The Vulcan family has just grown, with the amazing experience I had with the Vulcan II Max and Vulcan II Mini now touches the last member of the family in this generation. The Vulcan II is a high-performance mechanical keyboard that seeks to give us the best possible experience when using it.
The version that we have to review is the black one with the Linear switches. This one also comes in a version called Red, both of which promise excellent keypress smoothness that we can’t imagine. This version is also a great option for competitive play, which fits perfectly into my everyday use.
This keyboard can be highly customized as the switches are compatible with various third party key models. This is a complete keyboard for those who really want their workstation to have what it takes in the best way. Now we have to know a little about the product specifications before getting down to business:
- Shape Size: Full Size
- Connectivity: Wired Wired
- USB-A: 1.8m braided USB 2.0
- Switches: Linear with 1.8mm Actuation Point and 3.6mm Travel Distance
- Switch lifecycle: Tested on 80 million
- Polling rate: 1000 Hz
- Onboard memory: 4 MB (4 onboard profiles)
- RGB: Per-key RGB lighting with 16.8 million colors
- Keyboard Change: Full Key (NKRO) with 100%
- Anti-Ghosting Processor: 32-bit ARM Cortex M0
- Software: S.W.A.R.M.
- adjustable height: yes
- Colour: White or black
- Weight: 949 g (without palm rest) 1141.5 g (with palm rest)
- Dimensions: Keyboard: 463*152*33 mm (18.2*6*1.3 inches)
- Keyboard with palm rest: 463*236*33 mm (18.2*9.3*1.3 inches)
Inside the box comes:
- vulcan II keyboard
- Detachable wrist rest
- Quick Start Guide
Starting with the most common, this is a wired keyboard, its cable has a standard USB connection and it is a braided cable but with a bit of hardness in a certain way. It is not as manageable at certain times and is not the same as other stranded cables that have passed through my hand. Since this is a keyboard that we are not going to be moving as much, there is no need to remove it and put it on.
mechanical switches TITAN II they are designed overall and you can feel the difference compared to the previous versions of this keyboard. These are already lubricated by default and have a smoothness that feels like you’re pressing down on a pen despite being a mechanical keyboard.
These famous switches have a guarantee of durability when pressed with a total of up to 80 million times, which is really compared to other mechanical keyboards but less than that of the Vulcan II Max and this makes this a very safe investment since it’s a little cheaper.
Unlike the Vulcan II Max, this keyboard comes with a generic palm rest, which is quite smooth and easy to install. It’s more entirely constructed of plastic and while it’s not uncomfortable to use, resting your hands on the table feels the same as it does on the palm rest. A pretty good addition since some keyboards do not have a palm rest or at least they do not make us buy it separately but its use is obviously optional.
This keyboard has a huge variety of commands and pre-assigned keys (and thank God identified) to be able to know exactly what we are doing when pressing the key. Things like choosing a different profile or for example pressing Fn+F8 to open the browser by default or blocking the start button so as not to accidentally press it when playing are some of the things that we sometimes don’t ask for but it is excellent to have it available.
It might seem like a full-size keyboard doesn’t need these extra layers of functionality, but having that available makes a big difference. We can also make any changes or add a macro directly from the ROCCAT Swarm software, it’s all a matter of customization and use that each one wishes to give it.
In that same tone, speaking of customization, we have what stands out the most here and it is the desEsports Extrasof the keys (quite short) and the RGB lighting that is quite remarkable. All this can be modified by the same software with the taste and theme that we want. The most important thing here is that if we press the Fn+directional keys (left or right) we can switch between a series of effects that we will have saved without having to reopen the program to configure.
Ease of customization is the key for lighting lovers. The RGB is quite remarkable and has a lot of brightness. The AIMO function also does its job and obviously makes all the products sync in a smart way instead of just linking them together. It’s quite easy and of course for something we have the 4 default profiles available that can be activated without the need to have the program installed on any other PC.
Keyboard ROCCAT Vulcan II It also brings with it Easy-Shift technology[+], for those who don’t know this is a button duplication technology. While the Easy Shift button is held down, other buttons and keys have new functions when pressed. These can be hotkeys, macros, media controls, and more. With a plugin installed, you can even use Easy Shift on all devices.
While some devices even have a dedicated Easy Shift button, for example the Kone AIMO Remastered, for others that function must first be assigned to a button. Most ROCCAT keyboards have the Caps Lock button mapped to Easy Shift, however for that feature to be available Game Mode must be enabled.
We cannot ignore the fact that the keyboard has a part available for multimedia, this helps not to interrupt what we are doing and control what is necessary from there. It really is somewhat contradictory but valid. If we have a full size keyboard like this it doesn’t matter how big it is, there will always be room to control the multimedia but if we have a smaller size it’s obviously ok to put these options in the function layer.
The truth is that Linear switches are preferred by most gamers since we have a longer response time. Even the construction top of this keyboard is made of aluminum, which would cause a lot of noise with another type of key. Something that the TITAN II switches boast is that they are optical, this means that pressing a key interrupts the laser making the necessary contact (extremely fast) to perform the action and at the same time they are less noisy.
In conclusion
The Vulcan II mechanical keyboard is hands down the smoothest experience I’ve had with such a keyboard overall. The desEsports Extrasof its keys, the smoothness of the linear switches and the distribution of the keys is quite interesting. Despite being a full keyboard, it has layers of options if we are interested in doing even more. It’s like having a TKL keyboard with full keyboard functions but maxed out and that’s like too much layout for the function key. Its desEsports Extrasis simple and the wrist rest is useful, although it could have been more padded to rest everything in a good way.
ROCCAT’s RGB does not disappoint and lights up the keyboard quite well overall. We can customize the keyboard with any other type of switches and that means that we are locked into a single style. The keyboard desEsports Extrasis what a gamer really looks for with those low-profile keys that make any desktop something special. This review was carried out with a copy provided by ROCCAT.
