Révision du Wooting 80HE: Tout-en-un effet Hall

It only took a single keyboard for Wooting to climb to the top of the gaming keyboard list. The 60HE was as innovative as it was controversial, flipping the mechanical keyboard world upside down by using Hall Effect keys in a 60% form factor. Now, Wooting is back with the 80HE, a slightly larger keyboard aimed at improving on the set of risks faced by the 60HE.

You get enhanced keys, cushion holders, clearer focus on internal construction, all with the Hall Effect quality that made the 60HE a resounding success. Wooting has made a great keyboard here that stands out from the moment you unpack it. However, unlike the 60HE, the new 80HE is not fundamentally for modifications and alterations. It’s a great keyboard that will definitely retire, and it’s a challenge to sell it for up to $290.

Specifications of Wooting 80HE

Design

At first glance, the Wooting 80HE doesn’t seem distinctive. This is what Wooting calls an 80% layout – it’s not, and I’ll get into that in a bit – and it doesn’t stand out like the Wooting’s 60HE+, which comes with a nylon strap bearing its own brand attached to the side of the keyboard. You have six color options available across two different materials: black, phantom, and frost with PCR (plastic), or black, white, or raw (silver) with zinc alloy.

The zinc alloy frame looks great, with a smooth finish around all the edges of the keyboard. It’s a unique feeling. You don’t get that sandblasted finish you find with raw aluminum, but you also don’t get the highly polished finish of aluminum. The zinc alloy case falls somewhere in between. It also makes the keyboard slightly heavier. The weight of the Wooting 80HE is 4.7 lbs with a zinc alloy case, and only 1.7 lbs with a PCR case.

I love heavier keyboards – see Meletrix Boog75 review for more on that – so I naturally gravitated towards the zinc alloy case. I’m not sure if I would have chosen it if I were buying the keyboard myself. The PCR version comes at a pre-manufactured price of $200, while the zinc alloy version costs $290 pre-manufactured – a premium of $90. You can purchase the case separately later on, but Wooting charges $110 for the case alone.

The price alone is not the big issue here. You can easily spend over $200 on the case alone depending on the premium you want. The issue is that you own to get the case from Wooting. The 80HE model does not actually use an 80% layout – it’s a vertical row short of a proper 80% layout. It’s closer to the very common 75% layout, but you can’t use any 75% case here. This must be the Wooting problem. There isn’t really a compelling reason to use this design either. It gives you two extra keys compared to a 75% layout.

Another strange departure comes in the adjustable writing angle. No, you don’t get fragile plastic feet. Instead, Wooting includes three sets of silicone feet that are attached to the bottom of the keyboard. They’re just kind of awkward. They feel securely attached, but the weird designs on the feet (see above) mean they’re hanging over the edges of the case. The feet look like an afterthought, rather than some carefully designed swappable feet as seen in the Asus ROG Azoth Extreme.

There are some practical issues here, no doubt, but the Wooting 80HE looks amazing. You get a light bar on the keyboard that doubles up as a dual-service indicator for a variety of tasks, and the RGB backlighting might be the most vibrant I’ve ever seen. It’s even better than the Razer Black Widow V4 Pro by 75%, with rich colors smoothly transitioning between keys. The keyboard looks stunning, despite design flaws in other areas.

Sound and Feel

One of the issues with the original Wooting 60HE was the sound and feel. Wooting has been a pioneer in Hall Effect switches, and the 60HE ignored designs that target distinct sound and feel of a keyboard inherent in focusing directly on gaming. The 80HE model brings some typist sensitivities to the design, and as a result, the keyboard sound and feel is much better.

The internals here are completely different from the 60HE. The two changes that bear the most weight are the cushion holder and the switch plate. The cushioning is very tight here, but you still feel a smoother touch compared to the top cushion available in 60HE. It’s not as light as the Keychron Q1 HE, but the Wooting 80HE is much closer to the sound and touch of a keyboard that way than the 60HE.

In addition to the cushion holder, the 80HE uses a polycarbonate keyboard instead of a steel keyboard like the 60HE used. It’s more pliable than aluminum or steel, contributing to a better feel for typing in general, even with tighter cushioning. I generally prefer FR4, but the polycarbonate keyboard is not far from it. Wooting has changed the internal sound dampening, with a mix of silicone and foam and a « damping strip » below the PCB, all contributing to a soft and quiet sound, which is pleasantly surprising for a Hall Effect keyboard.

