After testing dozens upon dozens of mechanical gaming keyboards primarily based round Cherry’s admittedly glorious MX switches, the brand new and really non-Cherry MX-based Roccat Vulcan is a breath of recent air. Employing the corporate’s brand-new Titan switches (or Titan Switch Tactile to offer them their full and correct title), the Vulcan provides quick and exact, tactile suggestions for typing and gaming alike, and appears fairly rattling good besides. Here’s wot I believe.
Before I start, I ought to be aware the Vulcan truly is available in three totally different flavours. There’s the top-end Vulcan 120 I’ve obtained on take a look at right here, the Vulcan 100 and Vulcan 80. Fundamentally, they’re all the identical keyboard, with precisely the identical aluminium chassis and precisely the identical switches. The solely variations are the additional options they arrive with.
With the Vulcan 120, for instance, you get a bundled wrist relaxation that merely slots in through a set of magnets, per-key RGB lighting, a relatively pretty tactile quantity knob and extra media keys, whereas the Vulcan 100 will get you the whole lot I’ve simply described minus the wrist relaxation. The Vulcan 80, alternatively, is simply your primary keyboard. No wrist relaxation, no RGB lighting, no media wheel or further media keys; only a plain, blue LED backlight and a black aluminium chassis as an alternative of brushed silver.
Prices range accordingly, in fact, with the highest Vulcan 120 going for £150 within the UK (it appears to be mysteriously absent within the US) and the Vulcan 100 going for barely much less at £140 / $149, whereas the Vulcan 80 will be had for £120 / $120.
The additional media keys solely actually quantity to a devoted mute button and an LED brightness management, because the third quantity button is actually just for telling the knob to change again to creating issues louder after you’ve completed utilizing it to dim the RGB lighting.
Personally, I might in all probability do with out the wrist relaxation, though it nearly appears foolish to not go for it when it’s solely one other tenner on high. I’d even be joyful to lose the extra media keys. After all, you solely actually get a mute button and a selection between utilizing the knob for quantity or adjusting the brightness of the keyboard’s LEDs, so it’s not such as you’re lacking out on any play, pause or skip buttons consequently.
I’d be sorry certainly to lose the quantity knob completely, although, particularly when the Vulcan’s is so rattling attractive and clicky and wonderful to make use of. In fact, I might in all probability do with it being located a contact greater, as its present place feels just a bit too cosy towards the highest row of the quantity pad, however on the entire it’s comparatively small criticism. Either means, when all of them are priced so carefully collectively, it hopefully shouldn’t be too troublesome to work out which one most closely fits your wants and finances.
As for the keyboard itself, it’s an actual beaut, and that’s largely all the way down to Roccat’s incredible Titan switches. The closest Cherry analogue might be their MX Brown switches, however whereas the Vulcan’s Titan switches are certainly of the clicker, bumpier selection versus merely going straight up and down once you press them, there’s additionally a sure nippiness about them that makes them really feel like a cross between Cherry’s MX Browns and their linear MX Reds.
Indeed, Roccat declare the Titan’s actuation level (the second when the keyboard truly recognises a key has been pressed) is simply 1.8mm in comparison with the two.0mm you’ll discover on Cherry’s MX Browns and Reds, whereas their whole journey distance is a brief 3.6mm over Cherry’s 4.0mm, so they’re, in reality, sooner on each rely. They’re nonetheless not as fast as Cherry’s MX Speed Silvers, whose actuation level and journey distance are a minuscule 1.2mm and three.4mm respectively, however they’re definitely getting there.
The wrist relaxation connects to the primary keyboard magnetically, making it straightforward to take away and reattach.
Admittedly, I believe you’d need to have very deft fingers certainly to really inform the distinction between these additional tenths of a millimeter, however the finish result’s plain. Regardless of whether or not you’re gaming or typing at velocity, the Roccat Vulcan is among the tightest and most responsive keyboards I’ve utilized in fairly a while, offering sufficient tactile suggestions for normal desktop duties whereas additionally being quick and nimble sufficient for rapid-paced motion games, providing the perfect of each worlds with out, it appears, struggling any type of compromise.
More importantly, they don’t make a large racket, both. They’re in all probability nonetheless a contact unfriendly for extended use inside earshot of different human beings – particularly for those who’re engaged on a doc, for instance, the place the CLACKEDY CLACK goes to be swift and fixed – however for gaming, I reckon you may simply have the ability to get away with it in case your PC occurs to stay someplace communal versus your examine or bed room.
I do fear about stuff getting caught between its slimline key caps, although, whether or not it’s crumbs from a cheeky snack or the limitless tufts of cat hair that at all times are inclined to congregate round my desk once I’m not wanting. The former aren’t too troublesome to take away because of the beneficiant spacing between every key, however the latter usually have a tendency to stay relatively stubbornly in mentioned nooks and crannies irrespective of how a lot huffing or puffing I do or violent shakes I give it. This gained’t be an issue for non-pet homeowners, in fact (until you repeatedly shed your individual hair whereas sitting at your desk), nevertheless it’s one thing to keep in mind for those who do.
It could be well worth the danger for those who’re deep into your RGB appreciation, in fact, because the translucent housing beneath every key cap permits every LED to shine via loud and clear. Out of the field, I used to be greeted by a pink and orange color scheme, however you may regulate every key precisely to your liking by downloading Roccat’s Swarm software program. Here, you may configure it to flash in all method of pre-loaded themes, together with Roccat’s clever Aimo lighting profile that may supposedly react to the way in which you employ every of Roccat’s Aimo-enabled peripherals in a roundabout way (though I’ve but to establish precisely the way it does this), however you can too set your individual customized themes throughout every of its 4 out there profiles.
You also can use Swarm to program your individual macros and reassign key instructions throughout your entire keyboard. It’s not notably intuitive at first, as Roccat have for some motive gone with a type of drag and drop system as an alternative of one thing a bit simpler to parse like a drop-down menu system, for instance, nevertheless it’s not too troublesome to familiarize yourself with when you’ve truly discovered the way it works.
Indeed, the one actual criticism I’ve in regards to the Vulcan is its lack of USB passthrough for connecting up your mouse. It’s the type of characteristic I’d count on to see on a premium gaming keyboard like this, and its absence places the Vulcan at a slight drawback in comparison with lots of different equally priced keyboards that do include it and at present occupy lots of the highest spots on my present greatest gaming keyboard record. Personally, I’m more than pleased to forego it given simply how pretty it’s to sort on, however others might really feel in another way.
Still, for those who’ve ever wished your quick mechanical keyboard supplied a smidge extra tactile suggestions, then the Roccat Vulcan is not going to disappoint. With its excellent construct high quality, gorgeous-feeling switches and versatile characteristic choices, the Vulcan is by far one among my favorite gaming keyboards up to now, and it joins the Fnatic Streak as my joint best gaming keyboard champion.
