I just tried building the keyboard and it actually costs ~$300 including keycaps and switches.
Base $169 is only for the base and MCU I suppose. Quite expensive. Just get a TKL cherry brown from any of the "gaming" brands and it'll serve you just as well. They usually run around ~$110 and include switches, keycaps and cable for the price.
Custom keyboards are expensive. The benefit of the GMMK Pro is you can easily install new switches as it's hotswappable. This lets you have a lot more options for switches than most companies give you. I personally find MX Browns kinda meh.
No, the benefit of the GMMK Pro is supposed to be build quality. There are plenty of cheap hot-swap boards about.
I'm using a Hexgears K705A - it cost me £60, with BOX White switches and cheap double-shot ABS keycaps. That's less than a bare non-pro GMMK. I replaced the keycaps with a pretty expensive set of sculpted PBT's and it still worked out less than a bare GMMK Pro.
> Why so much focus on the keyboard size (at a hefty premium), the desk looks huge and a regular keyboard is much cheaper, and only a couple cm wider.
A large keyboard (TKL or larger) negatively impacts ergonomics. A standard keyboard has to be offset to the left to make room for the mouse on the right.
If you center the letter keys so your shoulders and wrists are square, then your mouse is too far to reach comfortably.
65% keyboards are the ideal middle ground between ergonomics and productivity. You only lose the numpad and 1 or 2 keys from the nav cluster, and you get perfectly centered letter keys.
Yep, I favor 60% and 65% boards with a discrete numpad to the left for this reason. All the utility of a full size keyboard, but much more ergonomic, and as a bonus if I need some desk space I can set the numpad aside temporarily.
I do like custom mechanical keyboards and I am quite "neutral" about GMMK boards.
1. I read on the product's page they are compatible with QMK firmware, which makes possible to configure the keyboard from Linux (and I guess from OpenBSD). Probably the convenient configuration app it's Windows-only, but it seems we are not limited to it
2. That's weird and should not happen. It may be a defect with the keyboard / stabilizers or it may be a problem with the spacebar key (it's bent, twisted or it has been manufactured with the wrong geometry), but definitely it should be addressed
3. My experience is that a proper chair with arm rests and a table at the right height make a wrist rest unnecessary (and it can be counterproductive from a ergonomics perspective)
4. Nothing to comment about the dimming feature
While nowadays you can find all kinds of prices and qualities regarding mechanical keyboards, $169.99 is really "cheap" for an entry level custom keyboard with these features.
My impression is that the keyboard hobby is one of those things you don't fully get until you are into it, it's a dangerous rabbit hole :-)
You can get 75% keyboards for much cheaper. Like you can easily get a mechanical one off Amazon for $50. With the Glorious GMMK Pro you are paying for the metal backplane, the ability to hotswap switches and in theory it should support QMK? Maybe? Depending on which chip it got. QMK would allow it to be configured outside Windows just with more effort.
In his defence, the "regular"/cheap rubber dome keyboards you mention are unusable if you're used to mechanical switches. $170 is around average for something respectable.
I've never understood penny pinching something like a keyboard, it's your interface to the computer and you use it every single working day. A 170$ mech keyboard from a good manufacturer will easily last more than 10 years.
That said, I personally don't trust the reliability of Glorious.
1. Boot into windows to configure it
2. Space bar sometimes sticks
3. Wrist pain because the key height
4. Led lights don't support dimming very well
The keyboard costs $169.99!
Why so much focus on the keyboard size (at a hefty premium), the desk looks huge and a regular keyboard is much cheaper, and only a couple cm wider.