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Drop SENSE75 Barebones Mechanical Keyboard

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Drop SENSE75 Barebones Mechanical Keyboard

Name: Drop SENSE75 Barebones Mechanical Keyboard
Brand: Drop
SKU: drop-sense75-barebones-mechanical-keyboard
Price: 99 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.404959 (121 reviews)

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Product Description

Since we first announced our SENSE75 mechanical keyboard, we’ve had a steady stream of requests for a barebones version. From the beginning, we made it known that a barebones SENSE75 was in the works—and now, it’s here Read More

Customer Reviews

4.4

(121 reviews)

(63)

(47)

(9)

(1)

93% would recommend to a friend

By Feature

Sound

SilentLoud

Feel

StiffFlexible

Build Quality

4.4

(87)

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AaronTheKeeb

May 20, 2023

Activities:Gaming

Paired Switch:Linear

Keyboards Owned:9

Verified Buyer

Don’t purchase at full price!

Although I had reservations about considering this mid-range keyboard at its regular price, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it became an irresistible steal when it went on sale for the enticing price of $99/$129. Opting for the POM plate variant, I encountered a slight challenge when threading it, but the overall build quality of the keyboard proved to be commendable. The inclusion of well-lubed and filmed switches further elevated the typing experience, resulting in a satisfying sound profile. The keyboard comes included with a “tape mod” which I found didn’t make much of a difference. What caught me off guard was the keyboard's unexpectedly lighter weight compared to my GMMK Pro. I was pleased to find a noticeable degree of flex in the board, enhancing the ergonomic nature of typing on it. The keyboard's captivating lighting system, with its subtle underglow, adds a touch of elegance to its visual aesthetics. However, I must admit that the branding at the back, while not affecting performance, feels slightly excessive and could have been more subtly executed. Considering the ongoing controversy surrounding its pricing and the various complaints it has received, I can confidently assert that at the discounted price, this keyboard truly justifies its value. The combination of its impressive quality, performance, and the level of customization it offers make it an irresistible choice for keyboard enthusiasts seeking a mid-range option. Pros: - The keyboard becomes an excellent value at the sale price of $99/129. - The build quality is solid, despite some challenges with threading the POM plate. - The keyboard delivers a satisfying typing experience with well-lubed and filmed switches. - The captivating lighting system, including the subtle underglow, adds elegance to its aesthetics. Cons: - The branding at the back feels slightly excessive. - Threading the POM plate can be a bit challenging. Overall, this keyboard presents a compelling option for keyboard enthusiasts seeking a mid-range solution, if you can get it for the right price.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Violette

Feb 7, 2023

Verified Buyer

Polar SENSE75

At first, I want to precise that I bought the polar version of this keyboard with a $300 coupon won in the Halloween lottery so my opinion may be biased but thank you Drop for that, I have never been so lucky. I have built the default config so I took it of its box, no scratches found after a quick visual inspection, and directly mounted switches and caps. No modded/lubbed stabs or whatever, not even tested the PCB. I use it since 3 days now and I find it very pleasant. I find the sound with Marshmallow linear switches and SA keycaps satisfying without obvious reverberation and the plate with the two layers of foam subtle and it suits me very well. I have read that some people have had problems with the knob but none for me. I have stress tested it a bit and it seems very solid. However a minor/major drawback for me: The big big branding at the back. I find it a bit exaggerated even if its hidden when used. The price now: Maybe $300 is a bit too much and without the coupon I don't think I bought it. I don't regret having spent my coupon in it however, it's worth it. Recommended. EDIT: Oh and with a subtle white underglow, it looks really nice and its default bindings are well done.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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kmason007

Feb 7, 2023

VioletteI agree the rear branding kills it the drop logo in the brass weight is enough

