Wooting’s 60HE v2 is a strong improve to the perfect gaming keyboard

Over the previous couple of years, I’ve tried to modify to many alternative gaming keyboards and all the time ended up again with a Wooting 60HE. Wooting modified PC gaming with the 60HE, popularizing the usage of Hall impact switches and a Rapid Trigger system that hurries up how shortly you possibly can activate keys. Now it’s again with a v2 that upgrades the perfect gaming keyboard to enhance its sound and really feel.

I’ve been testing the $239.99 Wooting 60HE v2 over the previous week, and I’m impressed with my early hands-on, however I don’t know if I’d rush to improve from an unique modded 60HE.

The Wooting 60HE v2 has the identical 60 % structure as the unique, so there aren’t any devoted perform keys or an F row. There are additionally no arrow keys, however Wooting has a intelligent “mod tap” system that allows you to allow arrow keys in the suitable shift part of the board.

The huge adjustments with the 60HE v2 are all about what comes as customary now. Wooting has actually centered on bettering the sound and really feel of the v2 so it’s rather a lot nearer to a modded 60HE with customized switches, dampening, and extra.

Wooting has ditched the screws for the v2, choosing a stress match as an alternative. I’ve been testing the aluminum case that appears and feels rather a lot just like the alumaze circumstances Wooting offered as non-obligatory extras for the 60HE. The case features a new silicon dampening possibility, or the common EDPM foam.

I felt just like the silicon possibility dampened the sound of the switches an excessive amount of, so I most popular the EDPM as an alternative. You may also simply not use any dampening in the event you choose that sort of sound. Wooting can also be utilizing PET movie to forestall the switches from making contact with the PCB, and a manufacturing unit tape mod on the rear of the board. Both of those assist enhance the general sound.

The switches on the 60HE v2 have additionally been upgraded to Wooting’s new “Lekker Tikken” swap, a closed-bottom Hall impact swap with a 4.0mm actuation vary. Hall impact switches use a magnet so the board can observe how far a swap has been pressed, however the sound profile has sometimes been worse than Cherry MX-style switches.

Wooting’s new switches have positively improved the sound profile, however they use an extended 22mm spring that makes the switches really feel a bit of heavier than the Geon Raws I’ve been utilizing for months. I can often adapt to totally different switches after a couple of hours of use, however I discovered myself shortly transferring again to the Geon Raws as I most popular each the sound profile and really feel. Wooting’s switches are nonetheless an amazing default swap although, and the stem wobble of the unique switches has been significantly improved right here.

The upgraded 60HE v2 can also be sooner than the unique mannequin, due to true 8kHz polling and a low enter latency of simply 0.125ms. That’s the identical latency because the 8kHz USB polling on Wooting’s bigger 80HE that I reviewed final 12 months. I don’t assume you’d truly discover this latency enchancment until you measured it, however it’s good to have both method.

I opted to check the split-spacebar 60HE v2, and I’m nonetheless a bit undecided on whether or not I prefer it. It means that you can have three keys the place you’d usually solely have the one house bar. I like the concept in precept, however I discovered myself consistently hitting the button in the course of the cut up house bar.

I discovered it higher to assign that to a perform key that must be paired with one other key to activate, but when you will get used to this structure, then having that further button proper subsequent to the house bar may actually be helpful in aggressive video games. The right-hand facet of the cut up felt a bit of too far to achieve to make it helpful in a pinch, although.

The greatest difficulty with a split-spacebar for me is simply the dearth of keycap units that help it, however in the event you’re pleased with the double-shot PBT ones that Wooting provides, then it’s much less of a problem.

Overall, the 60HE v2 appears like a strong improve to the unique, however it’s not a revelation like Wooting’s first Hall impact keyboards have been. The factor I like probably the most concerning the 60HE v2 is that it appears like a completely modded keyboard out of the field, so that you don’t need to mess around with totally different swap choices until you need to, and the sound dampening choices are tremendous simple to modify between, due to the friction match.

At $239.99, it’s a premium PC gaming keyboard, particularly now that Wooting has competitors that has lastly caught up. Logitech, Razer, SteelSeries, and loads of Chinese manufacturers now have extra reasonably priced Hall impact boards that purpose to match Wooting each when it comes to {hardware} and software program. None are adequate to dethrone the 60HE v2, however in the event you’re on a tighter price range, then there are many extra reasonably priced choices now.

As I’ve a pair of absolutely modded 60HE keyboards, I’m not upgrading to the 60HE v2 simply but, however in the event you’ve been delay doing mods your self and need the perfect gaming keyboard obtainable immediately, then the 60HE v2 will probably be nicely well worth the funding.

Photography by Tom Warren / The Verge