Guys, please tell me I’m not crazy. I just went to the massdrop page and noticed that the Shift keyboard looked a little different from the last time I saw it. See the page here: Drop SHIFT Mechanical Keyboard | Full Size Hot Swappable
they haven’t changed the board, just look at the photos from the reviewers… it’s the same. maybe you’re thinking of a different keyboard. the names all kind of blend together. alt, ctrl, shift, etc
edit: actually looking closely it looks like a row of switches was removed and the gap reduced between f keys and the numbers??
they did all that work to change the layout slightly but it’s still low profile… I don’t think the target market would care either way for the two layouts so I’m a bit confused why they would change the case and make a new pcb just to shrink the gap and remove four keys
Yea. If they were going to lose the money either way they probably should have gone in for some prototype focus-group testing before deciding on a design. Massdrop brand boards always look so cheap to me in any case.
The SHIFT discussion page has some communication from them in regards to this; they’re pushing the date to January to allow another round of prototyping.
For reference, here’s the full post explaining the changes and linking to some of the discussions and feedback they received after it was originally announced:
These boards aren’t cheap. They work well, they have some really neat features (negative typing angle stock is rare and cool) and generally well-engineered.
Oh, I dont think theyre cheap and they do have a lot of cool features. I mean they look really cheap, even though they offer quite a bit in terms of features that I would like. And I dont necessarily dislike the low-profile—I think it looks quite nice on sandwich case boards–but somehow this execution of it looks super shiit. Something about the rounded edges makes it look like it could be a magicforce.
^ This exactly. If they’d put some effort into the looks of their boards I’d be much more interested in them. The high profile versions of the Ctrl & Alt didn’t look so bad, but I think they had them priced too high. I believe they were both close to $300.
I suppose to some extent they are appealing to a different market. But I agree that they don’t look great. I think the high-profile versions of their boards look pretty good though.
I think it makes it easier for the traces to be interrupted/damaged, but I’m not an expert. I read that some people have had grounding issues with the Alt shorting out when the case is touched.
