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Move over membrane, make way mechanical: these gaming keyboards use light or magnets to deliver a more rapid and reliable response.
The two trends taking the gaming keyboard world by storm today are optical and magnetic key switches. Both claim to offer something similar: a more reliable and more customisable keyboard. Though to the extent they deliver is up to how manufacturers use each one, and some make far better use of these clever new switches than others.
Take Wooting. This small company has crafted entirely analogue gaming keyboards out of optical switches and has moved on to even better magnetic ones.
Two HE WOOTING £177
1 Wooting aims to offer a properly analogue gaming keyboard. That is, a gaming keyboard that can measure the full range of its keys’ motion. As a player you can use this keyboard to alter between walking and running in a game by only adjusting how far you depress the Wkey. Or even have a half key-press do one thing and a full key-press do another.
There are heaps of potential use cases for analogue keys, though note that not every game works great with Wooting’s special brew. That said, there are some other benefits to a board such as this, like adjustable actuation, remapped reset points, low input lag mode, and multi-action shortcuts on a single key. One of the reasons I love the Wooting is for its excellent app. For one, you don’t even have to download it onto your PC as it works in-browser. It’s also really easy to use, and shows up most major manufacturers that can’t seem to nail down a good software package. Wooting, a pretty tiny team by comparison, does software really well.
SPECS SIZE: FULL / SWITCH: LEKKER HALL EFFECT / ACTUATION: 0.1–4 MM /KEYCAPS: ABS/PBT / POLLING RATE: 1,000 HZ /LIGHTING: PER-KEY RGB
60HE WOOTING £168
2 Since Wooting is at the forefront of these new-wave gaming keyboards it feels only fitting to also include its smallest board, the 60HE. At just 60% the size of a regular gaming keyboard, you have to learn to work with a lot fewer keys than normal. That can get a little overwhelming day-to-day, but if you manage to get your head around all the shortcuts there’s tons of customisation to unlock.
Much like the Wooting Two HE, the 60HE uses Hall effect keys to offer ultimate flexibility in how you use it. You can opt for analogue inputs to use your keyboard more like a controller, or you could set up multiple macros or shortcuts to each key. If you can master lightly tapping on your keys for one action and hammering them hard for another, you’re effectively doubling your key count. Though that’s easier said than done.
Still, the 60HE also benefits from the superb app and excellent build quality –
