Deskspace comes at a premium as of late — at the very least, that’s what you may suppose with the way in which gaming corporations are dropping mini keyboards left and proper. Avid gamers searching for the greatest gaming keyboard aren’t often contemplating ultra-compact 60 or 65 p.c kind components, however perhaps they need to be as corporations are packing these mini-boards with options.
Roccat’s new Vulcan II Mini is a 65 p.c wired keyboard with vibrant, eye-catching per-key RGB, which it exhibits off with distinctive Twin-LED sensible switches and Roccat’s enticing “natural” Aimo lighting expertise. The Vulcan II Mini options the corporate’s Titan II optical pink (linear) switches which have n-key rollover (NKRO) with 100% anti-ghosting, in addition to an anodized aluminum high plate. The keyboard is available in each black and white (we requested our overview mannequin in white — simply to combine it up), and is offered now for $150.
Design and Development of the Vulcan II Mini
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The Vulcan II Mini is a 65 p.c keyboard — it’s ultra-compact, however it’s not ultra-compact. Not like a keyboard with a 60 p.c structure, such because the SteelSeries Apex Professional Mini or the Corsair K70 Professional Mini Wi-fi, the Vulcan II Mini’s structure retains arrow keys and a handful of navigation keys (delete, house, web page up, and web page down). This makes it barely longer than a 60 p.c board, however at 12.75 inches lengthy by 4.57 inches deep, the Vulcan II Mini continues to be fairly tiny. It’s additionally slimmer than each of the aforementioned 60 p.c boards (1.22 inches thick vs the Apex Professional Mini/K70 Professional Mini Wi-fi’ 1.59 inches) and lighter (1.1lbs vs the Apex Professional Mini’s 1.2lbs and the K70 Professional Mini Wi-fi’ 1.42lbs), so it feels fairly light-weight general.
The Vulcan II Mini is housed in a light-weight plastic chassis topped with an anodized aluminum backplate. The underside of the chassis options twin flip-out ft for angle adjustment, in addition to lengthy rubber strips for grip — permitting the keyboard to remain put (regardless of its comparatively mild weight) by aggressive bouts of typing and gaming.
The Vulcan II Mini is available in each black and white colorways; I requested a overview mannequin in white as a result of the entire black mini keyboards are beginning to mix collectively at this level. Nevertheless, I don’t suppose even the black model of the Vulcan II Mini would seem like current competitor drops, as Roccat’s slim keycaps and uncovered switches undoubtedly make this keyboard stand out visually.
The keyboard options white ABS keycaps with translucent legends — together with translucent secondary legends for the board’s 30 multi-function keys with preset secondary capabilities. Secondary capabilities are a should on an ultra-compact keyboard, however a few this keyboard’s secondary capabilities used symbols that weren’t instantly intuitive
In line with Roccat, this keyboard options the world’s first Twin-LED sensible switches, which is…principally what it feels like: Two LEDs in a single swap. Is it revolutionary? Probably not. Does it work? Sure — every Twin-LED sensible swap can show two totally different LED colours (north and south). This causes the first legend (north) and secondary legend (south) to mild up in several colours (or at totally different brightness ranges), so you may shortly see which secondary capabilities are energetic.
It’s not completely seamless, nevertheless: As a result of the Vulcan II Mini’s switches are uncovered, the south-facing LEDs are very seen to the person. This isn’t a difficulty if these LEDs are turned off/down, however it does make for a considerably jarring aesthetic in the event that they’re set to a special shade. It is a fairly minor general concern, however it was jarring sufficient that I initially thought a few of the keys have been experiencing a {hardware} malfunction.
The keyboard’s per-key RGB is in any other case very enticing, assuming you might be an RGB fanatic. The RGB is vibrant and vibrant, and the keyboard’s uncovered switches allow you to principally bathe in it. It ships with Roccat’s Aimo lighting profile, which is a “state-of-the-art clever lighting system” that allegedly reacts “organically” to your habits in addition to the apps and units you utilize. I didn’t essentially see it reacting to my habits past animations that adopted my keystrokes (which doesn’t appear notably clever), however the colourful, non-uniform patterns have been fairly regardless.
