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keyboardsimulators

Drop Holy Panda X Clear vs Glorious Panda

The Glorious Panda and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear sit in different price brackets, which across the 70-odd switches a board needs is a bigger difference than most of the spec sheet. Our library of every switch we simulate puts these two on each other's shortlist, and the player below is the fastest way to settle it: match the volumes, then work down through the table and the verdict.

Hear them back to back

simulated from real specssound loads on your first tap
Typing box plays:

Shortcuts: press A or B anywhere outside a text box to fire that burst. Use the volume trims to loudness-match the pair before judging which sounds better.

Spec by spec

Spec Drop Holy Panda X Clear Glorious Panda
Type Tactile Tactile
Brand rates force at bottom-out bottom-out
Actuation force 60 g 49 g
Bottom-out force 62 g 60 g
Pre-travel 2 mm 2.5 mm
Total travel 3.5 mm 3.3 mm
Silent (dampened) No No
Factory lubed Yes No
MX-compatible stem Yes Yes
Price tier Premium Mid-range
Street price varies varies

Drop and Glorious both advertise a bottom-out force, so the two headline figures in this table are measured at the same point and can be read against each other.

Verdict

Stroke character is a tie. Two tactiles feel alike under a finger, which pushes the decision onto the rows below the type row. Budget also has a say, since the Glorious Panda is mid priced and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear is premium priced. Weight is nearly even at bottom-out: 62 g for the Drop Holy Panda X Clear against 60 g, a gap most fingers will barely register. Nothing here separates by use case: the Drop Holy Panda X Clear is our pick for gaming and for typing, and it is the safer of the two in a shared room. Take the Glorious Panda only if you specifically want poppy thock with a touch of stock spring ping.

Gaming, typing and a shared office all point at the Drop Holy Panda X Clear, so printing the same name three times would tell you nothing. One pick it is.

Force curves

Drop Holy Panda X Clear

Force curve (illustrative, from published specs)
29g 58g 3.5mm travel 60g @ 2mm 62g bottom-out

Glorious Panda

Force curve (illustrative, from published specs)
25g 50g 3.3mm travel 49g @ 2.5mm 60g bottom-out

Drop Holy Panda X Clear or Glorious Panda: the long answer

Cost is the honest headline on this pair, so take it first. The Drop Holy Panda X Clear is premium priced, while the Glorious Panda is mid priced. One of them has already been lubed for you and one has not, which is worth more than the price gap if you were not planning to open 70 switches.

The specs are the smaller half of this pair, but they are not nothing. Neither the trigger point nor the depth matches: 2.0 mm to actuation on the Drop Holy Panda X Clear against 2.5 mm, and 3.3 mm of total travel on the Glorious Panda against 3.5 mm. Both are tactiles either way, so both give a finger something to aim at on the way down. At bottom-out they sit 2 g apart, 62 g against 60 g, close enough that lube and housing will decide the feel before the spring does. Neither one out-feels the other on type, so the small differences in the table are where the decision lives.

The ears usually get the last word here. Two different voices: slightly brighter tap than the standard HPX on the Drop Holy Panda X Clear, poppy thock with a touch of stock spring ping on the Glorious Panda. The usual caveat applies. Nothing here is a studio recording; both packs are synthesized from published specs, and the players say so.

Who buys which, then? One switch takes every axis we score: the Drop Holy Panda X Clear is our pick for gaming, for typing and for a shared desk. On speed, the two are close enough here that either works, and our scoring gives it the nod by a hair. On typing feel, its keystroke stays consistent and comfortable across a full day of writing. On noise, it makes the least fuss of the pair in a shared space. That leaves the Glorious Panda to anyone who preferred its voice in the player above, which is a good enough reason on its own. Whichever way you land, listen to both above with the volume trims matched before you spend anything.

Each of these has a page of its own with the full spec sheet and the sound notes. Start with the Drop Holy Panda X Clear page and the Glorious Panda page. Or leave switches aside for a minute and run your current keyboard through the free keyboard tester.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better for gaming, the Drop Holy Panda X Clear or the Glorious Panda?

We pick the Drop Holy Panda X Clear for gaming. This is close to a coin toss. The scoring hands it over by a margin you would not feel in a match.

Is the Drop Holy Panda X Clear quieter than the Glorious Panda?

They are close. Neither is a silent switch and neither clicks, so loudness depends mostly on how hard you bottom out and the board they sit in. Their character differs though: the Drop Holy Panda X Clear leans toward slightly brighter tap than the standard HPX, while the Glorious Panda is poppy thock with a touch of stock spring ping.

Which switch is heavier, the Drop Holy Panda X Clear or the Glorious Panda?

The Drop Holy Panda X Clear is heavier: 62 g against 60 g, both measured at bottom-out, so this is a fair like-for-like comparison.

Which is cheaper to fill a board with, the Drop Holy Panda X Clear or the Glorious Panda?

The Glorious Panda sits in the mid priced bracket and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear in the premium priced one. We do not hold a reliable per-switch price for both, so the bracket is the honest answer rather than a total.

More comparisons

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