The Vulcan II TKL Pro is an impressive gaming mechanical keyboard. Other than its magnetic switches and gorgeous lighting, the amount of features baked into the keyboard make it one worth your consideration if you’ve yet to try your hand at a mechanical keyboard. If you’re an existing keeb fan like me, then you might prefer something more customizable, but this keyboard is still gorgeous enough to catch your attention. Hopefully this keyboard gets a variation with a full number pad – it would be a day one purchase for me.
It should be noted that mechanical keyboards aren’t just for office work, folks. If you’ve been following my mechanical keyboard reviews over the past few months, you’ll already know that mechanical gaming keyboards boast features that PC players are most concerned about. Thockiness, hot-swappability, and wireless connectivity might be of interest to some office workers, but PC players are concerned about things like rapid trigger inputs, sensitive actuation, and RBG lights.
The ROCCAT lineup of mechanical keyboards is alive and well with Turtle Beach’s Vulcan II TKL Pro. The Vulcan lineup invokes a stark aluminum aesthetic featuring square and seemingly flat keys, seethrough legends on the keycaps, and vibrant RBG lighting with AIMO. The Vulcan keyboards are undeniably pretty compared to things from Alienware, Logitech, and HyperX. Rather than looking like a regular ol’ keyboard, Vulcan keyboards stand out thanks to their aluminum and neon aesthetic.
Turtle Beach’s Vulcan II TKL Pro is no different from its Vulcan family members. Featuring an anodized aluminum top plate, push-to-mute volume wheel, magnetic switches, multiple on-board profiles, and stunning (north-facing) RBG lights. It also features an Easy-Shift button duplicator for efficient macros. It’s perfect for gaming AND office work. While this is a TKL keyboard (meaning that the numpad is not present), it still has all of the important keys needed for most functions without compromising desk space.
The Vulcan II TKL Pro blew me away once I got it on my desk. Upon plugging it in, the lights shimmered and illuminated each keycap in ways that I wish other keyboards could do. The default AIMO lighting moves as I type, shifting the colors like a heat map and making it seem like my keyboard is alive. When I had a friend over a few days ago and was showing them my office, the first thing that they noticed was the colorful keyboard on my desk. The keyboard’s aluminum plate feels great while also helping to reflect the lights. While the back of the keyboard is plastic, the aluminum top-plate is sturdy enough to dispel concerns about wear and tear.
Part of the Vulcan II TKL Pro’s appeal is that it uses magnetic switches. If you haven’t gotten a chance to learn about magnetic switches or are unfamiliar with their appeal, I cover some of it in my review of the Melgeek CYBER01. I won’t reiterate too much, as I covered quite a bit. However, as I’ve grown to use this keyboard (and test other keyboards with magnetic switches), I’ve come to the conclusion that magnetic switches are not a gimmick targeting gamers. Instead, they offer quite a bit for those wanting to min-max their typing experience.
The Vulcan II TKL Pro gave me that degree of customization, which was fantastic. I was quickly able to adjust the global actuation points of the switches to be 2.5mm, which was a great halfway point for my personal typing preferences. If I wanted to set up specific keys to have individual actuation points, I could do so in the Swarm II app (will discuss this later in the review). Magnetic switches offer an unparalleled typing experience that makes the player feel like they have full control over their keyboard. There’s nothing like having a magnetic keyboard and playing PC games, y’all.
If you’re on the fence about a magnetic keyboard, consider this: You’re going to see increasing returns as you familiarize yourself with the intricacies that magnetic switches can offer. Peeking, strafing, and other rapid-press inputs become easier to enact to the point of them nearly being second nature. If you’re currently using a mechanical keyboard with “regular” mechanical linear/tactile switches, magnetic switches feel quite smooth when in use. They might not have a satisfying “thock”, but they glide. That glide is so dang delicious.
