Roccat Vulcan II Mini keyboard review: "The lights will dazzle you"

The Roccat Vulcan II Mini is a striking 65% keyboard that will certainly grab the attention of anyone passing by your desk. With fully-exposed switches and Dual-LED smart switches, the lights coming off of this keyboard will dazzle you, and its slim profile makes it a great option for those with limited desktop real estate. But how does it feel and perform? Is the price point (the Roccat Vulcan II Mini retails at $149.99) a fair one? With all that in mind, can we consider it one of the best gaming keyboards?

Design & features

The Roccat Vulcan II Mini is a 65% keyboard, which means it has a little bit more to work with than a traditional 60% layout - namely, delete, home, and page up and down keys. It's a bit longer than the 60% keyboard, but not by much at 12.7 inches long and just 4.5 inches deep. This baby beast is also only 1.1lbs, which is lighter than other small keyboards. 

The Roccat Vulcan II Mini has a plastic body with an aluminum backplate featuring dual flip-out feet to better adjust your angle and rubber strips that help with grip. It comes in two colorways: black and white, though I dare say the white is way more striking and a nice way to stand out in a sea of black peripherals. It looks especially nice alongside my Roccat Burst Pro Air.

It has Titan II Optical Switches, Roccat's AIMO RGB lighting, and a detachable, six-foot-long, USB-C cable for easy storage/movement (this is a wired keyboard). It also features Easy-Shift key duplicator technology which allows for a second function layer. The white keys have translucent legends to help you see the impressive RGB lighting even better, and even have secondary legends inscribed on the ones with preset secondary features (the 'O' key has 'PRINT' on it, the 'P' key has 'SCROLL', etc.). 

The Roccat Vulcan II Mini boasts the world's first Dual-LED smart switches, which means there are two different LED colors on each switch. Trust me when I say this sucker is bright as hell, and the exposed switches and double LED lights are certainly why. If you want to customize these lights or change your secondary key functions, you'll want to use Roccat's Swarm software, which you can download for free. 

Performance

As a long-nailed gamer, I have a lot of problems with keyboards. If the keys are too far apart, my claws can easily get stuck in between them and can occasionally pull the key caps off. If the keys are too close together, I'll hit one or two other keys instead of the one I'm aiming for. The Roccat Vulcan II Mini finds a nice middle ground, though the slipperiness of the keycaps means I still hit the wrong keys from time to time - and they do feel a little cheap. Impressively, the rather small caps (there's no real sidewall here), don't feel any less stable than a more chunky keycap.

Gaming on the Roccat Vulcan II Mini can be a little tough because of the slipperiness of the keycaps, but it's important to note that the optical switches make for incredibly swift key-presses and the layout itself makes it easy to navigate the layout while buried in a game. It's a good keyboard for FPS games like Destiny 2 or Apex Legends for that reason, along with its small travel distance and 1000HZ polling rate. But if you're playing games that require you to use more keys and re-assign those keys, this may not be the keyboard for you. 

That's mainly because of Roccat's Swarm software, which can be a bit of a boon. In some ways, it's super simple to boot it up and use it for the basics or to turn on the odd feature (unsure why you'd want to add typing sounds that emanate from your computer, but to each their own). ?In others, however, it's hard to wrap your head around the Roccat Vulcan II Mini's various types of secondary keybinds. 

This is usually where I bow out, as I don't really mess around with keyboard customization, and the Roccat Vulcan II Mini doesn't make that any easier. It has Fn keys, a game mode, and Easy-Shift, all of which are secondary keybinds and all of which overlap. If this sounds confusing, it is, and only gets more so if you're someone who makes use of secondary keybinds. If you're not, you can ignore all of this as I did, and just enjoy the satisfying click-clack and pretty lights. 

Should you buy the Roccat Vulcan II Mini?

The Roccat Vulcan II Mini is a pretty pricey keyboard, and for what you get with it that may not be worth it. It depends on what you want out of a 65% keyboard - do you want it to look good and perform well while taking up minimal space, or would you prefer it to be fully customizable and intuitive? 

If you're in the former camp, then you may want to consider the Roccat Vulcan II Mini. If you're in the latter, then something that offers more customization and easier-to-understand software might better suit you. Overall, $150 is quite a bit of money to shell out for a keyboard, which is why we've gathered the best cheap gaming keyboards that will be a bit kinder on your wallet. 

How we tested the Roccat Vulcan II Mini

I've been using the Roccat Vulcan II Mini as my everyday work and play keyboard for nearly two weeks. It's been connected to my iBuyPower Y60BG201 gaming PC and used alongside my aforementioned Roccat Burst Pro Air mouse. This keyboard was my go-to for the Overwatch 2 playtest and for writing up the actual Overwatch 2 review itself, along with several other long-form features that really tested out just how well the keys feel. 

You can read more about how we test keyboards at GamesRadar+, as well as read about our holistic approach to gaming tech in our full Hardware Policy.

If you are looking for more peripherals then check out our guides to the best gaming mouse and best wireless gaming mouse too.