The Glorious GMMK Pro is a 75% gasket-mounted keyboard that caters to people who want something nicer than market-ready keyboards but haven’t yet reached deep into their pockets for some nice custom mechs.
Priced at under $200, it has a lot it puts on the table: aluminum casing, hot-swappable 5-pin PCB, a gasket-mounted design (the popular choice), a rotary encoder, a removable cable, south-facing LED’s… It’s the dream. So, of course, I reserved it as soon as I could.
A note for those of you interested in buying the board, what you’re purchasing is a “bare-bones” keyboard. As in, it doesn’t come with any switches or keycaps attached. Those you’ll have to buy separately (Glorious offers a variety of switches and have just launched several new sets of keycaps. The ones you see above are the “Olive” keycaps that they had in stock).
Now, I own two GMMK’s (the original), one of which I received as a gift years ago. It’s one of the first mechanical keyboards I have ever owned and they’re still not bad keyboards. In fact, with its customizability, it’s easily a good entry-level board. The GMMK Pro is a step up from the original and is closer to offering what a lot of custom mechs have; it does a lot with less and gives you more desk space to use for other things.
Here are a few pictures of everything I ordered from Glorious, along with the keyboard:
Let’s talk about those keycaps.
The quality is nice for non-GMK keycaps (these are very expensive and usually bought in group buys) and the colors offer something different than what you usually find on the market.
Here’s a closer look at the “Olive” set on the keyboard:
Here’s a look at the “Ocean” set on an original GMMK:
Really not that bad. I’m quite liking them myself.
Assembly for this type of keyboard is real easy. Just push in the switches (make sure the pins go in correctly and not bent) and then pop on the keycaps. That’s all there really is to it.
For this keyboard, I decided to go with a less noisy switch, the Kailh Speed Copper switches, a tactile (I plan to use this for work and clicky switches tend to distract people when they’re talking on video chat, hence the choice, though I love Kailh Speed Bronzes (clickies) and have them on my Dygma Raise).
Honestly, they feel great on the board. I meant to lube them but decided against it because it felt so satisfying with the Glorious keycaps on them. I don’t think these switches are as popular as some other options out there but I would definitely recommend people try them out.
As for the coiled cable they also offer, I love it. Nothing much more to say about it, really. The black looks great with the black keyboard and it’s very nice for the price (these are $50 but for those unfamiliar with custom coiled cables, they are usually up there in price like GMK keycaps, especially if they have aviator connectors – think about $75 – $100 for a good one).
The next thing on the list is the lube station. Not much to say about it for now since I haven’t had a chance to use it, but I was disappointed to see it had a few scratches on the surface straight out of the box. Otherwise, it’s a good size, good color, and it holds springs, bottom housings, and stems, which a lot of other stations don’t have for some reason. It also has a place for the lube container from their store, a place to hold some brushes, and some other things. I won’t go too much in depth about this but may write a review on it later.
Now for the keyboard case. It’s nice. The end.
No, really, it’s nice, has an orange interior, holds the keyboard well, and, well, nothing much else to say about it. It’s just a good quality case. Nothing terrible, but nothing too special either. I do like the orange, anyway.
Ah, the wrist rest. I love Glorious wrist rests. I don’t know what it is about them; perhaps it’s their firmness, their shape, their height… it just works and works well. This is only regarding their padded wrist rests though. I’ll have to try out their wooden ones to see if they feel just as nice.
And, last but not least, the desk toy, the Glorious Panda. Is it a switch? Is it a panda? It’s adorable and a very nice addition to my desk.
Here’s a closer look:
Look at that face. Oh, the confidence! 
Overall, a very nice purchase. I’m very happy with everything that I got from Glorious and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of it all. Definitely recommend for those in the market for a new keyboard.
Here’s a link to their website if you’re interested: https://www.pcgamingrace.com/
EVERY DAY A MYSTERY 