Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
As this is not our first 65% keyboard reviewed here at APH Networks, I have to say the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini seems to be the one that stands out the most. This is in part due to the fact the whole Vulcan lineup stands out from other keyboards with the way the keycaps expose the switches underneath. Obviously, I am still fascinated by this compact product, but I do like that the styling and design is very much in the Vulcan family. As such, we have the island-style look, with the keycaps floating above the switches and the sides of the keycaps not going much further down than it needs to. The whole board has a metallic silver-grey finish accented with a mirror-like finish on the beveled edges. Any plastic parts, such as the bottom shell and the keycaps, are white in color. This strikes a slight contrast from the exposed aluminum backplate. The bezels on the Vulcan II Mini are a bit thick on all sides, but I like the unique appearance overall.
The white exterior may stand out against a black mousepad, but the Mini in its name speaks to the diminutive dimensions of the Vulcan II Mini. With a width of 324mm, depth of 116mm, and height of 31mm, this is one small typing device. To be fair, it does have a larger footprint than the DeepCool KG722, but the shorter height makes the Vulcan II Mini feel small on any table top. As we mentioned, this is also helped by the short keycaps. In terms of mass, the Vulcan II Mini is very light at 500g when you do not include the cable. As for build quality, the Vulcan II Mini does feel pretty sturdy because of its small size. It does not torque easily, but there is a bit of action if you press down the deck in the middle. Unfortunately, the plastic base gives in a bit under pressure, which makes the whole body a bit less rigid. Even so, I think the keyboard still feels durable with its compact size. Unfortunately, ROCCAT has not included a wrist rest with the Vulcan II Mini.
As you already know, this is a 65% keyboard with a QWERTY ANSI layout. The whole keyboard is generally standard, although there are some things to point out due to the cut-down size. For example, the bottom row has standard size keys to the left of the space bar, but also 1U sizing for the right Alt, Fn, and Ctrl keys in order to fit the arrow key cluster. The right Shift is also smaller to accommodate the Up-arrow key. At the top, the freestanding grave accent and tilde key, or "`/~", is combined with the Escape key as a secondary function. The right side of the keyboard also show the non-standard positions of Delete, Home, Page Up and Page Down. Other keys that are normally on the right-side of the board have been made into secondary functions. Finally, there are no separate indicator LEDs, as keys like Caps Lock glow white when it is active.
Secondary functions are quite rampant on any 65% keyboard, especially as we are missing so many keys found on a standard-sized one. All of the combinations can be executed by pressing the Fn key. Starting from the top, all of the keys in the number row from 1 to "=/+" are used for F1 to F12. Escape is also used for the freestanding grave and tilde key, as aforementioned. O, P, and the left square bracket are used to replace Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause. Similarly, Delete and End have secondary functions to Insert and End, respectively. If we look at the other keys, a cluster at Z, X, and C can be used for media controls of Previous Track, Play/Pause, and Next Track, while M, comma, and period are used to control the volume. Fn + Windows key enables Game Mode, which locks the Windows Key and enables Easy-Shift, while Fn + Tab lets you cycle through the profiles saved to the Vulcan II Mini. Finally, Fn + Caps Lock locks the top row of numbers into their function keys. There are some more secondary functions for the lighting of the Vulcan II Mini, as well as dedicated LEDs for the secondary functions when you press Fn, but we will also explore those later on.
The keycaps on the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini are made out of ABS, or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, plastic. I prefer PBT keycaps over ABS, as they are harder, keep their color better, and do not shine or look greasy after prolonged use. ABS keycaps are definitely more economical still. The Vulcan II Mini keycaps are not OEM profile, as they feature more of a staircase-like stepping down from row to row. From a side view, the keycaps look flat, but each key, minus the longer ones, are curved inward in the middle so that users' fingers rest easier in this slight valley. The keycaps are laser engraved, which means the keycap is painted over in an opaque color and the legends are etched out with laser. These will potentially fade or wear out over time. Finally, the font on the keys is pretty clear without necessarily looking too gamer-centric. The keycaps use standard MX stems underneath, so users can swap these out if they so desire.
As for key rollover, the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini offers NKRO over USB. NKRO is abbreviated for N-key rollover, which refers to the number of keys independently scanned by the hardware. This fixes issues of ghosting found on cheaper keyboards. While ghosting is a marketing term, there are cases where keyboards will not be able to recognize more than one keystroke at a time, causing for missed keys. This can be frustrating when you are playing games or even if you are just a very fast typist. On an aside, the original usage of ghosting in keyboards actually referred to a third key being registered when two other keys were pressed, which thankfully is not a problem with most modern keyboards.
Before continuing on, one of the selling points of the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini is the key switches. There are three main types of keyboards in the market today. The cheapest but most common is the membrane keyboard, which is the easiest to make, but also has poor typing feel and response due to squishy keys. Next is a scissor switch keyboard. This can be thought of as an enhanced rubber dome with two extra interlocking plastic pieces connected to the key and the keyboard. This creates a better tactile response and typing experience in comparison to the aforementioned membrane. Mechanical keyboards cost the most, because each key switch is an independent part. These switches are generally composed of a base, stem, and spring, with varying degrees of tactile and audible feedback. However, while the switches on the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini have mechanical parts, they are actually triggered utilizing light and a sensor. In the case of our Titan Optical switches, a horizontal light shines across the bottom of the switch. When a switch is activated, it blocks the ray of light, signaling a keystroke.
