INTRODUCTION

   Black Friday came and went and although crowds were forming outside of consumer electronics stores all over the world i found myself sitting in the office testing several gaming peripherals with some of the latest titles to hit the PC including Need For Speed Payback, Call Of Duty WWII, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Operation Blood Orchid and Middle Earth Shadow Of War. The reason i even mention black Friday (can't say i was impressed with the offers we had here, hope it was different where you're at) is because leading to this day several friends (and even some of our readers) reached out to me and asked my opinion regarding mechanical keyboards. Some wanted to know which i believe is the most durable while others just wanted one that had a "special" keystroke similar to that of a typewriter. Well as it so happens GAMDIAS just send their latest product lines to us a couple of weeks ago including their new Hermes P1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard which i think will interest many of you.

   GAMDIAS emphasizes on the fundamentals, complemented with creativity and service. GAMDIAS Technology was founded in 2012, successfully creating the gaming brand known as GAMDIAS. Not only do we aim to set the bar for quality and practically, but also to go above and beyond in our designs. Further supplementing our motto: Gaming Art in Motion, we will continue to invest heavily on designs, transcending GAMDIAS products to an artistic pantheon.

   The Hermes P1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is a feature-rich model that comes ready with a 32-bit Cortex-M3 ARM processor with 72kb of built-in memory (for its onboard profiles), 16.8 million colors (RGB) customizable backlighting for all of its keys (with 13 effects), anodized aluminum faceplate, full n-key rollover (NKRO) with 100% anti-ghosting, 1000Hz polling rate, on-the-fly macro recording (2 macro keys), detachable wrist rest (GAMDIAS calls it the quick-attach wrist rest) and mechanical blue switches made by TTC (Trantek Co) rated for up to 50 million keystrokes (50/60g actuation force). The Hermes P1 RGB is actually the very first model to arrive in our office that features TTC mechanical switches so there's not much we can say about them other than they also manufacture black, red, brown, yellow and dark green switches (not available however with the Hermes P1 RGB).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

GAMDIAS has placed a large product picture at the front of the box along with its main features and a picture of the included key puller.

Some of the features are also showcased at the base of the box with the help of three pictures.

The features list is printed at the rear of the box in 8 languages right next to the specifications, bundle contents and system requirements.

A synthetic cover and two black pieces of foam are used to keep the keyboard safe during transport.

Along with the Hermes P1 RGB and its detachable wrist rest you will also receive a keycap puller and a quick installation guide.

THE HERMES P1 RGB

 Measuring 448mm in length, 156.6mm in width and 36.9mm in height the 1.3Kg heavy Hermes P1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is a mid-sized model (it also features a 1.8 meter long braided cable).

GAMDIAS has used a floating keys design which simplifies cleaning.

The product name is printed at the right top corner.

F1 through F9 double as media navigation keys (F11 can be used to lock all keys) while 1 through 6 also double as the profile selection keys.

The space bar and the letter B also double as Macro keys.

You can control the RGB lighting effects (including speed, direction and rotation) from the insert home, delete, end and page up/down keys (combined with the Fn key or course).

The WASD letters are also placed over the arrow keys.

From the 2 and 8 numbers of the keypad you can decrease and increase the backlight brightness levels.

Here we see the TTC blue mechanical switches.

At the base of the Hermes P1 RGB we find 5 rubber feet, two height adjusters and the keycap puller.

The height adjusters raise the top end of the keyboard roughly 15mm from the desk.

GAMDIAS has placed two holes on each lower side of the anodized aluminum faceplate.

This is where the wrist rest gets mounted and extends the width of the Hermes P1 RGB to 202.4mm.

HERA SOFTWARE

 
The HERA software by GAMDIAS can be downloaded from their support section as seen above.

This is a unified driver/control software so once you launch it you will see a screen which has other GAMDIAS peripherals listed as well.

From within the HERA software you can program each and every single one of the keyboards keys, create macros, adjust the backlight key illumination (3 different ways and a total of 13 effects), assign sounds and/or a timer to any of the keys (custom sounds are also supported), create your own sounds (or edit the existing ones), setup the timer and finally you can check the firmware and product versions installed.

In the above two pictures we have placed the minimum and maximum brightness levels of the keys.

We've also placed some of the available colors one can set the Hermes P1 RGB with.

AUDIBLE FEEDBACK

Many people ask my opinion on what keyboard they should get for their needs. Some want a “silent” model for use in their living room or even in their bedroom while others ask for a model with good audible feedback for use in the office or for gaming. Because of this I decided to test keyboards by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically over each keyboard (5cm distance) and typing NikKTech a total of 6 times with each (after that the max recorded number - max hold - is placed in the graph). I have to admit that this may not be 100% accurate but it does give a good idea on what you can expect from each model since aside the type of switches used keycaps and keyboard material also matter.

CONCLUSION

   We haven’t had a keyboard from GAMDIAS for almost 2 years now so having the chance to test many of their latest gaming peripherals was a nice “surprise” for all of us. Now about the Hermes P1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboards it has some things we liked and some we didn’t like as much. For once build quality is quite good, it may not compare to what we’ve seen from the top lines by Corsair but it’s quite good and the top anodized aluminum plate adds to that. Moving to the TTC blue switches we can’t comment on their endurance/durability but they are the closest ones we’ve ever used to mimic the sound of a typewriter and thus you will either like them or hate them, I don’t think there’s a middle ground. Personally although their impressive audible feedback helps type faster compared to other keyboards the sound is way too much for my ears and on top of that I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t want to annoy people sitting close while you write. The RGB illumination is also very good and the same applies for the brightness levels of the keyboard. The HERA software may not be the easiest to use ever but it’s very detailed and has more available settings than most. Our main issue however was with the detachable wrist rest since it’s quality is not that good and ontop of that it doesn’t mount well on the keyboard so if you even move the keyboard a bit chances are it will come/fall out. I don’t know why GAMDIAS chose to use that wrist rest type but my hope is they will not in future models.

   Currently the Hermes P1 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by GAMDIAS retails for USD99.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 100Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag that places it next to several similar models. Long story short if you’re out in the market for a good quality RGB gaming keyboard the keys of which actually sound like those of a typewriter then you should really consider the Hermes P1 RGB by GAMDIAS.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- TTC Blue Mechanical Switches (50 Million Actuations)
- Full RGB Key Illumination (13 Effects)
- 6 Available Profiles
- HERA Software (Available Settings)

CONS

- Detachable Wrist Rest