With gaming on the rise, we see more and more gaming dedicated peripherals for our PC and even for console. From mouse, keyboards, controllers, headsets, speakers, monitors and more, we’ve seen so many brands flooding your local gaming store.
But I’m sure you know better than buying a sub-1k alleged “gaming” keyboard or mouse. If it’s your first time to buy a mechanical based keyboard and you want to experience a better gaming experience, just remember that switches are important.
One brand that is making a good impression lately is Gamdias. “Wait what?” What is Gamdias? There is relatively a new player in the Philippines, but they have grown presence with good products since 2012.
So meet the Gamdias Hermes E1 combo, it comes with a mechanical keyboard, optical mouse and gaming mouse pad. This 3-in-1 combo is perfect for enthusiasts with a budget, it gives you an overall package for 3 gaming peripherals for a value price.
So let’s talk about the E1 Keyboard first, this keyboard is using an international standard layout with no special keys on the left or right as seen with more premium gaming keyboards.
LED lighting is just RED with 3 kinds of brightness levels and a breathing mode. Unfortunately, there isn’t any customization of lighting effects due to the limited color and modes.
Here’s how the LED lighting works
The mechanical switches used by Gamdias is their own branded switches, but in our experience, the feel and sound of it are similar to Cherry MX switches specifically blue switches.
The trend of an own brand switches has become more popular lately as it gives flexibility to brands to create their own name. But of course, some still prefer a branded switch like Cherry MX but in our experience with the E1, this one gives a solid gaming and typing experience.
As the keys are mechanical, this one uses a solid aluminum plate without any soft rubber at the bottom as compared to other mechanical keyboards. It doesn’t have a lip on the side as well, so you can appreciate more the LED lighting and gives that floating keyboard impression.
How does it sound?
If you’re curious how it sounds, check this clip out. It feels and sounds like the mechanical keyboard we are used to. here we are typing the usual “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” phrase.
So make sure that if you intend to use this for work, you won’t distract workmates in your place.
The cable is 1.8 meters long with brading, even the end of the USB cable has a distinct shape. These are the small details that differentiate a white-label brand to a good brand, a sign that they look into every aspect.
At the bottom of the aluminum plate are two grooves for the quick-attach wrist rest. They are easy to be attached and gives good estate for your wrist to rest on.
The wrist pad is slightly angled as well for better ergonomics along with the whole 6 rows of the keyboard. This results in a more comfortable and recognizable layout, so you can easily type even without looking at the keyboard.
Underneath are two foldable feels to incline the keyboard, along with a quick-access switch cap remover. Pretty neat as other brands do provide this tool, but with no dedicated placement slot for safe keeping.
As for the lettering, Gamdias E1 is a greek mythology based image setup (That’s why the Gamdias logo also spells “ZEUS“). That’s why the name of the product is Hermes E1 and the font used is insured from this image, to be honest, the single letter keys are no problem but we wished that the special keys like Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause break and more aren’t abbreviated for better readability.
As the word “COMBO” suggest, the E1 Keyboard also comes with a mouse specifically the Demeter E2 optical mouse. This mouse has two colors for its LED lighting, red and blue which creates a violet hue when combined.
This mouse also has a 3,200 DPI speed for good travel distance especially for games like Dota 2. It also comes with a Gamdias NYX E1 mouse pad that comes in a standard size, the advantage of this pad is the solid polymer material which assists the optical mouse to glide through with accuracy.
The mouse is lighter than usual with a hard plastic body at the sides and a rubber matte coated buttons on top. Overwall weight is slightly at the mid to bottom part, not that centered but acceptable.
Buttons for the DPI, 4th and 5th buttons are made of chrome coated plastic, we just feel the side button mushy to press and could give you a disadvantage, especially when executing melee attacks in Overwatch.
Customization Experience
All Gamdias products are controlled via their software called “Hera”. The user interface is very graphical but with basic intuitiveness. To be honest, it’s look is kinda clunky with a confusing layout and even the button for the app to close is not clearly indicated. Seems Gamdias tried too much here too and forgot simple user interface fundamentals.
Still, after a few minutes, we finally got used to the software and finally was able to tinker around with the macro key assignment. You can also put up timer settings when needed and here is where you will update software for possible improvements in the future.
Overall, you can set up to 6 profiles as necessary. Recorded macros are also welcomed via shortcut keys Fn+G1 (Space) or G2 (B). This is perfect for unique commands that you need to execute over and over like photoshop hidden shortcuts.
As mentioned earlier, the red LED lighting is very basic with 4 kinds of lighting mode and change of pulsating frequency time. Hopefully, perhaps Gamdias can update this with responsive key press lighting to add flavor.
Still, Gamdias exerts extra effort to provide an all-in-one software for all of their products. Something you won’t encounter to other brands as well, so kudos for Gamdias for making it easier for personalization.
Gaming and Work Experience
How’s working and typing with the Gamdias E1 combo? To be honest, it feels just fine and right. We didn’t see anything super special about the product and us don’t see anything major to give you a turn off as well.
We were able to do our work of writing articles with side games of Overwatch competitive from time to time. Just remember that you shouldn’t really use this keyboard in places/rooms with other people who aren’t gamers, or else the keyboard sound will be annoying.
Conclusion
Overall the Gamdias E1 Combo offers a solid gaming and work keyboard/mouse experience for Php4,790. The Hermes E1’s customization can maximize your experience as well for both work and play, just make sure to set it up properly.
We suggest you get this combo if you are jumping from an entry level setup, but let us say you already have a gaming mouse…then we suggest to skip the E1 and perhaps jump to their more premium keyboards like the P1 with RGB lighting.
We got the Hebe M1 as well paired with the Hermes E1, so it’s kinda weird that the keyboard is only Red LED lighted while you have an RGB themed headset. So if you want to start investing on a gaming arsenal, make sure you decide on the color as well for better aesthetics.
To check out more about Gamdias, check out this link for more details. You can also our review of the Hebe M1 surround sound gaming headphone here. Gamdias is available in major IT resellers nationwide.
