Thoughts on the Glorious GMMK 3 65%

For the eagle-eyed among you, you might have noticed a teaser to this with my Model O 2 Mini review where this showed up in the Glorious Core software. This will also cover the Glorious Fox switches as those are what came with the board.

I’ve had the board for about a month now. I got it in the white colorway as I found one as an open box when I was at Best Buy. This is the 65% board as that has largely become my preferred size of keyboard. I never had the GMMK 2 but I do have a 60% GMMK in ISO layout to compare to this model. It’s interesting to see where Glorious started and where they are today.

First, a background on where they started. The GMMK was one of the first mainstream hotswap keyboards to market for a budget price back in 2016. It had an aluminum top shell, and the bottom was plastic. There was no dampening included, and I chose what switches to use. As it was ISO, it also meant that the keycaps were laser etched, painted ABS plastic. I have it paired with Gateron Phantom Yellow switches that I picked up from Keychron a while ago. I’ve also modified that board with some dampening material inside to get rid of the hollow sound which helped significantly. I also lubricated the stabilizers which helped with rattle and smoothness for those keys as well.

The GMMK feels old at this point. It uses micro-USB for instance, something that even in 2019, when I got mine, was a disappointing choice. The keycaps are incredibly cheap. The board looks and feels old with the solid aluminum top housing being extremely rigid and bottom plastic feeling hollow and cheap. It was a great entry into customizing mechanical keyboards, but it also aged extremely quickly with how much keyboards improved since 2019 when it was new. It also is stuck using Glorious’ original software which felt cobbled together and limiting even then.

Nine years later we have the GMMK 3 which was introduced last year. It feels, and behaves, much more like a modern keyboard showing Glorious have learned to improve on the good aspects of the GMMK and to at least keep some attention to where mechanical keyboards had changed. Firstly, unlike the original Compact model, which was a no-frills 60%, the 65% GMMK 3 sports an arrow cluster, page up and down keys, and a rotary knob. The 65% form factor won out over 60% in popularity by having those few extra buttons, so it makes sense seeing it more.

The case for mine is entirely plastic. That is one area that has changed dramatically is that you have numerous options available for the GMMK 3 for case. There are also solid aluminum cases, for a premium, in a plethora of colors. The plastic cases are also available in several colors, including two semi-transparent options of white and purple. The metal and plastic housings can be paired together, allowing for a heavier metal base and lighter plastic top housing or vice versa. Modularity and customizability are much greater design decisions with this keyboard than the previous models. Certainly, a large part of that is it allows Glorious to sell additional pieces for more sales, but it also does offer greater customization than most other keyboards outside of the higher end custom boards from smaller manufacturers.

It also means that they are easier to modify due to that modularity. For the plastic lower housing, there are eight screws under the rubber feet that are designed to pop off. The metal housing uses just four. Once inside, you’ll find the daughter board with the USB-C port with a sturdy cable that can be unplugged from the PCB which floats between the top and bottom housing. There are dampening pads that the PCB and switch plate float on which are firmer stock but Glorious offers softer ones with polycarbonate lower portion and the upper half in poron which has more give.

Relatedly, they offer several plate options with the default being aluminum. The other options are brass, polycarbonate, and FR4, each giving a different typing experience and sound profile. The aluminum plate in mine is adequate but I do prefer a softer feel and the sound of polycarbonate or FR4 over aluminum. Brass will be the heaviest and stiffest but offer clearer resonance than aluminum.

The PCB itself has also improved with the generations. It uses Kailh sockets, allows for both three and five-pin switches, versus only three pin for the GMMK. It still uses north-facing mounting for an emphasis on backlight for shine-through keycaps, meaning some lower profile keycaps may have compatibility issues by contacting the switch housings during typing. I prefer Cherry, and Cherry-like, profile keycaps so that’s disappointing. The stock keycaps are OEM profile, which Glorious uses for their other keycap sets so if you do stick to their ecosystem, you’ll never have that issue. It does mean that the lighting is bright and clear though if that is a priority for you.

The case is fairly well mated. I can feel, and see, the gaps easily but the edges are smooth and rounded such that they don’t feel uncomfortable to touch. The gap is mostly even, with only the rear-left portion of the case having a bit of a lip on the top case. I do like that the top case now hides the switches, getting rid of the floating switch design of the GMMK. A side effect of that is that there’s less light leakage from the switches, which I also like. It’s not the brightest light but it does stand out in a dark room and is bright enough to see in a well-lit room.

It is not compatible with Via or QMK. Customization is done through Glorious Core software like their current mice. There you can set polling rate, latency, RGB effects, update firmware, and set power settings. With the wireless models you can see battery life and the Hall effect boards you can adjust switch settings for those. As I have the wired MX variant, I don’t have those options. You can have multiple profiles saved and active, with an option to link to an online account for more profiles and cloud saves. I don’t have an account for that, and the software is fully functional otherwise.

Typing on it is good. The sound is nice, the feel is smooth, and even at stock the stabilizers are adequate if noisier than hand-tuned stabilizers. The Fox switches are smooth, have a nice sound, and have less wobble than most cheaper switches. At 45g of actuation force, they’re on the lighter end, though you can also get heavier 55g Fox Heavy switches or lighter 35g Ultralight switches. I think 45g is a good middle ground option that most people would find comfortable, with 35g being very touchy especially for heavier typists. The stock lubrication is pretty uniform between switches meaning there’s no switches that stand out as being poorer quality to the rest.

They are designed to pair well for RGB and thus use entirely clear housing, with only the stem in a rusty red color. Interestingly, they also use a 2mm actuation point, standard for most switches but deeper than the 1-1.5mm found in most gaming-focused switches (i.e. Cherry MX Silver). They bottom out at 3.9mm, similar to the 4mm of most switches but deeper than some gaming switches that bottom out at 3-3.5mm. The stem is POM with the housing being polycarbonate, both typical choices as well. The standard Fox switches are 3-pin but Heavy and Ultralight are both 5-pin. They all use standard MX-style cross stems, not box type. At $34.99 for 110 switches, they’re a decent value too, if you want to try them. I don’t think they stand out from the crowd, but that goes both ways. They’re not exceptional but won’t likely disappoint either. They do what it says on the tin and that’s good.

Really, that summarizes the GMMK 3 pretty well. It’s not remarkable in any way. It’s not bad, but not amazing either. It’s an easily customizable mechanical keyboard with its strongest feature being the custom bits and bobs you can order from Glorious to customize the keyboard. Without that, I think it would be almost forgettable as a pretty bog-standard keyboard with decent dampening, hotswap sockets, and nice switches. But it does have a lot of parts available, with “limited edition” ones showing up through Glorious from time to time to give you even more options should you wish. It is nicer than a lot of the budget boards from random brands but also is on par with more expensive options out of Razer, Asus, and such, albeit at only slightly less money.

But, there are increasingly amazing keyboards coming out at even lower prices. And most of those do work with Via and QMK, making them easier to work with. At $120 for a fully built board, I think that’s steep, even if you are buying “into the platform” rather than just a keyboard. I think $100, or ideally $80, would make the most sense for what you get. It’s well enough made to be sure, but in such a competitive market, it doesn’t feel as appealing when you have more interesting and capable options for $120 or less. For instance, Razer’s older optical Huntsman board is $100, and often found at $60-70. The 8bitdo retro keyboard is $100 and gains you a quirky look, TKL layout, and wireless for less. Building your own via Glorious’ website is a nice option to let you fully choose your parts and cut costs slightly from ordering them separately. But, if you pop into Best Buy and pick one up and later want to do that you’re adding a pretty substantial cost, though you do end up with extra parts and potentially some experience with building out a keyboard that could lead you to a truly custom board in the future. It’s a nice keyboard but I think for many they’ll end up seeing how much nicer more niche boards are and use it as a stepping stone to those.