Wooting is known for making some of the best gaming keyboards on the market, and the Wooting 80HE was one of the most anticipated keyboards of last year. Building on the success of the 60HE, the Wooting 80HE packs the option for FN keys, arrow keys, navigation keys, along with a higher polling rate, adjustable angles, and general improvements. This keyboard isn't a substantial difference to the 60HE for most people, but if you're in the market for a new gaming keyboard, the Wooting 80HE is up there as one of the best.

About this review: Wooting sent us the Wooting 80HE for the purposes of this review. The company had no input into its contents.

Pricing and availability

The Wooting 80HE costs $200 from the company, and that gets you the full keyboard with a choice of keycaps, a USB-C cable to connect the keyboard to your PC, and multiple angle adjusters to raise or lower the back of the keyboard on your desk.

Build quality and design

Beautiful and high-quality

The Wooting 80HE model I received is the PCR Plastic Ghost model, and I got the "Just Black" double shot PBT backlit keycap set alongside it. These keycaps pack every single thing you could ever need. You get all of your normal letter keys alongside other keys that you can put in place of others. For example, you get an A1, A2, and A3 key, along with a Mode key. There are enough keycaps to cover a range of options, from 60% keyboards right up to the somewhat-odd configuration of the 80% Wooting 80HE that we're reviewing. We'll get to that.

The "Ghost" design makes the body of the keyboard translucent, which looks great with the custom RGB you can configure on this keyboard. It feels great to type on, and while it doesn't necessarily feel the most premium thanks to the plastic build, rest assured that it absolute is a premium keyboard. Depending on what you care about when it comes to keyboards, the lack of perceived premium might be a drawback, but as someone who just wants a light keyboard to move around, I love it. ​​​​​

As for the keyboard layout, Wooting has done something a little bit different with its 80% layout when compared to competitors like the Keychron Q3 Pro SE. The navigation buttons are moved into a vertical configuration, and the arrow keys are closer to the main keys of the board. While this makes it more compact, it also means that customization can become difficult. If you don't care about customizing your keyboard then you don't need to worry about that, but if you do, then you'll need to buy parts that specifically fit the Wooting 80HE and not typical 80% boards. There are currently two aftermarket cases for the Wooting 80HE; the GT-80 from KBDfans and the bone80. Wooting's design files are currently available for download.

The Wooting 80HE also packs an 8000 Hz polling rate, one of the few upgrades over the Wooting 60HE. This means that it scans for and sends inputs to your computer 8000 times per second. This isn't a particularly "useful" feature, but it's there if you care about that kind of thing.

When it comes to switches, the Wooting 80HE comes with Gateron x Wooting Lekker V2 L60 switches. You can build it yourself and choose L45 keys, and the L45 keys are said to require less force to actuate them. I'm happy with the L60 keys though that came with my board. They're silent and linear, where linear means that it feels the same all the way down as you push the key. There's a lot of sound dampening going on here, with gasket mounts cushioning key presses and (replaceable) screw-in stabilizers to hold larger keys in place.

Finally, the keyboard has an LED bar with ten squares capable with full RGB support. There's a lot that you can do with this bar in the Wooting Utility application (affectionately dubbed Wootility), or you can simply have it match the rest of your keyboard.

Controls and software

Wootility is fantastic

Wooting's "Wootility" application is a fully web-based management software for your keyboard, which has its perks. There are no drivers to install, and it means modifying profiles or changing settings can be done on any device that has internet access. It's a fully comprehensive utility set as well, and I was pretty impressed at how many options there are. There's also a downloadable option if you'd prefer to run it locally.

Every single setting you can imagine changing in the Wootility is here, and I've had no problems with it like I've experienced with other keyboards. You can remap individual keys, you can tweak the FN layer (which changes what the keys do when held, and even changes the lighting to highlight the keys), you can set RGB for individual keys, and you can choose existing profiles for that RGB If you want to automate it and have it react as you type.

The LED bar is the new feature here that you can change in the Wooting 80HE and hasn't existed in previous models. At the moment, it has the following options:

• Solid color
• Pulse color
• Sync with keyboard
• Profile indicator
• Caps lock indicator
• Brightness level indicator
• Key depth
• Typing speed meter

There are also planned features that you can't use yet, but they will let you see your volume change as you change it and your current RAM usage on your computer.

There are also features like Rappy Snappy and Snappy Tappy (SOCD), but to be honest, they're not particularly useful features in my opinion. Snappy Tappy is banned in Counter-Strike, as it allows you to counter-strafe (stop moving) perfectly, and it's a feature that was pioneered by Razer. It can work in other games like Overwatch, but you'll get better value out of simply using the keyboard and learning movement correctly yourself.

Finally, Wooting also makes use of the analogue nature of this keyboard to turn it into a gamepad for your computer. You can map controller buttons to this keyboard and mount it as an Xbox controller, and change WASD to the left stick and IJKL to the right stick. It can be clunky in some games, but it does work as a way to play controller-only games if you want a way to do it. This is a pretty unique feature to this keyboard as well, with very alternatives out there that can also be used as a gamepad.

Should you buy the Wooting 80HE?

The Wooting 80HE is an incredible keyboard, from the design and feel to the actual company behind it. It may be a strange design, but Wooting has committed to working with the community so that they can make their own cases for it, and so far, there's no reason to believe that won't happen. There are already aftermarket cases available, and I'm sure there'll be more in the future, too.

At present, there are limited switch options available for this keyboard, unlike the Glorious GMMK 3 Pro HE. The Lekker L45 and L60 are two of the official switch options you can get for this keyboard, with the only other option available at the time of writing being the Gateron Jade switch. It's also a bit of an expensive keyboard with cheaper competitors out there, which may make it difficult to justify if you're price-conscious. Otherwise, this is a fantastic keyboard for gaming or for typing on, and I can't recommend it enough as one of the best keyboards out there.

You should buy the Wooting 80HE if:

• You want a high-quality keyboard without going all-out building one yourself
• You don't want to install drivers to modify it
• You care about good customer support

You shouldn't buy the Wooting 80HE if:

• You deeply care about customization and want a lot of options