GMMK Pro Review: Glorious Game Changer?

i think i've rewritten this review at least four times so gloria shipped the largest review package i have ever received in the history of the channel it's way too much to cover in one video the original draft of this video was over 25 minutes long so here's how it's going down you put up your 169.99 us and in exchange you get the stock bare bones gmmk pro experience is that the move then i'll cover options add-ons and accessories in a separate follow-up video because there is a lot to unpack there you ready let's go [Music] priced at 169.99 the gmmk pro comes in either slate black or ice white which is actually silver and it comes as a fully assembled bare bones kit so you don't have to do anything to it out of the box to get it ready to go but it's on you to provide switches and keycaps it's currently only available in antsy but the official word from glorious is that iso will be supported in the future i do want to mention too before we really dive in here that glorious got these out to reviewers way in advance i've personally had my hands on this thing for weeks so this is not like a hot take or a first look or whatever you want to call it we've got a 75 layout here that's 83 keys in all so you get to keep a physical function row up top plus your arrows with blocking as well a four key column on the far right and a rotary knob with click functionality the knob is a textured aluminum outer with a plastic internal hub has a light tactile feel to it on rotation and handles media controls by default the case is a monster i mean it's heavy as at like 3.3 pounds or almost 1500 grams it has a footprint that's really not that much larger than a 65 it's cnc machined aluminum with a giant glorious engraved across the back the finish on the case is really clean smooth no blemishes angles are clean sharp no flip down feet you get a six degree typing angle that works great with the wrist rest the height of the case versus the keycap profile does show the edges of the switches the plate is super tough too i've swapped switches out probably like seven times in this board and aside from some paint rubbing off their switch puller which wipes right off plate still looks solid the pcb is hot swap it accommodates five pin switches these hot swap sockets are actually glorious branded and they're installed in such a way that some of the branding is right side up and the others are not just kind of weird sockets here are south facing meaning the led is on the bottom this is generally preferred for proper compatibility between certain switches and cherry profile caps like gmk the downside to this though is that the led being on the bottom means that shine through caps are not gonna light correctly nonetheless you do get per key rgb and these light bars on either side of the case they're not bright enough to throw any kind of glow and interestingly they function as a caps lock indicator by flashing when caps is enabled cable connection here is usbc and it's center mounted like real center too not off center it is recessed enough to not show any of the connector in the case design kind of hides the connection under that top lip as well so the design here is gasket mount versus tray mount like we see commonly on like a lot of the ducky boards gk stuff the drop karina etc before we get into this i have to say at the time of this video the only other gasket mount board i've used is the portico in that review the effect of the gasket mount really bringing some flex to the typing experience is very obvious the entire plate pcb assembly really has some play to it opening it up you'll have the top portion the lower and the mated plate and pcb assembly you need to be careful as that plate assembly has a cable connecting it to the lower part of the case comes off easy but be ready for it so you don't pull it this is probably a good time too to say that glorious really does encourage you to open this board you don't void any warranty or anything opening this up you still have a two-year warranty on this thing inside you'll see we have dampening foam in the lower as well as sandwiched in between the plate and the pcb it's decent foam out of the box but there will likely be some aftermarket options popping up soon enough so on the edges of the plate there are tabs these tabs sit between the same kind of little dampeners or gaskets i guess that we saw on the portico the difference here is that this case is really tight when it's all together so tightly compressed that these dampeners look pretty chewed when i open it up you can also see that the gaskets and the top section of the case are really flat to the frame you can really illustrate what's happening here when the case isn't fully assembled but when you do get the board assembled there's no perception of that plate pcb assembly floating inside the case it's like rock solid very stiff stop it they also include additional dampeners if you'd like to experiment with adding more pad to the top but again it's so tightly compressed that i don't notice a big effect so if you're looking at this board for the gasket mount and you're expecting some kind of flex or bounce there that's not achieved the way this is implemented the board ships stock with an aluminum plate that's matched to look pretty much identical to the case there are brass and polycarb options available aftermarket but they really complicate the discussion and it's a large task to swap the plates in this board so we're gonna save that for the follow-up video let's talk about these goat stabilizers goat greatest of all time why would you do that to yourself a more fitting name would be stabilizers they're actually better than the staffs included on most pre-built boards but they flew