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Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

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Product Description
The latest addition to our family of mechanical keyboards, the Drop SHIFT is our largest and most ambitious undertaking yet. Done in the compact 1800 layout, it’s still significantly shorter than a traditional full-size keyboard, which frees up desk space for other gear Read More
Review Highlights:
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Overview: The Drop Studio SHIFT follows in the footsteps of the CTRL and ALT keyboards, though adds some great quality of life improvements and notable upgrades. Build Quality: Like the CTRL and ALT, the SHIFT has a low profile aluminum case with an acrylic diffuser through the middle of the board. The keyboard is exceptionally sturdy and clean looking without any visible screws on the top or sides of the keyboard. On the bottom, the angled feet have been upgraded with stronger magnets and better design so that they don’t accidentally slide off when moving the keyboard around. After a few days of testing I never had any issue with the feet. Like previous boards in the family, the SHIFT features 2x USB-C connections on the back, one on either side of the keyboard. Overall the SHIFT is a very sturdy board that didn’t leave me with any quality concerns. Features: Lighting: The SHIFT has a few upgrades over the CTRL and ALT hiding beneath its surface. For starters, there are 60 additional LEDs on the underside of the keyboard, making the glow much brighter and more uniform. It is an immediately noticeable upgrade when turning on the keyboard. Furthermore, the SHIFT still has per-key lighting and features PBT caps with shine through legends, letting you fully utilize the RGB lighting. (keycaps may differ in production version) Layout: For me, the 1800 layout is not only a classic with a lot of aesthetic appeal, it also provides quite a bit of improved functionality over a traditional full size keyboard. For starters, the SHIFT is just slightly longer than the CTRL, though provides a full nav cluster and numpad. As someone that uses the numpad a lot in professional software, this layout has become something of a staple for me and one of my favorite layouts of all time. Programmable: I did not have time with my sample to program the board, so I will reserve this section until I have more time with one. That being said it should be the same as the CTRL and ALT, which are both quite easy to program, even for a novice. Additional Features: One of the most notable features of the SHIFT are the Kailh hot swap sockets. These sockets are what allow for switches to be changed without any soldering. Unlike previous methods of hot swappable switches, these seem to be the new industry standard and are very durable and never really give me much issue. If you are careful to check for straight pins on your switches when swapping, you can easily change out the entire board in under 30 minutes. Summary Overall, the SHIFT is the keyboard I’ve wanted to see out of Massdrop for a while now. The board is feature rich and is a layout that I personally adore. For the price the SHIFT offers a tremendous value if the feature set lines up with your personal taste.
Tl;dr: If you’ve seen a Massdrop Ctrl or an Alt, the Shift is pretty much the same thing but BIGGER! OMG. This past week I was given the opportunity to review Massdrop’s new self branded board, the Shift! I see they are continuing their tradition of naming these boards after mods on a typical keyboard. I am really curious to see what the next keyboard’s name is going to be. Let me preface this review that I have no experience with any of Massdrop’s previous boards such as the Ctrl or the Alt, outside of meetups. This is my first Massdrop branded board and any comparisons I make to the rest of the series is done purely on my memories during meetups. Quick Specs The shift is a low profile hotswap 102 key keyboard made popular by the Cherry G80-1800 series. While it has the flat angled aesthetic, the Shift comes with removable magnetic feet giving it a 5 degree angle. It uses 6061 aluminum, dual USB C connectors, and it’s also QMK powered. When fully built, the board weighs 41.7 oz, or 1182 grams. Build Quality The build quality really is no different from Massdrop’s other branded boards. It’s got the same overall design language, and the anodization is consistent across all surfaces. USB ports are not flimsy, and look well supported. No dead underglow or dead backlighting either. Keycaps The keycaps are PBT OEM doubleshot shine through. They are fairly thick measuring around 1.2 mm. If you’re used to GMK or Signature Plastics, this isn’t anything to write home about. The legends really look no different than previous iterations. I appreciate that they don’t look too gamery. However, I did find the legends inconsistent. For example, on your typical board, you’ll find that legends on your num row are stacked one on top of the other. Sometimes the @ is on top of the 2, or the 2 is on top of the @. You’ll find this consistency across GMK, Signature plastics or even your typical rubber dome board. On the Shift you have the @ and 2 side by side and this is pretty much followed across the board for all keys that have double legends. However there are three keys where this “pattern” is disregarded and you have legends stacked vertically. Not really a problem, but it irked me. Hotswap Woes I’m not a fan of hotswap. Hotswap sockets are very finicky and can often pop off when inserting a switch with enough force. I recommend to support