GAMDIAS HERMES GKB2010 Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

By David Ramsey

Manufacturer: Gamdias Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Model Number: GKB2010
UPC: 8484750000985 EAN: 4710728309816
Price As Tested: $135.99 (Amazon | Newegg)

Full Disclosure: GAMDIAS Technology Co., Ltd. provided the product sample used in this article.

If you have’t heard of GAMDIAS Technology, that’s understandable, since they were only founded in Taiwan in 2012. With a motto of Gaming Art in Motion, GAMDIAS seeks to “Re-define the electronic sports landscape for gamers worldwide.” The GAMDIAS HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Gaming keyboard is their bid to do so for gaming keyboards, and fitted with Cherry MX Black switches, a 32-bit ARM processor, 512KB of memory, 13 macro keys, external USB and audio pass-through ports, adjustable keyboard lighting, and the most complex macro software I’ve ever seen, it may live up to their boast. Benchmark Reviews takes a look at one of the most powerful and capable keyboards you can buy: GAMDIAS HERMES GKB2010.

GAMDIAS is just getting started, and so their product lineup is rather sparse at the moment, comprising two keyboards, some mice, a gaming headset, and some accessories such as mouse pads and gaming gloves. However, their keyboards at least stand up to the best I’ve reviewed so far, and are definitely worth a look.

I’ll connect the HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Keyboard to my gaming machine and see how well it works.

• Choice of Cherry MX Red, Black, Blue, or Brown keys
• 13 dedicated macro keys
• Magnetic-attach wrist rest serves as keyboard cover
• 512KB onboard memory with 32-bit ARM Cortex CPU
• GAMDIAS Element rubber insert dampens sound and reduced key travel for quick response
• USB and audio pass-through ports
• Military-grade USB cable
• Anti-ghosting with full N-key rollover
• On-the-fly macro recording
• Backlit keys with six levels of adjustability plus “pulse” mode

Cable Length	2.2 meters
Polling rate	1000Hz
Dimensions	474.85 x 310.83 x 39 mm(w/ wrist rest)18.69″ x 12.24″ x 1.54″ (w/ wrist rest)
Macro Keys	13
Multimedia Keys	6
OTF Macro Record	Yes (with HERA)
Windows Key Disable	Yes (Game Mode)

Let’s take a look at this new entry into the keyboard market in the next section.

Normally one of the first images I’d show are the accessories that come with a product. In the case of the HERMES, there are none save two logo stickers; not even a folded pamphlet. Presumably as an experienced gamer you will intuitively understand that you’re suppose to go to the GAMDIAS web site and download the keyboard software. While you’re there, you can peruse a short user manual…in Czech. It’s worthwhile to download this and run it through Google Translate, by the way.

So, moving on…the first thing you will notice about the GAMDIAS HERMES is that it’s a pretty large keyboard. Extra macro keys on the left and bottom edges make it quite large, even without what is surely the industry’s largest wrist rest attached. Compared to a normal 104-key keyboard, the GKB2010 is just huge.

This particular example uses Cherry MX Black switches, although you can choose between Black, Blue, Red, and Brown when ordering the keyboard. The “standard 104” keys are secured by a thick metal base, although the macro keys at the left and bottom of the keyboard are supported only by their circuit boards.

There are five macro keys at the left of the keyboard…

…six along the bottom of the GKB2010 keyboard (although not stacked as shown here)…

…and finally two more snuck into the arrow cluster.

As we’ve seen on other gaming keyboards, the Scroll Lock indicator has been replaced with a “Gaming” indicator (Gaming mode disables the Windows key). Here you can also see the USB port, microphone, and headphone labels for the ports on the back of the keyboard.

You connect these ports to your PC with these heavy, braided, gold-plated-connector cables. There are separate USB connectors for the keyboard itself and for the USB pass-through on the back; the microphone and headphone connectors have color-coded insulating rings.

We’ll continue our examination of the GAMDIAS HERMES GKB2010 keyboard in the next section.

At the rear of the keyboard we find a USB pass-through port as well as microphone and headphone ports. The pass-through port is nice although some competing keyboards are using full USB hubs, which are better.

