Drop + LOTR Elvish keyboard review: "Worthy of Tolkien himself"

Something I love about Tolkien's rich world and history is that more than any other fantasy setting I know, it evokes a sort of "spirit". It's that feeling you get when you hear a piece of Howard Shore's film soundtrack or see an illustrative painting by Ted Naismith. It's a feeling, more than anything, that something has been crafted with love - not to make a quick buck, make some sweeping allegory, or simply create for creation's sake. Drop's Lord of the Rings Elvish Keyboard embodies that spirit. 

As someone with dyslexia, this is not a keyboard I should be able to use. The keycaps are emblazoned with Tengwar symbols and the English lettering is tiny and hard to scan. But of course, these Tolkein language keycaps are the entire appeal of Drop's LOTR collection. Although it took some getting used to, my brain quickly remembered the layout of a QWERTY keyboard, and my letter-jumbling brain somehow got by.

$199 / £199 isn't exactly cheap in the world of the best gaming keyboards, but I'd argue this is no mere ranger. This is a piece of merchandise worthy of a collector - something worth saving up for and making a long-term investment in. Drop has a great reputation for making quality products that last a long time, and the Elvish keyboard I tested for this review is no exception. 

Design

Hiding under the Tolkien veil here is Drop's ENTR board, which is the brand's entry-level product. Although I'm not GamesRadar+'s resident keyboard expert, I can say with a degree of confidence that this doesn't feel anything like an entry-level accessory. When we reviewed the Drop CTRL, we loved its build quality but found it struggled to keep up with the modern-day gaming options on the shelves, and that feels like a similar story here.

Gaming keyboard enthusiasts might be turned off by the soldered switches that are factory-lubed, but in all honesty, I'm not sure this keyboard is really targeted at those sorts of buyers.

The Elvish edition I'm reviewing uses a re-colored green ENTR anodized aluminium case, but Drop has a number of options in its LOTR range now. If you aren't hot on your Tengwar, you can choose the Ringwraith edition, Black Speech edition, or one of the Dwarvish options. All of these sport their own sets of keycaps in different Middle Earth dialects, which cuts right to the heart of Tolkien - the languages came first, then the stories.

New to the collection are the Rohan board, desk mats and wrist rests, and coming soon are some stunning Artisan keycaps that have a transparent effect and house artwork within.

Before turning my great eye's fiery gaze to the Elvish version I'm typing on, let me say as a blanket statement that I think every one of these products has been designed beautifully, and I love that Drop is using artwork from OSHETART, an independent artist that has a true gift for fantasy illustration. I love that Drop has chosen this route and not just gone with officially licensed work that's been seen a million times before.

The color scheme and textured illustration on the Elvish model are bang on, in my opinion. To most on-lookers, it may seem like it's depicting Rivendell's archways or the visage of Mirkwood, but it's actually sporting the light of the trees from Valinor. This is one of the reasons I love what Drop has made here. It isn't just for LOTR fans, this is for the wider community that loves the Silmarillion and the larger Legendarium. There's a subtle north-facing backlight that doesn't have the gaming flare of the best Razer keyboards but instead goes with a heavenly white light that's faithful to what it's depicting.

In the box, you get a keycap puller, a USB to USB-C cable, and a few orange alternative keycaps if you want a little more color in the mix. The green border keys frame a predominantly off-white keycap set, which is befitting of Eru's firstborn and their connection with nature. The white keycaps, however, have a beautiful papyrus-like texture and hue to them, making you feel a bit more in touch with whatever virtual page you're typing on. 

The keycaps show Tengwar symbols which, rather controversially, don't add up 1:1 with QWERTY English symbols. Although a few angry commenters have said this isn't correct and Drop hasn't done its due diligence, they'd be incorrect. As WizardWayKris comments on the Q&A page for the product, any Elvish font would require you to learn a bit of the language in order to use it for actually typing in Elvish. Diacritics, or accent marks, are used for vowels in Tengwar, meaning that one vowel can take multiple keys in order to place it correctly. In other words, there is no direct translation alphabetically for English keys, so although what's depicted on the "t" key may not be the Tengwar symbol for our letter "t", there is still a method to Drop's madness if you learn a bit of the language. 

