Wooting 60 HE Review

The Wooting 60 HE excels in the gaming keyboard market, offering impressive features for unparalleled control and performance. Adjustable actuation, rapid trigger response, and console compatibility provide a highly customizable experience. However, separate software for macro creation and average lighting customization are worth considering.

Performance Comparison

Lighting Customization

The lighting customization of the Wooting 60 HE gaming keyboard offers a decent level of ease and customization options. While not the most extensive, it provides enough presets and colors to satisfy most users. The lighting is straightforward, with an okay amount of options available. However, it lacks the ability to layer effects like other software, limiting customization to the provided presets.

The Wooting 60 HE showcases a moderate level of customization prowess, affording users the ability to make individual per-key adjustments, a feature that enhances personalization. Users are presented with an assortment of captivating preset effects to choose from, including Wave, Cycle, Scan, Breath, Ripple, Trail, Touch, Jelly, AOE, and RT Display, each offering a plethora of color options. However, it's worth noting that the absence of layering effects does impose certain limitations, confining users to the provided presets and precluding the creation of intricate lighting compositions.

Delving into the per-key lighting realm, the Wooting 60 HE elevates its offering by presenting an impressive array of 12 presets, each brimming with diverse brightness, speed, and color configurations tailored for wave, scan, and breath effects. This extensive palette of color options fosters a rich visual experience, granting users the opportunity to craft a keyboard aesthetic that resonates with their preferences. It's important to highlight that while the keyboard's illumination primarily centers on the letters and the area around the keys, the visual impact remains captivating and immersive, further enhancing the overall gaming ambiance.

Performance

The performance of the Wooting 60 HE gaming keyboard excels in two key areas: N-Key-rollover/anti-ghosting and latency.

Our testers were impressed as the keyboard flawlessly handled over 40 keys pressed simultaneously during testing, ensuring a smooth and responsive gaming experience without any ghosting issues.

The Wooting 60 HE truly excels with its mechanical analog input. Every key on this keyboard produces an analog signal, providing remarkable accuracy of 0.1mm from start to finish of the switch motion. This analog input delivers unparalleled control, allowing users to set their actuation point precisely from 0.1 to 4.0mm. The Rapid Trigger feature further enhances responsiveness by dynamically adjusting the actuation and deactivation points, ensuring that key presses activate and deactivate precisely as intended.

Convenience

In the convenience section, we thoroughly evaluated the user-friendliness and ease of use of the Wooting 60 HE gaming keyboard across four sub-metrics, each contributing to the overall score.

Starting with the switch type availability, the keyboard impressively offers mechanical switches, including linear options, which provide the benefit of adjusting the actuation distance according to individual preferences. Although no other switch types were found on the website, the availability of mechanical switches with customizable actuation points scored well in this category. Additionally, the keycaps on the Wooting 60 HE deserve special mention, featuring high-quality double-shot PBT keycaps with a clean design, pure color, and backlight support, ensuring a reliable and visually appealing experience.

Regarding keycap swapping, the keyboard excelled, featuring mechanical switches that allowed easy swapping with the standard + sight to attach. This feature further enhances the Wooting 60 HE's customization potential, empowering users to personalize their gaming experience.

The 60 HE lacked specifically marked keys for media controls but compensated by offering functionality through function key combinations. Testers found that although not having marked keys might take some getting used to, the ability to assign media functions anywhere on the keyboard was convenient, even if identifying them after a long time of use posed minor challenges.

Lastly, the Wooting 60 HE does not include USB passthrough, which is a consideration for users who require additional USB connectivity directly from their keyboard.

Key Assignment and Macros

In our evaluation of the Wooting 60 HE gaming keyboard, we thoroughly examined its ease of programming and macros functionality. This metric plays a crucial role in determining how user-friendly and versatile the keyboard is for gamers seeking advanced customization options. The score for this metric was based on specific testing and feedback from our in-house reviewers.

Upon evaluation, our testers arrived at the consensus that the keyboard's overall impression and user-friendliness reached a satisfactory level, although certain aspects revealed the potential for enhancement. It's important to highlight that while the keyboard delivered a generally positive experience, specific areas did emerge as points of constructive feedback.

A notable drawback underscored by our reviewers was the requirement to completely re-record an entire macro sequence in the event of a single key press error during the recording process. This limitation, while not crippling, does introduce a degree of inconvenience for users seeking swift and efficient macro customization.

Furthermore, as our examination unfolded, it became apparent that the keyboard's latency performance was commendable, contributing to a seamless and responsive gaming experience. However, it's worth acknowledging that in terms of macro programming capabilities, there exists room for further expansion to cater to the demands of advanced users who yearn for intricate and finely-tuned customization options. While the keyboard undoubtedly exhibits potential and promise, it falls short of delivering the comprehensive macro programming depth sought by those seeking the highest echelons of customization sophistication.

Palm Rest

Unfortunately, the Wooting 60 HE gaming keyboard does not come with a built-in palm rest, which may impact the typing experience for some users. Testers found that the absence of a palm rest resulted in a higher keyboard height, causing discomfort and difficulty in reaching the correct keys while typing. To address this issue, users have the option to purchase a separate palm rest from a third-party source, which may provide added comfort and support during prolonged gaming or typing sessions.

The keyboard's design features a universal tray mount, a popular innovation recognized and emulated across the gaming keyboard industry. This allows users to interchangeably use the Wooting 60 HE module in third-party (aluminum) cases or install other 60% keyboards into the Wooting 60 HE case. This flexibility grants users the freedom to customize their setup to their preferences.

Should You Buy the Wooting 60 HE?

This compact keyboard packs a powerful punch that will complement gamers who want stellar latency. Although it lacks some macro programmability, this keyboard makes up for it with the fastest input speed.

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