If you mentioned ‘Wooting’ in a conversation with a regular gamer just a couple of years ago, they would’ve thought you just sneezed. Today, the Dutch brand is one of the most well-respected gaming keyboard manufacturers in the entire world. Their rise in the scene has been absolutely meteoric, and that’s all thanks to this product: the 60HE. Read our full Wooting 60HE review to find out just what makes this board so special and incredibly well-loved in the competitive gaming scene.
At A Glance
Wooting 60 HE
Used by 170 players ()-
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The Wooting 60HE is a keyboard that started a massive revolution in the world of mechanical gaming keyboards and has since become absolutely iconic. If you ask me, it completely deserves this status. This is the best gaming keyboard out there right now.
Pros
- Very precise and responsive customizable switches
- Best-in-class gaming performance
- Customization can be done in browser and is incredibly easy to use
- Made to be modded, so easy to customize to your liking
Cons
- Gets released in batches, so not available to buy immediately
Specs
| Form Factor | 60% |
|---|---|
| Switches | Lekker |
| PCB | Hotswappable |
| RGB | Yes |
| Height | 3.8cm |
| Width | 30.2cm |
| Length | 11.6cm |
| Weight | 605g |
First Impressions
Those who follow gaming peripherals will know that the Wooting 60HE has been out for a while. As such, I knew exactly what to expect: a sleek-looking 60% keyboard (see our guide on the keyboard size differences explained) with a ‘TAKE CONTROL’ strap on the left side.
This strap was presumably put on there to make the 60 HE stand out visually, but luckily it can be removed. In fact, the board even ships without the strap attached. That’s fine with me, since I’m not a fan of the looks of that thing at all, but seeing as it’s an extra that’s completely optional and probably doesn’t add to the overall cost of the product I’m also fine with its inclusion. I attached the strap for review photos and then I never touched it again.
Something that I like is that there are two extra switches included. This is handy for when a switch breaks, but it also shows how proud Wooting are of these Lekker switches. I’ll go deeper on these further down in the review, but these analog switches are the main reason that this board got so immensely popular so it’s fun to see them being presented like that with the board.
RGB
Despite the fact that the 60HE is an all-black keyboard with no special lighting elements, it does have a decent RGB effect thanks to the white switch plate. Light bounces off of that plate nicely, making the different LEDs blend into each other for a seamless overall look.
There are also some really cool and unique lighting effects to choose from thanks to the analog switches. In the racing profile, for example, the top row of keys serves as a gauge for how hard you’re pressing the WASD keys. These cool effects obviously do nothing for performance, but if you’re a fan of lighting effects then you’ll feel right at home with the Wooting 60HE.
Packaging
Inside the box of the Wooting 60HE, you will find:
- The keyboard
- A ‘TAKE CONTROL’ strap and attachment piece for said strap
- Two Lekker switches
- A braided USB-C cable
- A Wooting greeting card
- A keycap puller
- Two extra screws
The unboxing experience is pretty nice, and you can tell the designers have put some thought into this aspect of the product. There are some nice little touches such as a ‘lift here’ print which helps you unbox the thing without ripping the packaging. On the inside of the box, Wooting has also printed a <3. They’re small things, I know, but they do help make the unboxing a little bit more special.
Features and Build Quality
Materials and Build Quality
The Wooting 60HE is made entirely out of plastic. The plastic is thick and feels good, and there are no issues with creaking or flexing on my unit.
What I find particularly interesting here is that the designers have really focused on customization. Wooting sell an aluminum case themselves, for example, but the keyboard’s PCB is deliberately designed so that it fits in most popular aftermarket cases. On Wooting’s website you can also buy wrist rests, different keycaps, more premium cables, and even a toolkit for lubing your switches.
I absolutely love this approach. The standard version is a high quality piece of kit that has all the performance features you’d want, while there are a ton of optional extras that you can purchase to make your experience a bit more personal and premium. Keyboards are a great product for this type of design (mice, for example, are more difficult since swapping out sensors and stuff is very difficult to do) so it’s really cool to see Wooting embrace the tinkering-and-tweaking nature of the keyboard scene.
