One of the up and comers in the mechanical keyboard market is Durgod, which aren’t
hugely known, but I did see them at Computex, and they had some impressive stuff, especially
with their compact keyboards.
So today we check out the Durgod Hades68 RGB mechanical keyboard.
Inside the box, we have the keyboard itself.
A wire keycap puller.
There’s 2 cables.
A USB-C to USB-A. And then a USB-C to C. There’s some cable straps, and a Durgod sticker.
And there was also a quick start guide.
And straight away, you feel that refreshing cold metal touch.
So no flex with this guy at all.
And being fully aluminium, it does pack some heft coming in at just above 800 grams.
And that’s really the main feature of the keyboard I guess.
Just having an aluminium case puts it in a different category compared to pretty much
all the other prebuilt retail 65% keyboards, which all have plastic cases.
The design is very simplistic.
The bezels are pretty slim, with the top being thicker to accommodate the lock indicator
LEDs, and it just gives it a bit more substance which I like.
But there’s a considerable gap between the keycaps and the case, which is probably just
to show off the RGB lighting a bit more.
Personally a prefer a proper high profile design for a cleaner look, but yeh, that’s
how it is.
And yeh, it’s just a very traditional design otherwise.
No curves, just straight angular lines to give it some angle, so it’ll fit into any
setup.
We have a bunch of rubber feet on the bottom, but no flip up feet which is the norm for
this sort of size, and for aluminium boards.
And the metal info plate is a nice touch.
One of the cutbacks that I’ve noticed is the finish.
It isn’t the best, you can see the machining marks all around the sides.
It’s not super noticeable with its black finish, it’s just when the light hits it
just right.
But the case itself just doesn’t exude quality in my opinion.
Like it’s totally fine, but just not as nice as other aluminium cases.
And there’s also this weird bit here that’s raised slightly, and you’ll see why a bit
later in the video.
Probably the weakest point of the keyboard for me are the keycaps.
The font looks nice and clean which I appreciate.
But these are thin ABS caps that are laser etched.
So the legends will fade overtime, and they’re much more susceptible to shine from your fingers.
I have Cherry MX Silent Red keyswitches, so a light linear switch, meaning that it has
no tactile bump or click, and is dampened.
So paper thin keycaps aren’t exactly the nicest thing to pair them.
Not the quietest silent switch board out there, and the ping on this keyboard is pretty bad.
You may not notice it when typing, or with a louder keyswitch, but it’s definitely
noticeable with this configuration, especially with single hard presses.
But at least it does have good stabilisers with minimal rattle, that don’t make the
silent switch obsolete, because they did lube the stabs.
The really really cool thing about this keyboard though is that it comes with a solid range
of keyswitch options, which is quite the coincidence after my last video.
We have Cherry MX, Gateron, and Kailh Box.
So yeh, that’s awesome.
From what I’ve seen, the Cherry MX versions are a tad more expensive.
But yeh, I mean, the Gateron Blue is very similar to an MX Blue, and the Box White offers
a different clicky experience.
And then Gateron Reds and Box Reds have the edge on MX Reds anyway.
Anyway, back to the keyboard, this is of course a 65%, so it’s like a 60% plus the dedicated
arrow keys, which a lot of people love, and a few nav keys on the side.
And all that additional primary functionality only adds one more column, so we still get
the space saving and ergonomic benefits of a compact keyboard.
And all the missing keys are accessible via the FN keys, so that includes the F1 to F12
on the number row, the rest of the nav keys are on the right side.
And there’s also some media controls.
It’s a very standard 65% layout in regards to keycaps sizes.
So it’s just like the TADA68, which makes the keycaps nice and easy to replace, just
like this.
There’s not a whole lot of variety with backlit keycaps, but I personally like the
look of just having it as a kind of underglow.
And yeh, that brings up the TADA68 as a strong competitor.
The Hades comes in at around $110USD and higher depending on the keyswitch.
While the aluminium TADA68 starts at around $170USD.
So quite a big difference, but the TADA alu case is much nicer quality, finish is better,
and it is heavier if that’s your thing, and it does come with the awesome Cherry profile
keycaps which look amazing.
But then the HADES has RGB backlighting, and 60 bucks is a lot of money, but it seems proportional,
and you’d be happy with both depending on how much you want to spend.
Let’s take a quick look at their software, which is available on their website.
So there’s 4 profiles, default, FN1, FN2, and then combined.
And yeh, you can pick whatever key, besides the FN keys, and change them to whatever,
including being able to move your FN keys somewhere else.
We can also customise what our lock indicator LEDs show, which I don’t think I’ve seen
before, so that’s pretty sweet.
And then we have our macro recording section, where we can record whatever, with delays
as well.
Once you compile your profile or profiles, you can download them onto the keyboard, so
you don’t need to have the software installed to be able to use what you’ve made.
The keyboard is super easy to take apart, with just a couple of Philips head screws
under some keycaps.
Surprisingly there’s this dampening piece.
And that is a surprise because of the amount of ping this keyboard has.
Usually something like that would improve how the keyboard sounds and feels, but honestly
when I tried it with and without, the difference was negligible.
And it is pretty difficult to compare without side by side comparisons.
There’s also this plastic piece at the bottom, and by this cutout, you can tell that there
probably were plans for dip switches, so that’s why we have that weird bump on the case.
And yeh, so nothing there on the PCB.
There’s the SMD RGB LEDs for each keyswitch, and yeh, looks fine.
The plate is made from aluminium, which is pretty standard for aluminium cases, whereas
most plastic boards have heavier steel plates.
Alright, so overall, it’s a metal 65% keyboard, great stabs, with RGB backlighting and a solid
piece of software, as well as coming in a variety of keyswitches which include Cherry
MX, Gateron, and Kailh.
And all of this at a very fair price of 110USD and higher depending on the switch.
This puts it around the price range of the new incoming Ducky One 2 SF.
You get the better software and aluminium case with the Hades.
But I still value typing experience and sound, which I prefer on the Ducky, disregarding
keyswitches.
Unfortunately the keycaps are pretty bad.
Thin ABS, laser etched just doesn’t do it for me personally.
And the whole fit and finish, you can tell that it’s done on a budget.
It just doesn’t have the quality feel.
But that’s something I notice, because I’ve come across so much more, but for many, this
will be an amazing feeling keyboard.
And finally the ping is quite bad, which does get to me.
The other alternative that I mentioned before is the aluminium TADA68, but it is quite a
bit more expensive.
But the difference in quality is quite big.
I think the price sets it up to be a very strong contender in the market.
It has so much going for it at just over 100USD, especially if you want an aluminium case.