EPOMAKER is rapidly becoming a favourite keyboard manufacturer. I love the company’s typewriter-shaped keyboard, which has become my device for writing for pleasure. The HE75 V2, meanwhile, is just a gorgeous option for gaming.
As we all know, I don’t really play games where extreme speed matters and latency is the difference between success and failure. For those who do play shooters or competitive esports thingies, though, the 8K polling and 128Khz full board scan rate of the HE75 V2’s Hall Effect switches is going to be really appealing (and naturally there is 2.4GHz wireless to go with the standard Bluetooth option to minimise lag from the wireless signal). Actuation can be adjusted from anywhere between 3.3mm and 0.1mm, and to a very fine degree (increments of 0.005mm. What this means is that when you are playing one of those twitch action games, the 0.1mm setting will allow your fingers to breeze across the keyboard. Meanwhile, when it’s time to get some work done, the other end of the range minimises the typos from accidentally putting a tiny bit of pressure on the keys.
Best of all, you can toggle between those extremes with a single button press, allowing for a seamless, all-day, all-applications keyboard experience. And speaking of all-day, the HE75 V2 has an 8000mAh battery, which allows for plenty of use between charges, even when you have the backlight glow on full power.
The keyboard is quite thick and weighty (it’s about 1kg in the lap), which seems to be a trend for EPOMAKER, given the weight of the typewriter one as well. Keys have plenty of travel to press down, but feel nice and smooth for the full distance, and there’s a really nice “frosting” tactile feel to the top of the keys, which gives them a premium feel on the fingertips. People who like their keyboards clicky will be disappointed with the muted sound at the end of the keypress, but I found it had the right balance between audio feedback and a volume that didn’t drive me to distraction over the course of a day’s use.
In terms of form factor, the HE75 V2 is a 75% scale keyboard. I feel like this also strikes a nice balance between something compact (despite its weight and bulk), but without sacrificing critical features, as keyboards start to do as they drop below 75% scale. The main thing you’ll be missing with this keyboard is the numeric keypad on the right of a full-size keyboard. That’s not nothing, particularly if you do use the numbers on a keyboard a lot – the row at the top will never be as efficient to use as a keypad – but for most people, it’s easy enough to get by without feeling that loss too much. The keys are nicely spaced and sized despite the form factor efficiency, and I never found myself feeling cramped while using it.
There’s also some flexibility for people who do need additional keys, as the volume knob in the top right of the keyboard can be replaced by two additional keys, which can be mapped to whatever function you need them to be.
The keyboard does have software for people that want to fine-tune keyboard functions and various settings like the sleep time (to extend battery life even further), macros, and RGB settings. I’m not a big fan of EPOMAKER’S software suite, if I’m being honest, as it’s uninspiring to use and you do need to figure a little too much out for yourself as you go. But then it’s a largely set-and-forget keyboard, and I haven’t felt the need to drop into the software again since setting it up. I’ll allow EPOMAKER this flaw in the otherwise very premium experience its devices offer.
While the HE75 V2 is a largely “no-frills” take on a keyboard, and nowhere near as playful as that excellent typewriter-themed one, EPOMAKER’s eye for build quality and clear focus on the tactile feel that a premium keyboard should offer is genuinely impressive. For both gaming and typing, the HE75 V2 is calibrated perfectly, and I can’t see anyone who picks up this keyboard being disappointed by it.