Mechanical keyboards often set themselves apart from regular chiclet/membrane keyboards given their degree of internal acoustic customization under the switches. Thanks to things like gasket mounting, foam, under-switch padding, and aluminum frames, mechanical keyboards can sound anywhere from clacky, dainty, to a “creamy” thocky that makes typing sound less like a typewriter. The Vulcan II TKL Pro lacks that attention to acoustic detail, making this keyboard louder than others I’ve reviewed. I would have liked this keyboard to have used something like foam or padding beneath the switches to decrease the volume a smidge, as the switches make some noise by default. When selecting mechanical keyboards and switches, I often test different combinations of keycaps, switches, and mounting styles (if available) to make typing as audibly satisfying as possible. This is one of my only complaints about the keyboard’s construction.
My one other concern about the switches is that they have some wobble to them, making it feel like the switches’ stems are less stable than they actually are. When the actuation point is brought up to a smaller value, I fear that the wobble might lead to some false positive inputs. However, in my testing (using the Swarm II application), most of the keys’ wobble did not set off an input.
There is something positively unsettling about the Vulcan II TKL Pro’s keycaps. They’re less keycap and more key-tips, if anything, given their pseudo-chiclet designs and see-through legends. Compared to other mechanical keyboards I’ve used and reviewed as of late, the keycaps allow for this keyboard to be visually striking. When the keyboard’s LEDs are on and active, the device lights up the room and adds a splash of color to my desk. That said, they’re not the usual cherry-style that most users may be used to, nor are they flat-chiclets either. The first five rows of the keyboard have convex-shaped keys, making it so my fingers naturally rest in the center of the keys rather than slipping around. They’re relatively ergonomic and functional in nature, but I’ve become accustomed to more ergonomic keycaps like those with a cherry profile.
The bottom row’s keycaps, however, switch feature a concave profile. This felt really weird in practice given that the rest of the keyboards’ keycaps felt moderately ergonomic and stable while the keys in the bottom row (think the Ctrl, Space, Win, Alt, and FN keys) felt so smooth that my fingers often slipped off of them. Well, all fingers except my thumbs. Perhaps this is an intentional design decision for players to feel for the bottom keys without mistaking them for others, or it’s a way for the thumbs to naturally rest at the edge of the keys. Either way, I would have liked some consistency across the entire set of keycaps.
Thankfully, the keycaps can be removed in case you wanted to fully customize your keyboard. Doing so would jeopardize the visual glory of the keyboard with its insane RGB effects, but it’s one of those things that some keyboard fans like myself may prefer.
I’ve been told that the switches cannot and should not be swapped out of the Vulcan II TKL Pro. If you are a current magnetic switch fan and want to use your Gateron Jades, they unfortunately should not be used with this keyboard at this time. Hot-swappable mechanical keyboards are a thing amongst the more seasoned keyboard users, so that might push some folks away from Turtle Beach’s offering. That said, I see little reason for the average PC player to remove their switches and fiddle with adjusting switches and keycaps – everything works fantastic right out of the box with little adjustment beyond the customizable actuation point (which is done in the Swarm II software).
This keyboard might not be for the mechanical keyboard hobbyist, but that’s okay. If anything, it’s an amazing entry point into the world of hall-effect mechanical keyboards for PC players wanting to upgrade to a keyboard that best meets the needs of games requiring high degrees of precision and rapid-fire inputs. By that, I mean first-person shooters and other higher-intensity games.
Before I continue on into the Vulcan II TKL Pro’s fit as a gaming keyboard (spoiler alert: it’s fantastic), I want to drive home some final thoughts about this keyboard’s potential as a daily driver for those already familiar with mechanical keyboards and considering switching to a keyboard that’s primarily built for gaming. I wholeheartedly enjoyed typing on the Vulcan II TKL Pro – perhaps more than other mechanical keyboards I have used recently. Given the keycaps’ profiles and the keyboard’s layout, I was able to churn out quite a bit of work early on in my review period without needing to relearn keys’ layouts or anything associated with typing comfort. To that end, this is a fantastic workhorse keyboard, perfect for home offices and for those looking to game in their home offices. I just wish that this keyboard had a greater degree of physical customizability and deeper acoustics to make typing feel more satisfying. If you’re an existing mechanical keyboard user looking for something new at this time, the Vulcan II TKL Pro is worthy of your attention given its stark design, good construction, and other features.