On the bottom of the keyboard you’ll find four rubber feet that do a good job at keeping the keyboard in place, though there are no flip-up adjustment feet.
The USB-C connector isn’t recessed so any type of custom keyboard cable can be used here.
Keycaps
The default keycaps that come with the Wooting 60HE are PBT, which is the industry standard these days. The font is neutral and the legends are easily readable at all angles. The caps are also moderately textured, which somewhat helps with grip when you’re in frantic gaming scenarios.
The keycaps are decently thick and feel great to use even after multiple hours of intense gaming, so as far as I’m concerned these are perfectly fine.
Customization
Customization and configuration of the keyboard is done through a webpage. Simply plug in the board, navigate to Wootility and you can do pretty much everything you would want to do with a gaming keyboard. You can rebind keys, change lighting effects, customize the switch behavior, and so on. If you want to create macros, you will have to download a program called Wootomation, but for anything else you can just use Wootility online.
Despite the fact that I’m not someone who actively hates (most) regular customization programs that you need to download, I have to say that this is by far the smoothest and most pain-free way of customizing a peripheral if you ask me.
It doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing: if you have an internet connection then you are seconds away from customizing your Wooting 60HE. There’s no need to first find the download page for some driver software and then download and install it, and there’s also no need to memorize or look up multi-button combinations like you would with driverless products. The entire experience works smoothly, flawlessly, and quickly. I cannot stress enough how much I love this way of doing things, and as far as I’m concerned this is absolutely the way forward for peripheral customization.
The layout and ease of use of Wootility itself is also top notch. It’s easy to understand and navigate and it operates without any bugs or hiccups. Wootility is extremely impressive and is, quite simply, the best customization program out there right now if you ask me.
Switches
For the 60HE, Wooting teamed up with Gateron to create their very own Lekker switches. In case you didn’t know, ‘lekker’ is the Dutch word for ‘tasty’, but it can also be loosely translated as ‘nice’. ‘Lekker schot’ would translate to ‘nice shot’ instead of ‘tasty shot’, for example. This little tangent doesn’t have anything to do with the review, but seeing as Dutch is my mother tongue I thought it’d be a cool fact to mention.
In any case, these Lekker switches are definitely nice. They feel smooth straight out of the box and are factory-lubed, and while they’re not the nicest sounding stock switches in this day and age I would definitely say they’re on the higher end when compared to what other gaming keyboards have to offer.
Their smoothness or sound isn’t their selling point, however. The main attraction here is the fact that these switches can be customized to a great degree. You can tweak the customization point of each individual key, and you can even use these switches as joystick-style analog input options, which is incredibly handy for racing games and the likes.
In short: Wooting designed the Lekker switch to be the ultimate gaming switch. Take a look at the gaming keyboard market today, where pretty much all manufacturers are copying Wooting’s approach to some extent, and you’ll see that they succeeded.
Typing and Gaming Experience
Gaming Experience
If you want the short answer, here it is: the Wooting 60HE is the best gaming keyboard you can get right now.
If you’re not up to date on analog switches at all I would refer you to our guide on analog switches in keyboards, but it’s safe to say that you will not want to go back to a regular mechanical switch after using the Lekkers for (competitive) gaming.
For starters, there’s the fact that you can customize the actuation point of each individual switch. In case you don’t know: the actuation point is the point at which a switch sends a signal to the PC. A very low actuation point means that a switch feels very sensitive (since it doesn’t have to travel very far to actuate) whereas a very high actuation point makes a key feel a lot more ‘difficult’ to press. Traditional mechanical switches have one set actuation point, and that’s it. On the Wooting 60HE, you can set the actuation point for each individual key.
There’s a lot more, though. There’s Rapid Trigger, for instance. This makes the actuation point dynamic: the moment you let go of your key, the switch resets. This means that you can let go of a movement key to stop strafing, and then immediately press down again to start strafing again. With a traditional mech switch, you’d have to let the switch travel all the way past the actuation point (and then some) in order to reset it. Using Rapid Trigger makes your inputs a lot more precise and responsive since there’s no need for the switch to travel all the way back up before becoming ‘active’ again.