The Vulcan II Mini is a wired keyboard and has a USB-C port at its top-center. It comes with a six-foot braided USB-C to USB-A cable which has a few good touches — an connected velcro cable tie, and its USB-A connector is labeled with a keyboard icon for straightforward cable identification.
Specification
| Switches | Roccat Titan II Optical Crimson Linear Switches |
| Lighting | Per-key RGB |
| Onboard Storage | Sure, 5 profiles |
| Media Keys | No |
| Sport Mode | Sure |
| Connectivity | Wired (USB-C, removable) |
| Further Ports | None |
| Keycaps | ABS |
| Development | Plastic, Aluminum high plate |
| Software program | Roccat Swarm |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 12.75 x 4.57 x 1.22 inches / 324 x 116 x 31mm |
| Weight | 1.1lbs / 500g (with out cable) |
Typing Expertise and Gaming Expertise on the Vulcan II Mini
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The Vulcan II Mini sports activities Roccat’s Titan II Optical Crimson linear switches; optical means they’re actuated by mild (not drive), whereas linear means there’s no click on or tactile bump — only a easy, uniform keypress. The switches are rated for 100 million keystrokes, and have an actuation level of 1.4mm and a journey distance of three.6mm.
Typing on the Vulcan II Mini was a bit higher than anticipated, however this isn’t a keyboard I’d advocate for general typing expertise. The keyboard’s skinny ABS keycaps are a bit too light-weight and fluttery for the kind of loud, decisive typing I’m liable to, and because of this my pace took a success (104 wpm, down from 120 wpm — much like my typing pace on the SteelSeries Apex Professional Mini). My accuracy remained fairly excessive, nevertheless (97.1%, which is typical for me), and I feel it’s as a result of the house between the keys — which is barely bigger than common — managed to stop my fingers from hitting adjoining keys at the same time as they slipped.
The Vulcan II Mini’s Titan II Optical Crimson linear switches are a lot better-suited to gaming. The linear lack of resistance and snappy optical responsiveness — even the speedy bounceback of the light-weight keycaps — permits you to make lightning-quick keypresses and fly across the keyboard with out lacking a stroke. Pace and (relative) accuracy are particularly necessary on keyboards just like the Vulcan II Mini in case you play any video games that require greater than what the ultra-compact structure permits for — you want to have the ability to zip out and in of the primary and second (and third) layers of performance.
The one small grievance I had relating to gaming on the Vulcan II Mini is with its keycap materials. The keycaps themselves are very evenly dished — sufficient to maintain your fingers snug whereas typing — however caps’ ABS floor is fairly slick to start with and solely will get slicker as gaming ramps up. I truly sweat little or no (in gaming, and in addition typically), and the Vulcan II Mini’s keycaps have been frustratingly slippery throughout fast-paced motion. For those who sweat in any respect, this might not be the keyboard (or, nicely, these might not be the keycaps) for you.
Options and Software program of the Vulcan II Mini
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The Vulcan II Mini ships with quite a lot of preset secondary capabilities (as indicated by the secondary legends) and Roccat’s Aimo RGB lighting profile. However as a result of a few of the secondary legends aren’t inherently intuitive, most individuals will in all probability wish to dig a bit deeper and obtain Roccat’s companion app, Swarm. Swarm is Roccat’s common peripherals app for remapping keys, establishing onboard profiles, checking for firmware and driver updates, and customizing your system’s RGB lighting.
Like most peripheral apps, Swarm will not be probably the most simple or intuitive piece of software program you’ll ever use. The Vulcan II Mini does have onboard storage (5 profiles), nevertheless, so that you don’t want to make use of Swarm for something previous preliminary configuration. Swarm has some basic options you in all probability gained’t use, reminiscent of sound suggestions — together with typing sounds (sure, by your PC) you can activate in case you…actually wish to.
