Are Hall Effect Gaming Keyboards Worth It?

Aside from your monitor and mouse, your keyboard is one of the most critical pieces of gaming gear. While mechanical keyboards are the usual go-to choice, a new contender is making waves: the Hall Effect keyboard. But is it really worth the hype?

What Makes Hall Effect Keyboards Different?

Before we can talk about Hall Effect switches and what makes them special, it helps to first understand how mechanical switches work. When you press a key, the stem (the colored plastic component) moves downward, compressing the spring inside the switch.

This movement causes the two metal contacts (the leaf) to touch, which registers a key press. As you release the key, the spring decompresses and pushes the stem back to its original position, separating the contacts and resetting the switch so that it can register another keystroke.

This mechanism is very satisfying to type and game on. Plus, it’s highly reliable, as it can handle around 50 million keystrokes, well above that of a membrane keyboard.

Hall Effect (HE for short) switches share some similarities with mechanical switches. For starters, they look almost identical on the outside. HE switches also have a two-part plastic housing and an MX-style stem, meaning you can use the same keycaps that mechanical keyboards use.

On the inside, they also have a spring that provides resistance when you push down and brings the stem back up when releasing. While not identical, I find that they feel and sound similar to standard linear mechanical switches like Cherry MX Reds.

The real difference lies in how HE switches register keystrokes. Instead of a metal leaf, HE switches use a magnet inside the stem and a Hall effect sensor at the bottom. As the stem moves, the sensor detects changes in the magnetic field’s strength. Once the keystroke crosses a set actuation threshold, such as 2mm of travel, it is registered as an input.

Hall Effect Keyboards Provide a Real Advantage in Games

The benefits of this technology are numerous. For starters, there’s less physical wear, which is why HE switches are rated for around 100 million key presses. But the main advantage is that HE switches are analog, meaning they can detect input across the whole motion of the switch.

This means that you can adjust the actuation point to whatever threshold suits you. For example, my SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 uses OmniPoint 3.0 switches that can register a key press anywhere from 0.1mm all the way down to 4.0mm.

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 Keyboard

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$15

The SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless Gen 3 is a high-end gaming keyboard equipped with OmniPoint 3.0 Hall Effect switches that allow for near-instantaneous response times. It supports Rapid Tap to help FPS gamers with strafing, Rapid Trigger that dynamically adjusts reset points, and Protection Mode, which protects against accidental inputs.

The keyboard also has an OLED display that allows you to adjust settings on the fly or display important information.

In contrast, mechanical switches have a fixed actuation point that’s usually around 1.8mm to 2.0mm. The fastest are silver switches from brands like Cherry, Akko, and Outemu activate at around 1.0mm to 1.2mm, which allows for quick input in games, but it’s not that great for typing.

I have currently set the actuation point in games to 1mm (and even less on Shift, Alt, and Ctrl) on my HE keyboard, and if I find that I need to adjust it further, I can do it in seconds without having to swap keyboards.

I’m not stuck with a single actuation point that feels too light or heavy to use, which is pretty cool. A pro player could set the actuation point to 0.1mm on movement keys for the fastest possible response time and 3mm for ultimate abilities with long cooldowns to prevent accidental presses.

Rapid Trigger is another cool feature that most HE keyboards support. Instead of the fixed reset point that all mechanical switches have, Rapid Trigger can dynamically register keystrokes while still in motion. The key resets when you release it, but it can register another keystroke the millisecond you start pushing on it again. This allows you to spam the key as fast as you can wiggle your finger up and down, a very important feature for RPG and MOBA gamers.

Still, there’s one feature found in HE keyboards that provided such a tremendous advantage that Valve banned it in Counter-Strike 2. Some even called it cheating, but I strongly disagree. It’s called SOCD (Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Directions), but you might know it by one of the manufacturer’s names, like SteelSeries Rapid Tap, Wooting Rappy Snappy, or Razer Snap Tap.

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SOCD simultaneously monitors two keys, like A and D, to see which one is pressed further. It then dynamically activates the one that’s pressed further and disables the other, even though you’re still holding both of them. If you do this on a regular mechanical keyboard, your character will stay in place because both keys are registering, but with SOCD, you can counter-strafe at blazing speeds, allowing you to stop faster for more precise aim in FPS games.

There are even more niche features that HE keyboards can do. For instance, Dual Actuation allows you to register two functions on different actuation points within a single key. You could hold W at 2mm to make your character run, or press it down fully to 4mm to make them sprint.

Another useful feature some HE keyboards support is full-motion analog input. It functions similarly to L2 and R2 triggers on controllers, enabling more precise inputs in racing games.

The Downsides of Hall Effect Keyboards

HE keyboards are awesome, but like most other things in life, it doesn’t come without a few downsides. The one major downside is price. Hall Effect keyboards are a hot commodity right now, but that’s not the only reason prices are high.

I suspect that it’s a combination of HE switches costing more to produce because they need tighter tolerances and might use slightly more expensive parts, and all the research that’s gone into building these new keyboards. Plus, most of the HE keyboards are either Kickstarter products or premium gaming brands like Corsair, Razer, and SteelSeries, which tend to carry a slightly higher price tag.

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Expect to pay around $150 to $200 for a decent HE keyboard. I also have to acknowledge that some Chinese brands are also starting to come out with their own HE keyboards, like this $40 EPOMAKER Aula WIN60 HE, but I’m not sure about its quality, long-term reliability, and software support.

The second major disadvantage is customization. While you can swap out the keycaps, that’s about it. If the switches aren’t to your liking out of the box, there’s not much you can do to make the keyboard thocky.

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Even if the keyboard is hot-swappable, HE switches are mostly proprietary, meaning you can only use those that were approved by the manufacturer. Even if a HE switch fits the keyboard physically, there’s a good chance that the PCB won’t recognize it.

Honestly, you probably wouldn’t want to swap out the switches anyway, since that’s what you paid a premium for in the first place. However, it’s still a nice feature to have in case one of the switches malfunctions.

The Premium Is Justified, but Not Everyone Needs Hall Effect

If you’re serious about gaming and your budget allows for it, you should get an HE keyboard. The advantages are too great to ignore. Even if your favorite game doesn’t allow you to use SOCD for faster strafing, you can still take advantage of the adjustable actuation points to fine-tune exactly how each key behaves. Rapid Trigger is also a powerful feature that minimizes response time.

However, if you’re on a tight budget, you can still get by with a regular mechanical keyboard, especially if you equip it with very light and low actuation point switches like the Akko V3 Silver Pro.

Akko V3 Silver Pro Switches

The Akko V3 Silver Pro switches are smooth linear switches with a light actuation force of 40g and a very short pre-travel of just 1.0mm, making them perfect for gamers. They also feature a dustproof stem, enhancing their durability to 60 million keystrokes

How many of us are realistically that good at the games we play? HE keyboards are for players who already know how to aim and strategize, so if you’re one of them, congratulations! Go for it. However, if you’re not quite there yet, get an ultralight mouse and work on your aim before splurging on a high-end keyboard.