Drop ALT Mechanical Keyboard — 65% (67 Key) Gaming Keyboard, Hot-Swap Switches, Programmable Macros, RGB LED…
Amazon.com Price: $160.00 (as of 08/05/2021 08:31 PST- Details)
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A COMPACT LAYOUT: The ALT mechanical keyboard is a smaller take on Drop’s CTRL model. It features 67 keys instead of 87. Absent of function keys, it wastes no space—but it still has a full set of arrows and numerals.
A SOLID BUILD: Constructed with a solid aluminum frame with a built-in switch plate and magnetic legs, the ALT is rock-solid and ready for any setup.
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The Drop ALT mechanical keyboard is just like the CTRL, but with 67 keys instead of 87. Absent of function keys, it wastes no space—but it still has a full set of arrows and numerals. Constructed with a solid aluminum frame with a built-in switch plate, the ALT is rock solid. And thanks to the hot-swap switch sockets, it allows you to swap switches whenever you want with no soldering required. It’s also fully programmable via QMK, meaning you can assign macros or custom keybinds to every key. With dual USB-C connectors, the ALT is outfitted with the latest connections. What’s more, it has customizable RGB backlighting and underlighting. Set it to a single color or light it up with a rainbow wave pattern. To enhance the backlighting, there are shine-through doubleshot PBT keycaps, too. Grab it with your choice of switches to get just the feel you want.
Make sure this fitsby entering your model number.
A COMPACT LAYOUT: The ALT mechanical keyboard is a smaller take on Drop’s CTRL model. It features 67 keys instead of 87. Absent of function keys, it wastes no space—but it still has a full set of arrows and numerals.
A SOLID BUILD: Constructed with a solid aluminum frame with a built-in switch plate and magnetic legs, the ALT is rock-solid and ready for any setup.
BAREBONES: The ALT Barebones model comes without pre-installed switches. The ALT is compatible with Plate-mounted Cherry-style switches (not included).
HOT-SWAPPABLE SWITCH FUNCTIONALITY. Want to switch your switches? Customize the ALT with ease thanks to hot-swappable switch sockets, which allow you to swap switches in seconds—no soldering required.
OPTIMIZED PER-KEY LIGHTING WITH MILLIONS OF COLORS: The ALT is illuminated with fully customizable RGB backlighting and under-lighting. Set your millions of LEDs to a single color or light them up with custom rainbow wave patterns.
Specification: Drop ALT Mechanical Keyboard — 65% (67 Key) Gaming Keyboard, Hot-Swap Switches, Programmable Macros, RGB LED…
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10 reviews for Drop ALT Mechanical Keyboard — 65% (67 Key) Gaming Keyboard, Hot-Swap Switches, Programmable Macros, RGB LED…
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Amazon.com Price: $160.00 (as of 08/05/2021 08:31 PST- Details)
MP –
Everything I want from a mechanical keyboard
Before I get into this, I have to mention that the first ALT I received had a broken stabilizer. I’ve seen this mentioned a few times, so it seems like a common problem. I have dampener rings, so I removed all the keycaps and one of the stabilizer stems came off with the spacebar, but I contacted customer service and had a new ALT less than 24 hours later. Anyway, now for the review:I’ve used quite a few mechanical keyboards, but this is only the second one that I’ve owned. My first was a Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro S RGB. I love that keyboard. I went with blue switches, and my year with it has convinced me to never use a non-mechanical keyboard ever again. I began looking for a new one. Not that the Cooler Master needs to be replaced (honestly, I have had zero issues with it, and I’m sure I’ll have it around for many years), I just wanted a better-looking keyboard.I spent a lot of time researching DIY boards, trying to find something that looked great, had solid construction, and had the potential for customization. I kept coming across this keyboard as a good balance between hobby and consumer. I knew I wanted blue switches again, so the typing experience itself wasn’t something I was worried about, as I already know I love these switches.What sold me on this keyboard is the aesthetic, construction, and customization. Low-profile, RGB backlight and border, aluminum (I bought the black) case, hot-swappable switches (if I ever decide I’m being too noisy with the blues), and FULLY programmable via QMK.I’ve been using this keyboard for less than a full day and it’s basically the perfect mechanical keyboard (probably way too early to say this, but I can also edit this review later). I flashed my customizations. LED colors, added a few key changes (like swapping esc with fn+esc, for easier access to ` and ~). I