Features

The LOTR boards may not have a wrist rest or hot-swappable switches, but you can buy the keycaps separately for each board, which is a nice touch. The ENTR chassis does have a nice kickstand on its bottom if you want a bit more of a gradient when typing, and it connects to a PC using a standard USB-C to USB connection. 

Drop Phantom Stabilizers prevent too much noise pollution, while Holy Panda X switches ensure a lovely tactile feel. There's no USB passthrough, and no media keys to speak of, this is a keyboard bred for a single purpose, and that's typing. While it's certainly as capable of gaming as any of the best hot-swappable keyboards, it's maybe not what aspiring Esports athletes should gun for. 

Using the TKL layout means this is just shy of a full-sized keyboard. It's missing a number pad, but it has a dedicated section on the right-hand side for Home, Ins, Del, End, and PgUp + PgDn keys, as well as arrows at the bottom. You'll also find F1 through F12 up at the top. All-in-all, 87 keys are more than enough to be getting on with, although I'd have liked a slightly bigger size so there was room for more symbols - the pipe symbol is glaringly absent, for example, which makes the way we format some of our articles a bit tricky.  

Performance

The Drop LOTR Elvish keyboard is all the keyboard I need, and I'm someone who types for a living. It's important to me that I have something that feels satisfying for writing, video editing, and some light gaming here and there. When playing on one of the best gaming PCs, I mainly use the Azeron Cyborg, so I don't ever feel like I'm missing out on gaming-related keyboard features. 

That papyrus texture is paramount to making this keyboard feel as though it's been plucked right out of Arda. It works alongside the Panda X switches to give the experience a crisp and responsive feel, and I love the ergonomic curves and indentations of each key. 

Like I mentioned up top, those elvish symbols definitely take some getting used to when you first place this on one of the best gaming desks. I can touch-type, but out of sheer habit, I still tend to look down at the keys anyway. Until those Tengwar symbols burn their way into your brain, it can be quite difficult to find the tiny English letters in the bottom right-hand corner of each keycap. Once I got used to things though, it felt like I was typing like Shadowfax runs. In a helpful turn, a lot of the function keys have the English word for them written on their south faces, making them a bit more usable.

One thing I would note is that I am fairly hard on my keyboards, and while the main body still feels as good as new, the spacebar does suffer from some minor squeaking now and again. Besides that, there's no sign at all that this keyboard won't last me well into the future. I'm about three months into using it, and the quality hasn't changed at all.

I did test this board with some light gaming and video editing, too. Hunt: Showdown and Atomic Heart both felt lovely thanks to those ergonomic curves, while Immortals of Aveum's busy key binds were easy enough to navigate thanks to the fairly compact space between each symbol. Like I said, it'll do the trick for gaming, but the typing experience and glorious design are what you should buy this for.

Should you buy the Drop LOTR Elvish Keyboard?

This is a keyboard worthy of Tolkien himself. Its design is faithful - it looks like it's been taken straight out of Galadriel's home office in Lothlórien. Its biggest draw is undeniably its looks, but the typing experience it gives you is worth every penny you'd spend on it. While it isn't specifically designed for gamers, it'll do the trick thanks to the tactile Panda X switches. Besides the slight squeaks from the spacebar, I have no doubts this will last me a life age of the earth.

As a huge fan of Tolkien's works and someone who grew up on the Peter Jackson LOTR trilogy, I find that it's so easy to spot merchandise that's worth grabbing versus hollow, for-profit stuff that isn't. 

This keyboard is absolutely the former - this has been made with love and respect for the community and source material it's made for. I think the biggest compliment I can give it is that it feels like everything that the Rings of Power series isn't.

How we tested the Drop LOTR Elvish Keyboard

I used this keyboard for a few months before this review, stress testing it through a busy Black Friday season while covering deals. I've used it every day for work and general computing in that time, testing its longevity and typing experience. I compared it closely to other mechanical and membrane keyboards I've used, and also used it for video editing and gaming.

For more information on how we test gaming keyboards, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy. 

After something a bit more affordable? check out the best membrane gaming keyboards or the best cheap gaming keyboards available now. If you want something more gamepad-shaped, check out the best PC controllers.