Look, no $45 PBT keycap set is going to compete with GMK sets or the sort. If you know what you're buying these are actually a fantastic deal. Fits better than the keycaps that actually came with my board, so thumbs up there. Overall a great deal, therefore the 5 stars.
Wanted these for the shine through, PBT feels great and the sound's nice. Didn't find any blemishes on the keys, the underside isn't the prettiest in some of these along the edges. Legends are sharp, super crisp.
My only gripe is the uneven shine, most noticeable with white light. Some keys have the white LED come through clearly, while on others it's a bit muddled, with a tinge of color from the keycap instead of mostly white. Some of the light also bleeds through the keys outside the legends, with it being the worst on the W, being very apparent on max brightness.
$40 is probably on the high end of what I'd pay for keycaps like these, considering you can find suspiciously similar keycaps for $10 less elsewhere. If you look at "doubleshot backlit pbt keycaps" on [insert e-commerce website], you'll find a number of keycap sets with the exact same font, similar colors, and so on. The Skylight keycaps are also almost exactly identical tothekeycaps on the $100 prebuilt gaming keyboard from [gamery gaming company] I own. I'm not a professional reviewer, so I'm not going to go and buy all these keycapsto actually compare them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all sourced from the same factory. So, keep that in mind, especially if you're purchasing one of the monochrome sets.
The dual-color sets are probably more unique, so if you like one of those, it's a decent idea. I bought Black/Red, and it's aight. The red is kinda dull and is hard to make work with certain color LEDs. If I were gonna buy one today I would probably opt with Grey/Black.
The quality of these is fine, they're certainly better than the laser-ablated ABS caps you'd find on most #gaming keyboards. They're thick, have a good texture to them, and I noticed no production issues aside from a little bubble sorta thing on my numpad Enter. The legends aren't great, and don't seem to let light through completely evenly, though I think this is fine and more or less par for the course when it comes to shine-through keycap sets. The black isn't super black, more of a charcoal, but I think that's partially just PBT as a plastic. Ultimately I'd judge that they're just barely worth purchasing at $40 or $45, perhaps more-so for a dual color set.
Thekeycaps came packaged very well. They have a great feel and sound to them and the legends look better than any other backlit set I have seen besides maybe Ducky's Seamless.
I got the slate. Looks ok on my black keyboard. Using on topre-clone RGB so the light is on thetop left of the switch and these keycaps still look good. I dont think any of the pictures accurately show howthey look with light shining through them... they look much better in person imo.
They were shipped in simple thin box. The keycap holding plastic container isnt the best but it does its job.
The display pictures are so bad I was second guessing my purchase multiple times and only stuck with it bc of the cheap price. In the end, satisfied with this keycap. These are absolute crap compared to GMK but you have to make sacrifices for shine-thru caps.
Overall I like these, but am not super enthusiastically happy. My original set came with my Drop ALT keyboard. I loved the color scheme (Slate), but they were notoriously thin. I don't know if I had a bad lot, or the QC was worse back then, but the thickness of these caps rated anywhere from 1.3mm to 0.6mm. What the heck? This left a lot of them sounding and feeling not so great. Did I mention I love the look! I did, and I do. I'm not super crazy about the shine through though, but it works and it's different. I can use them in a dimly lit room if I choose to (though yes I can touch type).
Fast forward to now. I have been looking for a Samurai color scheme (Red and Black), but needs to be OEM and PBT_ Not much to choose from. I stumbled upon these on the Drop website. I was leery considering my previous experience. I would not pay the $45, but they were on sale for $29 so I took a chance.
_The packaging they came in left a lot to be desired. I do like a sturdy case to store thekeycaps in, but these do not have it.
_I do overall like the "Valiant" color scheme- red and black, but the Slate definitely looks better, and it matches the keyboard case, which this one does not.
_Thickness ranges from 1.2- 1.4mm, so much more consistent.
_Height is OEM, which is what I'm looking for.
_The texture is very gritty, so if that is what you are looking for you will be pleased. I like a textured surface and do not care for smooth.
I don't know if I would purchase again. However, I love the Slate color and I should look and see if the warranty covers these for defects - measuring as little as 0.6mm, because that is way out of specification.
** I would love to hear if anyone else has had any issues with keycap thickness with these, whether it is from an original set boxed with a Drop board, or purchased separately.
Excellent quality.
Unfortunately the LEDs appear dimmer through the black keycapscompared tothe two-tone grey that comes with the ALT.
I can't explain why this is -- they are manufactured exactly the same, only the colour is different.
By this logic the white keycapswould likely appear to have the brightest LED effect. If brightness is important for you I would advise against black.
Top-quality backlit PBT keycaps, with very limited options
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I've been looking forward to the release of these keycaps for a long time. I love everything about the keycaps that come with the Alt except the color scheme, so the opportunity to get these same keycaps without the dual-gray colors was an obvious win. I don’t particularly like most of the colors Drop went with in this series, but luckily they offered a plain black option, and I’m always a fan of that. Very few keycap sets support the Drop Alt, with it's 1.75u right shift - there are a few options from Tai-Hao, the OEM for the original Massdrop Alt keycaps, but these switches have a sandpapery surface texture that is... let's just say, a controversial feel.
