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Deep Dives
Why the Drop Holy Panda X feels the way it does
The Holy Panda was a six-month frankenswitch project for most of its life. The Drop Holy Panda X is the first version where the geometry, the spring tune, the housing pairing, and the factory lube were the spec — not the mod.
thock12 min read
Week 20 / 2026
open trends tracker →Trending — what's moving on the tracker
switch
Cherry MX2A revisions
-23%
keycap
GMK CYL Prussian Alert
+46%
layout
Alice layout
-19%
layout
Split / ergo (Voyager, Glove80)
+34%
layout
75% layout
+30%
vendor
Mode Designs
+26%
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Deep Dives
Long reads worth your weekend
Deep Dives
Why the Drop Holy Panda X feels the way it does
The Holy Panda was a six-month frankenswitch project for most of its life. The Drop Holy Panda X is the first version where the geometry, the spring tune, the housing pairing, and the factory lube were the spec — not the mod.
thock12 min read
Deep Dives
How HMX took over the mid-tier linear slot
Two years ago HMX was a name on a vendor page nobody pronounced confidently. Today the Cloud sits second on our W19 tracker and lands in half the $120 prebuilts the scene argues about. The rise wasn't an accident.
thock12 min read
Deep Dives
Plate materials, explained: what brass, FR4, POM, and aluminium actually change
The plate is the cheapest variable in the build and the one builders argue about hardest. Most of the heat is misdirected — but a usable fraction of it is real, and the difference is worth pinning down.
thock13 min read