Honestly, unless you're looking to dump $100+ into a keyboard, HE doesn't make sense. Cheap HE boards are just not it in terms of reliability, build quality, and software experience. The cheapest HE board I can actively recommend is something like a NuPhy Field 75 HE or Air60/75 HE. Keychron's K2 HE or K4 HE are also a steal for what they cost. But it's all preference. Generally speaking, mechanical keyboards still have the upper hand when it comes to sound, and to a degree build quality. But if you're not particular about sound, and you can handle more or less only having linear switch options, HE is fantastic for both work and play. Answer from julian_vdm on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/keyboards › hall effect vs mechanical
r/keyboards on Reddit: Hall Effect vs Mechanical
July 3, 2024 -

I'm considering buying a He keyboard to play valorant, just wanna know does using HE keyboard really help for valorant gameplay or just buy the standard mechanical keyboard with better switches. For HE keyboard im consider ATK 68 and mechanical one is AULA F75, also can suggest other option for each keyboard with value price...

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/keyboards › mechanical vs hall effect – which keyboard makes more sense for me?
r/keyboards on Reddit: Mechanical vs Hall Effect – Which keyboard makes more sense for me?
July 2, 2025 -

Hello,

I’m planning to buy a new keyboard but I’m a bit torn between going with a traditional mechanical keyboard or trying out a Hall Effect one. I work full-time as a software engineer, so I don’t get as much time to game as I used to. Back in the day I was more of a “sweaty” FPS gamer, but now I play whatever’s fun. Single player games, story driven titles, a bit of everything really. I know Hall Effect keyboards with features like rapid trigger and adjustable actuation are popular among competitive FPS players, but I’m wondering if those features offer any meaningful benefits for someone like me who mostly games casually now and sometimes competitive. I’m currently considering the EPOMAKER x AULA F75 for the mechanical option, and the MCHOSE Jet 75 HE, NUPHY Air 75 or the Keychron k2 HE for the Hall Effect side. I’d appreciate some insight—would Hall Effect be overkill for my use case, or still worth it in terms of typing experience, durability, or general feel? If anyone’s used either of these boards or has suggestions in the same range, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/mechanicalkeyboards › discussion about hall effect vs traditional mechanical keyboards.
r/MechanicalKeyboards on Reddit: Discussion about Hall Effect VS traditional mechanical keyboards.
April 12, 2025 -

What do you think about magnetic keyboards?
The main question is, can magnetic keyboards have a place in our hobby?

Nowadays, they are being shouted about from all corners, what it is a great blessing.
Here my story. I got one. I played around with the actuation point setting for about a week. I don't know why and what it gave me. It's just the only new feature for me. And then I returned it to the standard 2.0 mm)
And the most annoying thing is that the keyboard sounds bad, even though it has 3 basic layers of noise insulation. I've heard all magnetic keyboards sound worse than mechanical ones. Is that true? And I can't make many modifications, lay some switch pads, or anything like that, because its affects the accuracy. Also looks like HE keyboards doesnt have gasket mount or flex cuts. I can't replace the switches here. Well, technically it supports hot swap and there are several different magnetic switches on the market and... they are all linear, it's clear why. They all have about the same actuation force. This is incomparable to the number and variety of switches for traditional mechanical keyboards. I even thought if the hot swap socket breaks it's easy to replace, and if the sensor breaks here? Is that all?

And I felt like I was locked up like in a prison with this keyboard. Damn it... I got some cool new silent tactile switches and my first thought was if I had another mechanical keyboard right now instead of this magnetic one I would install these switches there. What do I have now? I played around with adjusting the actuation point and that's all I can do with this keyboard.

So I got the impression that magnetic keyboards are completely unsuitable for our hobby. They are just one-way gaming tools, unlike traditional mechanical keyboards that have room for customization and flexibility.

Share your thoughts, maybe I have the wrong impression.

