It certainly has been a month of keyboards from ROCCAT. First, I had the pleasure of reviewing the ROCCAT Vulcan Mini II keyboard which turned the heads of my many associates and worked like a charm in almost every manner. Now, I have had the pleasure of working with its bigger, shiner beefy brother the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max. It’s a full keyboard that features some beautiful aesthetics and some practical mechanical loveliness that only an old person like me could truly appreciate it.
So, let’s punch some buttons, create some words, and get right into this sucker.
The keyboard to rule them all
Okay, that might have been a little dramatic, but the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max is a truly impressive accessory to anyone’s personal computing needs and it’s sleek enough to catch the eye of the layman who had no idea they would smile from a gorgeous lit up mechanical marvel. Again, may be a little dramatic, but visually there is a lot to love about this keyboard’s design.
The first and foremost impressive feature of the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max is the way the keys do the trick in bringing an old-school mechanical feel to the typing process. Hell, even my eight-year-old was fascinated by the smooth press and the loud clack of each key. She is just getting into keyboards right now and is as sensory-needy as her father when it comes to finding the right typing surface. Anyway, the keys are as advertised. They are raised at a perfect level, feel sturdy in their typing ability, and are spaced in a way that your fingers don’t have to go far to enjoy the words they are typing. In comparison to the Corsair keyboard that I own and use for Esports at the University of Maryland, which tends to lead my fingers astray at times, the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max has perfect key placement. It feels good and fast, which is the way I always like my keyboards. I want that IBM typewriter feel to my modern word mincing and want the efficiency to go with it. The keyboard is all these things and more thanks to a well-designed set of keys and the right amount of perfection in spacing. It just feels good to type on this keyboard.
Is the keyboard loud? It’s loud, of course, that depends on what kind of typist you are in life. For me, I’m forceful with my keyboard buttons, as I was taught through the IBM mega machine to make sure I punch the keys to get the letter I need to show up perfectly on my paper. Anything less than a simple, soft punch, and the key might make a mistake. The auditory result of said punch is a loud CLACK. The same goes for the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max. While I can get what I need with a simple 1.4mm press with the keys, I usually do the full 3.6mm distance to the full key press with as much force as possible to achieve that right amount of CLACK. I know that sounds silly, but it’s gratifying to hear the keys go down, which results in a loudness that only a 1980s office secretary could appreciate. It’s the right amount of noise if you run this course with your keyboards, which I happily do.
Design and the pretty
If that wasn’t enough to keep you happy, the keyboard does have some customization to it with its AIMO lighting that is controlled by ROCCAT’s Swarm software, a companion software that allows you to customize macros, keyboard layout, and lighting scheme (it’s easy to use and works just as well). I was incredibly fascinated with the ease of use of the Swarm software when reviewing the mini and the last mouse from ROCCAT, as it doesn’t take a genius to get it to do what you want. The software is a nice touch for a keyboard that shines bright like Christmas lights on a tree.
To accentuate the keys, the keyboard does come with a detachable translucent palm/wrist rest. I have yet to find a keyboard design where the attachment of the palm/wrist rest is made well. In standard keyboards, you get a couple of little plastic hooks that barely keep it attached to the actual keyboard. I think it has been this way since Microsoft had their weird ergonomic keyboard that my brain couldn’t wrap itself around to get words out quickly. Great for fingers, but bad for cognitive flow (at least for me). The ROCCAT Vulcan II Max does a better job of getting this right but still comes up a little short in design. The palm/wrist rest is neat when it’s attached. It has rubbery teeth that fit securely in the keyboard’s bottom part. It doesn’t slide at all and when the lights are on…my goodness it’s a perfect compliment to the experience. The downer? When you physically move the keyboard, it is like trying to wrangle in a wet fish. It’s flimsy and it’s tough to carry. While I think the design is leaps and bounds ahead of the keyboard industry, I do prefer the palm/wrist rest to attach to the keyboard instead of just pulling into its garage leaving the garage door open, and allowing for the vehicle to slowly roll away. This is my biggest complaint about Vulcan’s design, and honestly, it’s not that bad. What it gives up in portability, it picks up and caresses comfortably. I will take that exchange, especially if there is the hope of something more attachable down the road.
Getting back to some positive aspects of this keyboard, there are a couple of included parts in the design that is perfect. The first is the media players in the top right of the keyboard. I have always loved knobs on my keyboard to twist the volume up and down. I also like the old-school design of the media players beside it. All four areas here are superbly done and are useful. I used that volume knob like no one else’s business. It gives tiny clicks for volume that make my PC and iMac Pro happy. Again, I know this breakdown might seem ridiculous, but there are some nice designs on this keyboard.
Another huge positive is the two-level pop-out feet on the bottom. I saw this with the Mini’s design in late September and thought it was cool. You can pop out a small set of feet or a large set of feet depending on how high you want the back of your keyboard to sit. Having those options, especially when you’re a typing maniac like me, is great for sensitive wrists. It gives you the option to type at your comfort level and that is never ever a bad thing.
The last bit of design I would like to focus on is the dual USB cables. On my Corsair, the dual cable’s power not only the keyboard RGB but also power the USB port in the back. The dual cables on the ROCCAT Vulcan II Max power only the RGB, which probably takes a lot to get it going. You can view these two ways. The first way, the more positive route, is that this beast has a high refresh rate RGB flow to it and requires power to keep it going. That would be a valid reason for this to exist and it’s probably the reason. The other way is a bit negative. The keyboard doesn’t have any USB ports on it. I realize that no one wants to taint the design with a lifeless USB port that allows for something gaudy to stick out the sides or the back but taking up two USB ports to power lights must have a compromise for a potential passthrough port. The ROCCAT Kona XP Air has a lovely port on its charging station for passthrough to make up for the fact that the mouse likes USB ports. To take up two ports for lights is a hard sell. Not the worst thing in the world, especially if you have a plethora of ports on your desktop, but it can be a burden if you don’t have ports. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but a slight annoyance at times.
Shifting back to the positive, you can store up to four profiles on this keyboard, which is invaluable. You can turn your keyboard into an editing scheme, a gaming scheme, or a simple office scheme that works in a variety of ways. Having different schemes on the keyboard means that you can set up the sucker for pretty much anything you want. Using Swarm software to do this is easy and breezy.
Enough with the chatter, let’s wrap this up.
CONCLUSION
The ROCCAT Vulcan II Max is one helluva keyboard in the ROCCAT keyboard family, as well as in the keyboard world. If you’re a serious keyboard fanatic like me, you can’t pass this up. It’s a great keyboard that has a lot more positives than it does negatives. It feels good, types well is responsive, and it’s positively gorgeous. ROCCAT did one heckuva job on this sucker and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next.