really like the textured keycaps, which I’ve read that some people consider “cheap feeling”. I disagree.A few more things:Anyone hesitating because of the duplicate keystroke issue should stay away from the cheaper switches. This issue is almost certainly caused by the switches, not the board. I haven’t read of anyone having this issue with the MX switches. That’s what I wanted anyway, so, yeah, it hasn’t been an issue for me. I believe the Halo switches are the ones that this is happening with. If you already own this board and you’re having this issue, CHANGE YOUR SWITCHES.Anyone worried about any of the scary information online about having to learn to code to use QMK for this board, ignore it. I am a programmer, so I kept seeing those comments in reviews and forums and didn’t think anything of it, just figuring I’d have to read some documentation to do what I wanted. Not at all. It’s very simple. If you can follow about 4 instructions, you’ll be fine. You use the configurator on Drop’s website to customize, you download the configuration file, you download the 2 or 3 other files the site tells you to, and then you have to type a command or two in a terminal or CMD, but there is no actual programming required. This might be a small challenge for people that have absolutely NO experience with computers, but I’m confident that basically anyone capable of reading and copying/pasting can figure it out.That’s it. If it’s not the aesthetic, construction, or customization you’re looking for, you probably don’t need this keyboard. If you’re just looking for a decent mechanical keyboard, you can get some great boards under $100 (or a Cooler Master for a little over $100) with the same switches, and some with RGB. For me, this purchase is more than worth it for what it offers.
Chris –
GREAT keyboard
I love this keyboard. typing on it feels so nice and smooth. I think about typing on it all the time as it just feels that good. Best keyboard I have owned. Also it looks amazing. I love the colors. The arrow keys and the extra row of keys on the end make this the perfect keyboard. I have had no issues with this keyboard yet. I HIGHLY recommend this keyboard I cant say that enough. The only thing that could be better is them actually having a software program to manage the keys and stuff. You have to make a firmware build online through their web configurator and run some commands to flash it to the keyboard. Other than that its great because you can customize all the lighting and the functions keys. pretty much anything about the keyboard which I love.Buy this keyboard its worth it.
Human Person –
Complicated combo of Pros and Cons
If you are considering this thing, you likely already know what it is and are already so so into mechanical keyboards, but not yet enthusiast enough to join a group buy for a DIY kit that is somehow more expensive. If you are new to mech boards and don’t understand what is up with this thing, watch some YouTube reviews.If you are still here, you are likely less patient than waiting for Drop to ship you one of these for $15 less much more slowly. Here are the issues with this board, having used it for a good few months:The usb c ports are bizarre- they are very finicky about what usb type c to type c cables you use. If you are using a type A to type c, like what comes in the box, you’re likely fine. But getting this thing to initialize is weirdly inconsistent, even with the same plug in the same position. Sometimes it wants some magic words said or something. Don’t plug it in with something in the passthrough slot either, that always seems to prevent it from working.If you haven’t spent a lot of time with a 65% board, then I want to warn you about one thing. You are likely going with 65 or 68% in order to get the arrow keys that you don’t get on a 60%. However, with no separation between the other keys and the arrow cluster, it’s hard to operate them without many accidental hits on the pgdn, shift, and enter. I’d recommend finding a varmilo 68 style keyboard that puts in a little gap around the arrow keys to fix it. I randomly accidentally delete text all the time and have to ctrl z when these false positives go off.Otherwise, the software to customize lighting effects and key settings does work, though tutorials for Mac that are adequate are hard to come by. Still much better than having to use software remappers that have to be open to work and configured on a computer by computer basis.Worth noting, if you are an RGB fiend, this is by far the brightest keyboard RGB I have ever seen. It’s almost obscene.Never personally had the issue where the feet roll around with side to side, but I use this for typing with lubed Halo Clears and Tug Gear T1s (for the non alpha keys for some contrast).
Jeff McCord –
Good keyboard let down by poor power delivery.
