Glorious Modular Mechanical Keyboard review - The Switches

Switches

Speaking of switches, if you’re not familiar with the different types of switches you can get, there are many resources out there. We could definitely get way off track talking switches. Basically, there’s just three types for MX switches, linear, tactile, and clicky. GMMK comes with soft tactile Gateron Brown switches. Gateron has become a major supplier of MX compatible switches, and for good reason. Original Cherry MX switches tend to have a grainy feeling to them for the first couple million activations. Gateron switches, due to the type of plastic used for the stems and slightly wider tolerances, have a smoother typing feel to them almost immediately. Compared to authentic Cherry Brown switches, the Gateron Browns feel slightly softer, and slightly smoother. I’ve tried several flavors of Gateron switches, and that’s pretty much it, smoother, yet a little more wobbly. And, yes, along with the GMMK, Glorious also sells Gateron switches, in packs of 120 for $40. That’s good deal, actually.
  

 
Gateron also has expanded the range of switches not found in Cherry’s lineup, including fluffy light Clears, to the Yellows, which are a midpoint between MX Red and MX Black in force. I like the Yellows a lot, but I’m also eager to try out some Zealios (purple stemmed Gaterons with custom spring and slider). With the GMMK, all I got to do is buy the switches and pop ‘em in. I won’t need a yard of desoldering tape, and I can always reuse them for another project, like an Ergodox, some time in the future.

Stabilizers
  

 The GMMK uses Cherry stabilizers on the larger keys. Cherry stabilizers often have the wet newspaper feeling when you bottom out the enter or shift keys. It’s fairly tamed in the GMMK. It’s not perfect, but it’s still there.

On the other hand, if you’re popping keycaps off and on, you’ll really appreciate the Cherry stabilizers. The other type of stabilizer is the Costar type, which require careful pulling of the cap or you’ll damage the plastic tabs or the wire. They do feel better under the fingers, but not practical for the GMMK.

Keycaps

  
The GMMK comes with another rarified feature, double-shot, backlit, ABS keycaps. For a set of stock keycaps, they kind of rock. They appear to be in OEM profile, a little bit like a tall DCS Cherry profile. A few other reviews have panned these keycaps for being easily scratched and feeling cheap. I do not think so, the GMMK’s default keycaps are actually a highlight in a few ways. I normally type on either my Realforce 87U EK Edition or my Filco Ninja MX Brown with IMSTO keycaps. Both of these keyboards have exceptional quality PBT keycaps.

What makes a quality keycap, you ask? Oh, so glad you asked. First is material, ABS or PBT plastic, then, how thick it is, up to 1.5mm thick for generous PBT keycaps. The difference there is that PBT is a very durable plastic that resists polishing and finger gunk very well, and ABS is softer and will ‘shine up’ much faster than PBT. The GMMK’s keycaps are already shiny, so, meh.
  

 
Lastly, the GMMK’s keycaps are double-shot, where the keycap is made from two pieces of plastic, one of which forms the lettering, or legends. Most keycaps in the world are simple pad printed that will rub off within a year. You’ll never wear off a double-shot keycap legend. Coming from regular pad printed keycaps, the GMMK’s keycaps are like a holy grail. For the price of the GMMK, this is ridiculous.
  

 
That’s another feature, the number row has the special characters printed next to the number, so as to be illuminated by glorious light.
  

 
The GMMK’s keycaps have very shiny sides, of course, this I assume is to catch even more of the glorious red LED light. They also have some additional printing on the caps to show the extended functions, like audio controls, calculator, and the all-important backlight settings. Inside of the larger keycaps have shaved spots to allow the keycap to be unhindered when pressing. Nice.

There’s other ways to produce backlit keycaps, a white key with black dye sublimation for example, but to have a stock set of double-shots at this price point is pretty amazing. So, no, these are great keycaps.