I’ve reviewed more than 20 gaming keyboards in my five years here at TheGamer, so I’ve learned a lot about how keyboards work and what makes a good one. The keyboards we review from brands likeCorsair,Razer, andROGcome out of the box ready to game, and are built to last, so for the vast majority of PC players, they’re perfectly fit for purpose. But there’s an entire other world of keyboard customization out there you might not know about. There are keyboard enthusiasts who like to customize every inch of their device down to the little rubber gaskets that cushion the space bar; fanatics who build their entire board piece by piece with artisan material and limited-batch parts you have to enter a lottery just to get a chance to buy.
As a keyboard admirer, that world has always been in the periphery for me. I care a lot about the feel, sound, and performance of my keyboards, but turning that into a whole hobby of its own is a little too much for me, a man of too many hobbies already. I can’t deny that a custom-built keyboard with every detail perfectly tuned to my taste is still appealing to me, though, so when Glorious Gaming reached out to give me the chance to test drive its new custom GMMK 3 keyboard, I couldn’t say no.
The GMMK 3 is the gateway between caring about having a nice keyboard, and making nice keyboards your entire personality. It’s customizable in the truest sense. Through the simple and easy-to-use ordering process you can choose everything from the material and color of the frame to the switches and keycaps, to the type of Switch Plate inside that supports the keys, to yes, even the density of the silicone gasket module that cushions the plate. This is the most customizable keyboard out there, and in the end you’ll have a device that matches your preferences exactly.
If you’re not in the hobby, you probably don’t know why you’d even want to customize the gasket module on your keyboard - I certainly didn’t. I’ve developed some preferences for keyboards over the years when it comes to the material of the keycap and the feeling of the switches, and I love customizing colors, but beyond that, I had no idea where to start. Luckily I didn’t need to, because the GMMK 3’s ordering process does a great job of walking you through each part and explaining how the choices will impact the feel and performance of the keyboard in the end. Best of all, if you end up not liking any aspect of your keyboard, you can swap out any part of it on your own, and Glorious offers all the parts a la carte so you can continue customizing once you have the keyboard. Slowly but surely, the GMMK 3 is turning me into a keyboard guy.
I’m in love with the keyboard I designed. I went with an Arctic Blue metal top case and an Arcade Pink metal bottom case, which is a striking color combination I’ve never seen on a keyboard before. For the keycaps, I went with a gradient pattern called Grapefruit which transitions from yellow to pink across the keys, and I matched that with a pink metal rotary knob and a white accent badge. I wasn’t sure how it would all come together, but I love the way it turned out, especially because it’s a design that’s totally my own.
Note: Glorious keyboards use proprietary switches, and while there are parallels to traditional Cherry MX switches, you won’t know exactly what you’re getting if you haven’t tried them before. The GMMK 3 boards come with a sample pack of switches so you can feel them, but you can also order the samples first to test out before you commit to buying a full keyboard.
I’ve had a great time using the keyboard right out of the box since it arrived last month, but when you get a keyboard that’s designed to be tinkered with, you can’t help but do some tinkering. The GMMK 3 features swappable switches, so you can try out different kinds of type feel, or even swap out individual switches on specific keys. It’s something I’d never considered doing before, but I can imagine having smooth, linear switches on certain keys, like WASD and space bar, could be really nice when playing competitive shooters. It’s something I’ve started experimenting with and look forward to testing as I fall down the keyboard guy rabbit hole.
I even took the thing completely apart! Playing with the GMMK 3 has been a real education in keyboard customization, and dismantling it to see how all the parts work together helped me better understand the materials and what I like in a keyboard. The hardcore enthusiasts won’t be impressed by this, but for someone who’s only ever used stock gaming keyboards from the major brands, it’s been eye-opening.
The customization goes even deeper once you get into the software side. The GMMK 3’s Hall Effect switches have custom actuation so you can decide how many millimeters deep a key needs to be pressed before it activates. A feature called rapid trigger registers the pressing and the releasing of the key the moment the action occurs, so you can instant action in both directions. This isn’t just a pretty keyboard you can tinker with, it’s also packed with the best tech you can get in a gaming keyboard.
The deeper you go the more niche the benefits become, but even if all you care about are pretty colors and keys that feel nice to type on, you can still get a lot out of the GMMK 3.Compared to other custom keyboard programs out there, the GMMK 3 offers a much deeper customization experience with more options and better long-term support. If I decide pink isn’t the vibe anymore or I want to switch to clickier switches, it will be easy to find what I want and make the swap.
Whether you want to dip your toes into the keyboard-building hobby or you just want to customize your perfect gaming keyboard, the GMMK 3 is a great choice. Though on the pricey side, and heavier than any keyboard I’ve used before (that’s what I get for picking the metal frame) this is definitely the most beautiful and interesting keyboard I’ve ever used. I wish the angle could be adjusted for more comfortable typing, and I’d kill for an attachable wrist rest like my beloved Corsair K100, but small issues aside, this is still my favorite keyboard to date.
