In the fiercely competitive world of gaming peripherals, the Wooting 60HE v2 emerges not just as an iteration, but as a significant leap forward. Priced at $180, this Hall Effect keyboard doesn’t merely meet expectations; it shatters them, delivering a typing and gaming experience that sets a new industry benchmark. Wooting has taken its already acclaimed v1 model and infused it with superior materials and a groundbreaking mounting method, all while maintaining an accessible price point that will undoubtedly captivate serious gamers and keyboard enthusiasts alike.
The 60HE v2 transcends the label of a mere ‘gaming keyboard.’ It stands as a testament to Wooting’s commitment to innovation, demonstrating a refreshing willingness to make bold, impactful changes rather than settling for safe, incremental updates. The result is a keyboard that earns a solid 9/10 rating, lauded for its smooth, consistent switches, an ultra-responsive 8,000 Hz polling rate, intuitive software, and a compact, efficient design.
Innovative Design Choices & User Experience
Wooting isn’t afraid to challenge conventions, and the 60HE v2 showcases several design decisions that, while potentially divisive, offer ingenious workarounds and enhanced functionality.
The Split Spacebar: A Leap for Productivity and Gaming
One such innovation is the optional split spacebar. While it may require a slight adjustment period, this feature grants both thumbs dedicated function keys, placing crucial shortcuts within effortless reach for both intense gaming sessions and demanding productivity tasks. Despite only 20% of customers opting for this layout, Wooting’s dedication to choice ensures it remains available alongside the traditional full-length spacebar.
Mastering the Compact 60% Layout
The keyboard’s compact 60% layout, a favorite among minimalists, might initially seem to sacrifice dedicated function rows and arrow keys. However, Wooting brilliantly addresses this through its powerful software. Users can effortlessly map arrow keys to a function layer over WASD, IJKL, or the bottom-right key cluster. A standout feature, “Mod Tap,” further enhances this flexibility, allowing a single key to perform one action when tapped and another when held. While Mod Tap excels for quick inputs, its nature means it’s less ideal for sustained presses (like navigating spreadsheets) and introduces a negligible increase in input latency – a minor trade-off for immense versatility.
Style and Practicality: The Removable Carrying Strap
Another point of discussion is the prominent carrying strap attached to the side. For those whose aesthetic preferences differ, Wooting provides a simple solution: the strap is entirely removable, with included blocker plates to neatly conceal the attachment points, ensuring the keyboard’s sleek profile remains intact.
Engineering Excellence: Typing Bliss & Robust Build
The 60HE v2 builds upon the original’s reputation for customization, utilizing a standard GH60/Tofu60 PCB layout. This makes it one of the few Hall Effect keyboards that offers the extensive personalization typically associated with mechanical keyboards, allowing for aftermarket cases, switches, and community modifications.
Hall Effect vs. Mechanical: A Fundamental Difference
The core distinction lies in their actuation. Traditional mechanical keyboards require a full keypress to complete a circuit. Hall Effect keyboards, however, leverage magnets and sensors, registering inputs based on changes in a magnetic field, thus eliminating the need for physical contact and enabling features like adjustable actuation and Rapid Trigger.
Community-Driven Improvements & Gummy Mount Innovation
Wooting has listened intently to its community, integrating popular modifications directly into the v2. The keyboard now ships standard with an aluminum case (the plastic case version was not tested), enhanced sound dampening, and a friction-fit mount. A significant upgrade is the new gummy mount, replacing the stress-prone O-ring design. According to CEO Calder Limmen, this not only boosts durability and reduces switch-PCB separation but also maintains a comparable sound and feel, contributing to the keyboard’s comfortable and great-sounding typing experience.
A Symphony of Sound Dampening
For acoustic refinement, the 60HE v2 offers options for foam, silicone, or air dampening. While silicone produces a higher-pitched sound and air delivers the lowest, all three options provide surprisingly excellent sound profiles. Coupled with closed-bottom switches, the v2 achieves a full, rich sound that deftly avoids the hollow resonance often found in other Hall Effect keyboards. The reviewed split spacebar unit featured smooth, silent stabilizers, a testament to the overall excellent build quality that suggests consistency across all configurations.
Unleashing Next-Gen Gaming Performance
The true heart of the v2’s appeal lies in its unparalleled performance, driven by an 8,000 Hz polling rate and an expansive suite of software customizations.
The Power of Wootility
These advanced customizations are managed through the intuitive, browser-based Wootility app. Here, users gain granular control over actuation distances, can fine-tune Rapid Trigger for lightning-fast inputs, and even map multiple actions to a single keypress. Wootility also supports sophisticated features like Mod Tap and comprehensive controller emulation, allowing WASD to mimic a joystick or specific keys to function as a car’s throttle, brake, and clutch.
For movement-heavy titles like Destiny 2, the ability to map a half-press to walk (W) and a full-press to sprint (Shift+W) offers seamless speed modulation, providing an immersive and responsive control experience. In games that support hybrid inputs, the option to map WASD to an analog joystick allows movement speed to scale precisely with keypress depth. However, it’s worth noting that many modern games often restrict users to either keyboard or controller inputs exclusively, which can limit the full potential of such hybrid configurations.
Conclusion: A New Era for Keyboards
The Wooting 60HE v2 is more than just a keyboard; it’s a statement. It’s a meticulously engineered device that not only caters to the demanding needs of competitive gamers but also offers a premium, customizable typing experience for anyone seeking peak performance and comfort. Its bold design choices, commitment to community feedback, and cutting-edge technology solidify its position as a true leader in the keyboard market, proving that innovation can indeed lead to perfection.
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