In August, Drop introduced its first new in-house mechanical keyboard in fairly some time: the 75% Drop Sense75. On paper, the $349 gasket-mount keyboard appeared like a winner, with an understated however elegant design, Drop’s DCX keycaps, in-house stabilizers and its Holy Panda X tactile switches. The last result’s a little bit of a disappointment, although.

Early reviews of the prototypes that Drop despatched out after the primary announcement had been tough. Those prototypes sounded hole, the stabilizer rattled and each the switches and the board itself had points with ping noise. Drop took a few of that suggestions to coronary heart and made some adjustments.

The firm lately despatched me a pre-built evaluation unit (there may be additionally a $249 bare-bones possibility). I didn’t expertise any case ping, and, whereas the board nonetheless sounds a bit hole, the corporate added a second layer of skinny foam that appears to have helped. But I additionally don’t perceive how in 2022, Drop can ship a pre-built board with rattling, dry stabilizers. To make this board sound something like what you’d count on from a contemporary mechanical keyboard, it’s a must to utterly disassemble it, lube the stabilizers and reassemble. But if it’s a must to undergo all of that, what’s the purpose of shopping for an costly pre-built? Who is the viewers for this?

Image Credits: Drop

The Holy Panda X switches are additionally a bit scratchy out of the field. Some Krytox and break-in time can repair that, however I’m not an enormous fan of tactiles and I desire a barely decrease sound, however that’s my private desire. Lots of people love these switches.

In its pre-built model, the aluminum board include an aluminum plate and an aluminum weight beneath (with a small Drop emblem on it). If that’s an excessive amount of aluminum for you, Drop additionally sells a $39 carbon fiber plate and a $25 FR4 plate is at the moment out there as a preorder. Both ought to make the board a bit extra bouncy, one thing it may use, as a result of regardless of the gasket-mount system, this felt like a reasonably stiff board. Drop says that “it took painstaking care to choose the perfect materials, proportions, and placement areas to create a typing feel that was neither too mushy nor too stiff — but just right.” I’m undecided that labored out as deliberate.

Image Credits: Drop

As for the RGB, the south-facing sockets are fairly commonplace at this level and the addition of the diffuser ought to make for a pleasant underglow. In actuality, you may see precisely the place every LED sits — and if there’s one factor that actually feels low cost concerning the Sense75, it’s that diffuser layer, which I used to be all the time afraid I’d break each time I opened the board.

All of this comes right down to the truth that I can’t advocate this board. Sure, after a bunch of labor you can also make it sound fairly good, however there are many different choices available on the market which are extra reasonably priced. The Keychron Q1 is properly underneath $200, absolutely assembled. A bare-bones Akko Mod 007 will set you again lower than $150. A black Sense75 is $350 and a white one $400, with the bare-bones $100 much less. But it doesn’t provide the premium typing expertise you’d count on at that value.

Drop has been listening to suggestions from the neighborhood and I hope they go for a v2 of the Sense, as a result of with some work, it may be a superb board — simply not in its present state and never at this value.