The Drop Sense75 isn’t the keyboard you’ve been waiting for • InNewCL
#Drop #Sense75 #isnt #keyboard #youve #waiting #InNewCL Welcome to InNewCL, here is the new story we have for you today:
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In August, Drop announced its first new internal mechanical keyboard in a while: the 75% Drop Sense75. On paper, the $349 gasket-mounted keyboard looked like a winner, with an understated but classy design, Drop’s DCX keycaps, in-house stabilizers, and Holy Panda X tactile switches. The end result is a bit disappointing, though.
Early reviews of the prototypes Drop sent out after the initial announcement were rough. These prototypes sounded hollow, the stabilizer rattled, and both the switches and the board itself had ping issues. Drop took some of that feedback to heart and made some changes.
The company recently sent me a pre-built review unit (there’s also a barebones option for $249). I didn’t experience any case ping, and while the board still sounds a bit hollow, the company added a second layer of thin foam, which seems to have helped. But I also don’t understand how Drop can ship a pre-built board with rattling, dry stabilizers in 2022. To make this board sound like you’d expect from a modern mechanical keyboard, you’ll need to completely disassemble it, lubricate the stabilizers, and reassemble it. But if you have to go through all that, then what’s the point of buying an expensive prebuilt one? Who is the audience for this?
Photo credit: drops
The Holy Panda X switches are also a bit scratchy out of the box. A bit of krytox and break-in can fix that, but I’m not a big fan of tactile and prefer a slightly quieter sound, but that’s my personal preference. A lot of people love these switches.
In the pre-built version, the aluminum board comes with an aluminum plate and an aluminum weight underneath (with a small Drop logo on it). If that’s too much aluminum for you, Drop also sells a $39 carbon fiber top, and a $25 FR4 top is currently available for pre-order. Both should give the board a bit of springiness, something it could use because despite the gasket mounting system, it felt like a pretty stiff board. Drop says that “it took painstaking care to choose the perfect materials, proportions, and placement areas to create a typing feel that’s neither too squishy nor too stiff — but just right.” I’m not sure that’s as planned worked.
Photo credit: drops
As for the RGB, the south-facing sockets are pretty standard at this point, and the addition of the diffuser should make for a nice underlight. In reality, you can see exactly where each LED is – and if there’s one thing that feels really cheap about the Sense75, it’s that diffuser layer, which I always worried would crack every time I put the open board.
All of this leads to my not being able to recommend this board. Sure, after a lot of work you can make it sound just fine, but there are plenty of other options on the market that are more affordable. The Keychron Q1 costs well under $200 fully assembled. A boned Akko Mod 007 will set you back less than $150. A black Sense75 is $350 and a white one is $400, with the bare bones being $100 less. But it doesn’t offer the premium typing experience you’d expect at this price point.
Drop has listened to the community feedback and I hope they go with a v2 of the Sense because with some work it can be a good board – just not in its current state and not at this price point.
