wireless keyboard that I’m still rather contended with. When I received the Gamdias Hermes P1 Mechanical keyboard, I thought it was just another noisy mechanical keyboard when I realize that it uses blue switches, but after using it for a while I find it to be not as annoying as my Razer Blackwidow X Chroma keyboard, and I was surprised on how much I have enjoyed typing on this than my wireless keyboard, which leads me to write this review with it.
Design and Hardware
The Hermes P1 RGB keyboard is a rather premium looking mechanical keyboard, I like the brushed aluminium material on the top panel and it certainly doesn’t feel like a $120 product, Gamdias has also provided a palm rest out of the box, though it is just a piece of plastic but it does help in terms of ergonomics. I would prefer that the fonts on the key caps aren’t that funky because it makes the keyboard feel cheap, some keys have their fonts laser etched or printed, otherwise the paint job is decent and the RGB lighting illuminates on each of the keycaps beautifully.
Like any gaming mechanical keyboards, the Hermes P1 has a braided cable and uses a gold USB connector, the keyboard has rubber pads on both the flip out feet and base to make it stay on your desk, there’s also two drain holes that helps to drain water should you accidentally spill on the keyboard, a nice addition here would be the inclusion of a keycap puller that helps pulling them out should you need it.
The Hermes P1 RGB’s uses Gamdias certified mechanical Blue switches, though the company hasn’t specifically mentioned on where it acquires the switches, we took out one of the key caps and found out that the keyboard is using TTC’s Blue switches, though not as well-known as Cherry MX and Kailh, they don’t sound as noisy as they should and offers a good response when typing on it.
Functions
Gamdias has kept the features of the Hermes P1 RGB pretty straightforward, you get to have your row of multimedia keys from F2-F8. You can record macro on the fly with the F9 button, and the Hera software will prompt you to save it either to the G1 or G2 macro key, which is located on the space bar and B key. I’m glad that Gamdias allow you to switch keyboard profiles by pressing on the number row from 1-6, which is rather convenient.
Even without software, the keyboard allows you to change the RGB lighting styles by pressing the row of keys above the arrow keys, the Insert key shows a wave effect, home key changes the direction, page up key speeds up light motion, delete key shows a rotating effect, end key makes the light static, and the page down key slows down the light motion.
Gamdias has taken the courtesy to switch positions of the Windows and Function key, which avoids accidental presses when gaming, you can switch them back if you want by using the hera software.
Gamdias Hermes P1 RGB Typing Test Video
Software
Though not as polished as certain mechanical keyboards, Gamdias’ hera software is a very functional program and it is used for configuring the company’s products, the key assignment feature is a great one as you can remap any of the keys to perform a certain function, such as launching your favourite program or shortcut.
In addition, you can set timers and sound to make you remember things if you find yourself too addicted to games.
The fun part of the app is how you are able to play around the keyboard’s RGB lighting, you can either choose a static lighting, create a custom pattern on a row of keys using drag select, or choose from a list of cool lighting effects that you want to spice up your desk.