This is a great 65% board. Quality construction, nice hefty aluminum chassis, hot swap sockets, and RGB are all pretty desirable features for a build your own. The stock stabilizers are kind of awful, but you can find Cherry OEM stabs all over the place that you can swap in instead. There’s also the power delivery problems. You can’t use custom coiled cables with this board. The Drop ALT is so freaking power hungry, that the extra length added by the coil causes signal degradation and the LEDs get extremely dim. I’ve tried everything to remedy this. Powered USB hubs, trying different USB ports on my PC, even a USB power merger that plugs a single device into two ports to bump up the power and NOTHING helps. So if you want to use a custom cable with your board, stay away. With the Drop ALT, you’re stuck with the stock cable. For many, that won’t be an issue, but if you’re someone who values aesthetics and was hoping to use a custom USB C cable with your Drop ALT, you’ll find yourself disappointed. Drop needs to work on this in future revisions because a lot of custom builders desire the look of a coiled C cable.
Ti Hsuan Pan –
Great keyboard, terrible price
The build quality is great and hot-swap is huge however the value for money is awful. The board has terrible case ping and GOD AWFUL STABS. There are multiple other hot-swap options ranging from 60 to 100 dollars. In order for this board to sound remotely decent, you are going to have to buy new switches, lube those switches. Get new stabs, clip, and lube those stabs. And finally, add some damping foam. I modded my alt with lubed holy pandas with new lubed stabs and damping foam and it still sounds worse than my custom tofu. With the amount of time and money needed for this keyboard to sound good, it is a lot more worth to build a custom keyboard or order a prebuilt one from kbd fans.
Marcos Silva –
This could be great
TL;DR: don’t buy. Quality materials, but software is subpar and might render the keyboard useless.I got this keyboard after seeing it recommended as the premium pick on Wirecutter’s article on compact mechanical keyboards. I always wanted to try a really small keyboard (60-65%), so I bought it and it was a complete and utter disappointment.To be fair, I cannot complain about the materials: they look great, feel premium, and I was generally very impressed with it. I have some 20+ keyboards of all types here — mechanical, dome, Apple butterfly nightmare, Apple “new” scissor, completely custom boards, a model M, model M imitations, Razer, Corsair, Logi, Logi Gaming, Logitech before it became just Logi for no good reason at all, etc. — and this one stands out from almost every single one. However, the software that ships with it is just plain awful.The keyboard worked out of the box with almost no trouble (it couldn’t wake up the computer once, but hey, that was very minor and I solved it by just replugging the keyboard in). After a couple of days, I wanted to remap the Escape key to a backtick (`, which I use a lot for writing programming documentation in MarkDown) and CapsLock to Escape (which is very reasonable if you use Vim). The software for doing so is crappy, but I’m a programmer, so I could figure my way around it. I flashed the keyboard, replacing the keymap of those two keys, and boom: now the keyboard disconnects every 15-30 minutes and I need to wait 1-5 min(s) before I can reconnect it.Well dum dum, did you try resetting the keyboard? Did you try people with similar issues in the Drop forums? Did you try the web version of the software? Did you check your C code? Did you try the QMK debugger? Did you try another cable? Did you try connecting it to another port? Did you try connecting it directly to the computer? Did you try it on another operating system? Did you try connecting it to another computer? Did you try it with a USB-C to USB-C cable? Did you try flashing the original software to restore the keyboard? Did you …? Yes to all of these and several of their permutations. If you can think of it, I probably did it trying to fix this keyboard.Should I’ve tried all of this? I.e. is it reasonable for someone to buy a $200+ keyboard and spend hours trying to fix it after a minor configuration issue renders the whole keyboard useless? No, it isn’t, I should’ve returned it the second it stopped working, but debugging is part of what I like about my job, so I gave it a try. Drop has good materials all around, but their software is subpar. From the looks of it, I’m not the first one to run into this issue with these keyboards, so I’ll probably wait years before I buy another Drop keyboard. Maybe they’ll mature into something great once they start shipping reliable equipment. Right now, they just don’t.(If you like cars, a Huayra with a Pinto engine is a semi-appropriate analogy.)I’m returning it and I’m very disappointed: this could be great.
