Wooting 60HE+ review: You should trust the pros on this one

The Wooting 60HE+ has its highly competitive reputation for good reason. Despite being a relatively small manufacturer, Wooting has taken the professional gaming space by storm with its highly customizable, adjustable actuation mechanical keyboards, and this is no exception.

It’s an upgrade to the original 60HE — adding support for screw-in stabilizers, but otherwise keeping the same design. It is one of the three Wooting keyboards available right now, alongside the newly released 80% keyboard, the Wooting 80HE.

Like many high-performance gaming keyboards, the 60HE+ boasts Hall Effect switches, allowing you to fine tune key travel times. The keyboard also includes gaming-focused features like Rapid Trigger and Wooting’s own take on 'Snap Tap', ideal for players seeking to maximize their performance.

There are a couple of shortcomings in comfort that rivals do slightly better — but in return for these sacrifices, you get a keyboard unparalleled in raw gaming performance.

Read on for my full Wooting 60HE+ review.

Wooting 60HE+ review: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A magnetic, 60% gaming keyboard
• Who is it for? Competitive gamers, or anyone looking to up their performance
• What does it cost? $174, only available directly from Wooting.
• What do we like? This keyboard knocks it out of the park with features, switches, and a high quality customisable build that you can make your own
• What don’t we like? The Wooting board of my dreams is the exact same, but with wireless support. Oh, and adjustable height wouldn’t go amiss.

Wooting 60HE+ review: Specs

Wooting 60HE+ review: The ups

With its sleek design and impressive lighting, the Wooting delivers outstanding gaming performance. While by no means a keyboard designed for typing, I was surprised by how much the keycaps and switches lent themselves well to a smooth typing experience. Being able to fully customize the keyboard gives you a lot of value for money over its similar rivals.

Design

The Wooting 60HE+ packs a sturdy build with high quality materials that make it fully worthy of the $174 price tag. The case is made of ABS plastic, but it looks and feels like any other premium board thanks to a sleek design — the simple black case would fit in as much in an office as it would alongside your gaming battlestation.

The design is on the whole quite minimalist, emphasising the space-saving form factor. Making up for this is some of the best lighting options I have come across. You can customize each key’s lighting individually using the intuitive web app, which in turn saves to the keyboard’s 8MB memory. It’s really bright, providing a soft glow that diffuses well behind the keys. The shine through finish of the wonderful PBT keycaps makes the keyboard easy to use in poor illumination, ideal for any late-night gaming.

I don’t think I will ever make use of the yellow ‘Take Control’ strap, but I appreciate the personality that it provides. At just 21 ounces the 60HE+ is highly portable — there’s a reason why this is a popular keyboard at gaming tournaments.

Gaming performance

The Wooting 60HE+ is designed with competitive gaming in mind, and works well across a range of titles. I spent the most time testing the keyboard in games of Overwatch 2 and League of Legends.

In Overwatch, I was able to make the most of the low actuation to enhance my movements, especially when playing more nimble characters like Tracer. I saw a clear boost in my performance, outperforming other Hall Effect keyboards I’ve used. The Lekker switches were incredibly responsive for in-game movements.

In League of Legends, a game where you use the mouse to move and the keyboard for spell buttons, I was able to make the most of features like Rapid Trigger to allow me to spam those low-cooldown abilities quickly.

Snap Tap

The keyboard comes with both SOCD (named Snappy Tappy), and a SOCD-like technology, Rappy Snappy. Snap Tap, known as Snappy Tappy on Wooting boards, prioritises the last pressed key when you hold both A and D at the same time.

This means that strafing left and right, a key form of movement in FPS games, becomes much easier without you having to release the initially held key. The feature is accessible on the keyboard if you wish to use it, as long as it hasn’t been made illegal in game.

Rappy Snappy is unique to Wooting boards, and provides a solution to the issue. Rather than creating a ‘null bind’ for the A and D keys, it works to adjust actuation on the fly, taking advantage of the Hall Effect technology. The result is that it needs more work to manage the movements, but mastering it gives you many of the same benefits as Snap Tap.

