Roccat aims for elegance with the Vulcan II mechanical gaming keyboard. This handsome full-size set of keys puts its transparent switch housings on display with low-profile, floating keycaps to show off the per-key RGB lighting from multiple angles. But the Vulcan II doesn't do much to go beyond the basics unless you're ready to get down and dirty with secondary and tertiary functions enabled through software. At $149.99, it’s not bad, but you can do better with the MSI GH71 Sonic.
Design Déja Vu
If the Roccat Vulcan II was plopped on my desk out of the blue, I'd likely mistake it for the Cooler Master SK650 I tested back in 2019. Like the SK650, it flaunts its transparent key switch housings with low-profile keycaps that float above them and let the RGB lighting spill out. Also like the Cooler Master, it has a typical full-size layout as well as subtle metal top plates and a dull plastic bottom. Even the list price is the same, though the SK650 today sells for a good $60 less due to its age.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)While the SK650 has a trimmed design that barely extends past the keys, the Vulcan II stretches an inch past the keys in every direction. As a result, it measures 18.2 inches wide, 6 inches deep (9.3 inches counting its palm rest), and 1.3 inches tall—bigger than the Razer Pro Type Ultra and nearly as wide as the Corsair K100 RGB and Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro, which both include a full column of macro keys—and weighs 2.5 pounds. The Roccat also has a non-removable, braided USB-A cable extending from the middle of the back edge with no cable routing options. By comparison, the dated SK650 at least has a removable USB-C cable.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)That's a precarious start for the Vulcan II not only because the similar SK650 is so much cheaper but also because I found Cooler Master's keyboard borderline unusable. But Roccat avoids the SK650's near-fatal mistake: While the latter has almost perfectly flat keycaps with narrow gaps between keys, the Vulcan II has slightly more contoured caps with more space between them, making it much easier to stay centered on the keys while typing. It's not perfect, but it's an improvement.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)The Vulcan II uses Roccat's in-house Titan II mechanical switches. They're offered in tactile Brown or linear Red flavors, with our test unit using the latter. In practice, they're very similar to Cherry MX Reds except they have dustproof stems, with two side brackets that help keep the stem travel vertical.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)That stem change has a considerable impact. While the Vulcan II bears a resemblance to its 65 percent keyboard sibling, the Vulcan II Mini Air, it ends up feeling much more stable thanks to the extra plastic around the switch stems, which prevents much of the wiggle that plagues the standard cross-mount stems.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)I still found it a little too easy to accidentally hit the key next to the one I wanted, particularly the keys above or below because the keycaps are only curved from side to side—they feel the same whether you're near the top or bottom edge, making it hard not to drift off center. I especially noticed this happening when I had to hit a string of keys in close proximity to one another, such as the last five letters of the word "increase." Ultimately, I managed to get comfortable with the keyboard relatively quickly, reaching 113 words per minute with 95% accuracy in Monkeytype. I struggled to maintain that speed with higher accuracy, however, having to drop to 100wpm to hit 98% accuracy.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Roccat does a little, but not much, to make the Vulcan II more comfy to use. The keyboard comes with a detachable wrist rest, but it's just a piece of hard plastic that helps with wrist angle and not much else. Two feet on the bottom provide one level of angle adjustment, which feels skimpy for a keyboard at this price.
So what does the Vulcan II actually offer beyond the basics? It has per-key RGB lighting that's fairly effective, thanks to the contrast between the glowing legends and dark keycaps (something that will be an issue on the white model, as I saw with the Vulcan II Mini Air). But it only has north-facing LEDs where the Mini Air has both north- and south-facing LEDs on some keys, so the lighting of keycap legends on the lower half of keys is ineffective, including the F1 through F8, cursor arrow, and numeric pad keys. The keyboard has little translucent indicators on its front edge for Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and the like.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)You'll find dedicated media playback keys above the numeric keypad, as well as a clickable knob for adjusting volume. The board also features a shortcut combo for locking the Windows key. These are common inclusions among premium gaming keyboards. The Roccat cleverly uses the cluster of page navigation keys (Home, End, and so on) to serve as macro keys when the keyboard is in Game Mode (activated with Fn+Windows key). What the Vulcan II lacks are any dedicated macro keys and USB pass-through ports, features we expect to see at this price.
Exploring the Swarm App: Plenty of Customization
Customization options are multi-layered. You can set up alternate functions for the keys that change depending whether the keyboard is in Standard or Game Mode. Some keys also let you set up Easy-Shift assignments, giving them a second function when the Caps Lock key is pressed in Game Mode. Many keys also support secondary functions in Standard Mode accessed by pressing the Fn key. Figuring out which keys do what is a matter of guessing and checking the Roccat Swarm app, though pretty much every alphanumeric key within easy reach of Caps Lock (i.e., left of G) gets an Easy-Shift option.
(Credit: Roccat)The Swarm app has plenty of preset functions that you can assign to keys and a simple drag-and-drop method for applying them. The app also has a built-in macro recorder that lets you make custom macros in a flash. Undoing rebinds is easy, as is resetting to the defaults either per key or for the whole keyboard at once. However, you can't rebind the dedicated media keys or the volume knob.
RGB backlighting is managed in Swarm as well, and is quite useful. The app doesn't automatically preview effects on the keyboard itself, but it offers an onscreen preview to show you the effects in action. In addition to a few preset effects, it offers customizable per-key lighting, allowing you to set the color and intensity of each key (media buttons included). Per-key settings needn't be just static, either, as Swarm offers breathing, pulsing, and color flow effects. The app makes it easy to select keys for tweaking and has quick selectors for popular zones like the WASD or arrow keys.
You can save settings to one of five profiles stored on the keyboard, and additional profiles can be saved in Swarm to swap in and out as you like. The Vulcan II can automatically switch between profiles as you launch different programs on your PC.
Verdict: Little More Than What You'd Expect
The Roccat Vulcan II has the chops it needs to succeed as a gaming keyboard, but it's not very compelling for users who want the most bang for their buck. Its lack of USB pass-through, dedicated macro keys, and a detachable USB cable is disappointing when so many others on the market provide those features, and the inability to customize the volume knob is a missed opportunity. Though the Vulcan II certainly has style, it lacks the substance to help it rise above the likes of the cheaper MSI GK71 Sonic or the more costly Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro.