The wrist rest clips on with magnetic attachments and is absolutely huge. It is far too large to fit on my desk and its size forces you to place the keyboard back further than you might like…

…but it doubles as a keyboard cover, which is clever.

Although there are many dedicated macro keys, media and a few other control keys (brightness, etc.) are folded into the function keys, and accessed by holding down the “Fn” key.

Here’s what the GAMDIAS Membrane looks like. It’s a rubber surround that reduces the travel of the keys and dampens the “clack” noise you’d normally hear when the key cap strikes the metal base plate. It dramatically changes the feel of the Cherry MX Black key switches, and it’s easy to tell since for some reason the numeric pad doesn’t have it.

The bottom six macro keys get their own dedicated circuit board that plugs into the main keyboard. Overall the construction quality of this keyboard looks great…

…except for the soldering around the left five macro keys (G1-G5). Not sure what happened here, but the keys work perfectly.

But a modern keyboard is nothing without its supporting software, and GAMDIAS has some interesting stuff in store for us there.

These days, a gaming keyboard is defined as much by its accompanying utility software as it is its hardware. Cherry MX switches, backlit keys, and pass-through USB and audio ports are all well and good, but what else does the GAMDIAS HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard bring to the party?

Well, the answer is the HERA software, which is GAMDIAS’ all-on-one utility used to control most of their keyboards, mice, and other accessories. Like virtually all keyboard software I’ve seen recently, it’s not delivered with the keyboard, but must be downloaded from the GAMDIAS web site. And documentation? Hah! Documentation is for wimps. Figure it out. Anyway, launching HERA takes about 30 seconds, since the first thing the program does is read all of the existing settings out of your keyboard.

Functionally, HERA is divided into the following sections, activated with buttons on the left side of the window:

• Key Assignment
• Macro Management
• Keyboard Luminance
• Assign Sound & Timer
• Sound File Edit
• Timer Setting
• Muscle Memory
• Olympics (this tab was never enabled but presumably has something to do with online gaming)
• Update/Support

Each set of macros belongs to a profile, and the ten possible profiles are listed at the right side of the window, where you can click on one to select it. Below the 10 profile buttons are three Profile Match areas where you can specify that a specific profile be loaded when a specific game is running; but note although you don’t have to have the HERA software running for macros to work (since they’re issued by the keyboard’s onboard CPU), you do have to have HERA running for the auto-profile feature to work. Last, at the bottom right corner of the window, is where you can set the hot key to switch profiles. The default is the Fn key plus a number, i.e. Fn+1 for Profile 1, and so forth.

Macro Management is where you record your macros. This is the centerpiece of the utility and provides an amazing amount of control. You can include emulated mouse movements and clicks in macros, control the timing of macro actions with millisecond precision, and, best of all, you can fully edit macros. Individual steps can be deleted, inserted, copied, and pasted. This is the first macro editor I’ve seen with full editing and it’s wonderful! My one complaint is that the custom menus the HERA software pops out can be a little fiddly to navigate.

Once you’ve created your macros, you can head over to the Key Assignment screen to bind them to keys. Click on the key you want, and then select from a popup menu of options. Note that macros are just one of the things you can assign to a key; there’s a good selection of utility functions, such as media controls, common Windows operations such as Magnifier Zoom In/Out, Restart, Calculator, and so forth; quick launching of programs, etc. The Blueprint function displays a brief overlay showing your active profile and all your key definitions at the upper left of the screen. This is useful but sadly macros are shown only as “MACRO” and not the name you gave the macro.

The HERA software has some other interesting added features. One is Muscle Memory, which keeps track of your keyboard usage. Some of the statistics are interesting, such as Omnipresence (the maximum number of keys hit at once) or Levied Pressure (the total amount of pressure received by the keys, presumably computed by multiplying the number of keys pressed by the activation pressure of each key. I wonder if this takes into account which type of Cherry switch is used?)

A Timer facility lets you set an arbitrary number of timers (with optional on-screen displays) that will display custom messages and/or play alarm sounds (which you can record and manage on a separate screen) when they expire. There’s a Sound File Edit tab that opens a screen of functions for recording sounds, and I guess you bind these to keys and can send them during online gaming sessions? It’s just a guess, because, again…no documentation.

