Epomaker HE75 V2 Keyboard review

Epomaker has sent over their new HE75 V2 keyboard for me to take a look at and give my opinions on. I’ve spent about a month using this keyboard, as well having my girlfriend give it a whirl and I have a lot to say about it. Mostly positive, but not without a few quirks that honestly could have just been something I didn’t understand. First though, the simple facts: what is the HE75 V2 on paper? It is a wireless keyboard utilizing hall effect switches, customizable RGB with semi-transparent keycaps, and a blazing 8,000hz polling rate. Epomaker lists the HE75 V2 switches as a “Creamy Jade Hall Effect Switch”. It also includes a rather enormous 8,000mAh battery inside to allow them to run this fast polling rate without underperforming on battery life.

As to how I felt about all of this tech in action… It was pretty nice. Honestly, first impressions: wow, just pressing a key in feels remarkable. I’m not usually much of a huge stickler for caring about the differences between switch types in mechanical keyboards, pretty much okay with anything so long as it makes sense. But the keyswitches on the HE75 V2 were repeatedly enough to make my brain go “whoa! That was a level of smoothness I cannot compute”. Going to work every day and using an older mechanical keyboard that I’ve always loved, and then coming home to use the HE75 V2, it was routinely a marvel. Maybe this isn’t as unique as I think it is (I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about keyboards on the market today), but I cannot deny it being worth quite a bit of talking about. Interacting with the keys is most of what anyone gets out of a keyboard, so I’d argue it’s the most important thing to get right.

The switches are Hall Effect, which, for anyone unfamiliar, is a technology for switches that utilizes magnets to complete keystrokes. If you’re unfamiliar, Hall Effect switches do not require physical contact to complete keystrokes, rather utilizing changes in magnetic polarity as the switches are collapsed to determine that you are pressing on them. Since there is no physical contact taking place, theoretically, Hall Effect switches are rated to continue functioning for as long as the housing continues to hold them in place. There is no wear and tear on Hall Effect, so if you’re looking for something that could last you a long time, Hall Effect is the way to go. It is my understanding that this magnetic function has a lot to do with my mention in the previous paragraph for why they feel so remarkable. Since no physical contact is taking place in your keystroke, it essentially glides down like butter. Epomaker claims that each switch stem is lubricated in such a way as to create “frictionless travel”, and I would declare that claim to be entirely accurate. It’s almost uncanny how smooth it feels under the finger.

The switches offer some degree of customization as well. Where standard mechanical switches are restricted a bit by the physical limitations in their manufacturing and how they travel, Hall Effect keys allow for a lot more information to be communicated. What this means is that one of the more interesting benefits you get with Hall Effect keys is the ability to change at what point the keyboard determines a key to be “pressed”. You can change on the fly with Epomaker’s software where you’d like to have the key considered pressed at anywhere between 3.3mm, all the way down to the lowest of the low, 0.1mm. I cannot say that I’d much recommend ever purposely choosing 0.1mm, it remains a little bit of a showcase to offer you to see just what it’s capable of that isn’t possible with standard mechanical keyboards. Just… maybe don’t leave it down that low or you might end up breathing too hard and accidentally type a novel. (Only joking, Epomaker does have enough resistance in the keys to protect against that, but it does open you up to a ton of typos, as you learn just how often you really glance upon the other keys as you’re typing)

The short travel distance is great for gaming in faster paced environments, such as competitive FPS games, and in those situations, accidentally pressing other keys isn’t really that much of a problem, so long as you have everything set exactly how you want it. But luckily, the versatility offered by the hall effect sticks allows you to come out of playing a high-energy game to move over to writing a review article on the very thing you’re typing on, and get the best experience for both worlds in one package (ask me how I know). In competitive games, this makes a huge difference. Every millisecond counts when you’re playing a game that moves fast enough, so getting the shortest travel distance possible lets your reaction times shine through by having the right tools to get it done. Speaking of which…

The polling rate. At 8,000hz, the HE75 V2 is made to relay your actions to your computer at near-instant speeds. One of the downsides to wireless keyboards when it comes to gaming has always been that cutting the wire introduces latency into the mix. Add latency and your reaction times in games fall to the floor. You need to get your latency to be as low as possible if you are to ever hope to get fast reactions translated right into the game, and 8,000hz is to mean that it’s communicating to your PC 8,000 times per second. That is way beyond what historical communication speeds have been for wireless keyboards, and in practice, you should not notice any difference between this and a wireless keyboard. A lot of manufacturers have started branching into the 8000hz offerings, so we’re in a great era for wireless gaming.