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You just know this is going to be a thread where you get polarised opinions. Those with HE boards will say they're great, and those that don't need or want one will say they are bad. Always happens. Being sensible however..... The main question is, can magnetic keyboards have a place in our hobby? They do. You see people posting them in here all the time, and you can get HE PCBs for even Geon boards. Not sure what makes you think they aren't part of the hobby. It's a different kind of switch. They won't take over, or even become the dominant switch type for enthusiasts, but they're here to stay. There have always been different kinds of switches. I think the snobbery element of the hobby seems to look down its nose at HE because it's a gaming technology, not something that's particularly useful for a typist, and as most gaming boards are shit, by association, HE becomes shit in most people's minds. It's a simplistic, partisan type of opinion, but surely we're used to such in here by now, aren't we? :) Personally, I don't see the point unless you're a gamer and feel it gives you some advantage. I'm not sure what advantage it gives a typist - or at least I never found one. Technically, HE should me more reliable as there are fewer points of contact/friction, but realistically, when I have a MX keyboard here that's almost 40 years old and working just fine, I think this is a technicality, not something that makes any practical difference whatsoever in real life. I also used one for a while, and found that the actuation point that felt best was pretty much the same as the actuation point of a standard MX switch, so basically I was just recreating what I already have. Muscle memory is strong :) As for sound, there's no real reason I can see why they should sound any better or worse. I think it's because most HE boards are at the cheaper end of the market. I can see no reason why a Geon board with a venom PCB in it would sound any worse than one with a Galatea or Hineybush PCB. Different maybe... but different PCBs and switches will have a different sound even using traditional MX stuff. They're really for gamers, not typists. They have their place in the hobby, but the games I play are not really demanding enough to pretend that they will give an advantage, and I'm far more concerned about how a keyboards feels to type on, so they're not for me. No one can deny that they are here to stay though. They're just not for you, as they are not for me. Many things in this hobby are not for me though. Suggesting that they should not be part of the hobby because you don't like it is just being silly.
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To each their own I guess. Sound aside, I like my HE board more than all of my other keyboards. So much so that I’ve got a second HE board on the way for a stealth build with GMK Cosmos. You not liking something doesn’t make it bad.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/keyboards › what's the hype with hall effect and is it worth it?
r/keyboards on Reddit: What's the hype with Hall Effect and is it worth it?
February 12, 2025 -

Hi all

I've been posting for a bit now, and I see a lot of the brands making Hall Effect keyboards. I get the gaming benefits with rapid trigger and setting actuation points. But besides gaming, why would someone use it for, let's say, filling in Excels, design work, content creation, etc? Would a regular mechanical be worth more?

How is the type, sound and feel of the HE boards in general? I'm used to typing on my old Ducky Shine 3 :D

Cheers!

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I have had all kinds of keyboards. From mid level "custom" builds with fancy switches to gaming keyboards with optical switches with 8000hz polling and less than 2 tenths of a millisecond input latency to the Wooting 60HE. I would say that analog hall effect switch keyboards are the only gaming keyboard that is NOT a gimmick. In gaming all of my keys actuate at 0.2mm which alone is a radical difference compared to the typical almost 2 full mm actuation point. But, once you get used to it the rapid trigger is really what sets them apart. You can literally spam A and D in a shooter and whether you've fully released the key or not every tiny little down stroke anywhere is registered. Every time you jump and then need to jump immediately you just will. You just don't have to travel back up over the actuation point anymore. That is something that really does make hall effect keyboards feel so much faster and precise. Don't get me wrong. If you are a bronze player it's not going to make you elite or something. You still have to aim and know what you're doing. Any better player on a 250hz custom board with 40 ms of input latency is still going to be better. But, compared directly hall effects are the clear winner. Especially doing something like rapidly strafing side to side.
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it depends what games you play, if you play a game where every millisecond matter, and you need the fastest response time possible, then yes it can help a lot. otherwise, no it doesn't matter
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XDA Developers
xda-developers.com › home › keyboards & mice › i tried hall effect and i'm sticking with mechanical keyboards for these 3 reasons
I tried Hall effect and I'm sticking with mechanical keyboards for these 3 reasons
October 12, 2024 - Essentially, magnetic (Hall effect) ... actuation points, Rapid Trigger, and Snap Tap possible. They're objectively faster than the top mechanical keyboards....
Find elsewhere
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Rock Paper Shotgun
rockpapershotgun.com › home › hardware › features
Should You Bother With... Hall effect keyboards? | Rock Paper Shotgun
April 24, 2024 - The Lenovo Legion Go opted for Hall effect thumbsticks, and you can even swap your Steam Deck sticks for a third-party Hall effect set. Such advantages can also be applied to keyboards. When you slam down a key, the sensor picks up the movement of the magnet within, registering the input. But it doesn’t need two physical components to make contact, as a regular mechanical keyboard (or mushy membrane keyboard) does.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/keyboards › mechanical or hall effect for dev + gaming?
r/keyboards on Reddit: Mechanical or Hall Effect for Dev + Gaming?
January 27, 2025 -