If you’re a PC player on the fence about switching to a gaming mechanical keyboard, let this next section answer all of your questions. I tested the Vulcan II TKL Pro using the same set of games that I used when testing the Melgeek CYBER01, including but not limited to VALORANT, Duelists of Eden, Counter-Stike 2, Starfield, Pepper Grinder, South Park Snow Day, League of Legends, Astral Ascent, Civilization, BlazBlue Entropy Effect, and Stardew Valley. I opted for a wide range of games to ensure I could see how this game felt across games of varying input intensity.
On the heavy-intensity front, the Vulcan II TKL Pro was a fantastic keyboard to use, registering my rapidfire button presses with ease. The magnetic switches gave me a slight edge when it came to peeking and strafing, almost to the point where the keyboard was almost reading my mind. Peeking around corners in VALORANT was second nature. Slightly strafing side-to-side in Ghostrunner II became an effortless affair. False inputs were a thing of the past. By adjusting the WASD keys’ actuation points using the Swarm II software suite, I could make it so that those keys (and ONLY those keys) were more sensitive than the rest of the keyboard.
For medium-intensity games like Astral Ascent and BlazBlue Entropy Effect, having the adjustable actuation points proved to be a massive benefit. Timing specific attacks and combos was done easier and I was able to stay alive longer thanks to having more-sensitive inputs. Lighter gaming didn’t really need the adjustable actuation points, but it was a “nice to have” feature in the more easygoing games like Stardew Valley.
Look, magnetic switches aren’t going to make you a “top tier” gamer or a pro. They’ll give you a boost, yes, but much of your in-game success will come down to you being able to utilize your available tools to the best of your abilities. The Vulcan II TKL Pro is an incredibly well-constructed gaming keyboard with all the right features that players like you and I will most definitely want and need. That said, playing videogames feels great on this keyboard. Beyond the magnetic switches, the TKL layout saves quite a bit of space on my desk while still giving me properly-spaced keys so that my fingers aren’t cramped by running over each other. The keyboard’s adjustable height and matching wrist rest added a great degree of comfort, too.
Before I wrap this review, I wanted to discuss the ways in which the Vulcan II TKL Pro integrates with Turtle Beach’s Swarm II application. If you’re familiar with Turtle Beach’s lineup of peripherals, you should know how Swarm II gets your peripherals up to speed by updating their drivers and giving them additional features that wouldn’t be immediately accessible or available out of the box. Swarm II showed me the crazy amount of configurations, options, and other features that were available on this keyboard.
Swarm II is hands down one of the best software companions that I have used for a mechanical keyboard. The UI is far easier to use thanks to several help buttons and dialogues that walked me through what I could do and adjust on my keyboard. I could also preview each RGB color scheme, adjusting them to my liking. Several keyboard manufacturers boast having keyboards with LEDs that can display millions of colors, but much of those colors end up being limited to a handful of configurations. With Swarm II, I could go so far as to add an analog visualizer that showed me the actuation points of each keypress. This software suite is fully featured and FAR easier to use than anything else I’ve reviewed as of late. I know that some folks may not like having to add more and more software companions to their rigs, but this specific software suite made me appreciate the Vulcan II TKL Pro even more.
Let’s wrap this up.
The Vulcan II TKL Pro is an impressive gaming mechanical keyboard. Other than its magnetic switches and gorgeous lighting, the amount of features baked into the keyboard make it one worth your consideration if you’ve yet to try your hand at a mechanical keyboard. If you’re an existing keeb fan like me, then you might prefer something more customizable, but this keyboard is still gorgeous enough to catch your attention. Hopefully this keyboard gets a variation with a full number pad – it would be a day one purchase for me.
