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This is the first review I've written on MD, because I really feel like contributing to the community after receiving the CTRL board.
(I won't review the switches and keycaps because I joined for a bare bone version and have Zealios 62g and SA dancer and dasher set on it)
Let's talk about the silver elephant in the room.
This is NOT the render color and there is no point debating because anyone who feel this is close to the render is justifying the emperor is wearing new clothes. Although some people don't mind this, there was something went wrong in the production or QC. The texture is sparkly and slightly dark and mostly silver (see comparison with the space grey Macbook and notice the sparkly texture). Since I joined the drop mostly for the matte grey finish, I plan to get the case powder coated to creamy white if it doesn't interfere with the switches install.
Otherwise the case feels well-made, it is solid and surprisingly thin! The magnet feet design is smart but sadly the angle is too low so I will make a 10 degree feet for the board.
2. The PCB.
The PCB is the best feature of CTRL for me. If paired with more polished configurator for both key mapping and LED, I really believe this (hot-swappable/easily-programmable/LED-enabled PCB) IS going to be the new standard for future mechanical keyboards. I am used to soldering/desoldering my boards but the ability to swap switches whenever I want is just so liberating. Looking forward to see MD make the configurator better.
3. The LED.
I've always wanted to see the custom mechanical keyboards catching up to the LED game with the gaming keyboards. Personally I don't need backlit for individual keys, but I do like under glow. CTRL's sandwiched case coupled with the diverse LED options is definitely a big step into the right direction for mechanical keyboards aesthetics. We will surely see more and more keyboards incorporating this feature in the future.
However, lacking the ability to easily set the default is really really annoying and my least favorite pattern happens to be the flamboyant RGB ripple default... And I have to see that every time I reconnect...
So please enable the default change in the configurator unless most people actually favorite the default.
My favorite is this two tone under-glow (see below) that I nicknamed "Blade Runner". :)
4. Verdict.
I gave CTRL a 4/5 where one point deducted because of the case surprise. However, I do believe CTRL did a lot right things that will help setting the good trend of mech keyboard design. Making a high-quality keyboards at a mid-high price range at large scale is most surely hard but I have no doubt that future variant of CTRL will improve the imperfections in this first gen. For that, I am happy, but for now, I am going to be improving my first gen CTRL myself. :)
PS. to the case makers/vendors, it would be lovely if you start to make custom version cases available for CTRL.