Violette

Apr 7, 2023

kmason007Yes ^^

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Morbii

418

Keyboard Club Member

Jan 31, 2023

Verified Buyer

A lot of controvery surrounds this product, from the price to other various complaints. My review here is going to mostly consist of what I believe are the pros and cons of this board based on my experience and wants out of a keyboard. First, here are the specs this is based off of: - Nightfall barebones Sense75 - PCB/plate foam, and only the smaller of the two included case foam options (1mm, I think) to encourage a little flex. - Included PCB tape mod. - Drop PCB clip-in Phantom stabs (default). These were VERY lightly factory lubed to start with. I relubed and tuned them with 205g0 and XHT-BDZ. I did not clip them. - I added stabilizer foam pads and PE switch pads to the PCB. - Kailh HUSH linear switches. - DCX Violac The board comes with an excellent switch puller (yay for the upgrade here, Drop!), an interesting smaller keycap puller (that is quite nice, but harder to use on keys with stabs), case and PCB foam in the board, an optional tape mod, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and an instruction card. Pros: - Looks and feels beautiful. Without a doubt. My expectations were beat in this category. - The PCB clip-in stabs are quite good! I honestly thought they would be ok, but not great. I'm too used to Staebies and TX stabs, but I decided to give these a shot anyway. I like them. I had one issue on one half of the spacebar stab, but I was able to easily solve it with a tape mod on the SB to make it tighter. Also possible it was the keycap. I am glad I tried these out, and will most likely use the Phantom stabs on my Polar board when it arrives as well. - I like the diffusers. I confess that I like an underglow in general, and these are nice and subtle. - There's already "extensions" lined up: new knobs, weights, plates, etc. - In my experience, the newly included case foam and supplied PCB tape mod work well. I don't have sound complaints, personally. - South facing RGB! Cons: - Price. I can't argue with this one, and the only reason I purchased the boards to begin with was a reddit coupon from Drop marketing (polar), and a free MT3 set (nightfall). I do not regret my purchase now that I have it, but I feel like Drop should be trying harder to compete with Keychron and Glorious. Even if they just offered free MT3 sets with all board purchases. - Only 3 keys on the "macro" row. This one hits me hard, as (unless I'm developing), a 65% board is basically just as good in terms of key availability if there's only 3 keys here. I get why they did it (aesthetics), but I'd personally prefer function over aesthetics. Keychron has the same issue with the Q1. - I really wish there were only 2 keys to the right of the spacebar (alt & fn by default). This actually goes hand in hand with the 3-key 'macro' row con above as it adds some guesswork to the Fn key usage, particularly if you like swapping around boards a lot. - No daughterboard. With the default plate, this probably doesn't make too much of a difference. With the POM one (or others that aren't as hard as ALU)? That remains to be seen. More minor cons: - Not as hefty as I was hoping, but the brass weight should alleviate that I imagine. Though, this kind of ties in with the price complaints as it's $80. - The caps lock key lights up when CAPSLOCK is on, which is a nice feature that a lot of boards don't seem to support. However, if you flash to VIA this behavior stops. I am guessing it's either a limitation in VIA or a setting I need to find, though. - Case foam not cut correctly. This is super minor, but in the interest of completeness. Features I'd like to see: - Brass plates, especially for the polar board (I imagine these will come eventually). - A solderable board/plates with more configurations (tsangan, stepped caps, split backspace, ISO, etc). As an aside, I so wish stepped caps was the default for hotswap... argh! I do really like this keyboard, and I don't have any regrets purchasing it (or the Polar one that is still on the way). But part of the reason I sprung for them was the perks. Like I mentioned before, I'd like to see Drop get a little more competitive with the pricing. In all, I do recommend these boards if you have the cash to spare and the other cons don't really bother you. This review was typed out on my Sense75.