a little too close to the sun with the marketing on that one these things come lubed liberally with g-lube and they're still a little rattly which kind of throws shade not only at the stabs but also at g-loop they are pcb mount which was the right move so you can swap them out with some aftermarket stabilizers glorious warns the fit may be really tight with duroc stabs i personally didn't have that issue c3 equals and zeal both worked fine as well i don't have any more grease in the house to test unfortunately bare minimum here you would want to re-lube the wires with something a little thicker i would personally replace these these are going to be close enough i guess for the majority of consumers definitely not enough to satisfy the enthusiast crowd so we heard some prelude glorious pandas that may be coming soon and some banana splits or machos along with a couple of glorious new keycap sets which i'll cover in more detail later as well as gmk phosphorus like i said i've been typing on this board for a few weeks now with the pandas i still get a little ping with the banana splits i really don't hear anything negative at all except for some stab rattle on the spacebar i know we've all heard all the sound tests i enjoy the sound of this board it's muted enough to where i'm not getting anything really negative but i'm still getting enough low end for it to be satisfying to me as for the typing experience i've had no issues there either it is stiff probably more than i'd like stop but we'll talk more about that in the video with the plate comparison the board does have qmk compatibility with via support on the way you can of course use the glorious core software heads up it's still pretty rough or basic i guess in terms of control and remapping it is crucial to push firmware updates though so you should leave it installed for a bit after you get your board i do know that there's a day one firmware push so make sure you at least have it loaded up when you get your board if you did decide to pre-order so talking value when you look at their whole ecosystem approach with all the upsells and add-ons that conversation gets really muddy which is why i tried really hard to reframe and keep this review in perspective if i filter all that noise out and i look at this board purely from here's a hundred and seventy dollars here's the bare bones kit that i get in return it's really hard to not see this as a compelling value if i look at this board versus a similarly spec 500 or 600 board then i could pick apart stuff like the gasket mount implementation the quality of the foam inserts the fact that the knob is not solid brass etc but it's not a 500 bare bones kit i don't even have that perspective i don't own one board in that price range my most expensive board to date is my kbd 75 v2 i paid a grand total of 235 dollars for the kit and the weight no stabs and the gmmk pro is better in virtually every regard mk65 entry 95 bucks aluminum version is 195 kbd lite is 110 portico is 120 icky 68 wired is 130 haven't had my hands on it yet but i do hear good things alt high profile is 190 the idle bow id 80 is probably the closest it goes for like hundred and forty hundred and fifty dollars here we get an all-aluminum design a 75 layout usbc pcb mount stabs hot swaps south facing sockets gasket mount design two layers of foam dampening a rotary knob blocking for the arrows control software qmk compatibility future via compatibility and these are supposed to be in stock all the time with a warranty like you may prefer a different form factor or layout or mounting system or acoustic profile but to argue that you're not getting a lot of value here for a hundred and seventy dollars it's a pretty interesting argument now i will have some much more colorful commentary when we start talking about add-ons and accessories given their track record i also really looked for signs of cut corners or qc issues like those rough looking gasket mount dampeners and the subpar stab performance really the best i could come up with no disconnects no weirdness the hot swap sockets stood up to repeated swaps and i'm sure that glorious went over these boards carefully before they went out to reviewers but i really hope that the quality i have here is consistent with what everybody else receives i'm also sure that based on feedback they've already got and future feedback there's going to be some things they want to change in this if you're dying to get your hands on it right now go for it otherwise kick back and wait for the revisions to roll out but i think they did what they set out to do in terms of making an accessible entry point into higher end customs for the everyday customer i don't think there's a lot with this board that really interests the boutique or high-end keyboard market and i don't think it's going to hurt the high-end market demand usually far outweighs supply in that market and the kind of user that wants to flex with a really rare or really expensive board isn't the kind of user that's going to be interested in a board like this this is the close enough version for the user that can't or doesn't want to prioritize a 350 or 500 bare bones kit just a reminder that that original shipment is delayed due to shipping affiliate links down below if you do want to get your hands on one as always any questions hit me in the comments and that's it for this time i'm brian p thanks so much for watching don't forget to hit that like button hit that sub button and until next time stay up [Music] [Music] you

Channel: BadSeed Tech

Views: 232,298

Keywords: gmmk pro, glorious gmmk pro, gmmk pro review, glorious gmmk pro review, badseed, bad seed, gmmk pro worth it

Id: 7kLDapkRDXM

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021