GMMK Pro
Glorious’ first GMMK line, while underwhelming, was still a promising sight for the off-the-shelf availability in “customizable” keyboards. The GMMK Pro sought to cash in on this success but in the, at the time, very sought-after exploded 75% layout, featuring a knob. At its release, it had very mixed opinions, but in general people saw this as a step forward into the accessibility of custom boards and getting people to come aboard. However, it didn’t take very long to see the flaws in the board, and only slightly longer for other brands to get in on the race-to-the-bottom and out-do Glorious, namely Keychron. It was my first “custom” keyboard I bought for myself when I got my first full-time job, so it does have a soft spot in my heart, but it really is a convoluted board.
Design/Aesthetics
The GMMK Pro’s design is a significant step up from the original GMMK line, featuring a more traditional box-on-wedge profile, with an admittedly very tasteful window for lighting lined on either side of the case. Surprisingly, I think the quality of the aluminum is pretty good here. It’s nicely filleted where it needs to be, the anodization is surprisingly smooth, I just wish the back of the wedge were slightly more recessed because the backside is very jarringly cut out to make room for screws. There is also a lack of any weight component in the board, making the entire case construction fully aluminum. However, I oddly never experienced much ping or resonance in spite of this, but it still would have been a nice inclusion rather than the slightly gaudy recession of the name “GLORIOUS” on the back. I think the GMMK Pro is still Glorious’ best design, but we’re not talking a high bar here.
The GMMK Pro is also made in an exploded 75% layout, meaning the navigation column and arrow keys are separated from the main alpha cluster. It also features an F13 F-row and a knob on the top right. One of the few things I have to admit about the GMMK Pro layout is I do think it is the best style of exploded 75%, featuring the full four keys of navigation (I use Home/Pg Up/Pg Dn/End), cleanly spaced arrows, and the F13 to give the illusion of symmetry despite the knob. A lot of the successors of the budget exploded 75% out there omit some of these things in their layout, especially having all four nav cluster keys, and it always rings hollow when one of the most criticized boards in the hobby gets the layout right the first try and nobody else gets it.
Assembly
The GMMK Pro uses an unhealthy amount of screws to keep everything together. By my last count, it uses a whole 23 screws, between the case, the PCB and plate assembly, and the daughterboard. 8 screws hold the cases together, and one for the daughterboard. That means 14 screws are used for the plate, a component that typically uses few, if any screws. 8 screws hold the plate to the PCB on very sketchy tabs rather than proper spaced standoffs, 4 are used to hold the LED diffusers in place, and then two major actual standoffs towards the center of the board. It’s extreme overkill and could have very easily used only the four screws for the LED diffusers, and maybe two for standoffs closer to the edge, but not in the way they they did it on this board. The bizarre bent tabs used on the aluminum plate should never plague a board in the future, between just the poor implementation and the space management required for this.
The GMMK Pro is mounted using what they consider a gasket mount, but in reality it feels more like a sandwich mount because of how absolutely useless the gaskets are. Not only are the gaskets thin and hardly compress, but there’s not even enough space for the assembly to move up and down after compression, so it ends up being more like an isolated sandwich mount, a la the Mode Sonnet’s isolated top mount. It’s incredibly pathetic. They have since released a “flex kit” that lowers the bottom case, but you had to pay extra even if you were a prior buyer of the GMMK Pro, so it left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths.
Finally, the one good redemption of the GMMK Pro is the cable channel for the daughterboard. It’s somehow perfect and few boards even in 2025 replicate it. The combination of the groves running across the channel and the thicker heat shrink of the JST cable keeps its snug in place and not flying everywhere potentially getting caught on hotswap sockets or causing interference. It’s seriously the one good redemption of how the GMMK Pro is built.
| GMMK Pro |
|---|
 |
| Case Material • Aluminum |
| Plate • Aluminum • Polycarbonate |
| Mount • Gasket Mount |
| Included Parts • Glorious “”””GOAT”””” Stabilizers • Plastic Ring Keycap Puller and U Switch Puller |
| Cost • $170 (currently goes as low as $120 often) |
| Release Date • 2021 |
PCB and Firmware
One of the more contentious parts of the GMMK Pro is easily the firmware included with the PCB. Glorious Core, at least when I used it for all of a couple months, is a rotten piece of software that barely functions, recognizes your inputs, and constantly loses your data. It’s somehow worse than the original GMMK software, and the default functions of the firmware are hilariously bad because of how commonplace complaints about chattering were, simply because there was basically no debounce delay to speak of. Fortunately, Glorious also quietly touted the idea that the GMMK Pro was compatible with QMK, after you reflash it. This process is not too hard, but I can also empathize with those who are very wary of flashing firmware with the risk of bricking (which is very difficult but still). Even so, the QMK firmware provided by Glorious is very barebones, with no recognition for the LED functions (again, when I last used their branch), but it does work better than their own proprietary Core firmware.
Typing Experience
As mentioned before, the construction of the aluminum plate uses a comedically overkill amount of screws, and the gasket compression is among the worst out there, making the GMMK Pro one of the most stiff boards to exist that isn’t a tray mount. Omitting the screws for standoffs is of barely any help, and switching to polycarbonate does help a little bit in the flex department, but there is still little bounce to be had. Also fighting against this board’s capabilities are the infamous “GOAT” stabilizers. For the first year or two of the GMMK Pro’s existence, all boards included Glorious’ pre-lubed screw-in stabilizers. On their own merit, they were okay, except for the fact that their pre-lube was horrendously overdone, to the point that many users, including myself, experienced very mushy bottoming out (and similarly mushy and wet sound) as well as troubles with the actual travel itself, where at best it got stuck depressed (same) and very slowly returned, or wouldn’t go down at all. By that point, the standard formula was to replace them with Gateron screw-in stabilizers with a holee mod.
If you can overcome these challenges, you may very well have a resoundingly okay experience with the GMMK Pro’s sound profile. It’s nothing spectacular, but I do think it does hold up better with minimal mods compared to the other budget boards of its time. Personally, I run it with the two most generic picks for the GMMK Pro that existed: Most of the time I run with Gateron Black Inks (this was THE switch of 2021), or with Glorious’ own Holy Panda knock-off, with the aluminum plate, and just some tape on the PCB and PE foam. And it’s surprisingly pretty sharp especially around the mods, albeit slightly plasticky due to the nature of Black Inks. The weakest part of the sound is easily the spacebar, as it’s very closed off and stiff which causes the sound to be very flat and muted.
Overview
The GMMK Pro remains in my collection for two reasons: Nostalgia, and retrospection. Like I said, it’s the first “custom” board I got myself after a good week or two of deliberating what to do with my first paycheck. Similarly, it’s also a great reminder of where the modern era of the customs hobby came from, as lots of things accelerated after 2020 when COVID and its associated isolation started to wane off and the GMMK Pro, while poorly aged, was the catalyst for things as we know it. This board is very easily cleared by most, if not all boards in 2025, but it’s still a nice remnant of what once was, and I still think that other than a few key features, it’s a very classy looking board.
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