I was really liking my time with the Hexgears Gemini Dusk until the software section came up. If the company had only dedicated some more resources to making the open-source firmware more user-friendly, things could have been very different. Nearly every review online describes the poor software experience, and several have noticed the lack of any updates for months now. This is never a good sign for a brand that wants to build itself up in an extremely competitive market, and certainly not one that works in hand with the likes of Kailh and Input Club. Some of the fault lies with Input Club, too. By catering to the group-buy market, there have presumably been fewer hands on deck to do anything else. The Input Club configurator, which the Hexgears tool is based on, is equally challenging for the average end user to use.

To be clear, the configurator works. You can still remap the functions on the keyboard over seven layers, record and assign macro keys, enable per-key lighting on every single LED, and also control side lighting separately from the LEDs dedicated to backlighting. It's just that when you ask someone to press a button or key combination and have them flash the firmware, it is far less intuitive and immediately alienates a lot of the potential customer base. Then you have a UI that can be frustrating to deal with despite the associated wiki. The lack of first-party support also means that expecting any updates/bug fixes/feature drops is futile, and why would anyone else then take the time to create another software experience for the keyboard if the manufacturer will not?

Is it bad enough a fault to overlook all the good things about it? At $160, I have to say I am more critical of this issue than I would be if the cost was lower. A few simple things would have improved the poor user experience. Instead of a single card to take people to the wiki, maybe include a printout of the pre-programmed controls on layers 1 and 2. This simple step alone would have probably stopped many a headache since the Gemini Dusk actually has a lot of onboard functionality, though hidden behind multiple layers. There are some obvious omissions as discussed on the previous page, but enough is there to where most of the software issues can simply be ignored altogether by not bothering with the configurator in the first place. If priced at, say, $120–$130 without any mention of the software support, I would have wholeheartedly recommended the Gemini Dusk, or Dawn. At $150+, it is competing with mainstream offerings as well as smaller higher-end brands that do better in 2021. The feature set of the Gemini Dusk was great in 2019, but has become more common in 2021 to where it needs to do more to remain competitive, beginning with continued software support!