Gamdias Hermes P2 RGB

Deafened by the light

We’ve been really keen to check out our first dedicated optical switch keyboard for quite a while now, and our first experience has turned out to be quite the surprise. We don’t know about you, but when we think optical, we think quiet. Light isn’t known for making too much noise. Imagine our surprise then when we discover that the Hermes P2 RGB is just about the loudest, clickiest keyboard we’ve ever heard. The keyboard features optical switches, yes, but they are Blue optical switches.

Noise aside, the Hermes P2 RGB is an excellent keyboard. The keys have a nice resistance and tactile feedback and feel extremely quick under the fingers thanks to the relatively short actuation distance. The build quality of the keyboard is excellent, with a big slab of aluminium under the switches keeping everything nice and rigid, and another on the face of the keyboard just because. The RGB lighting isn’t exactly best in class, being a little on the dim side, but it does the job. AV and lighting controls are slaved to Fn commands, but the Hermes P2 does feature a nice, solid feeling scroll bar for volume that can be clicked for mute. In addition to the usual N-Key rollover and antighosting that you find in virtually every keyboard nowadays, the Hermes P2 also allows users to hot-swap and replace switches.

While we would have preferred to test one of the other Cherry equivalent optical switch colours – Red, Black or Brown – we still really like the Hermes P2. It’s fast, satisfying, well built and surprisingly affordable. DANIEL WILKS