the back when installing switches. On this particular board, the bottom of the PCB is screwed in with 13 screws that it is a very tedious process to get the bottom off in order to do what I recommended. Another one of my issues with hotswap is that sometimes switches aren’t installed properly. On my review unit, the F11 key actually was not registering because of an improperly placed switch. I would recommend testing every key on your board when you receive it, in fact this should be a standard practice on any board you get. To fix it, simply pull the switch out, unbend the legs, or replace with a new switch. Circuit Board The Shift has a white PCB and when I first opened this up, I was surprised by the sheer number of LEDs this thing has. Not only does each key have its own LED, there are also LEDs encircling the entire board. That makes a grand total of 160 LEDs. I think this might be the most I’ve ever seen on any keyboard I’ve opened up. Soldering looks your typical factory soldering. Nothing seemed amiss, no burnt joints, no misaligned components. I compared it to other hotswap boards in my possession and if I’m not mistaken, the Shift’s hotswap sockets look like they are affixed with a little more solder. Looks like Massdrop has paid attention to those popping hotswap sockets I mentioned earlier. I am not an electrical engineer and I also have little to no experience designing circuit boards. The one thing that I disliked about this PCB is that it looks like the routing of traces which is basically the connections between each component of the board was done based on what worked rather than on making it look beautiful. This looks like a spider’s nest and having a white PCB makes this very very noticeable. To be fair, routing a board to make it look great is a time consuming process which requires a certain skillset to do right. Letting the PCB designer tool automate the process is just so much simpler, and probably a whole lot cheaper. This won’t make the board operate any less efficiently but is simply an observation. USB C I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Shift supported USB C to C connection for use with my macbook pro. Both USB C ports work great in this regard. It is very unlikely that I will be using this combo very often as the board itself is larger than my laptop. I did notice that that just testing every single key using an online keyboard tester was enough to drain my laptop’s battery by 2%. Having the RGBs at full glow probably doesn’t help either. At this rate, I don’t believe my laptop would survive an hour of regular usage with the Shift plugged in. Programming While this board is QMK compatible, at the time of writing this review, there is no formal QMK contribution. Never fear, Massdrop has consistently contributed QMK support for both their Ctrl and Alt boards and it will happen!  Another side note, up till about a month ago, the Ctrl and Alt used different controls and animations as compared with the rest of QMK. Now customers will have access to all of QMK’s lighting modes and I’m fully expecting the Shift to have this too. The particular unit I received had some strange default keymap formatting. For example, each of the numpad keys were actually mapped to num row keys. The num row keys were as expected until the subtract and addition keys, which were mapped to the numpad’s subtract and addition keys. Please keep in mind that I have a prototype board and this default keymap may very well change with the production units. Aesthetics I have long been a fan of the 1800 layout. In fact one of the very first custom keyboards I built was a modified Dolch Pac 60. Over the years though, I’ve found that the 1800 is too large for me for practical use, but I still love looking at them and have several in my collection. In my opinion, the low profile look does not meld well with the 1800 layout. Perhaps that’s just because every other 1800 layout board is high profile and I’ve been conditioned to view that as the norm. I think that the biggest gotcha for me is the space between the num row and the function row. This space is most often just the width of one key. This is true for the Shift as well, however the low profile look somehow makes that space a lot more apparent. It’s a similar illusion for the space separating the numpad. I think a high profile version of this board would have been the better choice aesthetically, however that definitely would have increased its cost. Judging from what I’ve seen of the Ctrl and the Alt. It seems that Massdrop has a compact keyboard theme going on.I think that rather than using the 1800 layout, the compact 1800 layout should been used instead. I believe that layout is more conducive to a low profile floating key look and will also look great in high profile. Conclusion Overall, this is a great board. My biggest issues were really all just aesthetic. I like how the Shift uses QMK, the fact that USB C to C actually works, and that the build quality is top notch. Despite my distaste for hotswap, I appreciate that the Shift provides a good option for people who want to try out all the new switches. I also like how magnetic feet are included in case you don’t like the flat angle. If you like the look, and are currently looking for a semi full sized hotswap board, I would highly recommend this.
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Q&A Highlights:
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Would the drop shift come in High Profile as well?
They said that they probably would do this eventually. People in the first run are still waiting on their boards.
See all 166 questions