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The quality of the legends is outstanding. I've used many backlit PBT keycaps over the years, and these are among the best I've ever seen. The font is clean and modern, there are no obvious gaps or breaks in the legend backlight, and light bleed is kept to a minimum. Unfortunately, there are very few legends included. Absolutely nothing outside the bare minimum - no Mac legends, no icon-only mods, not even a generic legend or a Drop logo. It's a huge missed opportunity, and one I hope Drop addresses quickly.
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This skimping out on all but the most basic compatibility extends to the layout. The Skylight series includes only the bare minimum keyboard compatibility. The standard 104-key layout used by most keyboards is supported, which includes support for basic TKL keyboards and 60% keyboards. In addition, 5 extra keys are included to support the Drop Alt, and other 65% keyboards with that exact layout (although the website description says the set includes 108 keys, it actually includes 109 - the standard 104 and the 5 extra for the Alt).
Unfortunately, this excludes many popular keyboard layouts, including some keyboards sold by Drop itself! The big problem is, the only modifiers included here are 1.25u size. That means any keyboard with a different bottom row is excluded from this set. Almost every non-Alt 65% keyboard is incompatible, as 4x1u is much more popular that 2x1.25u. Many gaming keyboards, which would be prime candidates for great backlit key caps, use non-standard bottom rows, and are thus incompatible. Inexplicably, the new Drop Shift is also unsupported, despite it launching just a few weeks after this drop went live.
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This keycaps set is exactly what it looks like, and not the slightest bit more. Drop has made a great quality, but very limited, keycap series. They have great print quality, great feel, great thickness. As long as you are only using these keycaps with the tiny number of supported keyboard layouts, with these exact key legends, with the exact color schemes pictured here, you'll be very happy with these keycaps.
But Drop could have done so much more. They could have printed additional modifiers, in 1u and 1.5u sizes, which would have vastly expanded the number of supported keyboard layouts. They could have let you mix and match modifier and alpha colors between sets, to create a custom look. They could have printed Mac keycaps, or at least platform-neutral ones. Instead, they did the absolute bare minimum. It's a start - now let's see what they can do in Version 2.
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Pros
Great looking legends
Pleasant surface texture
Reasonable price
Perfect thickness
Cons
Limited layout compatibility that doesn’t even support many of Drop’s own keyboards
Very limited color choices
No Mac keycap legends, or even generic legends
No ability to order modifier sets separate from alphas
I recently purchased my first true mechanical keyboard, a Corsair K765, with Kailh box white switches. There was something about its keycaps I just didn't like, although they were better than thekeycaps on my previous Razer Ornata mecha-membrane keyboard.
I saw the slate grey set and thought it would be an improvement over what I had. It certainly is, although I'd prefer the light and dark keycaps be reversed (I should have gotten black, but grey is good enough). The keys are much easier to read than the old ones, as their text is now MUCH more crisp. And these caps are matte finished and don't show any glare. I find it strange how difficult they are to read when off, but it really doesn't matter because I only use the keyboard with my computer ON. ;-)
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Corsair's implementation of their wider keys use a wire stabilizer rather than additional dummy switches, though. This makes those keys a bit more difficult to actuate, especially the space bar. I'll have to research a solution. To be fair, it's not the fault of thekeycaps, so much as a non-standard implementation. This is why I'm not taking off any stars.
And green backlighting with grey keys isn't as bad as my teenage son said it would be... :-P
Honestly, there's a lot of value here for the simple fact these are keycaps which offer PBT, doubleshot lettering, AND shinethrough all without costing an arm and leg at $45. On top of that, they don't use stupid, tacky "le epic gamer" fonts like I've seen some other keycaps that are similar tothese do. Though unfortunately, I prefer my alpha keys to have their legends vertical as opposed tothe side by side crap, but I understand why, since in Cherry keyboards that's where the LED shines the strongest.
They feel nice, and they feel even better when you actually start using them on your keyboard. Put them on my new Drop CTRL with Kailh Box Jades and holy moly do these feel sublime compared tothe Cooler Master TKL with Browns I was (unfortunately) using before hand.
However, I do think that maybe the QC could be a bit better. There is some noticeable clouding on the legends which blocks the light. For my set, it's most noticeable on keys like "B" and "home". I didn't notice any problems with the plastic molding but honestly, don't care unless it's on the side that's actually visible, and there isn't, nor does it cause any problems when mounting to my switches.
Overall, a B+ in my book. Very good and I don't think you could be disappointed in these unless you have exceedingly high standards or something.
First off: these are absolutely stunning, but when you take a closer look at thekeycaps, you start to notice some inconsistencies in terms of keycap height. I have at least four keycaps in my set that are slightly higher than the others in relation tothe row they are in. I can not only see it, but I can feel the difference when it comes to typing. If you are looking for a stunning backlit set, and you are willing to ignore the subtle imperfections in this set, then this is it. But you have to ask yourself if you are willing to compromise on a set at this price point. I can't deny how gorgeous it looks on my Carina. But for me, the inconsistent heights on an already high profile is a bit much for me on a set that costs $45.