Wooting 80HE Review: Pinnacle of Hall Effect Keyboards

Woting was a The first analog keyboard brands to enter the dominant current. When Wooting One One TKL was launched, it was a big problem – optical switching technology was still new for most people, and the idea of ​​a keyboard with hyper -rapid and adjustable key news was both new and revolutionary at the time.

Later, when he made his debut on his change of effect Lekker Hall in Wooting Two, he was one of the first companies to use gaming technology. Things increased in 2020 with the release of Woting 60he: Wooting took pre -orders for months in advance, the keyboard was restarting with massive markings, and the room effect completely overshadow thing.

Now, hall keyboards are a penny a dozen. He launched an arms race and the 60 -year -old woting was late. But with the new 80he Wooting, the company returned to Tenkeyless (TKL) of its first keyboard and made a keyboard which is not only competitive but impressive. The 80he has all the features I want in a hall effect keyboard, without any of the errors that I fluently see. It is robust, reliable and easy to repair.

The 80he has two versions, one with a plastic case and the other with a zinc alloy. The plastic version sells $ 200 and is available in opaque black or transparent gray. The zinc alloy model costs $ 290 and includes a transport case. He came in black or white. You can also get the keyboard in the Ansi, ISO and JIS arrangements. I tested the case in black zinc alloy with a standard ANSI provision.

Fantastic functionality

Photography: Henri Robbins

For almost all the hall keyboards I examined, the software was a painful spot. They were built, clumsy, poorly designed, filled with advertisements, or simply without intuitives. Even the best software I tested, from Keychron, has minor problems with connectivity and adjustment functions.

This is where Woting stands out. Its internal application, Wootility, is excellent. It is a simple and light utility that provides in -depth adjustments and customizations. It is available both as a browser and as a downloadable executable, which means that you can access it anywhere And Use it offline. More than that, each part of its design is logical: the application is organized, easy to use, intuitive and explains each parameter. In addition, during all my time using the browser version, I have never encountered any connectivity problems – the minute when I hit “enter” for the URL, he recognized the keyboard. This is not the case for most keyboard utilities in the browser, which do not always want to connect.

Even niche features like GamePad Emulation worked perfectly. I reproduced the analog inputs of the stick of an Xbox controller and triggers without hiccups or confusion, by adjusting the parameters on the fly and holding the keyboard inputs for non -mapped keys. I even spent a half decent tour time Rally art After a little practice (and some accidents).