The next thing that really came into notice was just how sturdy it felt. The HE75V2 is about on par with the general weight of a wireless mechanical keyboard. At a solid 2.2 pounds (1kg for any of you not living in America), it feels just right. The giant 8000mAH battery is likely a solid contributor to this weight, but I personally find that exchange to be acceptable and preferable. However, even in doing a bit more research on this to get accurate info in my writing, I’ve learned that the average weight of wireless keyboards has gone up pretty significantly over the years. So while it’s a little heavier than what I’m used to and have on hand for comparison, it is actually a bit lighter than many of its competitors. The outer shell is created from ABS plastic, so it is definitely strong enough to stay sturdy should you drop it, while doing its best to stay as light as possible.

Now, my experience with learning to utilize all of the functions of the HE75 is where I ran into the highest quantity of my little hiccups. Nothing major, but the HE75 V2 is designed to give you access to the full suite of everything it has to offer without needing to install their software. What this means is that there are a ton of function key combos to do everything you could or would want. Change the LED colors, change the travel distance, check the battery level, choose which remembered Bluetooth device to connect to, change the side light brightness, change the sidelight speed, same things for the backlight, lock the windows key, and a few more things. It’s very nice, but… hard to remember. If you ever decide you want to change any of these, you’re going to have to find the manual again to recall exactly what you’re looking for. There is one positive thing to this that I noticed, however: when you hold the function key down, the keyboard adjusts the LEDs to leave only keys that actually have a function key combo active. I don’t know that I’d recommend going through every key to try and recall the right one, but at least if you do go with that, you’ll know that you don’t have to guess which keys will do something. The battery level check was pretty nice, though, and honestly, that’s probably the only one you’ll have a reason to memorize. The others are more likely for momentary changes when you have a preference adjustment, so grabbing the manual isn’t so annoying. Besides, the fact that it doesn’t require any extra software for full access to functionality may very well be a pro to many people. Extra software bloat isn’t something anyone loves, so offering ways to eliminate it is always welcome. In

The one thing that I consider the weakest point to be on this keyboard is in a specific experience that occurred a few times for me. So… to frame this, I first will need to tell you this fact: when you have not touched the HE75 V2 for about 60 seconds, the LEDs will turn off and put the keyboard into standby. Awaking from this is fast, and all you need to do is press any key. No problem there, but… where the problem did spawn from this was that a few times I just seemingly had the keyboard die on me without the red battery low indicator going off. From the outside experience of this, it would be that I had a few odd experiences where I would lean back during a loading screen or if I was waiting to get back into the game while spectating, then I’d lean forward, press a key, and… nothing happened. At first, I thought something was wrong with my computer, but then I realized that the backlights on the keyboard weren’t turning on either. When I then plugged the keyboard into power (not directly wired to the PC), it turned back on, and upon checking the battery out of my own confusion as to if I wasn’t paying attention, it showed it was at 40%. I’m not sure what to make of that, but it was something that happened to me more than once. It almost seemed like it shut down instead of going into the 60 second standby.

Regardless of that, the overall experience I have had over the past month has been very positive. I don’t really have much to complain about, and even the thing I mentioned in my previous paragraph isn’t all that abnormal for what I’ve experienced before with even the major keyboard brands. But, it is something I experienced, so I have to make sure I mention it. The keycaps feel extraordinary, and assuming they handle the way Hall Effect always should, they should always stay feeling just as extraordinary. In my opinion, especially for the pretty low price of $89.99, the Epomaker HE75 V2 is a very worthy option for you to consider. It has all the fun bells and whistles of modern mechanical keyboards while removing worries about long-term lifetime of the switches. The polling rate is as fast as you’d ever need it, and the lack of needing extra software to utilize everything is a potential pro to many. There’s not much that I encountered that you should be wary of. I would openly recommend the Epomaker HE75 V2 to anyone looking for the opportunities it offers.

Note: Epomaker provided us with an HE75 V2 Keyboard for review purposes.

Click Here to buy the Epomaker HE75 V2 Keyboard on Amazon