No unboxing today, as this is a pre-production unit from Drop, formerly known as Massdrop.
Interesting choice, but yeh, if you know Massdrop keyboards, they have the ALT, CTRL, and now
the SHIFT.
And surprise surprise, it’s basically the same thing, but bigger.
As it is a pre-production unit, it isn’t the final product, and therefore things are
subject to change, however, I can only review what I have in front of me.
And I’ve been told that it will come with the same contents as the previous boards,
which includes a keycap and keyswitch puller.
The ALT was the 65%, the CTRL was the tenkeyless, and they’ve completed their range with the
full sized, however, they didn’t go with the usual standard 104 or 108 key layout,
they’ve gone the 1800 route, and I’m super glad that they did.
The 1800 layout isn’t a common one.
For retail boards the most known one would probably be the Leopold FC980, which is similar,
but not exactly the same.
But it follows the same concept, in making a full sized keyboard, more compact.
And this is done by combining the nav cluster and number pad, and then squeezing in the
directional arrow keys.
This results in a keyboard that is only about 1 column longer than a tenkeyless, but about
4 columns shorter than a standard full sized while keeping majority of its primary functionality.
So there’s 102 keys, verses 104.
The right control, and menu or windows keys are gone.
And the right shift is the typical 1.75u key seen on compact layouts.
And the 0 on the numpad is now a 1u key.
We will of course be able to program this keyboard, so you can change around keys, assign
macros and all that good stuff, as it is QMK configurable just like the other models, but
I can’t do that at the time of this video.
The SHIFT retains the same aesthetic, so we have this pretty dark look with the grey and
black keycaps, and the dark grey aluminium, which makes up for majority of the keyboard.
So we have the solid aluminium mounting plate, then plastic below that to allow for the sideglow
lighting, and then the aluminium base.
It is a floating key design, so the switches are exposed from the sides, and this is something
that you either can take, or you just don’t like the look, and in my opinion, it doesn’t
look as clean as a high profile design.
But as always looks are subjective.
But there’s something about a floating key design, and this 1800 layout.
I don’t know, it just looks a bit weird to me.
Like the layout will already look a bit foreign, but with that big gap between the number row
and the function row, the low profile design just doesn’t really look right to me.
It looks a bit too big of a gap for some reason, maybe because of that depth left by not having
something cover the switches, and yeh, it’s hard to explain, but it just seems a bit off
to me.
Something even more ambitious would have been to fill that gap, with macro keys or whatever,
but that’s something no one would really expect.
But as a layout, I do love having pretty much everything on the keyboard for primary accessibility,
in about a tenkeyless size.
And it is a brave choice, but I commend them for doing so.
Beneath the top aluminium piece, we again have the plastic, but on this model, it is
pretty clear, like it isn’t really frosted or anything, therefore there’s hardly any
diffusion as we can see.
I think to make it look a bit more even, they did increase the amount of LEDs, by quite
a lot actually.
But I definitely would have like to see better diffusion, but this is subject to change.
On the rear there’s the 2 USB type C ports, which makes things a bit easier depending
on where your computer is.
And we can also use it for other devices, and for charging and stuff.
On the bottom the finish is a bit different here, and there’s no branding on this one,
but I think that’ll go back to normal on the final product.
There’s a bunch of flat rubber feet, AND, the main gripe that I had with the CTRL were
the absolutely terrible magnetic feet that fell off way too easily, so it’s awesome
to see that they’ve fixed it now.
And all it took was to have 2 magnets, instead of one.
It’s super sturdy now.
If you try and just pull upwards, they’re very very difficult to remove.
You have to push pretty firmly sideways to take the feet off.
So now I can slide this across the table, and they won’t come off anymore.
And by having magnetic feet, we can switch them to the other side, which gives us negative
angle.
Negative angle is all about natural wrist and hand positioning, as it prevents your
wrist from angling up.
It takes a bit of getting used to, but I always enjoy being able to use negative angle once
in a while, also because it’s so rare to see.
The keycaps are the same as the old ones.
They’re pretty rough PBT keycaps, and are doubleshot, so the legends are another piece
of plastic and will never fade away, and they’re seemless so they look quite clean.
And that allows for that RGB backlighting to shine through nicely.
The backlighting will be fully customisable when that is supported.
A huge feature of these keyboards, and what makes them more appealing to a wider audience,
is the hotswappability of the keyswitches.
You will receive a keyswitch puller in the box, and to remove a keyswitch, you just squeeze
the switch tabs inwards, and wiggle it while pulling up.
And they should come straight out.
The PCB accepts plate mount switches, so if you have PCB mount switches that have these
plastic prongs, you’d need to cut them off.
I wish it did accept PCB mount though, as it provides that bit more stability, as the
switches are of course not soldered in.
For a keyboard like this, which is aimed at a larger audience, but is still marketed as
a premium keyboard, hotswap sockets are awesome.
There’s no soldering work to be done, like if you wanted to swap out the keyswitches,
that would usually void your warranty, and you’d need all that soldering equipment.
But with hotswap, it’s so easy.
You could go from linear, to tactile, to clicky, in not much time at all.
I received Kailh Speed Copper switches.
I’ve been told it will also be available with these switches here.
And also as a barebones keyboard with no switches or caps, which I assume will be cheaper.
Opening up the keyboard is super easy with a bunch of screws on the bottom.
On the CTRL they were TORX head screws, so they’ll probably be those on the final.
The bottom aluminium piece just closes it up, and is 2.1mm thick.
The 4 magnets which are now larger, aren’t mechanically fastened here, it’s just the
feet keeping them in place.
The middle plastic section to show off the side LEDs has a bit more to it now since it
is a bigger board.
The aluminium top piece is pretty much exactly the same, and we can see why we don’t get
much diffusion for the LEDs, because there just isn’t any room, with about a 4mm bezel.
And then sideglow LEDs are plentiful to make it a bit more even.
The PCB is super clean, so we have our individual RGB SMD LEDs, and of course the Kailh hotswap
sockets.
These are the hotswap sockets of choice because they allow majority of keyswitches to fit,
unlike many of the budget hotswap keyboards that you see that use Outemu sockets instead,
which only accept Outemu switches.
These instead have a leaf spring design, so when you put in the switch, the pin goes between
the 2 leaf contacts and just pushes them apart.
And you can actually see the pins here.
However one issue with these is that there is the potential to rip them from their pads,
since they are just SMD components.
So try not to push too aggressively.
Overall, this continues exactly what the ALT, and SHIFT aim to do.
It’s a premium mechanical keyboard that comes with all the features that will attract
a larger segment of the market.
We get the solid aluminium enclosure and construction, customisable RGB backlighting and sideglow
for that extra bit of edge.
Double shot PBT backlit keycaps that are seemless and clean.
Hotswappability, allowing you to change the keyswitches to whatever you want.
So there’s no messing about with desoldering, and essentially allows you to have a different
feeling keyboard, without buying another one.
There’s the option for negative angle.
We have this compact full sized layout, giving us everything we need in about a tenkeyless
size.
And it’s QMK configurable.
All of this comes to 200 bucks.
So if you put against say a 200 dollar Corsair, Razer, or whatever they sell in shops, it
really does blow them out of the water, in regards to features.
The only negatives for me are the slightly rattly stabilisers.
And then purely subjective, is the aesthetics.
It is a floating key design, and it does look a bit weird to me personally.
But yeh, the SHIFT ties up the line very nicely.
I commend their decision to go with the 1800 layout.
And if you liked the ALT or CTRL, but needed the numpad, then this is the one for you.