Closer Examination

Customization is strong with the Wooting 80HE, and it begins on the hardware front too where you can choose to go with a pre-built or a module version. The former has options for the chassis, be it PCR (post-consumer recycled) ABS plastic in black or translucent ghost/frost finishes, or zinc alloy metal in black, white, or raw finishes—not all of these are immediately available. Then there is the option to choose the keyboard layout and language too, with Wooting being a European brand helping add support to some of the more popular such combinations and already distinguishing itself from the vast majority of keyboards on the market which just cater to the US ANSI crowd. You can purchase additional keycap sets, switches, and other accessories such as wrist rests too, and all this is neatly laid out on the order page. This particular review sample uses ABS plastic in the ghost finish, comes with the pre-installed doubleshot backlit PBT keycaps, and uses the US ANSI layout. It's a modified 75% form factor that has 83 keys in total, giving you most of the user experience of a standard 87-key TKL keyboard in this layout, and contains all the keys I would ever ask for. In fact, the choices made for the dedicated keys in the top right corner are such that I doubt I will ever remap the base layer at all, although of course you can do that as we will soon see—the spare keycaps will be handy here too. Above the arrow keys is an LED bar that acts as an indicator light strip for various things, and the chassis being translucent can be a talking point in public too. There's no volume wheel, OLED display or control knob here, Wooting is giving you a keyboard that looks normal to the naked eye but does so much more when plugged in. The stock keycaps have the legends placed in the top middle, with secondary legends alongside to take advantage of the backlighting support.


Turning the keyboard around, we see more of the translucent case on this option. There is clearly foam between the PCB and the chassis, thus making downward firing LEDs not very practical even if they were present, and we see some names on the inside too which we will get to on the next page. The expected certification badge is seen here too, as well as five large rubber pads to help add friction against the resting surface in addition to preventing the case from being scratched. Two of these are the pre-installed "feet," which allow for a 2.8° elevation. These can be easily pulled out and replaced by the provided alternatives, giving you a choice also of 6° and 10° elevation based on what you choose. These are made of thick silicone rubber and seem plenty durable for daily use.


There is only wired connectivity here, so we see fairly simple I/O with a single inset Type-C port on the top left side facing away from the user as well as a mouse cable for most right-handed users. There is enough space here to accommodate most aftermarket cables, although the stock cable is quite good in its own right. The two-tone finish helps distinguish it from the usual all-black cables, and the sleeve is well integrated on top. The connector housings have the Wooting logo too, confirming this is not just a generic cable. It's the usual 6' in length, and goes to an available USB Type-C port (Type-A with the included adapter) on your PC where USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1) is recommended for power and data alike.


A look from the side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which I would classify as medium profile and could benefit from a wrist/palm rest if you are not used to touch typing with hands hovering over the keys at all times. The provided keycap puller helps remove some of the keycaps for a closer examination, but again there is the potential to scratch their sides, and it's not as user-friendly as metal wire-style pullers. I ended up using my own keycap puller thus, and removing some of the keycaps confirms the use of an OEM keycap profile too. These are doubleshot PBT keycaps (average wall thickness 1.48 mm) with backlit legends which will no doubt please many. It's a decent keycap set that (sells for $40 for the full 104 key set), which should satisfy most users, but isn't necessarily the best sounding or feeling to use.


The Wooting 80HE is a Hall effect keyboard using magnetic switches, so naturally there are far fewer switch options here than usual. Making it tougher is the part where the pre-built version, at least currently, only ships with a single switch option in the form of the Lekker L60 V2. You can optionally get the Lekker L45 V2 or the more expensive Gateron Jade directly from Wooting, but that would be extra on top of the pre-built keyboard. Going for the module version allows for more freedom and the ability to go with third-party vendors too, but here too your options will be more limited than with a mechanical keyboard for obvious reasons. We will see more Hall switch releases soon, I met Gateron in Shenzhen recently and tried out multiple non-linear magnetic switches. But for now, and at least for the Wooting 80HE, you will be stuck with a single linear switch and this can be a dealbreaker for some. The switches are installed in a north-facing configuration and larger keycaps use screw-in stabilizers which are also lubed well out of the box. The keyboard uses a polycarbonate switch plate and there is also a thick silicone pad between the plate and the PCB for added damping. This pad also aims to provide a gasket mount to the 80HE, but this isn't your usual gasket mount implementation, as we'll see on the next page.


The switch remover tool is handy to remove the hot-swappable switches off the PCB, where we see the use of an SMD RGB LED firing upwards and the support pins/sensors for the Hall effect mechanism—the actual Hall effect sensor used is on the other side of the PCB. Removing a switch also gives a closer look at the Lekker L60 V2 magnetic switch by itself, which is an update to the older Lekker switch and improved in multiple different ways. The top housing is made of polycarbonate and polished to be translucent for better backlighting, the bottom housing is solid white nylon, and the turquoise stem is made of POM.