These aren't your regular Cyber Monday gaming keyboard deals
Greetings, fellow key switch nerds.
If you love a good key switch, you'll love these irregular gaming keyboards. Coming from the folks over at Drop (formerly Massdrop), these three keyboards—the CTRL, ALT, and Preonic—offer a whole new level of customization to those looking to step up their keyboard game, and they're all discounted this Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday deals
Cyber Monday 2020 deals: the place to go for the all the best Cyber Monday bargains.
We've got three flavors to choose from, each one more attuned to the wants and needs of the budding keyboard enthusiast.
For starters, the CTRL. This is a familiar board shape for PC gamers, taking the shape of a regular tenkeyless design. That's a great space saver for those of you with small desks. It comes with per-key RGB lighting on each key, a complimentary RGB strip surrounding the entire outer shell, and PBT keycaps. In fact, all three of these boards today use the hardier PBT plastic that's favored by keyboard fans for its tough construction.
Then you've got the ALT, the slightly more compact design that does away with the keys needlessly surrounding the core character set. Function keys? Fuhgeddaboudit.
Drop CTRL Mechanical Keyboard | Wired | Tenkeyless | $200 $160 at Drop (save $40)
If you're not prepared to lop off a large chunk of your keys in exchange for a neat and tidy aesthetic, how about something just a touch bigger in the Drop CTRL. Similar build, same switch flexibility, and only a little more cash.View Deal
Drop Alt Mechanical Keyboard | Wired | Compact | $180 $144 at Drop (save $36)
With a wide selection of key switches, including the lovely Halo Clears, the Alt Mechanical Keyboard from Drop is the perfect gift for anyone that wants to take their keyboard game to the next level, including yourself. Its compact footprint also features lighting per-key and around the entire length of the board.View Deal
Drop + OLKB Preonic keyboard | Wired | Smol | $140 $115 at Drop (save $25)
This one is for all of y'all out there obsessed with the A E S T H E T I C. The Preonic is a tiny little keyboard that's highly customizable. That's because it's not actually built yet, you have to do that yourself. It's easy, though: pick a case color and switches and spend an afternoon crafting your own dream keyboard.View Deal
The ALT is near-enough a smaller version of the CTRL. You'll have to be a little more dexterous with your macros and shortcuts to use it, but once you've nailed the basic functionality I promise you'll be a better typist for it. This compact size covers most of the basics required for gaming, too, although you may need to figure out the FN key shortcuts to access some oft-used keys.
Finally, we've reached peak keyboard nerd. My kind of people. The Drop + OLKB Preonic Keyboard MX Kit V3 isn't so much a keyboard as it is the constituent parts of a keyboard—you'll have to slot it all together yourself. That brings with it some benefits, however, such as the ability to choose your own case from a range of colors and styles. Frosted acrylic, gunmetal, orange, purple, red, or silver, the choice is yours. You could even order sans case and 3D print a fitting design.
You'll need to order switches and keycaps yourself for use with the Preonic. But that only gives you more freedom to do what you want in the key switch department. The DIY kit comes with a hot-swappable design PCB, meaning you can pull switches out and replace them as you please and without soldering.
Once you start buying key switches it's tough to stop, though. I have bags of the things. Bags.
So you see it's not always the same names and faces showing up during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For a little more of the irregular life, check out Drop's other deals. And there's always our guide to Cyber Monday gaming keyboard deals.