Drop Signature Series Islay Night hands-on: A $349, arrow-free experience

Enlarge (credit: Scharon Harding)

You can often tell a custom-made mechanical keyboard when you see it. The keycaps have a selection of colors, shapes and/or heights that you haven’t seen united before. The owner swears the mechanical switches are something special, and they’re all housed in a chassis of their favorite color, topped off with the perfect level of stabilizers, lubrication, and sound dampeners that you can’t handpick with a prebuilt alternative. Drop, which sells parts to keyboard enthusiasts, knows that not everyone has the time, patience, or even skill to make something like this. Its line of prebuilt keyboards—from its $500 Paragon Series to its more attainable Expression Series and, in the middle ground, Signature Series—seek to bring that hand-assembled custom keyboard experience without requiring you to DIY.

The Drop Signature Series Islay Night keyboard is, arguably, the most unique option among the seven added to the series last week, because it’s a 60 percent keyboard. No function row, no numpad, and, especially, no arrow keys are a no-go for many. And its $349 price tag will get it kicked off even more buyers’ lists. But if you’re willing to splurge on a tiny keyboard like this, the Islay Night is a premium way to take part in hot mechanical keyboard trends like hybrid switches, diffused RGB, and a detachable USB-C cable without having to do any building. And you get to pay subtle tribute to Scotland as well.

Use arrow keys? This isn’t for you

Named after the Scottish island Islay, this keyboard is on a bit of an island itself. If it’s not obvious by now, you’re not paying for key count with the Islay Night. It doesn’t have a numpad, but if you don’t spend a lot of time with numbers or spreadsheets, this may be perfectly tolerable. By dropping the numpad, you also get extra desk space, a win for minimalists, small-desk owners, and gamers with frantically moving mice, alike. But 60 percent keyboards take the small keyboard thing to a different level by dropping all navigation keys, including the arrow keys.