Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customisable keyboards for competitive gaming

The best Hall effect keyboards offer the speediest switches money can buy. They turn your real-world actions into lightning fast reactions in-game, but there’s more to them than just that. Faster response times are only one feature on what are highly customisable, often analog, switches, and deliver special abilities to gamers not possible on mechanical gaming keyboards.

Razer, SteelSeries, Corsair and more all have options available using Hall effect switches—or in some cases, optical or induction (read more on the differences here). But the best? That accolade goes to the Wooting 80HE. It’s fast, sure, but it stands head and shoulders above the rest for its ease of use and excellent application, the wonderfully-named Wootility.

If you don’t have the budget spare for the 80HE, we recommend the Gamakay X NaughShark NS68. It’s affordable, while still offering many of the features we’ve come to expect from high-end gaming keyboards. As for wireless Hall effect keyboards, those exist, and we’ve a few more picks in the guide below…

The quick list

Curated by…

Jacob has been writing about gaming keyboards for nearly a decade now, and in that time has had hands-on experience with more than he’d care to count. He also tested the first optical, analogue gaming keyboards as they arrived on the market, and has watched the technology develop into Hall effect. He’s tested a whole lot of them since then.

The best Hall effect keyboard

The best Hall effect keyboard is the Wooting 80HE. It’s a little extravagant for its see-through chassis and light bar, but not in a garish way like some. Though what it really stands out for is its excellent software—software really matters when it comes to making the most of your Hall effect switches.

The Wootility. Whoever came up with the name must be very proud of themselves, though the whole team behind it gets a pat on the back for how it works. It’s by far the easiest software to use as a newcomer to analog/rapid trigger keyboards and offers full tooltips, diagrams, and even highlights important on-screen information to help explain each of its many varied functions. It can also be downloaded or used as a web-based interface to get rid of any bloat on your system.

Most of all, the Wootility delivers easy access to profiles. At the press of a dedicated key on the keyboard, you can switch between your pre-made profiles in the Wootility. This simple functionality makes all the difference. You can set-up a couple of profiles that use the quickest actuation modes, rapid trigger, and high speed polling and switch to them when you boot up your game of choice. When you’re using the keyboard day-to-day for typing, perhaps for work or school, you can switch to a more sensible profile that avoids mistypes.

Once set-up, this keyboard flies. The Lekker V2 switches in combination with the PBT or ABS keycaps are a little wobblier than some of the competition, but the 80HE has come on leaps and bounds compared to its predecessors. It feels great for typing but more importantly slick and responsive for gaming. That’s where it comes into its own. Give yourself some time to learn the ropes and this keyboard comes alive in a competitive shooter.

The Wooting 80HE also supports full analog mode, which essentially turns your humble key switches into a full controller-like analog input, which is tough to get used to but can be useful for racing games or gradual movement.

It should come as no surprise that Wooting has nailed the tech here. It was the company that popularised the whole concept, and rightly has managed to make a name for itself ever since. New features are regularly being added to the software, unlocking new abilities for the keyboard, and it’s planning to release a couple knobs that can replace one or four switches for further customisation.

There’s a small LED bar above the arrow keys on the Wooting that can show how far you’re depressing a key, or which profile you’re using, or just light up in whichever color(s) you prefer.

It’s simply a slick keyboard with a lot of customisation options within easy reach of most.

It’s worth noting that I grabbed the Wooting, and the other keyboards in this guide, for seperate testing outside of their initial reviews. I ended up coming back to the Wooting after using the rest because of its slick software. It’s still my go-to Hall effect keyboard to this day. Our reviewer didn’t come to the same conclusion, as Reece felt the plastic chassis wasn’t quite as good as others around. I do agree there, but it doesn’t bother me nearly as much, hence the recommendation here.

Read our full Wooting 80HE review.

The best budget Hall effect keyboard

The best budget Hall effect keyboard is the Gamakay x NaughShark NS68. When I say budget, I mean budget, too. You might be surprised to hear that it costs as little as $40, occassionally less, and still provides all the benefits of Hall effect.

There are clear differences between a budget keyboard and a high-end one, notably in the construction of the keyboard’s chassis and the switch feel. Though I’ve been impressed by the NS68. It does feel cheaper than a Wooting or NZXT, but it’s not the shoddy plastic construction you might expect from something that costs so little. It’s pretty solid, if a little light and hollow.