It doesn’t end there either, though. You can bind multiple actions to one key, where a light touch gets your character walking and a full bottom out makes your character start running.
All of these things might sound pretty minor and inconsequential, but these switches are definitely not a gimmick. In games like CS2, where counter-strafing and precise movement can mean the difference between a good player and a great player, using these technologies will pay dividends, but the advantages are definitely not limited to tactical shooters.
Simply put: HE switches are more responsive and make you more precise, more consistent, and a better gamer overall. They won’t make you a movement God overnight or anything (practice was, is, and will always be the main thing that separates the greats from the ‘just-goods’) but I would personally never go back to a traditional mechanical keyboard for gaming.
Stabilizers and Typing Experience
Like most manufacturers who are aiming to make a premium gaming keyboard these days, Wooting have stuffed a bunch of foam in their case and lubed their stabilizers. This can improve the sound and typing feel significantly so it’s always nice to see brands doing this. As with most things, however, it all comes down to the implementation. Luckily, the people at Wooting have done a good job here.
The foam is decently thick and does a great job at reducing case- and switch ping, and the stabilizers sound good across the board. When it comes to the overall sound and typing feel it’s not the absolute best board on the market these days, but for a mass-produced gaming keyboard it certainly delivers a very respectable experience.
Again, though: this board was made to mod. I see this as the ‘base version’ of the Wooting 60HE (with all performance features unlocked, to be clear) so if you want to customize the sound and feel you can always get to lubing the switches, swapping cases, and so on. You can also swap out the switches, since the PCB is hotswappable.
Wooting 60HE+ and Wooting 60HE+ Module
Recently, Wooting have started selling the Wooting 60HE+. The ingame performance of the 60HE+ is the same as the ingame performance of the regular 60HE, but the 60HE+ has support for screw-in stabilizers, which is, generally speaking, the preferred stabilizer mounting method in enthusiast circles. Other than that, they are exactly the same.
There is also the separately sold 60HE+ module. This is a polycarbonate plate (the base plate of the regular 60HE is steel) with screw-in stabilizers and a number of other enthusiast features. You can read more about that on Wooting’s website.
The Wooting 60HE in 2024
The Wooting 60HE has been out for a while now, and other brands have been scrambling to release their own keyboards with customizable switches. This begs the question: is the Wooting 60HE worth it in 2024?
The answer is simple. Yes.
I am currently testing a bunch of different HE keyboards (those reviews will be out later) and while there are definitely products that come (very) close I have to say that the Wooting 60HE provides the best overall experience for me personally as of right now.
As I mentioned earlier in the review: technology is often about implementation, and that’s where Wooting really shines. There are a lot of competitor boards out there right now but not all analog keyboards are the same. Some might have more responsive Rapid Triggers, others could have a more narrow customization range for the actuation point. When it comes to the overall gaming performance, Wooting have set the bar extremely high and I don’t personally know of any keyboard that outright beats the 60HE right now.
The Wooting 60HE might not be the only dog in the race any longer, but as far as I can tell it’s still very much at the front of the pack.
Sound Test
Wooting 60HE Review – Conclusion
The Wooting 60HE is a keyboard that started a massive revolution in the world of mechanical gaming keyboards and has since become absolutely iconic. If you ask me, it completely deserves this status. If you’re looking for a gaming keyboard with a ton of potential to be modded into something that really resonates with your personal tastes, look no further. This is the best gaming keyboard out there right now.
If typing sound and feel is your main priority, there are other options to consider though. Yes, you can mod the Wooting, but at this price point there are a number of mechanical keyboards that beat the 60HE on that front.
When it comes to gaming, there are competitors coming out that can kind of match the 60HE, but as a complete package (software + hardware + implementation) the Wooting 60HE is very much still on top of the game.
Sadly, it’s not very easy to get a hold of this board since you have to buy it in a group buy fashion. It’s also on the more expensive side, but other than that there should be nothing holding you back from picking this one up if you’re a serious competitive gamer. If performance is your main concern then it’s absolutely worth every penny.
This product was received for free from the manufacturer and given to our reviewer to test and review. Brands and manufacturers have no editorial control over our reviews. For more information, check out our review FAQ.