(Edited)

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Jackson_t

Feb 2, 2023

MorbiiLol he typed on the review for the sense75 on the sense75

Morbii

418

Keyboard Club Member

Feb 2, 2023

Jackson_tSenseception

Thejoshman708

May 21, 2023

Verified Buyer

Heavy keyboard

Good keyboard but keep it mind there is an ever so slight "bounce" when typing. Overall great keyboard when paired with some heavy switches.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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SummerRayneGrl

196

Keyboard Club Member

Feb 4, 2023

Verified Buyer

Beautiful Keyboard

The keyboard itself it very well built and it is beautiful overall and given the chance I would have ordered it again. The only part I did not enjoy in the build process was the stabilizers. I ended up replacing them with actual screw in PCB stabilizers after trying to mod them different ways all week. The stems were so loose in the housing that I actually felt like I could lift them and slide them out sideways. The V2’s once balanced and lubed were significantly better. I may have gotten a bad batch of stabilizers installed in mine so I won’t mark it down much for that and I prefer real screw in stabilizers over PCB ones that pop in which is my personal preference. The included plate is absolutely beautiful like a dark blue black color when the light reflects off it. It was the first thing I noticed when I opened the box. I may try some of the other plates down the road but the included one is middle of the road for flexibility and normally what I prefer so I didn’t order the other options when I ordered the barebones kit. I love that the included weight matches the plate and has that beautiful blue black color! I added additional force break points on either side of the center screws though which did help some with the resonance around the space bar that appeared only after putting the PCB inside the case. I chose not to use the included tape mod sheet on it. I added some sound dampening ESD foam I use for my speakers in the indented space around where the weight screws in as well. I went with Drop Invry Holy Pandas (lubed and broken in) for switches as they are my personal favorite switch. My pc theme currently is grey, black, white, silver and red so I went with Drop + Matt3o MT3 3277 keycaps. I used my red Susuwatari return and esc for now as place holders while I wait for the bundle of 3277 accent sets to arrive. I picked that set primarily because it’s main colors match my theme and I could order all of the different accent sets for it so when I want to change my theme up I can just swap out the accent colors. It has so many options! I wish more sets had that range. It is finally finished and turned out with a little tweaking to honestly look and sound better than I expected! Overall I am very happy that I gave Drop the benefit of the doubt with the revisions they were making after the pre-launch reviews and recommendation of the fully built version. Note: Drop should work on the packaging a little and at minimum wrap the keyboard in something to protect it from being scratched while bouncing around inside the box during transport.

Recommends this product? Yes

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M0ngaloid

May 29, 2023

Activities:Work & Gaming

Paired Switch:Tactile

Keyboards Owned:7

Verified Buyer

Get it on sale

The keyboard is great for the sale price but not worth the full price. The amount of price adjustments on this keyboard is misleading and it definitely belongs on the cheaper side of things.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Ppbooboo

Keyboard Club Member

Jun 5, 2023

Activities:Work & Gaming

Paired Switch:Linear

Keyboards Owned:12

Verified Buyer

Pretty Solid

With the new price / discount putting the board at $99/$129 this board is absolutely worth the price. I purchased the Polar barebones kit. Pros: • Good but not great build quality • Excellent E-coat finish • 10/10 RGB • Pre-installed forcebreak mod • Solid stock modifier stabilizers • Interesting gasket performance for heavy typers Cons: • Stock sound is very lacking / Needs alot of work to get desired sound • Spacebar stabilizer has so much play in the housing, that keycaps collide with top case • Polar edition not worth $30 extra • Useless case foam • Shipped with Broken case screw stuck in top case due to drop applying loctite to screws • Supplied tape mod constantly unadhears from the pcb making a crunching noise while typing. Overall great value for the Nightfall edition, slightly less so for the Polar edition. If you plan on spending some time to modify the board I find it to be on par with a Gmmk Pro but cheaper. Not sounding as good as a modded gmmk pro but the typing feel is better. I am slightly concerned about potential QC issues. I've seen a few reviews noting other issues. At sale price I would recommend this over Gmmk Pro and a Q1 if you're willing to mod it.

