Qwertykeys Hex80  Keyboard Review

The Qwertykeys Hex80 features a standard TenKeyLess (80%) form factor, which means it lacks a numpad but includes all other keys typically found on a regular layout. This allows you to free some desk space for your mouse while conserving your F-row, arrow, and navigation keys.

The build quality is amazing. It uses a full-aluminum chassis and feels extremely solid and well-balanced. It's a very heavy keyboard, and it even has a mirror-polished stainless steel weight on the underside that accentuates its mass. As mentioned in the Difference Between Variants section, the colorways feature different aluminum finishes, either anodized or spray-coated. Anodizing tends to be more scratch-resistant because the color is fused into the aluminium rather than applied to it.

The gasket mount allows some intentional flex that feels comfortable while typing, and the board shows excellent assembly quality with no real gaps or loose parts. Keys feel stable with no wobble, stabilizers stay quiet, and nothing rattles when the keyboard is shaken. The frosted polycarbonate keycaps feel thick and solid. However, they can feel slippery compared to PBT keycaps, which tend to be coarser. The feet do a good job of keeping the keyboard in place, despite being fairly small, thanks to the keyboard's weight.

However, while the rest of the build is pretty much impeccable, our unit's USB-C port exhibits noticeable wobble. The port is so loose that it actually disconnected during testing if we moved the keyboard a bit too carelessly.

The Qwertykeys Hex80 has a fixed incline. The angle doesn't feel uncomfortable, but you may want to consider a wrist rest if you plan to type or game for extended periods, especially if you're accustomed to using a low-profile or laptop keyboard.

The Qwertykeys Hex80 has fully addressable per-key RGB backlighting.

This keyboard uses south-facing RGB combined with translucent keycaps and bright backlighting. This makes for legends that are very easy to read, even in the dark.

The braided cable looks decent, but it's not color-matched with the keyboard. In our case, the orange accents clash with the pink colorway. It has some kinks from packaging that smooth out quickly.

Our unit's USB-C port exhibited noticeable wobble. You can check out the Build Quality section for more details.

• USB-A to USB-C cable
• Carrying case
• 2x Keycap puller/switch remover multitools
• User documentation
• 4x Extra OWLAB Ti Magnetic switches

The Qwertykeyx Hex80 delivers an amazing typing experience. The polycarbonate keycaps feel more rigid than PBT and have slightly raised, dotted pad printing. The dual-rail magnetic switches are very stable with virtually no wobble, and the stabilizers on larger keys are well-lubed and just as stable. The gasket mount is cushioned but stable and not overly springy. Like any magnetic keyboard, you'll need to make sure that the actuation settings aren't too sensitive.

Key spacing and layout are standard and very easy to get used to. This makes it easy to reach normal typing speeds. While key travel is on the shorter side for this class of keyboard, it feels natural and satisfying to type on. You should note that the Hex80 is fairly loud and could be a bit disruptive for sound-sensitive spaces. However, it sounds creamy and satisfying.

This keyboard is reasonably loud. While its sound signature isn't bothersome, it can be slightly disturbing if you're in a noise-sensitive environment.

We used the default actuation point setting of 1.50 mm, and the rapid trigger function was turned off.

The Qwertykeys Hex80 delivers outstanding input granularity. It detects switch actuation with minimal top and bottom deadzones. Step depth is also very low, which allows you to precisely tune the keystroke to your preference. However, this keyboard doesn't support true analog input, which limits its usefulness as a gamepad replacement for racing games or flight sims that could benefit from that type of control.

The Qwertykeys Hex80 delivers exceptional single-key performance, offering a highly responsive and consistent experience that's well-suited for all types of games, including high-level competitive play. Here are the settings we used for our testing:

The Qwertykeys Hex80 provides outstanding multi-key performance, delivering a fast, consistent, and highly responsive experience that works well for all types of games, including competitive play. For our testing, we used the following settings:

• Anti-accidental touch mode: OFF
• AI Match: ON (no noticeable impact on latency)
• Rapid Trigger press: 0.005 mm
• Rapid Trigger release: 0.005 mm
• Actuation point: 0.050 mm
• Top deadzone: 0
• Bottom deadzone: 0
• Extreme / Frenzy mode: ON
• Polling rate: 8k
• RGB lighting: Disabled

This keyboard reaches up to a 32,000Hz scan rate alongside its 8,000Hz polling rate. The scan rate determines how often the keyboard checks for key presses, and the polling rate controls how often your computer checks the keyboard. In theory, a higher scan rate helps provide the most up-to-date key states with every poll.

We can't measure the scan rate with our current methodology, but this only provides a marginal benefit as the 8,000Hz polling rate remains a bottleneck for the frequency of updates it can actually send to your computer.

The ATK Hub is a versatile software suite that works with the Hex80 and other ATK products like Attack Shark and ATK Gear mice. It's well-organized and responsive enough. It lets you customize lighting profiles quite precisely and toggle between profiles using the onboard buttons. You can also find all the basic functions you'd expect, such as fine-tuning actuation points and deadzones, assigning special function keys, and creating macros. The keyboard supports up to three onboard profiles that you can cycle through. You can create other ones that you can then assign to an on-board slot. It also supports advanced features that have become ubiquitous for magnetic gaming keyboards, like Rapid Trigger, DKS, and SOCD. Here's a quick overview of the main ones:

Rapid Trigger: This feature lets you adjust the actuation and reset points of your switches dynamically based on travel distance instead of a fixed point. This allows faster follow-up inputs, which is especially useful for actions like counter-strafing in some FPS games.

DKS (Dynamic Keystrokes): Assign up to four different actions to a single key, each triggered at a different actuation depth.

MT (Mod Tap): Assign two actions to a key depending on whether you tap it or hold it down.

SOCD (Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions): Monitors pairs of keys, like A and D, and activates based on custom rules. The last input priority triggers the most recent key pressed, while absolute priority always favors one key over the other. This prevents stopping when pressing opposing keys in FPS games, allowing immediate directional changes without releasing the first key.

The Qwertykeys Hex80 is fully compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. On Linux, the keyboard was recognized in web drivers through Chrome, but it required adding udev permissions to properly access the drivers.