GAMDIAS has been hard at work in bringing feature-packed, quality peripherals designed to give its users huge value for their money – evident in their well-received products of late such as the Hermes RGB headset and the HEBE M1 RGB headset. The company doesn’t plan on making stops, however, so we can look forward to more of its products that can deliver the same, if not better pack of features and performance. And in that regard, GAMDIAS sent us the Hermes P1 RGB to set the bar higher for affordable mechanical keyboards. Let’s see how it fares.
GAMDIAS has been hard at work in bringing feature-packed,
quality peripherals designed to give its users huge value for their money –
evident in their well-received products of late such as the Hermes RGB headset
and the HEBE M1 RGB headset. The company doesn’t plan on making stops, however,
so we can look forward to more of its products that can deliver the same, if
not better pack of features and performance. And in that regard, GAMDIAS sent
us the Hermes P1 RGB to set the bar higher for affordable mechanical keyboards.
Let’s see how it fares.
PACKAGING
This isn’t our first brush with GAMDIAS’ products, but the
Hermes P1 RGB is the first to visit our HQ so we can have a closer look. The
Hermes P1 RGB comes in quite an engaging boxing design – not too flashy, but
presentable enough to pique your interest and give out pretty much the
important details about it.
Once you prop open the box, you’ll be met by the Hermes P1
RGB itself, plus several inclusions such as a wrist rest and a quick setup
guide. The latter of which probably won’t warrant a read through, but standard
is standard. There’s also a keycap puller right at the bottom, which you likely
won’t be using anytime soon since the keys are easy to pull out.
DESIGN
We’re liking GAMDIAS’ design language with this one. The
Hermes P1 RGB’s aesthetics is easily one of its best traits at a glance –
aluminum face plate graces the front-end of things, which compliments the key
backlights through its semi-reflective surface. The company’s logo also matches
well with the surface, and it adds up to its overall aesthetics if I do say so
myself.
The Hermes P1 RGB also follows the English QWERTY layout.
Take note here – the Windows Key is on the right side by default, while the Fn
key takes its original place. This may look confusing at first, but you can
change the mapping on the Hera engine to give you a quick option for it, and
then switch out the keycaps if you would prefer.
Double-shot keycaps are also featured in the Hermes P1 RGB.
The base part of the keycap is black ABS plastic, while another shot of
translucent plastic is “injected” to provide illumination on the legend of each
corresponding keycap. Each keycap is also individually lit, making room for
further customization on the Hera engine.
The cable is also braided to add up to its durability. And
on the back are the keyboard feet as well as the slot for the keycap puller. Do
note that the holes on the bottom part of the keyboard are made for inserting
the wrist rest. The included wrist rest is easily a welcomed addition in the
packaging, but it gets removed easily so you’ll have to keep it in place. Would
be easier if GAMDIAS went with an interlocking system for this one, since there
are also people who move their keyboards to get a comfortable placement.
PERFORMANCE
The Hermes P1 RGB comes with GAMDIAS’ certified mechanical
switches. The company isn’t really specific when it comes to what switches they
include on their keyboards, but a closer look on the Hermes P1 RGB shows us
that this one uses TTC Blue switches. To give you an idea, these switches feel
similar to Cherry MX Blue switches. Overall, key actuation through the keyboard
feels consistent, and it feels very good to type on with that satisfying click.
It’s a bit more pronounced than the Cherry MX Blue, but not to an extent.
We’ve spent most of our time with the Hermes P1 RGB on Overwatch.
Not much use for macros here, but performance wise the keyboard does a good job
in actuating without any issues. This has been vital for our gaming experience
as conditions of matches are decided on split-second events, and thankfully the
Hermes P1 RGB delivers on this.
It was also our keyboard during our playthrough of
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Not exactly a game where you’d need to be quick
on your wits and make sure you press the right keys all the time, but there are
instances that will call for it such as during battle sequences were dodging can
mean life or death. And our experience during our playthrough was pretty much
decent enough especially during said case scenarios.
SOUND PROFILE
SOFTWARE
The Hera engine is GAMDIAS’ unified software for its line of
peripherals being offered in the market. As evident with the company’s naming
scheme, this one is also named after gods and goddesses from the Greek Mythology.
Basically, the Hera engine works as a primary configuration
hub where you can configure everything from your Macro settings to assigning a
timer to backlight illumination, as well as backlights to each specific keys and
what color you want. Do take note that what you’re seeing in there isn’t a
color slider, so you have to input from the 0-255 range for RGB to get what you
want. It does work for brightness control. And you can also select different
profiles if you have multiple configurations for specific games, and you can
switch back and forth using the Fn key plus the corresponding number.
CONCLUSION
You have to hand it to GAMDIAS for putting the Hermes P1 RGB at a very competitive pricepoint. Its strong set of features designed for multi-configuration is easily a boon for those that require on-the-fly profile switching. The TTC Blue switches also feel great to the touch, and its durability and aesthetics are its strongest suits.
If there's one thing to gripe about, the HERA engine needs a bit more polishing. It's not much of a dealbreaker, but while it does give in-depth the user-interface seems a bit outlandish, with the RGB slider in particular. We'd also do well if we can maximize the UI so it doesn't get out of place when we customize regions of the each button for RGB. And we're looking forward to this in the future.
Overall, our time with it has definitely been worthwhile. Deep RGB customization, solid build quality, and superb typing feel easily makes the GAMDIAS Hermes P1 RGB a strong choice for a mechanical keyboard.
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