By: Aaron Lai
November 28, 2025
I was recently introduced to a card game called Mantis. The premise of the game is a game of stealing and scoring cards. Each card has three colors on one side and a mantis shrimp in one of the three colors on the other side. Players will only see the three-color side and make a guess whether they want to use the card on themselves to score shrimp, or on someone else to steal their shrimp with the same color. However, if the card is played on a person who does not yet have this color, the action fails to resolve. For a while, it seemed like one of my friends knew exactly what was going on, as he would predict what would be the correct color in many consecutive times. But as we continued to play more rounds, it was clear his luck had run out. As with most games of chance, we all ended up winning at least once throughout the evening. There is a bit of strategy involved in the game, but it does come down to how the cards line up. On the other hand, making products is much more about using experience and skills to produce a refined product. A manufacturer could get lucky with how well their item sells, but just being fortunate is rarely a winning strategy. Today, we have the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL, which is the latest mechanical keyboard from Turtle Beach in a tenkeyless format. We have seen their Vulcan II TKL Pro, and I wonder if this previous experience will help with today's product? Will today's non-Pro version show Turtle Beach's experience? Let us read on to find out!
Today's review unit of the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL arrived from a shipping fulfillment center in Elwood, Illinois, USA. This corrugated cardboard box arrived in excellent condition via FedEx International 2Day to our APH Networks location here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Along with the keyboard, we also received the Burst II Pro, which was reviewed by my colleague Jonathan Kwan.
The retail boxes of the two products show Turtle Beach has continued their standardized box appearance with a purple and black color scheme. On the top left corner, there is a Turtle Beach logo and brand name. Down the right side, there are features for the tenkeyless keyboard, including its ANSI layout, linear switches, hot swappable Titan mechanical switches, and third-party keycap compatibility. In the middle, there is a scaled down version of the keyboard the RGB LED backlighting on. Underneath, there is the product name, along with the descriptor, "Compact RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard". Around back are more features and specifications about the Vulcan II TKL.
Before we continue, I have grabbed the specifications from the manufacturer's website for your perusal:
Form Factor: Tenkeyless
Connectivity: USB-A Wired
Cable: 1.8m Braided, Detachable USB-C
Lighting: RGB Per-Key Illumination
Switches: TITAN HS Linear Mechanical
Switch Lifecycle: 50M Keystrokes
Hot-Swap Support: Yes (3-pin & 5-pin compatible)
Switch Actuation: 1.8mm
Switch Force: 45g
Processor: 32-Bit ARM Cortex M3
Polling Rate: 1,000Hz
Adjustable Height: Double Height Kickstand
On-Board Memory: Yes, 5 profiles on-board
Software: Swarm™ II
Volume Control: Knob with Push-to-Mute
Dimensions: 366.16 * 137.33 * 32.15 (mm); 14.42 * 5.41 * 1.27 (inch)
Out of the box, Turtle Beach has packaged everything in mostly environmentally conscious packaging. The keyboard is wrapped in a paper sleeve that can be recycled and still protects the product inside. A small pamphlet with a QR code to the user manual is located underneath. Next, there are accessories like a keycap puller, braided USB Type-C to Type-A cable measuring 1.8m in length, and a small plastic bag with three additional linear Titan HS mechanical switches for swapping out if one fails.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. A Closer Look - Disassembly and Internals
4. Conclusion
