Review | Roccat Vulcan 2 Max

Review | Roccat Vulcan II Max – Roccat is particularly eccentric when it comes to its designs. Many of the products we’ve been able to review, mainly use LED lighting in a rather eye-catching way. Whether it’s a game mouse or a headset, it’s distinctive and colorful to say the least. Now we have the opportunity to take a closer look at the new Vulcan keyboard. The Vulcan II Max (mini is the TKL version) is any, and makes great use of LED lighting, which can dazzle you…or even have you to wear sunglasses.

Very eye-catching

What made the first line of Vulcan keyboards so special were the switches. Each key has an illuminated base with the key cap on top, which makes it unique and, above all, a beautiful presentation. With the new Vulcan (463mm x 236mm x 33.5mm) this principle has been retained with an added bonus. A second LED is built into the core of the illuminated part of the switch, giving you a dual effect. It’s very special to see, even though it’s now leaning towards an extravagant Christmas tree. The included wrist rest is the icing on the cake in this regard. This simply cannot be seen.

The clear white piece of plastic is a better description and it doesn’t look like a real wrist rest because it’s so flat. You slide this to the underside of the keyboard, which is then fully illuminated. It’s extreme and not necessarily pretty. We’re a little surprised Roccat has achieved this, because it’s pretty intense once the rainbow colors light up on your desk. Essentially what’s playing out here is that the palm rest doesn’t align at all with the keyboard layout, because it contrasts so badly. On the one hand, the keyboard itself is quite imposing due to the special keys, but the palm rest makes it an incoherent unit on the other hand. In other words, it could have been better in terms of design.

Technical Specifications

Inside the Vulcan II Max are Titan II Linear Optical Red switches. In other words, it is not the least type of tests that can be very useful, especially for competitive purposes. The total travel distance is 3.6mm, with an actuation point of 1.4mm. The pressure is 45g, which in practice means typing can be quite fast, but we do stick our fingers into the keyboard a bit in terms of feel. Especially with the somewhat larger keys (Shift, Control, etc.), the inclination of the keys seems a bit unnatural. One key is concave, the other is convex (lower row of keys); It feels a little different and takes some getting used to.

Other specifications have more to do with the software side. For example, the keyboard has a polling rate of 1000 Hz. In addition, you can save up to 5 profiles and switch between them at will, although you have to set everything up beforehand via the Roccat Swarm software. We’re also not the biggest fans of this program, as it can run very slowly and has a cluttered user interface. Still, you have the option to set pretty much everything, which is nice. We’re just disappointed with the somewhat strict and limited way the LED colors are set. The AIMO (Roccat Color Display) option is of course something for the average user to lick their fingers, but other than that there isn’t much to tweak in this area. Other options for adjusting LED lighting can be called fairly standard and not very special.

Very questionable quality

With a Roccat keyboard, you have the option to use several options via the SMART KEY function, which allows you to use multiple functions under a single button. This is all Sharp on this model and works very well. However, it’s the hardware aspects of the Vulcan II Max that fall a bit short. You need to connect the keyboard to a computer using a dual USB-A cable for best performance, though there’s no additional USB-A port on the keyboard itself to connect any additional components. When some shortcut buttons (such as Swarm’s direct opening) don’t always work responsively, we wonder if the €229.99 price tag is justified.

We also hear creaking and creaking when typing and further use of the keyboard. Despite the keyboard’s sturdy aluminum body, we just don’t quite get the idea that we’re going with something that high quality. Looks like we have a rickshaw that could use some oil. It’s those little things that aren’t allowed when you have to pay a lot of money for it. Certainly if we compare some other keyboards with the Vulcan II, there are simply alternatives that have a slightly better software and hardware quality.