GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB Optical Mechanical Keyboard Review
GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB Optical Mechanical Keyboard – How Does It Stack Up?
The GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB Optical Mechanical Keyboard has good build quality and a unique visual appeal that GAMDIAS products have become known for. The Hermes P2 RGB shows that GAMDIAS has the ability to make a quality product, with thoughtful material choice sand relevant features. The ability to record macros with the Hermes P2 RGB is a nice feature to have and the RGB lighting looks great. As far as gaming keyboards go, the Hermes P2 RGB hits a lot of the right marks and the built-in wrist rest and volume rocker are thoughtful extras that round out an attractive keyboard.
While the premise of optical mechanical switches is a good one, I just didn’t quite enjoy the feel of the GAMDIAS Certified Optical Switches when compared to my experience with the Flaretech Blue switches on the Gigabyte Aorus K9 Optical, finding them to not offer the best tactile experience, with the feel being just a bit too inconsistent for my liking. Even though the switches on the Hermes P2 RGB I got were touted as Blues, both the tactile and audible click provided by the switch were weak. By not providing extensive specifications for their switches, GAMDIAS can be loose with their tolerances and provide switches with inconsistent actuation distances. My qualms with the switches could be set aside and I found them to be okay for typing and gaming after an adjustment period, but I never felt like I could type at my best with the Hermes P2 RGB. What I really had an issue with was the HERA software, which was inconsistent and crashed several times. I work with a lot of different peripheral software and my experiences with HERA didn’t leave a positive impression.
Compared to the $139.99 Aorus K9 Optical, the GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB is currently $129.99 on Amazon and offers an aluminum backplate along with extras in the form of a wrist rest and volume control, but the Aorus K9 Optical is the better keyboard in terms of overall value as Aorus includes nine replacement PBT keycaps with their offering, along with nine extra Flaretech switches, allowing users to customize their boards with a mix of switches. I feel a bit more confident with the Adomax Flaretech switch, which is used by three manufacturers (Aorus, Wooting One, Zowie) right now and has specifications readily available. While GAMDIAS mentions that their Hermes P2 RGB keyboard is spill and dust resistant in passing on the product page, they don’t really do so with confidence or make the waterproof functionality much of a marketing point or specification like Aorus did. I soaked my Aorus K9 Optical with a liter of water as part of my testing because Aorus gave me the confidence to do so, but I am just a bit wary to try this with the GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB. The lack of documentation included with the GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB, along with the inability for me to find important information regarding the GAMDIAS Certified Optical Switches was a let down, as well.
The GAMDIAS Hermes P2 RGB is a keyboard with solid build quality and a unique visual appeal, but it’s just not rounded out enough for me to recommend at its current price point, especially when the Aorus K9 Optical is available for less money and offers additional switches, key caps and a better overall user experience. GAMDIAS has been producing a lot of products as of late and not all of them have been hits. The Hermes P2 RGB is far from a total failure and GAMDIAS can easily fix the issues with this keyboard with a few tweaks, starting with the switch supplier.
Legit Bottom Line: The Gamdias Hermes P2 RGB has visual appeal and build quality on its side, but the inconsistent mechanical switches and lackluster overall user experience keep me from recommending it.