Drop Launches the Sense75, Its First New In-House Keyboard Since 2020 (techcrunch.com) 37
An anonymous reader shares a report: As the mechanical keyboard hobby exploded during the early days of the pandemic, a lot of companies raced to launch new products. Drop, however, which maybe did more than anybody to popularize custom mechanical keyboards by making them and lots of accessories available to a larger audience, mostly added third-party keyboards to its lineup during this time. Now, however, it is launching the Sense75, its first brand-new in-house keyboard in two years.
As the name implies, this is a 75% keyboard, meaning you get the full set of function and arrow keys, as well as three buttons on the right side (by default, these are delete, page up and page down) and, as has become standard these days, a knob. They're are RGB LEDs, of course, including underside diffusers that will create what Drop calls a "visually appealing halo' and, of course, hot-swap sockets so you can easily change out your switches." The keyboard will support customization through QMK and VIA to adapt it to your typing needs. The pre-built version will set you back $349 for the black edition and $399 for the white one, while the barebones version will cost $249 in black and $299 in white.
As the name implies, this is a 75% keyboard, meaning you get the full set of function and arrow keys, as well as three buttons on the right side (by default, these are delete, page up and page down) and, as has become standard these days, a knob. They're are RGB LEDs, of course, including underside diffusers that will create what Drop calls a "visually appealing halo' and, of course, hot-swap sockets so you can easily change out your switches." The keyboard will support customization through QMK and VIA to adapt it to your typing needs. The pre-built version will set you back $349 for the black edition and $399 for the white one, while the barebones version will cost $249 in black and $299 in white.
An anonymous reader (Score:2, Funny)
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make a payment that happens to match the standard Slashvertisement fee?
Who knows. I don't care about mechanical keyboards. I guess msmash is a big mechanical keyboard nerd.
The last thing I need is mechanical keyboard racket. The last thing I want to hear is your noisy mechanical keyboard racket.
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Ok, so these linear switch things look good. What I want is a high quality, wired usb, quiet tenkeyless keyboard with no leds or other gamer stuff. Still want the separate arrow keys with insert/home/pgup/pgdown part. Have a recommendation?
Re:An anonymous reader (Score:4, Insightful)
Topre Realforce - but you might not like the price.
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That's pretty good. Don't care about the price.
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Try Das Keyboard. Mine was $99 (about 3 years ago) and I love it.
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I wouldn't knock leds before you try them. A simple, calm color can be really nice for almost anyone. My wife doesn't play games at all but has a nice aqua blue glow under her keys that she very much likes. I suspect that's actually what most people use, even if the keyboard supports psychedelic funky patterns - which hers is totally capable of.
I like the Ducky keyboards as a nice middle-ground between price and functionality. The Ducky One 2 comes in just about every size/variation and has plenty of lit an
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Only buckling spring mechanical keyboards necessarily have racket. There are lots of quiet mechanical keyswitches. The el cheapo Aukey red backlit keyboard I use (which was $35) has gateron red keyswitches which are quiet. The only thing you hear is when I bottom them out, which means it's no louder than a membrane keyboard.
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You can have my M13 when you can pry the thing out of my rats' nest of cables and adapters zip-tied together.
I love mechanical keyboards but that's too much (Score:2)
I'm part of the reason the mechanical keyboard market exploded over the past decade and a half.
I love mechanical keyboards but this line of keyboards is far too expensive even for me.
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$350 is to much? That's half of the price of the top end and less than the super common Glorious O keyboards sold at Microcenter.
I'm starting to doubt the first sentence.
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Too little value is how I would state it. To each their own though, if people want to shell out $350-700 for a keyboard then it must be really important to them.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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What strikes me about all these high end keyboards is how unimaginative and similar they all are. There seems to be almost no innovation.
I'd like to see a keyboard with a built in LCD display that shows what the F keys do, and maybe some other useful shortcuts. Or make it touch with shortcut icons. Or have some extra keys that reconfigure depending on what app has focus, and an LCD to show their current function. That would be actually useful when I haven't used a program for a long time and have forgotten
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I'm starting to doubt the first sentence.
I own dozens of modern mechanical keyboards of all switch types and form factors.
I also have a crate full of Model M and Model M Space Savers and another box with vintage ALPS boards and other rareties.
Your doubt is wrong.
Re:I love mechanical keyboards but that's too much (Score:4, Informative)
Personally I just use https://mechanicalkeyboards.co... [mechanicalkeyboards.com] for pretty much everything, considering you can just buy actual switches there as well.
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Sometimes I feel like I'm in the wrong business. Then I remember that these things are fads.
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Well not me because they are all ANSI layout, but I paid more for my F77 repoduction
Knob? (Score:2)
Has anyone else thought this was now a common feature?
Looking at this, I'd miss my numeric pad on the right, along with missing my Home, End, Insert and Delete buttons I use.
I like my old fashioned buckling spring keyboards I've been using for a while from Unicomp [pckeyboard.com].
Their website is still atrocious, but I can attest to the quality of their keyboards.
Nice and loud too....let's people know when you are typing...haha.
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As for these smaller keyboards, they cut out too many keys that I actually use.
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I've been looking for a good tenkeyless but as I'm used to typing on a Model-M and Unicomp hasn't got their act together for their new Mini-M, I haven't been able to pick up a tenkleyless in the action that I would prefer. And the market for used Model-Ms is absolutely nuts right now.
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no it was a fad back in the windows 98 days along with internet and media keys, and like most fad's it comes and goes where as things like media keys are useful sometimes (the only time I use mine is in the office)
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What about RSI with the buckling spring? I haven't used one in decades, but I always thought they were hard on the wrists.
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I have RSI and use the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard [amazon.com] ($39). My pain was gone in a week. I love it.
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You could use the knob to play tempest!
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Malware alert! (Score:2)
My gateway AV blocked the link to the techcrunch site with the message "MalAgent.K_81 (Trojan) blocked."
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Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself a proper antivirus.
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75 Impies size? (Score:2)
> As the name implies, this is a 75% keyboard..
I would have never guessed that the 75 in the name means that I'm only buying 75% of a keyboard. Does that mean my Logitech Wireless 360 is over three times the size of a normal keyboard? If I want a smaller keyboard (which I generally don't because I like my 10-key) I would look for the word "mini" in the name, not 75. Otherwise I'll miss out on all the 82% keyboards.
And I have yet to own a single keyboard that had a "knob" that did anything more than volum
75 is going the wrong way (Score:2)