It’s great that the 60HE+ gives you access to both, although Valve has currently banned Rappy Snappy on top of Snappy Tappy — perhaps the more skill-intensive Rappy Snappy will make a comeback in the future, though.

Typing experience

I was surprised by just how good the Wooting 60HE+ was to type on, for a gaming keyboard. I don’t have the best track record using 60% keyboards for typing, both the Newmen GM610 and SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini being some of my least favorite boards for typing — so I am blown away by just how good the 60HE+ is for productivity.

The keycaps feel great to the touch, and I was able to adjust the sensitivity of the keys to be perfect for typing on as well as gaming — about 0.4mm. The keys have a slight curve, making it easier for my fingers to find the right keys compared to the Apex Pro Mini. The steel plate and sound dampening foam combine to make each keypress quiet, yet very satisfying.

Of course, as a 60% keyboard, you have a reduced number of keys, so this isn’t ideal if you want your gaming keyboard to double as a productivity keyboard — you will definitely want to opt for the Keychron K2 HE instead, one of our favorite hybrid keyboards. With that being said, I found using common keys easy thanks to the FN layering system. Accessing the delete key, for example, is as simple as pressing the FN and Backspace keys together. If this isn’t to your preference, you can fully adjust the three key layers using the ‘Wootility’ app.

Customization

The 60HE+ is one of the few gaming keyboards I have come across that puts customization front and center. The Wooting is more affordable than other high-end 60% keyboards like the Razer Huntsman or SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini. It also lets you customize with hot-swappable switches and offers the option to replace plate-mounted stabilizers with screw-in ones, a great feature in the latest model.

A barebones ‘60HE+ module’ is also available for just $139, allowing you to build your own keyboard from scratch. It’s an ideal option for enthusiasts who like what the 60HE+ has to offer. Having the PCB as a removable unit, compatible with other universal 60% cases, really broadens the opportunities for you to experiment with your own builds. If the default ABS casing isn’t to your liking, you can go ahead and put the Wooting module into an aluminum case.

If that's not enough, Wooting offers both a browser-based and desktop app called Wootility, which allows you to fully customize the keyboard’s functionality. Beyond just rebinding keys and setting up your RGB lighting, it provides a clean and easy to use interface. This is short of the full QMK firmware support seen on the Keychron Q1 HE, for instance, but most people will find this is more than enough customization for their gaming needs.

Wooting 60HE+ review: The downs

These aren’t really downsides to the Wooting 60HE+, but rather things I would have liked to see which other Hall Effect keyboards are capable of. Most of these issues are down to personal preference, and likely won’t impact your enjoyment of the keyboard.

Wired only

For the price, I would have liked to have a wireless option for the keyboard. Don’t get me wrong, it makes sense why this isn't the case — for you’re a serious gamer, you’ll prefer a wired connection for the consistent low latency, and the fastest possible response times.

As it is a 60%, lightweight design, I would have liked to take advantage of this without having to take the cable around with me. A wireless version of the 60HE would be great for more casual LAN parties or as a huge upgrade for my laptop keyboard.

Height not adjustable

You cannot change the elevation of the keyboard. This is something that I would expect on an ABS plastic case, and is a feature on even the most budget 60% keyboards like the SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini ($179).

For me, the angle of the keyboard wasn’t a problem, but I still would have liked the freedom to adjust the height of the keyboard — especially since I generally prefer a different height depending on the game or environment I’m in.

Wooting 60HE+ review: Verdict

The Wooting 60HE+ absolutely holds up as one of the best mini keyboards you can buy right now, offering a wealth of the most sought-after gaming features right now, all on a customizable rig that challenges the very best customizable keyboards money can buy.

At $170, you’re getting a plastic keyboard without wireless support. While it’s cheaper than many of Razer’s options, it feels pricey compared to the Keychron K2 HE, which offers great value at around $40 less. Still, the 60HE+ blows similarly priced keyboards like the Apex Pro Mini out of the water with its superior customization and features, and for $5 cheaper.

Overall, the Wooting 60HE+ is a keyboard that competitive gamers will not be able to live without once you have given it a try — 60% keyboards really don’t get better than this.