Drop CTRL V1 Mechanical Keyboard Reviews | Drop

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Drop CTRL V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Mech Keys

FULL DISCUSSION

KhrizF

Nov 12, 2018

Verified Buyer

I have this keyboard for almost a month. This is an edit after I received a replacement on early December to the old defective one below. Buying this keyboard was a necessary replacement for my desktop instead of an extra one. I need it to be well built, reliable, and optionally have new tricks up its sleeve for me to try. This one ticks 2 out of 3. Originally, the first one I had received suffered repeated keystrokes, an issue documented in the discussions. It became unusable whenever I switched to NKRO so that was a no go. My time shared with MD support (Engineering Services) wasn't the greatest, since they only clarified after the fact that returns are on a 30-day limit after receipt, but unlike their email, this curiously was not ever mentioned here: https://helpdesk.massdrop.com/hc/en-us/articles/213150347-Massdrop-Return-Policy. With the extremely long 3-weeks DHL took to ship (but showing shipped many many days prior), I had but days to find out this relatively concealed issue, and lost my chance without even having a way to know about it. Fortunately, this was eventually resolved with help from Massdrop CS who sent me a replacement. I find that there are no more repeated strokes and this keyboard works as intended in NKRO and 6KRO modes. The build was the best one out of the 3 MKs I have ever owned. A sturdy and heavy aluminium frame ensures that the keys falls to a satisfying bottom out, with no bounces felt from the frame. The switches are a foray into non-Cherry brands for me. Not liking too much the mushiness of the brown nor the loudness of blues, I found these Halo clears to be perfect. They are tactile, and had a lower pitched, firmer textured sound when typing unlike both Browns and Blues. When keys hit the frame there are gratifying metal clanging sounds as you bottom out. However, 68g is the heaviest I've ever typed on and after a while I have somewhat adapted to it. Oddly, the replacement model feels very slightly more consistent on the switch weight and in general lighter, which is a plus for me. But I figure a 60g variant would be perfect, just slightly heavier than a Blue. I also like the concept of swapping out switches easily in the future, especially since Massdrop has started orders for Holy Pandas just yesterday. The keycaps are coarse and an absolute plus for me, living in humid conditions and knowing sweaty/oily fingers persist more than half of the year. They felt better than any of the PBT caps I've tried, including Ducky, Leopold, iKBC and Varmillo, the latter of which I still own a numpad of. RGB lighting is appreciated but as always have its limits. I find myself looking at a manual every time to setup QMK and have the keys in the right colour, which only means the closest you can get, since RGB is hard to reflect colours like teal or brown, they would show up as dimmer blue or dimmer orange after an hour of tinkering. I would gladly give this keyboard a recommendation since MD support had been quite responsive on solving the mission-critical issues on my previous defective board. You should be asking MD whether where you live might put you at a difficult situation when an MD product comes broken. The replacement product itself achieved my expectations and deserves an easy 4-star and close to 5-star rating.

(Edited)

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christian.reeves

Nov 12, 2018

KhrizFHi KhrizF -- I'm with the Massdrop CS team, and I'd like to assist. I'm going to look into your case to see what could be improved with the time it took for your shipment to get to you and how the CS agent worked with you as well. One thing that I'd like to assist with immediately though is your reporting of repeated keystrokes. Massdrop has a full 1-year warranty to address if you have any defects to your CTRL keyboard. If you're seeing any particular switches that are registering repeated keystrokes, do you mind swapping them with "normal" switches to see if the issue might be a couple of faulty switches? Regardless, a CS agent will be following up with you directly to make sure that we resolve this issue with you.

Nov 12, 2018

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KhrizF

Nov 13, 2018

christian.reevesHi Christian, Thanks for the prompt response. I will address both experiences separately.

First is the shipment. My original order from MD is dated 11 Sep. It shipped via DHL and was marked 'Delivered' to Germany on 19 Sept. Curiously, MD's automated email notified me on the same day that it was delivered to my address (whited out below), which was still continents away (Pic. 1):

I inquired Victoria S. from support and she kindly clarified that 'Couriers have been known to occasionally mark packages as “delivered” a few days before actual delivery'.

On 3 Oct, 3 weeks later than Pic. 1 from MD, the keyboard arrived at my door. To this end, I think the issue is: a) If it is a known practice that there is a time lag between DHL's statement and actual delivery, it should be more well-defined when a package is 'delivered', when I couldn't have possibly received it yet.

Second is the returning process. This is the landing page for returns as of yesterday (Pic. 2):

According to the policy, there seems to be not much mention of a time limit for return. However, as illustrated by my communication with David Q. from ES of MD support (Pic. 3):

'Within 30 days of receiving the item' is mentioned here, but only after I asked about the defect. If Pic. 1 is any indication, effectively, I have much less than 30 days to report for a return. By now, time is up. To this end, I think the issues are: b) Due to a), the starting point of the returning period is unclear, and the period may be cut short with long shipping times. c) I couldn't know about any return period in the first place, since what should be advanced information was provided only after the fact (See Pic. 3 dated 3 Nov), but omitted before receipt in both Pic. 1, or Pic. 2. (Correct me if I'm wrong: In New Members -> General Questions, 'Products that don't come with manufacturer's warranty will be subject to a 30-day return policy', but this is presumably not applicable to Massdrop's own CTRL model.) d) No warranty/after-sales information was specified on the CTRL product page. The CTRL (high profile) has this issue as well. I hope my feedback had been useful. Thanks to Massdrop Support, I have received a replacement on 4 Dec 2018 and found it to be operating as intended. This has been a ride but I loved the keyboard in its full glory. Thank you for restoring confidence in you guys :)

(Edited)

Nov 13, 2018

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