Wooting’s 80HE+ is official, and pre-orders for the hall effect keyboard open on 17 September 2026, with shipping starting mid-October. It’s a mid-cycle refresh of the 80HE rather than a new board.
What actually changed
- Lekker Tikken switches now standard, with a closed bottom for a more stable and more muted sound out of the box
- FR4 plate in place of steel
- Bottom case dampening foam added
- Lekker Knob Large now included on zinc prebuilts, sold separately for ABS
- Split spacebar in the 2.75 / 1.25 / 2.25u layout, though it’s module only at launch and not on the prebuilt 80HE+
- Black ABS case swapped for a translucent-top, opaque-black-bottom combo, and Frost is now available fully assembled
The catch
Wooting describes the FR4 plate as giving “a firm, consistent bottom-out with minimal bounce, without the metallic resonance of a steel plate.” That’s a feel claim, not a measurement, and plate stiffness is exactly the kind of thing reviewers keep disagreeing about. The bigger omission in the launch coverage is the split spacebar: it’s the same three-key layout the 60HE v2 introduced, but you can only get it on the 80HE+ module at launch, not on the ready-built keyboard.
Pricing
Pricing stays in line with the current 80HE line-up, and the module comes in slightly cheaper than before while now including a daughterboard for custom builds. The zinc module still doesn’t ship with a knob, though module buyers get it at a discount instead. So for anyone already running an 80HE, the upgrade maths come down to two items: the Tikken switches, which you can buy on their own, and the FR4 plate, which you can’t.
Official product page : Wooting 80HE+
More on how it stacks up: Best hall effect keyboard 2026
So, anyone running the original 80HE: would you upgrade just for the FR4 plate and the dampening foam?