Wooting 80HE Review: Pinnacle of Hall Effect Keyboards

Wooting was one of nan first analog keyboard brands to break into nan mainstream. When nan original Wooting One TKL launched, it was a large deal—optical move exertion was still caller to astir people, and nan thought of a keyboard pinch hyper-fast, adjustable cardinal actuations was some caller and revolutionary astatine nan time.

Later, erstwhile it debuted its Lekker Hall effect switch successful nan Wooting Two, it was 1 of nan first companies to utilize the technology for gaming. Things ramped up successful 2020 pinch nan merchandise of nan Wooting 60HE: Wooting was taking preorders months successful advance, nan keyboard was reselling pinch monolithic markups, and Hall effect wholly overshadowed optical switches arsenic nan adjacent large thing.

Now, Hall effect keyboards are a dime a dozen. It kicked disconnected an arms race, and Wooting's 60HE fell behind. But pinch nan caller Wooting 80HE, nan institution returned to nan tenkeyless (TKL) layout of its first keyboard and made a keyboard that’s not only competitory but impressive. The 80HE has each characteristic I want successful a Hall effect keyboard, without immoderate of nan mistakes I commonly see. It’s robust, reliable, and easy to repair.

The 80HE has 2 versions, 1 pinch a integrative lawsuit and nan different pinch a zinc alloy. The integrative type retails for $200 and comes successful opaque achromatic aliases transparent gray. The zinc alloy exemplary costs $290 and includes a carrying case. It comes successful achromatic aliases white. You tin besides get nan keyboard successful ANSI, ISO, and JIS layouts. I tested nan zinc alloy lawsuit successful achromatic pinch a modular ANSI layout.

Fantastic Functionality

For astir each Hall effect keyboard I’ve reviewed, package has been a sore spot. They’ve been buggy, awkward, poorly designed, filled pinch advertisements, aliases conscionable plain unintuitive. Even nan champion package I’ve tested, from Keychron, has insignificant issues pinch connectivity and mounting functions.

This is wherever Wooting stands out. Its in-house app, Wootility, is great. It’s a simple, lightweight inferior that provides extended adjustments and customizations. It’s disposable some in-browser and arsenic a downloadable executable, meaning you tin entree it anyplace and usage it offline. More than that, each portion of its creation makes sense: The exertion is organized, easy to use, intuitive, and explains each setting. Plus, during my full clip utilizing nan browser version, I ne'er ran into connectivity issues—the infinitesimal I deed “enter” for nan URL, it recognized nan keyboard. This isn’t nan lawsuit for astir in-browser keyboard utilities, which don’t ever want to connect.

Even niche features for illustration gamepad emulation worked flawlessly. I replicated nan analog inputs of an Xbox controller’s instrumentality and triggers without immoderate hiccups aliases confusion, adjusting nan settings connected nan alert and still maintaining keyboard inputs for unmapped keys. I moreover put down a half-decent thigh clip successful Art of Rally aft a spot of believe (and a fewer crashes).