However, this is a Hall Effect keyboard. If sound and feel are your primary concern, traditional mechanical keys are the optimal solution. Some keyboards, like Glorious GMMK 3, allow you to choose between Hall Effect and mechanical keys. With Wooting 80HE, you’re confined to Hall Effect keys. However, the switch PCB is hot-swappable, so you can add your own Hall Effect keys if you desire.

As with 60HE, Wooting uses its own internal Lekker keys with 80HE. You have the choice between L45 and L60, which only differ in their final strength – 45g and 60g, as you might think. Both are linear keys, and both use an MX stem so you can add any keycaps you want, and both support the full range of Hall Effect key operation from 0.1mm to 4mm.

Features

Wooting has been a pioneer of Hall Effect keys, and the 80HE comes with features to showcase the switch technology. As with other Hall Effect keyboards, you have an adjustable actuation point from 0.1mm to 4mm, allowing you to press your keys or barely graze them to register a key press. Dynamic actuation, or what Wooting calls Rapid Trigger, is the best way to use Hall Effect keys, however, with keys actuating and resetting based on movement rather than a fixed point on the key.

Now, Wooting also introduces Rappy Snappy. A great name, but not a unique feature. It’s the same as Razer’s Snap Tap, which allows you to control two keys through the software and trigger the latest input between them. Instead of leaving your D or A key when attacking Valorant, for example, all you have to do is press down on the direction you want to move while pressing your other finger down.

Esports pros have called it « cheating ». It tests the player’s brave spirit, for a good reason. It gives you an undeniable advantage in competitive games, to the point that Valve officially banned such features on Counter-Strike 2 servers, as ESL did for all their Counter-Strike 2 events.

While Hall Effect was an uncharted territory just a year ago, the available feature set today looks like a stone. I’m not sure how far Wooting – or other brands, in this case – should go with the technology. The Wooting 80HE looks great, but traditional mechanical keyboards still look better and offer more customization options. If you don’t see a feature provided by Hall Effect here, then the 80HE may not be suitable for you.

Programming

The Wooting software is excellent. To manage the 80HE, you’ll use the appropriately named Wootility software, available through your browser or as a separate download. I prefer the browser version. It’s convenient, as you can use it in an offline mode after pairing the keyboard, giving you access to all keyboard functions without the need for an external application. All your settings are stored on the appropriate keyboard, so everything will continue to work even if your browser is not open.

The usual suspects are here. You can adjust the actuation point on a per-key basis, change Rappy Snappy keys, adjust RGB effects for each key. RGB effects stand out in particular, as you can configure different lighting effects for different layers of key assignments. For example, holding down Fn will switch the key to the second layer, and by default, only a few keys with media control features are lit. This is an area I’ve seen the Hyte Keeb TKL falter in.

You can rebind all keys entirely, including support for up to four layers – three layers plus the main layer. You can remap keys to functions such as launching the calculator or shutting down the system, in addition to media control keys. However, there is no support for macro modules (you need the separate and free Wootomation application) or customizable commands. For example, you can open the default browser or email client, but you can’t open a specific application by setting a key like the secondary browser.

If you’re daring, you can dive into the advanced Hall Effect settings in the application. Wooting supports setting the controller button using analog inputs, in addition to dynamic keypresses that allow you to set multiple functions with a single key press. These add-ons showcase the capabilities of Hall Effect keys, but I’m still not sure if they’re actually useful. Perhaps there is a power user running a set of inputs with just a few key presses, but I haven’t seen that.

The main draw here is that Wootility is also easy. It’s extremely responsive, even in your browser, and I had no questions about where to go to access certain settings. Updates are almost immediate as well, so you don’t have to wait long when trying out new lighting effects on the keyboard.

Should You Buy the Wooting 80HE?

The Wooting 80HE does one thing really well. It’s the Hall Effect keyboard, in the same way the 60HE was, and now with some premium internal components. The main issue is its cost. Keyboards like the Meletrix Boog75 and Keychron Q1 HE offer Hall Effect keys at a much lower price and with the same quality. Wooting certainly has an edge in its software, and if you want to spend the money to get a premium experience, the 80HE gives you that.

However, my reservation about recommending the 80HE is the lack of customizability, at least at the moment. Modding was a big deal with the 60HE, and Wooting curtails modding potential without cause in the 80HE through a custom layout that doesn’t serve any practical purpose.