The Gamdias Hermes RGB mechanical keyboard is a new mechanical keyboard for gaming that features clicky Kailh Blue switches and RGB backlighting effects. It’s priced comparatively to the Corsair STRAFE RGB.
If you’re unfamiliar with Gamdias, they make gaming PC peripherals such as mouses, headphones and mechanical keyboards. The Hermes RGB mechanical keyboard has been an excellent RGB keyboard to review. Check out my unboxing and review below.
Gamdias Hermes RGB Unboxing
The Hermes RGB comes in a box reminiscent of the Razer BlackWidow Chroma. Even the logos on the wrist-rest are similar.
The Hermes RGB comes with an instruction book, keycap puller, and two logo stickers.
Here’s a look at the Gamdias Hermes RGB with the backlights on. It’s a full-sized mechanical keyboard.
From the bottom of the mechanical keyboard, you can see the USB cable is 3-way routable, but not detachable.
From the side of the keyboard, we can see it has a relatively flat profile, pretty standard for gaming keyboards.
Gamdias Hermes RGB Keys and Switches
The Hermes RGB uses Kailh switches, a popular choice for Cherry MX clones. The switches felt nice and lively, very comparable to Cherry MX Blues.
The keycaps are pretty standard for what we see from gaming keyboards. The font used on the keys is a unique. It has a gamer/futuristic style without being over the top (cough Razer cough).
Here’s a typing test of the keyboard, done to demonstrate the switch sound. Please note that in person, the LEDs don’t strobe like they do in this video.
The keyboard in very indicator-heavy, which is good for being able to tell where your shortcut keys are in a hurry.
As you can see, the controls for the LED lighting modes are on the navigation keys. Adjusting the brightness is done on the numpad. Most of the other commands are on the F-keys (media controls, on-the-fly macro recording, etc).
There’s a “Gaming” mode that you can find on most gaming keyboards nowadays that disabled the Windows key so you don’t accidentally minimize your game.
One interesting decision on this keyboard is having the Function key on the left side, replacing that Windows key. Most gaming keyboards have the function key on the right side of the keyboard so you can adjust the backlighting with one hand.
It seems the reason behind this decision is they offer two “macro keys” that can be used with just the left hand, by pressing down Fn and hitting the spacebar (“G1”) or B (“G2”) keys. It’s actually a pretty smart design move for people who use a lot of macros.
Gamdias Hermes RGB Backlighting
The backlighting on this keyboard has 4 different brightness levels (including Off), and many of the effects have 10 different levels of speed in which the colors move. You can also change the direction of some of the effects as well (wave from left to right, top to bottom, etc).
I have to admit, at first I was disappointed by the backlighting features on the Hermes RGB keyboard. While the LEDs are fairly nice and bright, there are only 4 LED modes you can access on the keyboard – Wave, Slide In/Out, Spiral, and Static. There doesn’t appear to be any way to edit this from the keyboard itself, so I decided to head the Gamdias website and download the Hera software that was mentioned on the box of the keyboard. This turned out to really open up a world of possibilities for the RGB backlighting!
From the Hera software, you can do things like change key assignments, record macros, and even set audio alarms under certain conditions like hotkeys timers.
What I was most interested in was the “Keyboard Luminance” tab, which lets you change your backlighting mode. You have 6 different profiles that you can assign macros and backlighting effects to. Swap between them either on the Hera software or by pressing Fn + 1-6 on the keyboard.
In this tab, you can set the backlighting to all one static color of your choice, or set individual key backlighting (perfect for highlighting hotkeys while you play your favorite game while leaving unused keys unlit).
There’s also an advanced color effect tab with 12 different color effects. Here’s a description of each –
- Breathing – A pulsing in and out of a single color. The color and pulse speed is adjustable.
- Wave – A rainbow wave that moves across the keyboard. Speed and direction adjustable.
- Responsive Fade Out – Keys light immediately upon press, then slowly fade out depending on the speed you set. Single color, customizable.
- Marquee – A single color moves in a “snake” pattern down your keyboard. Single customizable color, the speed is adjustable.
- Ripple – Upon keypress, a ripple of a single color moves out across the rest of the keyboard. The color and ripple speed is adjustable.
- Responsive Fade In – Upon key press, the color will fade into the key and abruptly go out. Single color customizable as well as fade speed.
- Neon – this is like “breathing” mode, pulses of color fading between each other. The colors are not changeable, but you can adjust the pulse speed.
- Colorful Marquee -Similar to Marquee mode, but with different colors that move across the keyboard. I did not see a way to change the color, but you can adjust the speed.
- Rainbow Drops – a random rainbow of colors light up random keys. The speed is adjustable.
- Circular Marquee – Instead of snaking down the keyboard from top to bottom, the line of color moves around the edge of the keys to the inside, and then back out. The speed is adjustable.
- Slide In – A bar of color slides in from both sides of the keyboard, meets in the middle, and then slides out. The speed and single color is adjustable.
- Rotation – The color moves like a windmill around the keys. The color, speed, and direction is customizable.
The video below will show you all of the lighting modes of the Gamdias Hermes –
Gamdias Hermes RGB Mechanical Keyboard – Overall Verdict
At its current price point of ~$130, the Gamdias Hermes RGB is a nice niche of the RGB mechanical keyboard market. It’s a step above between the cheaper HAVIT HV-KB366L RGB, which has awesome bright LEDs but lacks the advanced lighting effects that the Hera software provides, and a step below the Corsair STRAFE RGB which has slightly brighter LEDs and more advanced lighting software.
We strongly recommend you consider the Gamdias Hermes RGB if you’re looking to pick up a new RGB mechanical keyboard.