The right control key is used to initiate on-the-fly macro recording. Press Fn-Ctrl (the three indicators lights at the upper right of the keyboard will begin to blink), then press the keys you want to record, then terminate the sequence with Fn-Ctrl again. The macro will be assigned to the next key you press and recorded in the current profile. You can of course subsequently use the HERA software to give the macro a meaningful name and edit it if you wish.

What? The key immediately to the left of the Ctrl key that looks kind of like a soda can with a straw in it? Well, that key is a complete mystery. I’d check the documentation, but, as I’ve been complaining, there isn’t any.

So, how does this keyboard work in day-to-day use and gaming?

I used the GAMDIAS HERMES GKB2010 Ultimate Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard as my day-to-day keyboard for two weeks. I have to say that I don’t personally like the feel imparted by the GAMDIAS Membrane; it does reduce key travel and make the keys a lot quieter, but I prefer the travel and “crisper” feel of the un-membraned keys on the numeric pad. This is hardly a deal breaker since removing the membrane is easy: it simply lifts off once the key caps are removed. Of course it gets a little tedious since you must remove all the key caps in a given area, but you only have to do it once.

The media keys (Fn-2,3,5-8), as well as the brightness adjustment keys, work without any software support on both Mac and Windows platforms, which is convenient. In fact, with the on-the-fly macro recording feature, you can record macros, assign them to keys, and switch profiles on any system, although the excellent HERA software is Windows-only. As someone who does most of their non-gaming work on an OS X system, I really appreciate this. What I don’t appreciate is the lack of any documentation: when you buy a keyboard this expensive, there should be some documentation, even if you consider spending the better part of an afternoon trying to figure things out to be fun.

The arrangement of the six macro keys at the bottom of the GKB2010 keyboard are non-optimal (for me at least): while the ones directly under the space bar are easy to reach with either thumb, the ones offset to the right require you to move your right hand a bit in order to reach them. I suppose this is the feature that GAMDIAS has in mind when they claim the keyboard is laid for “right and left handed gamers”, but I think it would work better were all six keys centered under the main alpha portion of the keyboard.

If you’re a fan of keyboard macros, you’ll love the HERMES, as it has by far the most powerful macro software I’ve ever seen on a gaming keyboard. The ability to edit complex macros without having to re-record them is wonderful. The feel of the keyboard is more of an individual thing: I prefer Cherry MX Reds for gaming, but GAMDIAS seems to only be shipping versions with MX Black keys right now, and none of the online vendors offer a choice of key switch types.

Nobody will mistake the HERMES for anything except a gaming keyboard: its massive nigrescent presence, glowing red keys, and yellow GAMDIAS logo make its rationale clear. But that will be just fine with most owners, who like to show their gaming chops. The quality of the keyboard’s construction seems to be very good, with the exception of the messy soldering of the G1-G5 macro keys.

My last comment concerns the wrist rest: it’s actually reasonably comfortable, except that its size renders it very clumsy to use. It’s so large I suspect that few HERMES owners will use it as anything except a keyboard cover.

There are a lot of gaming keyboards out there these days, and some of them are very good. But if you’re a serious gamer, the HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard should definitely be on your radar. It’s expensive– actually, it’s very expensive at MSRP– but it’s a super-functional keyboard. In a previous keyboard review I talked about the difference between gaming keyboards without dedicated macro keys, which have the advantage of being smaller, and gaming keyboards with dedicated macro keys, which trade size for their extra functionality. If you prefer separate macro keys, the excellent editing features in the HERA software make this a standout product, and the GAMDIAS HERMES GKB2010, available for $135.99 (Amazon | Newegg), is something you should consider.

+ Lots of macro keys
+ USB and audio pass-through ports
+ Very good macro recording and editing software
+ Usable on non-Windows platforms with On-the-fly macro recording

– Expensive enthusiast product
– No documentation. Like none whatsoever.
– Wrist rest too large to be useful for most people
– Surprisingly sloppy soldering under left macro keys

• Performance: 9.75
• Appearance: 9.00
• Construction: 8.5
• Functionality: 9.75
• Value: 8.50

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.