Enlarge / Drop has made some pretty expensive keyboards, like this $349 Islay Night that is no longer in stock. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Corsair is acquiring Drop, the companies announced today. Corsair is already the parent company of other gaming peripherals and PC brands it previously acquired, including Elgato and Origin PC. The latest acquisition adds a brand that's well-known among mechanical keyboard builders to the company's catalog.

Drop used to be called Massdrop and was founded in 2011. Based in California (like its soon-to-be parent company), its bread and butter has traditionally been parts for DIY mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, including bare-bone kits and premium keycaps. However, the company's selection has expanded to prebuilt mechanical keyboards , including some high-end, supremely expensive ones . The company also sells more mainstream-friendly keyboard parts, like Lord of the Rings prebuilt keyboards and keycaps , and other PC peripherals, like headphones and desk mats. Beyond Drop products, the site also sells other enthusiast-brand products.

Today, we learned that Corsair reached an agreement to buy Drop but didn't learn of the terms of the "non-material, all-cash transactions." Once the deal closes, people can still shop on Drop's website, and Drop will be a separate brand within Corsair. Drop warranties and customer support will still be handled by Drop, for example. However, Corsair "will be able to offer specialized Corsair and Elgato products to the enthusiast community that Drop is engaged with,” Corsair CEO Andy Paul said in a statement. The stated parameters are similar to how brands Corsair has acquired—Elgato, Origin PC, and Scuf—operate.

Enlarge / Model F Labs' Classic Style F104 Model F keyboard starts at $420. (credit: Model F Keyboards )

IBM’s Model F keyboards are prized among keyboard enthusiasts. Introducing buckling spring switches over a capacitive printed circuit board (PCB) in the early 80s, they’re considered the grandfather of mechanical switches. Despite their prestige, Model F keyboards were no more by the following decade and, due to outdated technologies, have become very rare and can be tough to use with a modern computer. Targeting retro keyboard fans who don't want to deal with long searches, repairs, or mods, Model F Labs recreates IBM's Model F keyboards with modern OS support, and it recently introduced the iconic buckling spring switches in a classic full-sized keyboard, as well as some unique form factors.

Buckling springs

With the tactile buckling of the internal spring and the click of the flipper against the capacitive PCB, the keys in IBM's Model F keyboards inspired today's mechanical switches. Popular in banks, they replaced IBM's beam spring keyboards with a lower-cost design that was also less bulky. Early Model F keyboards had keycaps that were the same size, and keycaps were also removable for customization.

By 1985, IBM was making Model M keyboards , also popular among keyboard collectors today, with keys featuring a buckling spring over membrane and lower manufacturing costs.

Enlarge (credit: Scharon Harding)

Last week, I visited a friend and, for the first time, saw a mechanical keyboard on her desk. This is someone I've known for decades and who's not into tech, so this was a surprise. But her job became partially remote since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so she needed something comfortable with a numpad to use at home. The keyboard was a cheap, quick buy off Amazon that earned its keep by looking cute and being "so clicky," she informed me.

My friend isn't alone in her newfound use of mechanical switches. Demand for more tactile and durable typing, gaming, and number crunching has led to prebuilt mechanical keyboards being incredibly easy to find. And while they can still be extremely costly, newcomers like my friend are able to find sub-$100 options that enthusiasts may scoff at but still represent an upgrade over a membrane or laptop keyboard.

This widespread acceptance of mechanical keyboards has led to an even deeper corner of the hobby getting more attention of late: DIY customization.

Enlarge / Razer's BlackWidow V4 Pro wired mechanical keyboard. (credit: Scharon Harding)

If you've ever wished your keyboard had more buttons, Razer's BlackWidow V4 Pro may be for you. It expands the full-size keyboard layout to include a column of macro keys and three non-mechanical buttons on the keyboard's left edge. The keyboard also has a volume roller and a so-called Command Dial, which lets you twist your inputs to control zoom, scroll through a long spreadsheet, or tweak the size of a Photoshop brush.

Despite Razer's gaming focus, the BlackWidow V4 Pro fits well in work settings thanks to its extreme, multi-layer programmability, a strong but imperfect typing experience, and a USB-A passthrough port. It's easy to dim the RGB lighting and get to work with complex key bindings; you can launch frequently used apps and sites with a keypress and navigate programs with the dial.

But many of the BlackWidow V4 Pro's best features require you to keep Razer's Synapse app open, and while this isn't a new complaint, the introduction of the multi-function dial puts a harsh spotlight on this limitation.

Enlarge (credit: OnePlus )

OnePlus is finally ready to detail its first mechanical keyboard. No, we didn't need another company to start making mechanical keyboards. But if you're looking for a new Bluetooth keyboard that plays particularly well with Macs, has a compact layout, and a rotary knob that looks stylish and functional, OnePlus will have one more choice for you come April.

