My first keyboard with the Holy Panda switches. The feel is perfect for me, with just the right "click". Build quality is excellent. I got the smoke keyboard, and the LEDs were too bright, until Jyri_Drop told me how to turn them down (function down arrow). Thanks Jyri.
My first mechanical keyboard, saw that it was Holy Panda switches and was immediately interested. Got an excellent deal on Halloween which pushed me to buy one right away. Really pleased with the feeling and quality of the keyboard, am looking forward to getting some of my own keycaps and doing some basic mods to really perfect this board!
This is my first mechanical keyboard. The Holy Pandas are nice (I have no reference point but very click-clacky IMO). I am a big fan of the clear (reminds me of old nintendo products), and the lights are really nice. Had to read another review to realized you can adjust the brightness with Fn + arrow keys.
I am however going to ding this keyboard on two minor things.
The colon/semi colon key and apostrophe key came swapped. Not a huge deal, but for a $99 (formerly $199) keyboard I would expect the keys to be in the right place upon arrival.
It was kind of hard to tell that the bottom of the board is solid black based on the pictures. It is definitely pictured if you look closely, but there was no back keyboard shot in the product photos. Was surprised it wasn't totally clear when I got it.
Again, these things are minor and this keyboard is really cool. I will probably purchase more DROP products in the future and would recommend to friends.
I wanted a mechanical keyboard for ages but didn't know where to start with building one. I had no reference point for what a good setup felt like or what it cost. By the time I drew up a plan for what I wanted (TKL, translucent design, low budget, etc.), I had stumbled upon this unit, and the rest was history.
This Expression series keyboard is excellent value and feels much more premium and long-lasting than I expected.
I have had mine for about a year now, and my only big complaint has been that the high-use keys wear down relatively fast, leaving glyphs faded. However, Drop has already addressed this and even sent me two spare sets of keys free of charge (surprising, given I don't live in the US). The only other thing I wish was possible was for the lighting in the board to be RGB, but I digress. Overall, though, it's a solid keyboard I plan to use well into the future, and Drop's customer support was stellar, as always.
It seems like Drop just didn’t test this product through Quality Control before sending it out. My experience mimics the other ones that have reviewed. The board is okay, the switches are good, but the key caps started wearing off within 12 hours of owning the board. I contacted support who were slightly less than helpful. Now that I have had the board for a few days, quite a few of the key caps are completely blank. There ahouldnt be be a reason that this product is being sold without any quality checks.
I really wanted to like this keyboard because the switches and keycaps feel nice. Unfortunately, it has only been a few days and the lettering on the keycaps have already started rubbing off. :(
Pros:
The build quality is fine and it feels nice to type on.
Cons:
The keycaps are garbage and the legends are already rubbing off on some keys. I've had the board LESS THAN A WEEK.
I'm not an aficionado by any means but I love me some tactile switches. When I saw Drop was selling a fully built keyboard with Holy Pandas I pulled the trigger and I definitely don't regret it. The board is really sturdy and has a nice weight. The backlighting is surprisingly bright, I work mostly by lamplight and this is by far the brightest thing in my office next to my monitor. The switches are terrific, in my retails days I worked on an ancient IBM register with the punchiest switches and have longed for something that felt like that. This is a pretty good substitute. The keycaps feel really good to type on but I don't love the look in general. I'm not having the same problem as other reviewers but I'm still planning on replacing them. It's worth nothing that all the plastic on the top of the keyboard is rather soft and slightly frosted and will mark with something as soft as a fingernail. I understand that it's necessary for the glow effect, but I feel like something your hands will be all over should be slightly more resilient.
The C key does not register reliably after 3mo of use. A couple keyaps show wear, as well. The switches take quite some force to actuate compared to the KB I used previously.
That said, I was excited to receive this, and I enjoyed using it!
Typing experience is very nice, with a top bump and a very satisfying bottom out. The switches aren't hot swappable, which for a normally $200 keyboard is kinda bad, otherwise it would get 5 stars. The lights also shine bright enough that you can't see the legends through the keycaps even on the black ones.