Wooting is a brand that is near and dear to me in that it brought about the most innovating keyboard feature in ages with its analog control Flaretech switches a few years ago. It's debut product—the Wooting One—is a tenkeyless (TKL) form factor keyboard, which was then supported by the full-size Wooting Two. New switches and an updated software suite came about earlier this year with the Wooting Two HE, whose review is in the works as we speak, but that did not stop the company from seeing everyone else come out with a 60% form factor keyboard this past year too. Enter then the Wooting 60HE, and it's already a commercial success!

Wooting went the crowdfunding route with the 60HE, but hosted the campaign on its own website rather than going the Kickstarter or Indiegogo route and giving a cut to the platform. It was a risk that paid off big time clearly, with the campaign meeting its goal within 12 hours and now stretch goals in the consideration, with the first one being a differently color USB cable. If you fancy being a founder, hit up the link below and see some other cool features available, including founder's only swag and even an Easter egg on the PCB itself. The Wooting 60HE can be backed starting from €154.99 (inc. VAT), which in itself is a 10% discount over the eventual MSRP of €169.99, and delivery is slated for Q2 of 2022.

Wooting Two is one of the rare few analog keyboards shown off at Computex. Every keyboard, membrane or mechanical, is a "digital" keyboard, in that no matter how hard you mash a key, each keystroke registers as 1 input of the character or function the key is intended to serve. Holding down keys only repeats the action at a software-determined rate. An analog keyboard is like a grand piano, in that not only is the keystroke recorded, but also its intensity. While we can think of very few practical applications of the intensity dimension in productivity software, it has many in gaming. Console gaming already leverages analog control in the rudders and thumb-sticks.

The Wooting Two features a clean 107-key layout, all of the magic happens in the software side, where the included software registers intensity by emulating analog game controllers on the keyboard. Games that support analog input devices (such as Xbox controllers), should be able to take advantage of it. Genres such as flight simulators particularly benefit from intensity, as the intensity with which you hold down your WASD keys will decide how hard you're turning your plane's stick, for more accurate flying. Something like this required you to buy a proper joystick, or Xbox controller. Serious flight-sim users have specialized hardware.