duskmoonflow –
Dope 65%
This keyboard may be the last one you ever need… if you know exactly what you want: aka a dope AF 65% keyboard. If you are looking for dedicated function keys, consider the CTRL keyboard.PROS:-This keyboard is literally and figuratively very solid. The construction and build quality is superb and has significant weight to it.-Hotswappable plate switches. Nice feature to have, but at $200+ it better be hotswappable. I bought the Cherry-MX Browns but plan on switching to Aqua Zilents in the near future. The switches themselves are good. Not gonna really comment on them cause we all know switch feel is subjective and you either you know what you want or you don’t.-RGB is vibrant and downright beautiful to look at, especially the LED ring around the board.-Connects via USB-C (USB-A to USB-C) and has 2 ports so you can connect to either side of the board OR connect another device at the same time but at USB-2 speeds.-Includes keycap puller, switch remover, and adjustable feet that are magnetic.-65% keyboard so dedicated arrow keys.-Can fully program this board via QMK software.-Comes with a piece of paper that explains basic functionsINBETWEENS:-Stabilizers are meh-Keycaps have a grainy/rough texture to them. While I love the feel of them, it may be off putting to some.-Magnetic adjustable feet positions may not be steep enough for some.-You can clearly make out distinct LED diodes around the board, so if you care about extreme uniformity in your RGB this won’t be the board for you.CONS:-Lackluster amount of RGB profiles/effects straight out of the box.-Using and flashing QMK software to change minor things (like say the color of just one key) can become annoying very quickly.-Expensive (high in price for what it is, even if it is one of the higher-end quality boards).****Please note if you want to get it as cheap as possible you can buy it on Drop at for ($180 + price of specific switches + price of shipping). Buying it here on amazon is essentially just paying for quick shipping on Drop.****
karan m. –
Rgb is the only good thing about this board. Not recommended.
I knew what I was getting into when I got this board and to test it properly and reliably, took 6 months to post this review but boy this board is BAD. To start things off on a positive note, the rgb on this board is good, but I guess that is all the good that comes with this. The cons are way way more than the pros so here I go.1. I can not wake my machine back by typing on this board( I have a mac and it wakes up when I type on any other board : Ctrl and ducky one 2 sf.2. The board is pingy. It is pingy, not loud, but pingy, no matter what switches from tangies to sakurios, lubed, filmed yet, pingy!3. The typing angle is HORRIBLE. It is either completely flat without the magnetic stand or it is barely a couple of degrees with the stand. I get around by keeping my wrist wrest as a raiser. +1 for the CTRL4. The stabs, oh my god, they are rattly. Spacebar sounds like punching a bag of chips. My ducky board has way way way better stabilizers than this. It costed half the amount. Just lubing the stabilizers won’t help, you will have to change them all together, these are some bad bad stabs.5. Hotswap pockets take 3 pin switches instead of 5(I mean I knew this while buying the board but mentioning it here for anyone who does not know this.) This leads to 1. Extra work to cut off the legs from switches and rendering them useless of any further use(not useless technically but it decreases the stability of the switch and makes them wobbly in my opinion.) 2. The switches become wobbly because of the clipped legs.6. The leds randomly freeze during certain effects (not really annoying for me but it is to some people)All in all my experience with this board is horrible and I don’t even have a way to get my money back now.
Aperture –
easiest way to get an amazing mech keyboard with zero effort.
You want a custom looking, perfect in nearly everyway, mechanical keyboard without having to spend all the time, money, and effort to build one yourself? This is it.Honestly it types as good or better than 95 percent of whats out there. Its heavy and doesnt slip around while typing or gaming. Its got a really nice weight to it which paired with its solid materials and construction makes it feel like one of the most solid keyboards ive ever typed on and ive been typing on keyboard for over 30 years now. The RGB is really impressive too. its brighter than my old razer huntsman and Steel Series Apex keyboards, both of which i used for years. Those were great keyboards dont get me wrong, but this keyboard just feeeeels better. its kinda something you gotta experience to get.
Zak G. –
Best Keyboard Overal, No Arguements.
Well other than cherry mx switches are really good to type on, on this keyboard they are hot swappable as well, so if I dont want cherry mx blues i can get halo switches. Also the pbt keycaps feel nice and rough for their texture, really nice with a tactile keyboard. Also most of keycaps are mostly replaceable other than the non standard right shift. Then the chasy is firm as hell, pure metal with a light bar in the middle, no flex what’s so ever. Then the lighting, it’s probably better than any razers keyboards. Last thing i have the mention is its form factor, it is really nice to have arrow keys and the delete key on such a small form factor. The only cons i say is there aren’t many lighting effects premade, but that can be fixed with community and the developers.