ROCCAT is stepping up its game in the form of PC peripherals with the release of the Vulcan II Mini keyboard. Known for their peripherals and gaming gear, ROCCAT has released some fantastic products over the past year, including the ROCCAT Burst Pro Air, ROCCAT Kone XP, and the ROCCAT Vulcan TKL Pro, so the Vulcan II Mini should fit right in alongside them. With the latest features we come to expect in a smaller size, all while keeping the quality high, the Vulcan II Mini is a keyboard that checks all the boxes.
For those of us who are accustomed to using full-size keyboards, the Vulcan II Mini may take some getting used to. The keys are laid out differently than we’re used to, which can be disorienting at first. But even with this, the Vulcan II Mini keyboard still manages to feel familiar. It’s as though they took a full-size keyboard and squashed it down to scale.
The Vulcan II Mini is an incredibly well-built keyboard, delivering solid construction even with its reduced size. It’s got a 100 million keypress lifecycle and uses TITAN II Optical Switches for the fastest typing possible, making it very smooth and light. The keys are also nicely spaced out, which allows for more precision when gaming or typing.
The Vulcan II Mini keyboard is wireless and equipped with 30 multifunction smart keys and the world’s first dual LEDs to indicate which settings are active. Once you hold Easy Shift, you now have the ability to use the different features on the keyboard. In order to apply Easy Shift, you must go into the Swarm Software and apply the function to a key of your choice. Their default key is the Caps Lock button, as it’s normally pressed once rather than held. While using this keyboard with its white LED active, the Caps Lock button shines orange while off, which could become confusing for some.
“I loved gaming on the Vulcan II Mini.”
With gaming keyboards, we’re always looking out for the best-looking RGB to light up our setups and bring some excitement to our gaming lives. The Vulcan II Mini keyboard is no exception, with rainbow flashes of lights already ready when you plug in the keyboard and the ability to change those lights to white with FN + CTRL easily.
If you’d like a different layout of colours that is not a striped rainbow or solid white for the Vulcan II Mini, no problem! By downloading the ROCCAT Swarm application, you have plenty of options to choose from, including different light patterns like heartbeat and breathing to customize your device. If lighting isn’t enough, you can also customize your keycaps, as it’s compatible with most other brands of cross-mounted keycaps. Swarm also allows you to assign functions to revamp your keys, and you can adjust the speed and brightness of your keyboard.
Although the Vulcan II Mini keyboard is small, it is slightly expensive, as with a lot of gaming keyboards on the market. Razer’s Huntsman Mini keyboard which lacks arrow keys, has the same price as the Vulcan hitting the ever-elusive $199.99 price point. If you’re in the market for a portable mini gaming keyboard, or maybe even a small one for a tiny setup, the Vulcan II Mini could be the right one for you.
I loved gaming on the Vulcan II Mini. Even with its reduced size, the Vulcan II Mini felt responsive while giving enough feedback to know when a key was pressed. If I had any gripes about the performance, it would have to be the keycap material. The keycaps were very lightly dished, which was comfortable for typing, but the surface was quite slick and became even slicker with fast-paced action. I am used to some texture on my keys, and the Vulcan II Mini sadly lacked this out of the box. Thankfully, it is a mechanical keyboard, so should you have a preference, these are things that can be adjusted at a later date.
While it has some minor quirks, the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini is pretty darn appealing. It’s got a slim and lightweight design that I like, exposed switches, and some pretty RGB lighting. It’s not quite as chic as some other all-black keyboards we’ve seen from other companies, but I think it looks pretty slick, especially with the RGB all set up and lighting my desk in all its rainbow glory.
What sets the Vulcan II Mini apart from its competitors is the overall use of space, the layout staying familiar, the swarm application being easy to navigate as well as having a support page with all the questions that you can think of, and it’s still very small despite still having most of the keys from their full-sized keyboard. In my opinion, it truly is a fantastic product for any gaming space.
