Glorious Gmmk 3 Pro HE 75% mechanical keyboard long-term review: The natural typing experience that doesn't come cheap

Sent for our honest impressions were: 

• The Gmmk 3 Pro HE keyboard with a set of translucent black key caps (German QWERTZ layout) and Hall effect Fox HE red switches;
• 3 sets of Panda HE orange switches (108 switches in total);
• a 115-key set of green "Rain Forest" non-translucent key caps (German QWERTZ layout).

While a wireless version of the keyboard does exist, the version tested here needs a wired USB-C connection to function. Both USB 2.0 and USB 3.x will do.

This is a pretty thick keyboard, and it's rather wide, too. It's about as wide as a modern 14-inch laptop with slim display bezels.

• Weight (Glorious data): 1.8 kg or 3.97 pounds;
• dimensions (Glorious data): 338 by 152 by 44.5 mm or 13.3 by 6 by 1.8 inches.

On the back of this Glorious keyboard, there is a single USB-C port, a 2-position macOS ↹ Windows mode switch and a 3-position user profile switch. There are no ports or switches on the front or the sides.

The black case of the 3 Pro HE is very, very heavy. It consists of a super-tough metal base and a moderately heavy upper piece which is made out of metal, too, with the PCB carrying switches and LEDs and controllers and everything sandwiched in-between. (To be more specific, the PCB is screwed on to a comparatively thin sheet of black metal, for good measure.) The base portion looks like it could deflect a bullet - Glorious could probably have shaved quite a few grams off the overall weight by making the thing slightly thinner.

There are multiple foam and rubber pads inside the case to reduce the risk of friction-induced wear. The shiny accent near the volume knob looks exquisite but is overly reflective which may pose a problem depending on the placement of the keyboard relative to the monitor.

There is no distinctive smell to the keyboard or the green key caps. Both the black and the green key caps seem well-made and nice to the touch.

Glorious makes no lofty sustainability/nature-friendliness claims which is unusual to see in 2024. When asked about it, a representative of the company said that they want the 3 Pro HE to be "the last" keyboard one will ever have to buy due to how well-designed, durable and long-lasting it is. While I mostly agree with that statement, I can't help but point out that the small clips holding the switches in place are easier to break by accident than I personally would like.

The key caps that Glorious sells are all made out of plastics with no exotic options such as metal or glass.

This Glorious keyboard will work just fine with any device that knows what a keyboard is, including vintage systems running Windows 2000 or any other OS that hasn't received an update in years. This is exactly why the product has a user profile switch on the back; three profiles are more than enough to store one's favorite settings.

If you want to be able to fine-tune the keyboard's behavior on the fly, you'll need a compatible OS. For Windows users, that's Windows 10 and Windows 11. I did try to install Core on a 64-bit Windows 8.1 machine out of curiosity; the installation was completed without any error messages but the app itself wouldn't run. macOS compatibility wasn't tested.

The Glorious Core is a ~460 MB download that, surprisingly enough, takes up a very similar amount of RAM. You can create an online account to sync settings between several computers but Glorious doesn't force one to do it, thankfully. By default, the software is set to run every time Windows starts; there is a setting to disable that but on my main system running Windows 11, said setting did not appear to be functional, forcing me to turn to Task Manager to achieve the desired outcome instead.

The app offers a lot of settings, including ones that gamers will definitely find interesting. Every time a setting is changed, one has to click the Save button on the right to apply the changes which is a little annoying.

One of the many things that Core can do is remapping keys; I asked the Glorious representative if the company plans on introducing the CoPilot key to its keyboards any time soon and the answer was a solid no, however, her suggestion is to just use the remapping functionality if one needs a dedicated CoPilot key, or any other key, for that matter. I have not tried doing that.

Naturally, Core allows one to change the backlight color and intensity (per-key color assignment is supported) as well as choose between a dozen or so lighting effects. All this works fairly well except for the fact that it's virtually impossible to get a specific color. No matter how hard I tried to make the backlight display the color of a ripe orange, I kept getting various shades of yellow. My main system has a 100% sRGB screen with reasonably true-to-life colors, so pointing an accusing finger at it isn't an option. What looks like the color of a ripe raspberry on my screen turns into a shade of purple on the keyboard once I hit the Save button. It's not a major issue but for a $300+ product, this sure is unexpected.

Some of the backlight effects look absolutely stunning, such as "ripple graff" and "fast run without trace". Eventually, I made it continuously display a single color because, while a bit boring, this option is the most useful one for doing work. Needless to say, the backlight can be turned off entirely if needed.

The unit tested here has a 75% QWERTZ layout (81 keys in total) which requires a bit of getting used to if, like me, you've only ever worked with QWERTY keyboards in your life. Glorious also sells the Gmmk 3 Pro HE in the UK English, US English, French, Nordic, Arabic and Turkish layouts.

On to the typing experience. This is probably the most important section of the review; people tend to buy mechanical keyboards either to game on them or to type thousands of words on them every day - not to marvel at backlight effects. And in this regard, the Gmmk 3 Pro HE absolutely delivers.

The default red switches work great for typing. They aren't as quiet as your average membrane keyboard is, that's for sure, but then again Glorious does not advertise this product as a silent keyboard.

I like the orange switches a lot less. It's mostly about the sound; they are easy to press and the feedback is more than decent but I don't like the sound. The same goes for the other 2 models of switches that I have access to. Below are several samples recorded with the same device and at the same distance.

With laptop keyboards becoming ever more shallow, full-size mechanical keyboards might seem like the solution to the issue of tired fingers and lower-than-desired productivity. On that front, the Gmmk 3 Pro HE actually delivers; the software is solid, the range of customization options is bewilderingly wide and most importantly, typing experience is very, very good. However, at well over $300, this pleasure does not come cheap, and those who like their typing experience silent or near silent should probably look elsewhere.