Drop + LOTR Black Speech Mechanical Keyboard Review: More Than Just LOTR Branding
Drop + LOTR Black Speech
The Drop + LOTR Black Speech mechanical keyboard is the perfect collector’s item for anyone that loves the Lord of the Rings. The custom keycaps and unique keyboard design come to create a stylish keyboard that will slot nicely onto your desk, LOTR-themed or not. Better still, the Drop Holy Panda X switches make this mechanical keyboard a tidy typing experience, which means you’re not just buying the Drop + LOTR Black Speech mechanical keyboard for branding alone.
I’m always skeptical about PC hardware crossovers with popular culture. Sure, the appeal is there—look, it’s your favorite thing combined with that other thing you enjoy, buy it now!—but it always feels like a shameless attempt to capture some fresh eyes or persuade someone to part with a few bucks.
And the Drop + Lord of the Rings collaboration certainly has a decent touch of that feeling about it.
However, it’s fair to say the Drop + LOTR Black Speech mechanical keyboard has more to it than an Eye of Sauron escape key and some red keycaps (though those do indeed ramp up the appeal). The typing experience delivered by the Holy Panda X switches is good, and the MT3 keycaps, despite my reservations, are more comfortable to type on than I was expecting.
But is the Drop + LOTR Black Speech board worth your time if you’re not a hardcore Lord of the Rings fan?
Design and Style
As you may expect, the main focus of the Drop + Lord of the Rings Black Speech mechanical keyboard is on the series itself. Specifically and accordingly, this version of the Drop + LOTR series focuses on Sauron, given that the Black Speech was created as Mordor’s official language. However, outside of the inscription on the One Ring, little is known about the Black Speech, and it’s one of the few languages that Tolkien didn’t flesh out, especially compared to some that have extensive dictionaries, grammatical guides, and more.
In that, the keycaps carry an Elvish script known as Tengwar, which makes it immediately familiar to anyone who has ventured into the LOTR universe, yet startlingly obtuse even when you have a vague idea of what you’re looking at.
Thankfully, the Drop + Lord of the Rings Black Speech keyboard ships with the Training Base Set keycaps, which also feature regular letters and numbers to guide your way. If you’re an absolute masochist or understand Elvish without issue, you could swap these out for the Hardcore Base Kit, which eschews all regular text.
The keycaps are also adorned with various bits of LOTR symbology, too. The Eye of Sauron glares from the escape key, while the inscription from the One Ring is captured on the space bar. You can also swap out the Enter key for one displaying the Shards of Narsil (I preferred the default black keycap for this), while there is also the option to switch the direction keys to the same Magma color. Switching up the few keycaps on offer is the best option, as it adds some extra color and flair to the keyboard.
Also adding LOTR flair is the custom OSHETART artwork illustrating the Eye of Sauron blazing atop Barad-dûr. Sitting above the upwards arrow key, it’s a nice addition to the Drop + Lord of the Rings Black Speech keyboard and helps to deliver its strong sense of style.
Construction Quality
The build quality of the Drop + Lord of the Rings Black Speech keyboard feels good.
The body is constructed from black ENTR anodized aluminum and feels solid in your hands, while the edge of the body is smooth and refined. Furthermore, while the Drop + LOTR board isn’t the heaviest in the world, weighing around 900g, the materials used are decent and well-crafted.
As a tenkeyless (TKL) mechanical keyboard, the Drop + LOTR has 87 keys, missing the number keypad. But while a TKL sacrifices the keypad to save space, you do get the full array of function keys. You can also access an additional layer of functions by pressing the One Ring key along with the function buttons, with options for media controls, changing display settings, swapping between open windows, and more. The option to adjust these function keys would be good though, as some of the functions aren’t that useful and are tied to functions that already have Windows shortcuts—but it’s better than nothing.
One part of the Drop + LOTR Black Speech construction that lets the keyboard down is the LED lighting. In short, it’s just not good enough. There is a single color, white, and the brightness level of the LEDs isn’t particularly bright. At least, due to the chunky design of the MT3 keycaps and the proximity between the base of each key, there is little space for the LEDs to shine through. Even when cranked up to the max, the lighting is barely noticeable.
And really, just white? Not some color relating to the keyboard? Orange or red, at least, for Eye of Sauron? This seems like an opportunity missed for the Drop + LOTR Black Speech keyboard.
Typing Experience
The main reason you’d buy any mechanical keyboard is for the typing experience, Lord of the Rings design aside.
The Drop + LOTR Black Speech keyboard uses Drop’s in-house Holy Panda X switches (developed with Gateron), which were actually one of the reasons I was excited to try this keyboard, having never used them before. It’s hard not to like the feel of these tactile switches. They offer a good level of resistance (60g spring) for each keypress, and the typing experience feels accurate and direct.
The Holy Panda X switches also have a very satisfying typing sound that most people will enjoy (perhaps not your office colleagues). However, the Holy Panda X switches sometimes feel a little scratchy, despite being pre-lubed. As these are soldered to the board, removing them and adding some additional lubrication isn’t the most straightforward task and isn’t one most folks would attempt.
As mentioned above, the LOTR-designed MT3 keycaps are nicer to type on than I thought. I had reservations about the height of the keycaps and the depth of the large concave design. One nice touch is the extra keycap depth on the two home keys, helping you bring your hands back to the home position quickly and without a raised dimple, as you find on most other keycap sets.
Overall, the profiled MT3 keycaps and Holy Panda X switches make the Drop + LOTR Black Speech keyboard a decent mechanical keyboard outside the Lord of the Rings branding.
Should You Buy the Drop + LOTR Black Speech Mechanical Keyboard?
Retailing for $199 on Drop, theDrop + LOTR Black Speechmechanical keyboard is a significant outlay for a mechanical keyboard that lacks some of the extra features and qualities you may find with other, cheaper options. The soldered switches and under-par lighting are areas that Drop should work on before releasing the next iteration of LOTR keyboards (or other collaborations).
Still, that the Drop + LOTR Black Speech mechanical keyboard delivers a good typing experience and isn’t just riding on its Lord of the Rings branding should endear it to anyone that wants that extra bit of LOTR merch to complete their collection or add a unique style to their desk. It would be easy to dismiss a keyboard like this if it was all branding and no substance, but the Drop + LOTR delivers both.
Now, whether it delivers nearly 200 bucks worth of value is more difficult to answer. There are keyboards that offer just as good a typing experience for less money, so unfortunately, it really comes down to whether the LOTR branding or just the keycaps and colors are what you’re into.
It’s expensive but absolutely worth it.
Don’t let aging hardware force you into buying expensive upgrades.
Your iPhone forgets what you copy, but this shortcut makes it remember everything.
Taming data is easier than it looks.
I found my TV was always listening—so I shut it down.
Quality apps that don’t cost anything.