Though it delivers the important stuff: Outemu Peach Magnetic switches, harnessing Hall effect, and 8000 Hz polling. This polling rate is slightly lost on me, I have to say, as it’s tough to tell the difference, but if you’re after the absolute fastest keyboard around, there’s no harm in switching it on for a little peace of mind while gaming. This way, you can’t blame your tools when you end up a few rounds down in Valorant.

The RGB lighting across this 68% keyboard is controllable via the software. You’ll also find features such as rapid trigger and dynamic keystroke to enable at your discretion here. The software is a little half-baked compared to some, and a lot so versus the Wootility, but it’s serviceable.

The 68% layout offers a few more keys than a 60%, though it is more or less strictly for gaming nonetheless. You are missing a few things to get down to this sorta size, including, of course, the numpad. It also takes its style from Wooting’s popular 60HE keyboard, offering a small strap on the top left corner for… hanging it on your belt? I don’t know, it looks kinda cool and is pleasing to fiddle with.

There’s a lot to like here, and for the money, I can easily overlook the stuff I don’t like. Even as a stop-gap solution to greater things, the Gamakay x NaughShark NS68 works a treat, though here’s hoping it stands the test of time nonetheless.

Read our full Gamakay x NaughShark NS68 review.

The best wireless Hall effect keyboard

The best wireless Hall effect keyboard is the Keychron K2 HE. We’ve rated plenty of Keychron keyboards highly over the past few years, as the company burst onto the scene, and especially so for value for money. But the K2 HE has earned our recommendation for both its wireless operation and quality build.

Underneath its pretty exterior, the K2 HE uses Gateron HE Double Rail switches. These are surprisingly stable and offer no real key wobble, which is a big benefit over some Hall effect keyboards, especially older ones, that have more than we’d like. They’re responsive and pre-lubricated for a smoother actuation.

It’s certainly the fanciest-looking Hall effect keyboard, what with the wood on the edges and all. It wins some style points there. Though it also includes RGB lighting across the keys, controllable via the Launcher software.

The Launcher software is a web-based configurator, so no need to download anything. In it, you can set your actuation settings, between 0.5 mm and 3.8 mm; remap keys; and change your lighting. Of course, it also offers other features for the Hall effect switches, such as rapid trigger and what Keychron calls Snap Click, which essentially prioritizes the keypress you press down the furthest for snappier response in-game.

The Keychron K2 HE, like the Wooting 80HE, also supports analog mode for controller-like inputs.

With both a dedicated 2.4 GHz connection and Bluetooth, it can be used freely across a range of devices and with a focus on minimal latency on the former. It’s only rated to 1000 Hz, but that’s more than enough for most (if not all). As for the battery, Keychron rates it to up to 110 hours without any lighting enabled, though even with it on, you can get away with a full couch gaming session without worrying about it turning off mid-game.

Altogether, a quick and affordable Hall effect keyboard without the price premium usually attached to wireless operation. Plus, it looks smart and feels great in hand.

Read our full Keychron K2 HE review.

The best low profile

The best low profile Hall effect keyboard is one of very few to offer sub-standard height keys: the NuPhy Air60 HE. But it doesn’t get this accolade on merely existing alone, it’s also a very capable product that’s good value for money for the competitive gamer.

This NuPhy is unlike any other Hall effect keyboard, in that it launched as the world’s first with these specialised switches and a low-profile design. That’s a pretty good claim to fame.

If you’re looking for a low-profile keyboard and have a reasonable budget to spend, this is absolutely the one to go for. It’s replaced the ROG Falchion LP as the best around for us—the Falchion LP doesn’t have HE switches anyways—as it’s extremely quick, affordable, and has tons of software customisation thanks to those clever switches.

This isn’t a one-trick pony. It’s low-profile, customizable, and extremely fast. It has a 0.1 mm actuation setting, lower than some others with similar Hall effect switches, and, for what it’s worth, can be set to an 8000 Hz polling rate. That said, I’ve never noticed the difference between the usual 1000 Hz and 8000 Hz. Guess my synapses don’t fire quick enough.