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to get my first serious keyboard, but I'm a bit lost on what would actually suit me best. My experience with mechanicals is very limited — I had a Redragon Mitra K551 (Brown switches) as my intro board, and while it was okay, it didn’t really click with me. The key travel felt too long, the keycaps were too tall, the whole thing took up a lot of desk space, and being wired annoyed me more than I expected.

Lately, I’ve been using a Rapoo E9100M, which I actually love for work — it’s super slim, has a compact layout with a numpad, and the wireless connectivity is amazing (3x Bluetooth + 1x USB receiver switch). But... it’s not great for gaming. The laptop-style keys feel sluggish and lack the responsiveness I’d want for competitive play.

What I do:

  • Heavy daily use: Dev work + competitive gaming

  • I need something that feels good for hours of coding, but can also keep up in fast-paced games (think FPS-level reaction times).

What I’m looking for:

  • Mechanical or maybe Hall Effect? I’ve heard they can be smoother and quieter, and some are low-profile-ish — not sure if they'd suit my use case better?

  • Low-profile or at least low-ish key height. I like the flatter feel of the Rapoo.

  • Quiet(ish) — doesn’t need to be silent, but no jet engine clicky stuff please.

  • Wireless required — ideally with 2.4GHz + multi-device Bluetooth switching like my Rapoo. That’s a killer feature I’d love to keep.

  • Compact full-size — I need a numpad, but I don’t want a giant desk hog. Again, the E9100M size is perfect.

  • ISO layout (planning to swap in custom Hungarian keycaps).

  • RGB or backlight would be nice, but I can live without it if the rest is solid.

Bonus points:

If there’s a mechanical or Hall effect board out there that does everything my Rapoo does — in a better-built, low-profile, wireless package — I’d be thrilled.

So yeah — any recommendations? Also, would you suggest going with mechanical or Hall effect switches for a mix of long dev sessions and serious gaming?

Thanks in advance!

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/rainbowsixsiege › hall effect vs regular mechanical keyboards
r/RainbowSixSiege on Reddit: Hall effect vs Regular mechanical keyboards
April 30, 2025 -

Those of you who are using hall effect keyboards, do you guys feel positive about any noticeable advantage than using a regular mecha keyboard? I gotta change my keyboard and I really want to try a HE keyboard but I'm not sure if it'll amount to anything more than a gimmick in which case I'd rather spend it on a good sounding mecha keyboard that'll match my setup. I get that they are noticeably faster but I'm looking for actual user experience specially Siege players.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/mechanicalkeyboards › hall effect switches?
r/MechanicalKeyboards on Reddit: Hall effect switches?
May 2, 2018 -

I'm not a fan of linear switches but I'm interested if hall effect switches have any advantages over linear cherry switches other than such of like "being waterproof, dustproof" etc.