However for probably the most half, you’ll wish to flip to Swarm to program (and decipher) the Vulcan II Mini’s many secondary capabilities. I say “many,” as a result of there are…many — too many. The Vulcan II Mini has three varieties of secondary keybinds — Fn keys, Sport Mode, and Simple-Shift — and sure, they overlap and but are all nonetheless someway…secondary.
For the keyboard’s default secondary capabilities (those labeled on the keys), you’ll use the Fn key. These keys’ secondary capabilities may be remapped, although the legends will clearly stay the identical. There are 30 Fn keys, all of which have Twin-LED lighting and secondary legends. Solely 27 can have their secondary capabilities remapped (the the three that can’t be modified are the Home windows key, which toggle Sport Mode; the tab key, which switches onboard profiles; and the correct Ctrl key, which turns off the keyboard’s RGB lighting.
Urgent the Fn key plus the Home windows key toggles Sport Mode. Sport Mode is one thing you’ll discover on numerous gaming keyboards. There’s no common customary, however Sport Mode often disables keys that, if by chance pressed, would disrupt your gaming expertise. This nearly all the time consists of the Home windows key, and can also embody combos reminiscent of Alt + F4 or Alt + Tab. Roccat’s Sport Mode disables the Home windows key however is in any other case customizable — you may program nearly the entire Vulcan II Mini’s keys in Sport Mode, although there are some limitations — non-Fn keys can solely be remapped with single keys. Your Sport Mode keybindings will probably be main whereas Sport Mode is toggled on.
Whereas Sport Mode is toggled on, you may entry Roccat’s Simple-Shift, which is a second…secondary layer of performance. You should utilize Simple-Shift so as to add a secondary keybind to any non-Fn key, and you may entry that secondary keybind utilizing the Simple-Shift key, which is the Caps Lock key by default (you may disable this however you may’t change it, besides to swap Simple-Shift for an Simple-Shift toggle). Once more, this solely works for non-Fn keys — you may nonetheless entry secondary Fn performance, you’ll simply want to make use of the Fn key.
Does this sound extremely complicated? Sure, it’s extremely complicated and utterly unintuitive, all to finish up with basically the identical options and programmability rivals supply. SteelSeries’ Apex Professional Mini, for instance, helps you to remap nearly all main and secondary keybinds (all secondary keybinds are accessed with only one “SS” (Fn) key). The Vulcan II Mini helps you to remap nearly all main keybinds — however solely in Sport Mode, and with limitations on non-Fn keys — and nearly all secondary keybinds — however splits it into roughly half with the Fn key, and half with the Simple-Shift key, which is barely accessible in Sport Mode.
The Backside Line
Software program-based frustrations apart, the Roccat Vulcan II Mini is unexpectedly interesting. It doesn’t look fairly as, I don’t know, business-chic because the all-black minimalist bricks we’ve been seeing from different corporations, however I form of just like the Vulcan II Mini’s slim, light-weight design, uncovered switches, and fairly however admittedly ostentatious RGB lighting. I perceive there’s not numerous room for design creativity in an ultra-compact 60 or 65 p.c structure, however you may’t inform me the Apex Professional Mini (and the recently-launched Apex 9 Mini), K70 Professional Wi-fi, HyperX Alloy Origins 65, and Asus ROG Falchion NX (to call a number of) are simply distinguishable.
Along with being barely different-looking and really well-lit, the Vulcan II Mini is snug for typing, speedy and responsive for gaming, and whereas its keycaps may be a bit too slick, they will all the time be swapped out. Additionally, whereas I discovered Roccat Swarm to be clunky and convoluted, I can’t say I’m a giant fan of every other firm’s peripheral software program. For those who’re searching for an ultra-compact keyboard, the Vulcan II Mini is fairly and a stable performer — for one thing extra unique-looking, you’ll in all probability want to maneuver onto a customized package such because the IRISLabs Jris65.