Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
Drop CTRL V1 Barebones Mechanical Keyboard

Drop CTRL V1 Barebones Mechanical Keyboard

bookmark_border
Where's the price?
To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.
1.2K requests
·
Free Returns in USA
Product Description
To put it simply, the CTRL mechanical keyboard has it all. Constructed with a solid aluminum frame with a built-in switch plate, it’s stable and fortified Read More
Review Highlights:
expand_less
The keyboard you need to buy!
Buy a bare bones keyboard and buy your own switches! Totally recommend that, it's cheaper and you'll end up with backup switches just in case one or two get funny years later into use! This keyboard is absolutely stunning in its machined aluminum frame. Everything is sturdy, build quality is astounding. The finish everywhere is pleasing to the touch. The keyboard has QMK firmware which makes it more or less fully customizable! Switches can easily be hotswapped which is awesome if you want to buy different switches or replace them. FYI most switches can be bought for pretty cheap. I love the caliber of RGB brightness, diffusion, and customization on this board. Overall one of my favorite purchases I've made beside buying shares of TSLA!
check
Would recommend to a friend.
Decent quality for the price - Space Grey
This is a great starter board with hot-swap. Great accessories kit including: Keycap puller, magnetic back stands, USB-C cable. Will grab another unit again given the chance.
check
Would recommend to a friend.
See all 286 reviews
Q&A Highlights:
expand_less
What kind of switches can I use with this - PCB mount or plate mount?
They are Plate mounted, but if you get PCB mounted switches you can just cut off the two extra thingys, i forget the words for them
Is there a full sized version in the works?
There is the Drop SHIFT which is a full sized keyboard, but the only barabones version of the SHIFT available as of now is the high profile version.
See all 53 questions

search
close
Kevin
5434
Outreach
Sep 10, 2020
Stickied
Great news everyone, the CTRL Barebones mechanical keyboards have started to arrive (a few weeks early!). There's two shipments, one that has arrived and one that is a couple of weeks away. The one arriving is mainly the black ones, so we'll be able to start shipping those in the coming days. Some (but not all) of the silvers will also be shipping. The remaining orders will be shipping in about 2 weeks when the next shipment arrives, also (slightly) early.
A community member
Oct 27, 2020
Most likely Q3 or Q4. Could be earlier, but no promises. Lots of things in the current global climate conspire to delay our projects.
debo
8
Oct 27, 2020
I do perfectly understand; thanks a lot for the info, I think hold on my k-type a little longer then and wait for the updated pcb
rodneyzeng
1
May 24, 2022
My comment is to CTRL keyboard but i think it applies to this product. Fn+Insert is pure Pause, it is not Play. If press Fn+Home to stop, then there is no way to start by pressing Fn+Insert.
Still north facing and no 5 pin? After all this time you havnt updated the PCB? The market has moved on without you. Please catch up.
CheeseCurd
26
Feb 28, 2022
Static electricity seems to turn off my keyboard every time I touch it due to it being winter now anyone else having this issue?
dramala
7
Jan 18, 2022
This is my second keyboard, so I'm still learning how to use them. That said, I had no trouble setting up my first keyboard, so I was surprised this one had so many issues. I received the CTRL in less than a week; however, the switches I ordered took considerably longer to arrive, so I wasn't able to build it until about a month after receiving it. I installed all of the switches. When I tested them, a few didn't work - no huge deal, I probably messed up the pins. I removed all of the non-working switches, straightened any bent pins, and reinstalled them. Except for the "U" key, it was repaired for all of them. I tried at least ten different switches in that location, three different types.video review
I also wanted to add - quite frankly both this barebones option and the fully built keyboards (for both ALT and CTRL), really could benefit from having the extra color cases as options when ordering, along side the existing Space Gray and Black. I ended up ordering an extra case in the purple, but that means I'll have my space gray one sitting around doing nothing but collecting dust in a corner of my closet (not ready to shell out even more $ to turn it into its own keyboard). I really would have loved to just pick purple as an option from the get go.
I bought the barebones and got switches and keycaps to make it fancier than the standard ones that were available. I had fun putting it together, but... I came across this Github discussion on QMK's GH, and honestly this is making me wonder if I made a terrible mistake buying a Drop CTRL keyboard. https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues/14082 I'm trying to learn how to customize my keyboard without using the weird GUI page that Drop has by using QMK directly, and seeing the above makes me worried I wasted a lot of money for something that could end up being required to use the GUI to "customize" forever and ever... And I use "customize" in the loosest sense of the term - like someone else said, why are all the RGB animations nerfed? A couple are included and that's it? Lame, and the GUI doesn't seem to allow one to open up any others. Also, lame. Also the fact that Drop's own GH has been stale for almost 1.5 years does not give me a lot of hope, either. I had been considering dropping more money on either just the extra colored case for my CTRL, or even more on a full build of the Signature series, but, this has given me serious pause on that idea. I hope that the tease about "maybe good news" in that thread means that there is indeed good news about the situation and I don't have to be scared away to find some other keyboard company to give my money to.
Thanks. In some cases, no news is not necessarily good news though. I hope there are updates on this soon.
ChiefBold
0
Jan 26, 2022
clickclackyFor anyone wondering, I recently bought a CTRL as well and realised the same thing when I received it. I reached out to support and I got this reply: "We are in the process of rebuilding QMK support for the CTRL/ALT/SHIFT/Carina keyboards, and this should be completed in the next few weeks."
zipang
2
Sep 7, 2021
No ISO Layout.... Well.. How long should we have to wait until Drop really takes care of the european market ? :/
(Edited)
stevo84
9
Oct 15, 2021
zipangHow would a US layout affect us for gaming?
Skizzah
0
Jun 19, 2021
Why on earth does this ship with the RGB animations nerfed?
euforia
1
Apr 18, 2021
Wow! This is almost the perfect barebone, if it just wasn't for the lack of ISO layout. You have my vote to make an ISO layout for us nordics. Then I would buy one or two in an instant!
Showing 21 of 109
keyboard_arrow_up
Newest
109 OF 109 POSTS
keyboard_arrow_down
Oldest
Related Products