ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air Keyboard Review

The ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air has a Compact (65%) form factor. It lacks a Numpad, function row, and several navigation keys typically found on full-size models. However, it retains dedicated arrow keys and takes up considerably less space on your desk.

This keyboard has good overall build quality. The lower chassis is made of generic plastic, but the top plate is aluminum. The entire keyboard is stiff and only exhibits minor flexing. The stabilizers do a good job of supporting larger keys, and there's very minimal stabilizer rattling, even on the spacebar, which frequently rattles quite noticeably on other gaming keyboards. On the bottom of the keyboard, four rubber feet do a good job of keeping the board in place on your desk. Each of the keyboard's two flip-out feet are also capped with a rubber pad.

This keyboard has acceptable ergonomics. It doesn't include a wrist rest, but there are flip-out feet on the back of the board that provide two incline settings.

The ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air offers poor overall customizability. The switches have typical cross-shaped, Cherry MX-Style stems if you'd like to change out the stock keycaps. However, the LEDs are also North-facing, which can interfere with some Cherry MX profile keycaps.

This keyboard has full RGB lighting that you can customize on a per-key basis. Thirty of the keys are also what ROCCAT refers to as 'Smart Keys.' Instead of only one RGB LED light, these keys have an additional dedicated LED light that shows when secondary functions are active. You can customize the behavior of these secondary lights using the configuration software.

The backlighting provides outstanding backlight clarity, and the shine-through legends are clear and very easy to read in darker rooms. That said, the white-only setting has a very noticeable blue hue.

This keyboard comes with a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. It's braided and retains some kinks from its packaging.

You can connect the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air wirelessly with the included 2.4 GHz Stellar Wireless receiver or via Bluetooth with up to three devices simultaneously.

ROCCAT indicates a maximum battery life of up to 240 hours, but this will vary depending on your usage, connection type, and RGB lighting settings. We expect the 240-hour maximum estimate is only attainable when connected via Bluetooth and with all lighting off.

Using the 2.4Ghz receiver provides the best performance but consumes battery at a higher rate. You can adjust RGB brightness to reduce battery drain, and there's a proximity sensor setting in the configuration software that can automatically turn off backlighting when you're away from your keyboard.

This keyboard has no dedicated macro keys, but you can program macros to any key using the configuration software.

The ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air has many extra features, including standard features like a Caps Lock indicator and a Windows Key lock. More unique features include the ability to apply sounds, like typewriter or sci-fi effects when typing. There's also a proximity sensor that you can set to detect when you're away from your keyboard to automatically adjust backlighting levels to conserve power.

Additionally, 30 keys on this keyboard are what ROCCAT calls 'Smart Keys.' These keys have a second LED that lights up whenever secondary functions are active and can provide visual information, like when you mute your microphone, what your computer's CPU load is, or whenever the battery life of any other paired ROCCAT devices is running low. You can customize the behavior of these 'Smart Keys' using the configuration software.

You can see some of these 'Smart Keys' in this photo, showing keycaps with shine-through legends for the top and bottom LED lights.

You can read more about this keyboard's extra features on ROCCAT's website here.

• ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air
• USB-A wireless receiver
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• User documentation

The ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air provides good typing quality. The keys feel fairly stable with only minor wobble. Larger keys with stabilizers exhibit only minor wobble and minimal rattling sounds compared to most pre-built gaming keyboards. The TITAN II OPTICAL RED switches have a linear feel. They're fairly smooth from the factory and very lightweight, allowing you to actuate keys quickly. However, you might find the keys are a bit too sensitive if you're a heavier typist or like to rest your fingers directly on the keycaps.

The spacing between keys is standard, but the flat, low-profile keycaps aren't very common on other keyboards and may take some getting used to before you can type at your regular speed. Additionally, these keycaps are made of ABS plastic, which feels somewhat cheap compared to most higher-quality PBT keycaps and can develop a shiny finish with extended use.

The ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini Air is fairly quiet. It's very unlikely that you'll bother anyone around you while typing on it normally.

This keyboard uses TITAN II OPTICAL RED switches, which are linear optical switches. No other switch types are available for purchase at the time of writing.

This keyboard uses TITAN II OPTICAL RED switches. These switches are very lightweight and have an extremely short pre-travel distance, making them well-suited for quick, reaction-based gaming.

This keyboard has excellent single-key latency performance. It delivers a responsive-feeling experience for playing games in any genre at any competitive level.

This keyboard has great multi-key latency performance. The Key Press and Key Release latency results are fairly low and reasonably consistent owing to the keyboard's 1000Hz effective update rate. This keyboard is well-suited for playing games requiring additional keystrokes while multiple keys are pressed and maintained.

This keyboard has great data transmission performance. It supports full n-key rollover and has a 1000Hz polling rate that other latency components don't bottleneck.

This keyboard has very good Chord Split performance with low 4-chord and 8-chord split delay, making it well-suited for playing rhythm games that require multiple simultaneous inputs.

This keyboard uses ROCCAT's Swarm software. This software provides many expected customization options for creating custom profiles, recording macros, adjusting RGB lighting effects, and programming secondary shift functions. It also has more unusual options, like programming different keypress sounds, setting character repeat delays, or adjusting the cursor blink rate.

This software isn't intuitive or well laid out. It can take time to get used to for new users. Furthermore, like the software options from other major manufacturers, this software receives criticism for requiring frequent updates and taking up disproportionate system resources. This software may be frustrating if you prefer more lightweight software options or no software at all.

This keyboard is fully compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, the configuration software is only compatible with Windows and macOS.

On Windows and Linux, all keys work as expected. On macOS, the Print Screen hotkey acts as an F13 key, and the Scroll and Break hotkeys adjust your screen brightness if you're using an Apple display.

This keyboard is fully compatible with Android, iOS, and iPadOS. However, there's no software available for these platforms.

All default keys work as expected on Android devices. On iOS and iPadOS devices, all default keys work as expected except for the Print, Scroll, Break, and Insert hotkeys, which do nothing.