You can tweak the keyboard to your liking within the web-based NuPhy.io configurator, much like others on this list. It has a lot of options to get through, though you could set up a few simple shortcuts and tune your actuation height and be done with it as a basic set-up.

It comes with translucent keys to the right-hand side of the keyboard, which it somehow gets away with. I dare say it looks good, though it might not be to everyone’s tastes. It’s extremely compact with a 60% layout and little bezel around the extremities. Great for competitive gaming, though you might want to look elsewhere for a productivity machine—it requires using the function key a lot to get to the lesser-used keys not present on this board.

It’s good for so much, and for such a good price, a lot of what it offers on top of the basics feels like a freebie.

Read our full NuPhy Air60 HE review.

The best looking Hall effect keyboard

The best looking Hall effect keyboard is the NZXT Function Elite MiniTKL. On balance, function trumps form, but when you can get both a gorgeous design and plenty of features in a single package, we can make exceptions.

The Function Elite MiniTKL has everything you might hope for in a Hall effect keyboard. Rapid switches, adjustable actuation, rapid trigger, a feature using a confusing combination of the words ‘Snap’ and or ‘Tap’, and even an 8000 Hz polling rate.

What it also does extremely well is package all those features together into a positively pretty package. The white version most of all, as the vibrant RGB backlighting beneath the keys glows through the legends on the PBT keycaps and around the edges of each key. The perimeter of the keyboard houses 45 LEDs for even more illumination than most.

Even without the LEDs enabled, it looks great. The case is made of CNC aluminum and while it leaves little room for media keys or a numpad, it does offer a little more room for a few extra keys and a full function row. More than your average mini keyboard, anyways.

It looks the part of a custom build in many ways. Though it’s more affordable than many. One of our complaints with the keyboard at the time of our review was it offered a similar feature set to others in the market for a little more cash, though those days are well and truly over now. I’ve even spotted this keyboard on sale for as little as $100—practically half price.

Controlled via the NZXT CAM application, I’ve had my misgivings with the app in the past but I was pleasantly surprised to see plenty of customisation that’s easy to get to grips with when I gave the Function Elite a try myself.

While it is still true you can buy cheaper Hall effect boards, such as the Gamakay Naughshark, the Function Elite feels a much more premium unit, and it’s not even close. It’s great if you’re looking to color-match your desktop or PC, or looking for something to show off with a little more than others in this guide.

Read our full NZXT Function Elite MiniTKL review.

The best Hall effect keyboard with a numpad

The best Hall effect keyboard with a numpad is the Keychron Q5 HE. This isn’t quite a full-size board, but it’s probably our preferred layout at 96%. That means it has all the keys you could ask for but squished into a tidy form factor.

If you plan to use the same keyboard for both work and gaming (most of us, I imagine), you might want to consider a larger unit with the full complement of keys. But you don’t have to lose out on the more important Hall effect features for gaming to do so: the Q5 HE offers the full range.

It uses the same switches as the K2 HE, Gateron’s Double Rail, which means it supports adjustable actuation down to a 0.2 mm sensitivity, which only requires the lightest press to register a key press. Similarly, it supports rapid trigger and multiple actions for a single key press (this takes some getting used to). All can be customised to your liking in the Keychron Launcher web application.

What’s more, like the K2 HE, it’s wireless with both 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth connectivity. The battery is rated to 100 hours, though you’ll need to disable the lighting to get the most juice out of it. That’s not such a big deal, as rather than shine through keycaps, the Q5 HE only offers rear lighting purely for looks alone. You won’t see your keys as well in the dark, which is a bit of a miss, but the board looks great with the colorways on offer.

The case is made of CNC aluminum here, which not only looks great, means it doesn’t slide around oin your desk or suffer any flex. It also feels like a premium product that’s worth the money you’ve spent on it, which is a considerable amount, truth be told.

The many layers beneath the keys and the thick case help create a very satisfying clunk to every key press—a solid thock, some might say.

A great mix of work and play, the Keychron Q5 HE offers a bit of everything for a modern gamer with other things to do. It does cost more for that wider functionality, but it’s very much a one and done purchase.

Read our full Keychron Q5 HE review.

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Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer’s top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you’ll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.