Announced today, OnePlus is jumping into the mechanical keyboard race with a strange name, the Featuring Keyboard 81 Pro . The "81" refers to the key count, while "Pro" is assumably meant to make workers and power users think the keyboard's a good fit; but the name doesn't quite roll off the tongue. The outlier here is the "Featuring" bit, which refers to the OnePlus Featuring "co-creation" platform that builds products based off user feedback. Community users are said to have contributed to the 81 Pro's design, including its proprietary switches. OnePlus' press release today claimed it will release "many" more Featuring products.

OnePlus-y touches include a logo-stamped Esc key. (credit: OnePlus/Twitter )

Another huge influence on the 81 Pro is keyboard-maker Keychron, which is said to have helped engineer the product. That includes its layout, which matches the layout of the Q1 Pro that Keychron is currently crowdfunding . In addition to macOS, the keyboard is supposed to work with Windows, Linux, and Android, OnePlus' press release said. The keyboard's product page also claims support with iOS. Similar to some wireless Keychron keyboards, like the Keychron K14 , there's a toggle on the keyboard's side for switching from Mac to Windows. Considering the lack of USB-A ports among Macs, the Bluetooth 5.1 keyboard charges over a USB-C to USB-C cable (there's also a USB-C to USB-A adapter).

Enlarge / So big it takes two to maneuver. (credit: Glarses/YouTube )

Sometimes, bigger is better. And sometimes, bigger is just... massive. That's the word that comes to mind when looking at and pricing the latest DIY mechanical keyboard from YouTuber Glarses that's as long and costly as he is tall.

Colossal keyboard completed. (credit: Glarses/YouTube )

As you might imagine, mechanical keyboards with buttons so big you could comfortably use more than one finger to press one are rather rare. Budget peripheral-maker Redragon has one that you can actually buy that is 1.9 feet long, 7.95 inches deep, and 2.33 inches tall. Google has also played with lengthy keyboards for fun, with Google Japan's Gboard Stick Version prototype measuring 5.25 feet long. And Razer, the inspiration for Glarses' build, has shown off a gargantuan tenkeyless (TKL) keyboard at CES with functioning RGB switches.

Despite all that chassis, though, none of those jumbo boards managed to include a traditional numpad. Glarses' giant keyboard, on the other hand, was made with the mammoth number-cruncher in mind.

Enlarge / A recent keyboard announcement explores a space-saving alternative to dedicated arrow buttons. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Which keys are absolutely essential to a keyboard? Many will tell you the entire numpad is, while others demand macro keys. I personally insist on some sort of volume knob for my home office setup. And as someone who has tested 60 percent keyboards, which have no numpad or arrow keys, I'd add that for productiveness and my sanity, arrow keys are also mandatory.

Arrow-less keyboards have their market, but for the vast majority, no arrows on a keyboard is dealbreaker. A mechanical keyboard Angry Miao announced today asks us to consider an alternative, though. Instead of arrow keys or relying on a key combo for arrow input (like most 60 percent keyboard users do), it has a capacitive touch panel on the front edge for inputting arrow and other functions with your thumbs.

Is Angry Miao on to something here?

Enlarge (credit: Finalmouse/YouTube )

If you think RGB LEDs dancing upon your keyboard's keys is distracting, you might want to look away from Finalmouse's upcoming mechanical keyboard. The Finalmouse Centerpiece announced Saturday is a mechanical keyboard that has its own display showing animated visuals through the keyboard's transparent keycaps and switches for a look that seems as dazzling as it is distracting.

Finalmouse is known for making PC mice with detailed designs and, often, limited availability. It typically goes after PC gamers looking for something unique and exclusive-feeling for their setup. Now, Finalmouse is announcing its first keyboard, which takes detailed design to a new level.

Finalmouse hasn't shared many details on the display running underneath the Centerpiece's switches. We don't know its exact size, brightness, resolution, or refresh rate, for example. However, the screen is said to be powered by "interactive skins" using Unreal Engine 5. It's unclear how many skins the Centerpiece will launch with, but in its video, Finalmouse showed a variety of possibilities, from swimming koi fish that scurry away when you press a key, to a rippling water effect, a lion grazing, and 3D animations.

Enlarge (credit: Getty )

Keylogger-like behavior has some Corsair K100 keyboard customers concerned. Several users have reported their peripheral randomly entering text into their computer that they previously typed days or weeks ago. However, Corsair told Ars Technica that the behavior is a bug, not keylogging, and it's possibly related to the keyboard's macro recording feature.

A reader tipped us off to an ongoing thread on Corsair's support forum that a user started in August. The user claimed that their K100 started typing on its own while they use it with a MacBook Pro, gaming computer, and KVM switch.

"Every couple of days, the keyboard has started randomly typing on its own while I am working on the MacBook. It usually seems to type messages that I previously typed on the gaming PC and it won't stop until I unplug the keyboard and plug it back in," the user, "brendenguy," wrote.