Wooting One Analog Mechanical Keyboard Review
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Benchmark Results & Performance Notes
Key Rollover Testing
Using Switch Hitter and the AquaKeyTest, we can confirm that the One offers full NRKO.
Audio Testing
We found the Wooting One to be a little noisy. The caps and switches bother felt a little loose, and that seemed to contribute to some extra noise. However, otherwise we detected very little in the way of additional “ping” noise, so at least you won’t experience that when typing away on the One.
Our test above features the Flaretech Red switches, which are linear; obviously, the Flaretech Blues (clicky) will sound a bit different, but the only difference is the click in the switch travel. The rest of the above description still applies.
Switch Testing
We do not have switch testing data for the Wooting One. We did not have the opportunity to run it through our testing machine.
Performance Notes
What struck us immediately when we started typing on the One is that the switches and caps felt wobbly and loud. Indeed, if you put your finger gently on a cap and wiggle it around, you get quite a bit of extra plasticy noise. Upon closer investigation, we noticed that the switch stems are looser in their housings that we’re used to feeling (that is, when you wiggle them around, they move and make a bit of noise), and the switch housings are rather loose in their mounts.
None of the above is necessarily negative; if you prefer a lighter touch in your typing experience, you may actually find it pleasing. It almost begs you to tread lightly, and indeed we subjectively enjoyed the typing experience more when we weren’t bottoming out every keypress. Consider, too, that when you’re gaming and want to make the best use of the analog input, you need to avoid just slamming down on the keys. Still, if you like a quieter, tighter typing feel, the One won’t deliver on that front.
But you’re here mainly to talk about analog, so let’s do that. The first analog mechanical keyboard we got our hands on was the Aimpad R5. It was (and is) just a prototype, but we came to several conclusions about analog input on keyboards because of it, and in general, those conclusions also apply to the Wooting One.
In short, it’s this: Analog input on keyboards, in our opinion, is the future of PC gaming peripherals, although it’s evolutionary more than revolutionary.
When you enable analog input for the first time, you’ll notice a difference in the feel of your controls, but it probably won’t blow you away. When you toggle the digital input back on, that’s when it will strike you more. (As we’ve said, it feels like the first time we watched a Blu-ray movie; we didn’t notice how much of an upgrade it was to DVD until we went back and watched a movie on the older format.)
We also realized that many of us, when it comes to PC gaming, are button mashers in a way. We pound the keys in the heat of battle, but analog input delivers the best performance when you keep your wits about you and maintain a more delicate touch on your keys. In that sense, using an analog keyboard will probably change the way you game on the PC.
Analog input on a mechanical keyboard is a feature that we didn’t know was missing from the PC gaming experience. Now that we have it, we don’t want to go back to digital.
MORE: Best Deals
MORE: How We Test Mechanical Keyboards
MORE: Mechanical Keyboard Switch Testing Explained
MORE: All Keyboard Content
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Get the most affordable RTX 4050 laptop for just $599 — The Acer Nitro V 15 plunges to an all-time low this Cyber Monday
WebScreen is a compact webcam-sized AMOLED second screen for those without the room or inclination to use multiple monitors
Graphics card repairer laments 'catastrophic failure' of customer's RTX 4090 volt mod and thermal paste overdose
-
SinxarKnights Oh it's finally out, nice! I really want one but my wallet is dead from starvation already. Frankly i'm surprised it took this long for someone to develop an analog keyboard. It was something I wanted from my earliest PC gaming days, having analog input on the keys would have been very useful for many games.Reply -
Mansen I'm glad you didn't give them too much criticism over the software considering the potentially game changing features. At least things like macros and light effects can be patched in later. Much harder to add hardware features for existing boards. :)Reply -
nimbulan While it sounds interesting, I feel like the extremely narrow 2.5mm of analog range will be too difficult to control precisely in the heat of the moment and will ultimately end up not being terribly useful. It's difficult enough on gamepads which have approximately twice as much range on the thumbsticks. It's not often that analog control actually gets used even on gamepads outside of driving and flying games anyway.Reply -
MrPleasantEXE Great review however as a BETA tester i wanna point some things out...Reply
The issue with the LEDs is most likely due to ISO being loaded on a ANSI keyboard (the on you received) as they have different amount of keys, to load ANSI for all LEDS you need to go to profile manager and load it, if you want to import my profile go ahead =D e04967ea-671f-6558-f4bc-19792281e905
As for the wobble issue, i personally don't see this unless i go to physically wobble them, for me its not a huge issue.
As for the software, you are using the alpha version which is different from the final version, or well will be, the version you have should have a feature similar to macro's.
Overall i love the review however software wise, the final version will be different.
-MrPleasant -
scolaner 19949515 said:While it sounds interesting, I feel like the extremely narrow 2.5mm of analog range will be too difficult to control precisely in the heat of the moment and will ultimately end up not being terribly useful. It's difficult enough on gamepads which have approximately twice as much range on the thumbsticks. It's not often that analog control actually gets used even on gamepads outside of driving and flying games anyway.
Yeah, that is a limiting factor. Currently, it's a limitation baked into the Flaretech switch. I need to do a deep dive on the structure of the other optical switches on the market and see if any of those would avoid that problem.
Also, I'd been thinking (but neglected to mention in the review) that I think a 5mm travel would work better.
But I'm withholding some judgment on that until I spend even more time with it. You get used to the analog feel. How much you can "get used" to that small range, I don't know yet. I'm sure some of those uber talented gamers out there would get it really fast. I'm old, slow, and inaccurate. ;)
-
nostalgion ive been wondering if this type of technology existed. i knew it could be done, and i knew i wanted it, and now. i cant afford it. but a massive praise to wooting for creating a dream, and making it reality, evolved gaming. a blacksmith is only as good as his tools, and his tools just got so much better.Reply