Introducing Our First Full-Size Keyboard

The latest addition to our family of mechanical keyboards, the Drop SHIFT is our largest and most ambitious undertaking yet. Done in the compact 1800 layout, it’s still significantly shorter than a traditional full-size keyboard, which frees up desk space for other gear. And though the numpad and arrows are much closer, they’re still broken out, so they’re easy to find without looking down. Just like the CTRL and ALT, the SHIFT features a sleek aluminum case, customizable RGB backlighting, a fully programmable layout, and hot-swappable switch sockets. That means you can pop in new switches whenever you want without any soldering.

Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Optimized Per-Key Lighting With Millions of Colors

The switches on the SHIFT feature light pipes optimized to deliver the most light possible through the keycaps. You'll have your choice from millions of colors for every single key, so you're sure to find the tone you want. Program the lighting to cycle through the entire spectrum, or set it to a two-tone look to match your setup. There’s also a built-in translucent LED diffuser to minimize hot spots found in many other keyboards. Worried about flickering? Don’t be. The LEDs operate at a frequency of 100 Hz, so there won't be any visible flicker. Finally, we're including RGB LED indicators for Capslock, Numlock, and Scroll lock—all of which can be customized as well.

Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Fully Programmable Via QMK

Customizing your keyboard is a lot of fun. That’s why the SHIFT features a fully programmable layout designed for modification. Using QMK firmware, you have total control over every key. Plus, the configurator allows you to program macros and customized keymapping, so you can easily fine-tune your keyboard for gaming, work, or play. It’s also outfitted with two USB Type-C connectors (one on each side), allowing you to transfer data and charge devices at USB 2.0 speeds.

Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard
Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Hefty Aluminum Frame & Hot-Swappable Switches

Known for its toughness and ability to hold a quality surface finish, anodized aluminum plays the starring role in the SHIFT’s frame. Heavy enough to stay put when you're cranking out an email or locked into an intense FPS match, the frame has a low profile to complement your desktop. Thanks to the built-in switch plate and hot-swappable PCB, the SHIFT gives you the freedom to change out your switches whenever you like. Best of all? You don’t need to solder each switch—just pop them in and they’re ready to go. Fitted with removable feet, the keyboard can be adjusted for height, too.

Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Shine-Through Doubleshot PBT Keycaps

To make the SHIFT really pop off your desktop, it comes with shine-through PBT keycaps. A longtime staple in the keyboard community, PBT keycaps help resist the shine caused by oils and sweat on the fingers. Additionally, PBT is super durable and long-lasting—and because the legends are shine-through, they won’t rub off over time.

Drop SHIFT V1 Mechanical Keyboard

Specs

  • 99 keys
  • Anodized, CNC-machined aluminum frame
  • Custom PCB 
  • Hot-swap switch sockets
  • QMK firmware
  • Plate-mounted Cherry-style stabilizers
  • Cherry MX, Kaihua, or Halo switches
  • Doubleshot PBT shine-through keycaps
  • Floating key design
  • Dual USB-C connectors
  • RGB LED indicator lights for Capslock, Numlock, and Scroll lock
  • PCB compatible with 3-pin plate-mount switches only
  • Dimensions (fully assembled): 15.2 x 5.5 x 1.7 in (38.6 x 14 x 4.3 cm)
  • Weight (fully assembled): 34.2 oz (970 g)
  • Keyboard configurator

Included

  • Keyboard
  • Removable magnetic feet
  • USB-A-to-C cable
  • Switch puller
  • Keycap puller
  • 1-year Drop Warranty

RETURNS—NO QUESTIONS ASKED

We get it. Sometimes what you ordered just doesn’t work out. If that’s the case for you, don’t fret! All customers (both US and international) may return this item in new, unused condition within 30 days of delivery.

Shipping

Estimated ship date is Oct 4, 2023 PT.

Payment will be collected at checkout. Cancellations are accepted up to 2 hours after checkout for in-stock items, or up until pre-order ships.

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Top Customer Questions166
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Question
Drop needs to make this high profile and black
Jul 30, 2020
Top Answer
Foamed
158
Yeah, you said it. I personally much prefer high-profile so that is what I'm holding out for.Read More
Jul 30, 2020
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Question
Would the drop shift come in High Profile as well?
May 9, 2020
Top Answer
joshuakal
120
They said that they probably would do this eventually. People in the first run are still waiting on their boards.Read More
May 15, 2020
Question
Any chance of an AZERTY version?
May 27, 2020
Top Answer
hiddensong
0
with QMK, sure thing!Read More
Jul 29, 2020
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Customer Reviews

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85% would recommend to a friend
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