Recommends this product? Yes

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AryaB

Keyboard Club Member

Jul 13, 2023

Activities:Work & Gaming

Paired Switch:Linear

Keyboards Owned:3

Verified Buyer

Good, but better options exist for customization.

After the price drop, the Sense75 became a good option, and as someone looking for a 75% board with a knob, features like south facing LEDs, gasket mount, and hot-swappable sockets, I thought it would be perfect. After purchasing and planning out my build, a few things came up that made me decide to return it. The first issue, isn't as big of an issue to many people, but for me, it was something that I had to consider. Due to the amount of LEDs the DROP keyboards can have, they typically have a higher than average power draw than other mechanical keyboards. For most customers, this isn't an issue at all, but for me, when looking for someone to make me a custom cable, I had to confirm with individual sellers whether the AWG of their usb wires would be large enough to supply consistent power. Due to voltage and power drop constraints, most custom usb cables wouldn't be an option for me. The second issue that came up, was the color profile, which once again doesn't affect all potential buyers. Only coming in Black or E-White, the level of customization that I wanted, just wasn't there. I had purchased a GMK Dualshot set and wanted something to match, and neither the black or white examples of this board would've synergized as well as I would've liked. Once again, this is a personal preference and no issue of DROP. One issue that is something that could've been better done by DROP would be the availability of certain parts, like plates. With only the stock aluminum plate, and the POM, FR4, Carbon fiber, and Brass plates as options, certain sound profiles wouldn't be able to be achieved. A lack of Polycarbonate, or Polypropylene options made me regret my purchase, but not to the level where I'd return it. The timelines however, on getting any of these plates that were offered, primarily the plate I wanted to get, the POM plate, made me realize that I'd be better off going with a different keyboard. I wasn't immediately turned away from the idea of getting a custom plate, but a lack of schematics, extra gaskets for plates, or any kind of information regarding the layout and design made me realize I'd be better off with a keyboard that supported that kind of customization. One last thing that affected my opinion of the board, was the mediocre light diffusion for the downward facing LEDs. Light diffusion requires not only a material that is able to properly spread the light, but also enough material so that the light is able to diffuse properly. Fitting this into a board can be difficult, but for an originally $200-300 product, this lack of insight makes it less of a enthusiast board, and more of a cash grab board.

Recommends this product? No

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BarsoomianAmbassador

Keyboard Club Member

Jul 8, 2023

Activities:Work

Paired Switch:Linear

Keyboards Owned:6

Verified Buyer

With a few mods, and the current discount, a good board

Great RGB for those that are interested in a bit of glow. I did the tape, extra foam, and force break mods (with electrical tape at the contact points between the upper and lower case parts), and this board is now my daily driver. I was able to achieve a marbly sound with little to no ping. Bought the barebones version and installed Gateron Milky Yellow Pro switches. Overall, a decent budget board that you can actually buy right now.

Recommends this product? Yes

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wavecult

132

Keyboard Club Member

Jun 13, 2023

Activities:Work & Gaming

Paired Switch:Tactile

Keyboards Owned:14

Verified Buyer

Drop's best so far

I always complained a little about the "pinginess" of the Drop ALT High Profile and Drop CTRL High Profile... when I got the Tokyo60, it was a very similar deal with regards to the sound signature. Sure, it can be treated but it really felt that out-of-the-box, the "pinginess" should've been more under control on those keyboards. With regards to the Sense75, there's nowhere near as much of it, and with the POM plate it's simply gone. This is definitely my favorite DROP keyboard that I've tried to date. I paired it with Moondrop Tessence tactile switches, MT3 black on white keycaps and the POM plate. Vibrations are really well controlled and it sounds great. Now on the improvements side, I can see where the brass plate will improve this keyboard. It's by no means light in standard form, but it sometimes feels like it could use a bit of extra heft to it. Other than that, I've got nothing but praise for this keyboard. I got the barebones version at $99 and frankly it's really good value.

Recommends this product? Yes

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