Roccat Vulcan II Max Keyboard Review – The RGB King

Last month, Roccat shook the industry with their brand-new mini keyboard, the Vulcan II Mini (read our review here); an exceptionally crafted keyboard that sports the latest optical switch technology, standardized keys, and a beautifully sleek design with gorgeous and brilliant RGB implementation. It was perhaps the best mini-keyboard I’ve ever used, and I still feel fond of it even a month later. 

While an excellent keyboard, it left some long-time Roccat fans lusting for something more their fit. I’m talking about a full-sized keyboard, and it’s been over two years since we last saw one in the Vulcan line. Well, that wait has ended, as the next generation of Vulcan keyboards has finally arrived. Introducing the Vulcan II Max. Let’s dive right in!

Stone Cold Stunner

There isn’t much to say about the Roccat Vulcan II Max that I haven’t already said about other Roccat keyboards because, quite frankly, this company has mastered the art of beautiful craftsmanship. Looking at the Vulcan II Max, it is one gorgeous full-sized keyboard. 

Mind you, this is directly out of the box. The keyboard sports beautiful white matted keycaps that are soft to the touch and a stunning silver aluminum top plate that adds a hefty amount of durability. There is a volume knob on the upper right portion of the board and a play/pause, rewind, and fast forward buttons for easy control of music and any media app. These are engraved into the board this time around, whereas the previous Vulcan had them as rubbery pop-out buttons. 

On the underside are a few kickstands should you want a bit of height for a decently low-profile keyboard. 

For connectivity, it uses a non-detachable braided dual USB-A connector, which I’ll talk about later.

As I said, it’s a gorgeous keyboard out of the box, which is a good thing if you aren’t a fan of RGB lighting, as they can be turned off completely. Of course, if you’ve been around the Roccat brand for as long as we have been, you’ll know that they’re all about lighting, and oh, boy, does the Vulcan Max II really shine. 

Like the Vulcan Mini, the Vulcan Max features a fully lit keyboard with 24 dual-LED smart keys to help users know which keys have secondary functions. This adds an extra layer of depth for those looking to have more functions out of their keyboard, and the Swarm application makes it all easy to program, including setting up all four on board profiles. 

What I’m sure most of you are going to absolutely love is the fact that the board comes shipped with a translucent detachable palm rest. It’s translucent because towards the bottom of the board are some additional LED lights that allows the palm rest to be fully lit.

This is by far my favorite feature of the Roccat Vulcan II Max. It’s stunning, and I love how easy it is to attach to the keyboard as it has notches that slot right in. The rest itself also has a soft touch, though I do wish it had a bit more cushioning as the hardness isn’t much better than without using it.  

Now for the thing I’m not too big on. Like I mentioned before, the Vulcan II Max “requires” two USB-A ports. The reasoning is that Roccat needed to be sure that users could supply enough power to the RGB lighting on both the keyboard and palm rest, but I hate the idea of using two slots on my PC for a keyboard. Luckily if you have USB 3.0 ports, one port will suffice. If you don’t, you’ll need to use two ports if you want a fully lit keyboard and palm rest. 

Swift Performance

For the last few years, ROCCAT has been pushing their newest and latest technology, the Titan Optical Switch. I’ve been pretty clear about these switches in past ROCCAT’s product reviews, but the bottom line is, if you seek top-notch performance in your PC gaming, then ROCCAT is the brand to be with. 

Like recent mouse and keyboards, the Vulcan II Max features optical switches known as the Titan Optical Switch. However, this comes in the next generation of the Titan, the Titan II.  

From what we’re told, this Switch features better performance than the last, though to be frank that’s a little hard to tell considering the original was already lightning fast. Putting these switches to the test in a number of different titles yielded no noticeable input lag as the response was instantaneous. For typing, it’s just as responsive with a low sounding click produced from each key. It’s a very quite keyboard.

However, the biggest upgrade that the Titan II boasts is that they’ve been redesigned to fit most third-party cross mounts. It now has an open-cross design, versus an enclosed one. That means that if you wanted to use your own keycaps, chances are they’ll be fully compatible with the Vulcan II Max. That of course opens the keyboard to an endless amount of customization, and if your a big PC gamer who loves the idea of personalization, well, it doesn’t get any better than the Vulcan II Max (that is until Roccat proves me wrong again.)

What I also like about the switches this time around is that you’re now given the option between a linear or tactile version. Our unit had the linear switches, which was perfect for what we wanted since those are geared towards supplying speed. If you’re wanting a bit of feedback, the tactile switches provide a slight bump mid-press. Regardless, they both use the same optical technology, so you’ll get the lighting fast performance out of either switch type.    

Verdict

It’s hard to ignore the hefty price tag of the Roccat Vulcan II Max because it’s not cheap. $229.99, to be exact, and for many consumers out there, that is a considerable asking price. However, if you seek luxury accompanied by unmatched performance, comfort, and customization, that price tag is more than made up for everything the Vulcan II Max offers. It’s easily of the best-looking keyboards on the market with a robust amount of customization that’ll make any RGB lover jump with joy. 

Pros

  • Gorgeous keyboard, stunning and comfortable palm rest.
  • Third-party keycaps support.
  • Palm rest RGB lighting is amazing, and highly customizable like the rest of the keyboard. 

Cons

  • Expensive.
  • Two USB ports required.

Hardware was provided by publisher for review purposes. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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