Drop CTRL (2018) vs Redragon S101 (2016)

The Drop CTRL (2018) makes for a good, if unremarkable, Wired Keyboard for people with a $190 budget.

The Redragon S101 (2016), however, is merely mediocre at its $39 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $190 and $40 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Drop CTRL (2018) and Redragon S101 (2016), however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

The Drop CTRL (2018) has managed to impress reviewers from some of the most highly trusted sources on the internet, including Laptop Mag and Wirecutter (NYTimes). It performed great in their in-depth hands-on roundups - it was awarded the "Best customization in a snap" title by Laptop Mag and "Other great mechanical keyboards" by Wirecutter (NYTimes) in their respective Wired Keyboard roundups. That's high praise, especially when coming from such high-quality sources.

As for the Redragon S101 (2016) - it impressed reviewers at Go Mechanical Keyboard, a trustworthy source that conducts solid hands-on testing. It did great in its "Best Computer Keyboards for Kids in 2021" roundup - in fact, it earned its "5 Best Computer Keyboard and Mouse Sets – Ages 7+" title, which, on its own, indicates a certain level of quality.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Wired Keyboards, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Drop CTRL (2018) got its highest, 7, rating from Tom's Guide, while the Redragon S101 (2016) earned its best, 9.1, score from Gadget Review.

Lastly, in order to better compare them to the rest of their competition, we averaged out their review scores. The Redragon S101 (2016) managed to get 9.1 out of 10 - considerably better than the 7.4 review average of Wired Keyboards in general - whereas the Drop CTRL (2018) earned 7.0 points.

It should be said that doing a direct Drop CTRL (2018) vs. Redragon S101 (2016) comparison might not be entirely fair due to the difference in their prices - some sources don't put much weight on value for money and thus tend to give better review scores to more expensive products.