Innovation is built on something that is preexisting. Often you don’t know you want something until you experience it. Glorious is a company that prides itself on customisation, quality, ecosystem, and performance. Their business is to deliver customisable peripherals that you can design to suit your style. But what does that mean, I for many years was happy with a cheap keyboard with bladder keys. It wasn’t until I felt my first mechanical keyboard I turned my nose up like a snob at the original keyboards. Glorious is here to offer you many options you may have never considered, and for me, it comes in the ‘Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard’.

I immediately noticed the size and heft when I first handled the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard box. The box was larger than my previously bought keyboards and was heavier. Curious to determine if the contents were as reliable as the external feel of the box, I dove right in.

Inside I found the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard in white, a braided cable, four alternate key caps to suit Macs, four sample HE switches, four extra screws, a switch puller, a key cap puller, a screwdriver, a quick start booklet, a sticker, a card with switch information, and a QR code that will direct you to the Glorious website.

The Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard being in white scares me as white shows marks, gets dirty, and doesn’t fit my current setup of black and timber. Being a 75% size keyboard measuring 338mm(L)x152mm(W)x44.5mm(H) also is not on my list of favour as when using it I found myself mistyping when first using it. Once I mentally adjusted to the smaller size the mistakes were less, but I prefer a 100% keyboard size.

There is also no numpad which drives me up the absolute wall, I constantly reach for the numpad and not having it there I was smashing other keys instead and having to slow down my process and rethink to go to the top of the keyboard. The original weight though is transferable to the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard, as the 0.83kg boasts its quality. You can also see and feel it is a superior product with its durable plastic exterior and satisfying keystrokes.

The switches supplied for the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard are the Fox HE’s. These switches go down smoothly and have a mellow tock sound when pressed. My current keyboard gives me a better resistance and sound I prefer, and as pleasant as the Fox HE switches were, I wasn’t sold on changing over. However, the provided sample keys would change my opinion completely.

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, you don’t know what you want until you experience it. The sample switches provided allow you to experience what you could be typing on. The Lynx HE is smooth to press offering no resistance or sound, the Panda HE has resistance when you press and has a thock sound, and my favourite, the Raptor HE which has resistance when pressed with a click sound.

Plugging in the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard was an immediate shock to my optics. The RGB lighting up each key, the emitting sidebars, and the Glorious badge on top are so eye-popping, I was not prepared and my loud vocalisation of WOW! Soon my partner entered the room to see what made me ecstatic and remarked ooo pretty. I’m not a fan of RGB as I typically find it a waste of resources, but the sheer spectacle the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard displayed had me seeing a whole new light … pun intended.

Having a solid feel and glorious look is all fine and good, but how does it perform? What you experience straight out of the box can be further customised with the Glorious Core software. Glorious Core is easy to navigate and use.

Though it is not a requirement to download, I strongly recommend you do so as the full potential of the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard won’t be unlocked, and again you don’t know what you want until you experience it.

The RGB can be fully customised with its movement, individual keystrokes, and colour. Program macros and set key bindings allowing up to three profiles to be saved and switched over with the handy switch at the top of the keyboard. Calibrate the polling between 1K, 4K, and 8K Hz, the input latency between 0, 2, 8, and 16ms, and actuation between 0.0 to 4.0mm with adjustments of 0.1mm. Like I said, using the Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard straight out of the box is great but dialling the keyboard into your specific likes is amazing.

This is the part of the review where I insist you are sitting down. The Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard is not cheap. But before I give you the eye-watering price, you need to understand that with such an expense comes an investment in designing a keyboard specifically to your liking. The Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard will last you a lifetime as it is customisable, upgradable, and repairable.

The Glorious GMMK 3 HE Gaming Keyboard will run you over $300 plus, but don’t forget what I said, this is a base you can build on and modify. If anything in this review has piqued your interest ignoring the price, head over to gloriousgaming.com and spend some time looking at their range of products. There are many options to suit a budget and crafting your keyboard. They even have the elusive numpad I desperately miss.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove