In the world of keyboards, there are a ton of fantastic options that suit everyone. Most enthusiasts will probably want to build their own, but if you're like me, you type a lot and don't really care about spending a lot of money and time on something custom. That's where the Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE comes in; in the same way that you can buy a prebuilt PC with the idea that you can upgrade it over time, the GMMK 3 Pro HE does the same thing. You can build it to be whatever you want with Glorious' Boardsmith to create a custom board, or you can buy a prebuilt and swap things out later down the line.

With this keyboard, the worst thing about it is the price. You're looking at pricing from $120 for the basic GMMK 3 all the way up to nearly $600 for the fully kitted out 100% GMMK 3 Pro HE Wireless. That's a very steep asking price for a keyboard, and you'd need to know exactly what your long-term plan is for this keyboard if you were to purchase it at that price. It's one of the best gaming keyboards out there, but there are a lot of caveats to that which make it difficult to recommend to a lot of people. I'm using this keyboard out of the box, without any modifications made to it.

Also, throughout the course of this review, my GMMK 3 Pro HE stopped working, with keys repeating as I typed before the keyboard itself entirely stopped working. I received a replacement keyboard from Glorious and have only had one instance of keys repeating since, but so far, it's been a significantly better experience. I've no reason to believe that this is a widespread problem that will affect you if you buy this keyboard, but it's something still important to mention as it occurred during my review period.

About this review: Glorious sent us the GMMK 3 Pro HE Wired 75% for the purposes of this review. The company had no input into its contents.

Pricing and availability

As already mentioned, the GMMK 3 basic model starts at $120, and you can spend nearly $600 for the highest-end kitted-out GMMK 3 Pro HE Wireless. It's a tall asking price, but if you want a keyboard that's easily modified, then any of these GMMK keyboards are great for you.

Build quality and design

The typing experience is excellent

The GMMK 3 Pro HE that I'm using comes with Glorious Fox HE switches, which come pre-lubricated and require 45g of actuation force. They're linear magnetic switches and come in a clear housing so that RGB colors can shine through. It's a full aluminum build which adds to the weight of the keyboard, coming in at roughly 4lb. As well, the aluminum switch plate can be swapped to change keystroke acoustics and the haptic feedback that you experience. Oh, and you can even use a mixture of mechanical and HE switches if you'd like.

The most frustrating part of this keyboard, overall, is the design. While there is no "standard" for a 75% keyboard, the placement of the "Delete" key alongside "Page Up", "Page Down," and "End" is incredibly frustrating. Rather than being placed above the enter and backspace keys, they're placed on the right-hand side of the keyboard going from the top to the bottom. It takes getting used to, and I haven't seen any other keyboards that use that layout, either.

Above those buttons is a volume knob, and pressing the volume knob mutes and unmutes the computer. The Glorious Core application is meant to make it possible for you to change that, but I haven't been able to so far. I've been able to change Page Down to be a key that skips to the next track, but I haven't been able to set the volume knob to pause/play when I press it.

The keyboard has a fully RGB backlight, and you can switch between Mac mode and Windows mode using a switch on the back. There are also keycaps in the box so that you can add a visible command button and an option button, but those buttons will obviously work without the keycaps, too.

As for the sound, the GMMK 3 Pro HE has a pretty divisive sound. I really it, but there are plenty of people out there that really hate it. I'd recommend checking out some videos to hear how it sounds to see if it's something that you like, dislike, or simply don't care about.

Controls and software

The Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE is controlled by the Glorious Core software, and I have several gripes with it. As far as applications for controlling peripherals go, it's nowhere near the most bloated or janky that I've used. However, there's a lot to be desired, and the software itself is pretty barebones.

To start with, the software is extremely basic, both in its looks and in what it can do. It's used for updating firmware, modifying keybinds, and changing other options like lighting and actuation points. However, the menu you'll likely spend the most time in is the keybind menu, where you can set custom controls for different applications, volume levels, shortcuts, and more.

With the Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE, the volume knob at the top right will also mute and unmute Windows audio when you press it. I wanted to change this to pause media and play media, as my headset (the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless) already has a keybind to mute Windows audio. However, no matter what I tried, I couldn't override this functionality. Even though I've changed "Knob Push" to "Play/Pause", it still mutes and unmutes my Windows audio.

Aside from that, I haven't had any other problems with keybinds with this keyboard, There are macro options that you can configure and save to a key on your keyboard, where you record the action you want to do and the keyboard will replay it back for you. It's a pretty barebones piece of software that does what you'd expect it to do, and for some of the keybinds (like specific application integrations), you'll need to keep Glorious Core running in the background.

Should you buy the Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE?

The Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE is a keyboard for enthusiasts first and foremost, but there are some caveats to that. Most keyboard enthusiasts will probably build their own keyboard, but in the same way as you would get with a prebuilt PC, sometimes it's just easier to buy a prebuilt one even if it costs you a little more.

It's incredibly customizable on a hardware and software front, has hotswappable switches, Rapid Trigger, custom deadzones, and a lot of different kinds of keycaps that you can choose from. It's a pretty tall asking price, but to me anyway, it's a premium-feeling keyboard that I love using and typing on. As for the technical problems that I've experienced with it, Glorious has been pretty on top of things, with a user on Reddit experiencing a problem with theirs and getting things sorted very quickly.

This particular model that I've reviewed is $288 at the time of writing, which isn't that bad of a price to pay for a premium keyboard like this. With how upgradable it is, it could theoretically be a keyboard that you keep for a long, long time, making small adjustments and changes over time.

This is undoubtedly a controversial keyboard thanks to its price, but it definitely has a specific type of consumer that it's aimed at. If you're eyeing up building your own keyboard, should you buy the GMMK 3 Pro HE instead? Probably not. If you've always wanted something a little bit custom or something you can customize in the future, should you consider it? Definitely, as it takes a lot of the legwork out of it for you and makes it easier. It certainly comes at a premium, but sometimes paying for convenience is worth it if you can justify it.

You should buy the Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE if:

• You want a sustainable, customizable keyboard
• You want a high-quality keyboard without going all-out building one yourself
• You care about good customer support

You shouldn't buy the Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE if:

• You're price conscious
• You're worried about software problems in the future