Already irradiated or just blitzed? Into the RGB wonderland with the Roccat Vulcan II Max and the Kone XP Air

The Vulcan II Max is Roccat’s flagship and arguably one of their most successful gaming keyboards in the range. Especially since Roccat has already switched to the optical variants of the more or less in-house produced Roccat Titan Switch Optical Taktil (brown) and the Roccat Titan Optical Switch Linear (red) at the end of 2020. This is supposed to combine a fast, because purely optical actuation speed with the tactile feel of a normal mechanical switch. Hybrid clicking with durability, as Roccat claims at least 100 million actuations for the Titan optical switches. Well, to question that now I lacked the time and enough persistent fingers.

In October 2022, the next optical switch from Roccat came in the form of the Roccat Titan II Optical Switch built-in the Roccat Vulcan II Max tested today. This iteration is supposed to provide an even slightly smoother click and, most importantly, shine so boldly. Two independently colored LEDs in the switch housing are already a luminous announcement. However, all this is then also somewhat more susceptible to errors, because my keyboard has a total of 4 imperfections, analogous to faulty pixels on monitors. But I’ll get to that in a moment. Roccat uses this unique selling point with the second diode for the multifunctional keys to signal that the secondary function is active. But it also has to work perfectly.

The ergonomically neatly shaped semi-transparent palm rest, which is illuminated particularly brightly and colorfully by 16 large LEDs in the front, is a real eye-catcher, but we’ll see that again later with really a lot of light and in color. The keyboard is not a failure visually and haptically, but looks solid and not too obtrusive. The dimensions of 463.0 × 236.0 × 33.5 mm with a weight of around 1,040 g (without palm rest) are okay, but not squeamish. The keyboard really needs a lot of space for this (I’ll just list everything emotionlessly now):

• RGB single key lighting with 7 effects and AIMO lighting including speed and color scheme modifications (Custom/Scheme) and custom modes for up to four profiles. The fifth profile even manages without software.
• Roccat Titan II Optical Red (linear, 45.9 gf [45.0 cN], 1.4 mm release distance, 3.6 mm travel) and Roccat Titan II Optical Brown (haptic tactile, 45.9 gf [45.0 cN], 1.8 mm release distance, 3.6 mm travel), each with at least 100 million releases
• Semi-transparent and removable silicone rubber palm rest with illumination through the front of the keyboard
• Macro function with direct recording or assignment and storage via software and memory for 5 profiles, macros and lighting settings per profile, 4 MB memory in keyboard
• Stable rotary volume control, plus three media keys, 24 multifunction keys with LED feedback when activated
• Key to lock the Windows key and activate the game mode
• NKRO and 1,000 Hz polling rate, flat keycaps, second programmable function level with Easy-Shift [+]
• Cross-receptacle keys for compatibility with third-party keycaps

By the way, the two stand-up feet are nice and stable and hold the keyboard well on the table together with all the rubber surfaces. So nothing slips so easily. Plus point, even on my glass surface.

Tactile feeling, lighting and usability

I have not only been using the products since yesterday, but have also taken about two months to actively test the parts myself in a longer use. In the end, this is more useful than all the marketing statements, which can be regurgitated with relish, but which are of no real interest to anyone. The first point that is really annoying: In the age of USB 3.x, you really don’t need two USB plugs anymore and the splitter is quite outdated. Thinner cable and a solid USB 3.0 plug, then I would have been satisfied with it as well. Thus, however, a rigid, medieval-looking cable monster torments itself uninspiredly across the table. If you can afford a keyboard for over 200 Euros, you don’t have an old Pentium with 4x USB 2.0 anymore.

The buttons leave a good impression overall, although as a frequent typist I naturally prefer the brown variant with the tactile feedback. The keycaps are actually quite okay in the original and a replacement with thicker caps would certainly not really influence the ergonomics positively. So from that point of view, it fits quite well. The palm rest supports writing, so you can also work with it quite relaxed for a longer time.

However, what is rather annoying in the dark is the recognizability of the lettering. And no, it is not an optical illusion, because the keycaps are almost white. In dark colors and in the dark, it is even more noticeable that the lettering is a bit too thin and small. For the inexperienced, this can quickly turn into a helicopter blind flight under the sofa. And as for all the macros: I would have liked to have a printed manual, or a digital version for download. The latter can be found as a short version on the homepage only very awkwardly via “Driver” and then also no longer in German. Roccat was much better at this before Turtle Beach.

Which brings us to the RGB LEDs. The idea with the dual LEDs is really good, and so is the software. But there was still a hitch in the finish. I have completely reset the keyboard to factory defaults several times and also updated Swarm immediately after the initial install, uninstalled and went through everything again…. The F1 and F11 keys were permanently illuminated in a different color, as were the “Print”, “Scroll” and “Pause” keys, unfortunately.  I think a controller simply had a blackout here. This can happen, but it should not. Quality assurance and all that.

I usually use the recorded macros for my own benchmark scenes and that went quite comfortably here as well. The “Easy-Shift[+]” technology used, which allows the user to change the functions of the buttons to further customize the control, does exactly what it’s supposed to, if you need it to. So from that point of view, everything is where you expect it to be or where you could and would like to program it to be. You can read the rest on the homepage, where you can also find more information about the switches used.

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