Our unit of the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini features linear Titan II Optical switches. This features a linear travel and relatively light pressure required to push the switch. Since the actuation is actually not a mechanical action, but via light, these switches are rated to last one hundred million keystrokes. According to ROCCAT, this switch has an initial actuation distance of 1.4mm and an overall travel distance of 3.6mm. These are similar specifications to the original Titan Optical switches we saw on their Vulcan TKL Pro. The switch actuates at around 45g of force. This makes it notably lighter than some typical Cherry switches. Longer keys like the spacebar and Enter have Cherry stabilizers to prevent them from wobbling.
On the backside of the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini, we have some certification and serial numbers to identify your Vulcan II Mini. Directly in the middle of the back is where the detachable cable would plug in. This end is terminated with a USB Type-C plug. The cable connecting it is braided and measures approximately 1.8m in length. Otherwise, you can see the feet are extended in this photo with rubber pads in the corners and on the feet to ensure the keyboard remains in place. ROCCAT added two pairs of feet at the back so users can actually have a slightly less inclined experience, if they are so inclined to do so.
This is my third ROCCAT keyboard, and I have to say every time I plug one of them in, I do marvel at their design and appearance. Their island style keys truly standout from the rest of the pack. Considering this is also a 65% keyboard, there were some things I had to get used to. For one, I lost quick access to the freestanding grave accent and tilde key, requiring me to press the Fn key to type either of the two symbols. Furthermore, I was quite used to having access to the function keys, so needing to press Alt + Fn + 4 to close programs was a bit annoying. As well, since the rightmost column of keys are not standard between other 65% keyboards, I kept accidentally pressing Home instead of Delete, which was a change from the DeepCool KG722. I know there are not standards for these smaller form factor keyboards, but I would appreciate if someone made one that everyone actually complied with. Finally, the shorter right Shift key may be annoying to some, but for my hand size, my pinky always reached right into the middle of this shorter key.
Otherwise, for the typing experience, I am quite used to linear switches, even for daily typing, so these linear Titan II Optical switches felt pretty normal to me. Due to the resonance and shorter keycaps, the "thock" sound made by bottoming out the keys sounded a bit less satisfying, but thankfully we did not have any metallic pinging noise heard. The Titan II Optical switches felt crisp and offered a consistent and smooth feel for the most part. Unfortunately, the stabilizers on the longer keys, specifically the Space bar, had a lot of rattle and really took away from the typing experience. There was a bit of key wobble on even the standard size keys, but it was not too egregious either. I did not encounter issues like debouncing or chattering while testing the Vulcan II Mini.
ROCCAT highly markets their lighting solution on the Vulcan II Mini, especially with many keys getting a dual-LED treatment that are both north and south facing. For the primary LEDs that are above the switches, they generally work will in dispersing light through the legends so users can read it. The south-facing LEDs, however, stay slightly illuminated until Fn is pressed. Once this happens, the primary lights are dimmed while the second lights brighten and illuminate the bottom row of legends. This is a pretty neat way to show users where the secondary functions are located without making the keyboard look too busy on a regular basis. Otherwise, lighting can be changed in its brightness by using Fn + Page Up or Page Down to increase or decrease the brightness, respectively. Fn + Right Ctrl can be used to turn off all of the lights as well. The only way to change the actual effects are through the ROCCAT Swarm software. Overall, the lights looked smooth for gradient effects, while also very vibrant. The colors did tend to display at a cooler temperature, especially when showing white, but they looked great nonetheless.
We have reviewed quite a few ROCCAT products in the past and all of them use the Swarm software for making adjustments to the different connected peripherals. The utility is available from ROCCAT's website and it is a 131MB download. The setup process is pretty easy to work through and adding additional peripherals is quite easy. I also received several updates during my review, so I know ROCCAT is continually retooling and pushing fixes for their users. Users have 4MB of internal space on the keyboard to save and cycle through up to five different profiles on the Vulcan II Mini.
After selecting the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini at the top for configuration, you can see there are four primary tabs for changing options on the Vulcan II Mini. The first one is marked by a thumbtack and is used for users to "tack" the configuration options they choose on the next three tabs to save their favorite options to a single page. The first named tab is General Features. One section allows users to add Sound Feedback to your keyboard on each keypress. Another section lets you change the keypress repetition options, including the repeat delay, repeat rate, and cursor blink rate. You can also fully reset all of the settings for the keyboard here. The second tab is marked Key Assignment, where users can change what each key can do, including assignment of macros. You can also change the function of keys in their Easy-Shift Game Mode, as mentioned previously. Finally, the last tab is marked Key illumination. This lets you change the effects of the backlighting. This lets you choose typical static, breathing, and reactive modes. They also have their AIMO lighting for a fluid and reactive lighting that is said to learn your application usage and react accordingly. This only occurs if the ROCCAT Swarm software is running in the background. Finally, you can also use the fully custom mode to change lighting on a per-key basis.
There are three more tabs underneath for managing profiles, macros, and for "Smart Key Manager". A total of five profiles can be created and saved for the Vulcan II Mini. Macros here include actions for a library of games. This includes popular esports titles like League of Legends, CS:GO, and DOTA 2. It is missing some newer games and applications like VALORANT or Discord though. You can also record your own macros here. Smart Key Manager opens a new window where you can change the LED light color of the secondary keys. Included in here are all of the secondary functions we have already highlighted. Overall, I still think ROCCAT Swarm is a straightforward piece of software to use. I am surprised they have not integrated the Vulcan II Mini with their newer Neon software, something we saw on the Syn Pro Air. I wish they would use Neon or at least given Swarm a much needed user interface update.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Conclusion