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Not an expert, but I own a board with Micro Switch Hall Effect switches (Diablo 1620). Some thoughts: In theory, Hall Effect switches can be much smoother than MX switches because the slider doesn’t have to scratch against a contact leaf. In practice, however, Hall Effect switches are really susceptible to dirt. Some of my switches are as smooth as Alps SKCC Green, but dirt has made most of them as scratchy as pre-retooling MX Blacks. For better or worse, Hall Effect switches have longer travel than MX. For me, long travel is fun in short bursts but gets tiring after a while. Did I mention my switches are certainly not dustproof and probably not waterproof? Micro Switch housings are even more susceptible to dirt than Alps. Keeping them clean is a constant struggle. Note that Ace Pad Tech’s HE switches are waterproof and presumably dustproof; I haven’t tried those though. The major advantage of HE switches is of course their reliability: 30 billion keystrokes lifetime per switch. (Compare Cherry MX at 20-45 million). This would be a lot more impressive if they weren’t so susceptible to dirt. For reasons that somewhat confuse me, in theory Hall Effect switches can be polled an order of magnitude faster than MX switches, making them the ultimate gaming switch. (See dorkvader’s excellent Hall Effect sensing and wiring thread for details). In conclusion, HE switches have a lot of theoretical advantages over regular contact-based mechanical switches, namely incredible reliability, perfect smoothness, and high polling rate. In practice, however, these advantages are offset (in Micro Switch HE at least) by low dust tolerance, tiringly long travel, stiffness, and of course the ridiculous difficulty of conversion to USB. Honestly Honeywell HE switches are a bit overrated in my opinion.
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they're super reliable (Honeywell dual magnet have a 30 BILLION keypress life time) They can be super smooth (the only friction point is the housing) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDozftThFMw&feature=youtu.be&t=8m58s
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/budgetkeebs › 4 reasons hall effect keyboards might not be ready to replace other mechanical keyboards
r/BudgetKeebs on Reddit: 4 reasons Hall effect keyboards might not be ready to replace other mechanical keyboards
July 28, 2024 - The point was that there are far more options for mechanical keyboards than with HE boards. And that's indisputable. It is a gimmick. Right now, it's a gimmick. For some people it offers some benefit at the moment. But just read through all the posts that appear on the keyboard subreddits from inexperienced people who desperately want an HE board because they think it will make them better at gaming. Hopefully Hall Effect boards will be around to stay this time and will prove to be useful.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/keyboards › should i buy a magnetic keyboard or just a regular mechanical one?
Should I buy a magnetic keyboard or just a regular mechanical one? : r/keyboards
September 22, 2025 - Honestly I'd buy a regular one since hall effect switches are more expensive and stuff but if you don't wanna do anything to it and want the best performance go ahead and buy magnetic/hall effect keyboard. ... Subjective, but I agree to an extent. It’s harder to make them sound good, but not impossible. Mostly just a case of finding switches with a sound you like ... I mean, if you want a competitive advantage, and genuinely play to get to a competitive/even just high rank level, if anybody tells you anything other than a magnetic/HE keyboard , they're just plain lying lol. (Unless its between like, a really good mechanical keyboard vs a £10 HE keyboard on aliexpress, in this case it isnt though)
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/keyboards › pressure sensitive keyboard vs hall effect keyboard
r/keyboards on Reddit: Pressure sensitive keyboard vs Hall effect keyboard
December 30, 2024 -

I wanted to know what the difference between these are. I want a keyboard where it mimics the feel of slowing pushing the analog stick on a controller forward. Because from my understanding, most keyboard are either binary yes or no input. While I want a gradual thing where if I press it slightly, my In Game character moved slowly. If so, what recommendations would you guys give?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/mechanicalkeyboards › hall effect keyboard ranking
r/MechanicalKeyboards on Reddit: Hall Effect Keyboard Ranking
November 20, 2024 -

A well-known Chinese reviewer recently published magnetic keyboard performance results using a high-end AIKOH measurement device priced at 1.5 million yen. https://www.askul.co.jp/p/EJ43237/

douyin vid: v.douyin.com/iAeVF58d/

The analysis breaks down performance into three key factors:

Blue: Bottom dead zone

Yellow: Input delay

Green: Deviation

Top performers in this ranking include:

MM Studio M6L+

MorkBlade Bold TKL

MelGeek Made68 Ultra

For cost-performance, the MCHOSE ACE60PRO stands out as an absolute monster!

Detailed charts are included for those who want to dive into the numbers Source: https://x.com/mareb6_/status/1853467726314094935?t=RjceCfcE6oZaskb550lpDg&s=19