At a look 
Skilled’s Score
Execs
- Unbelievable battery life
- Dazzling RGB lighting
- Mild weight
Cons
- Costly
- Slippery keycaps
- No wrist relaxation
Our Verdict
The Vulcan II Mini Air is the keyboard for you in order for you an RGB mild present, and also you don’t desire a USB spoiling the view. Oh, and in the event you’re prepared to pay a premium for each of these.
Greatest Costs In the present day: Roccat Vulcan II Mini Air keyboard
$179.99
The Vulcan II Mini Air is a wi-fi model of the Vulcan II Mini. Cease me if that is getting too surprising for you. However that reductive intro doesn’t inform the entire story, as a result of there’s a variety of engineering happening within the Vulcan II Mini Air past tossing a radio and a battery within the case and calling it a day.
The keyboard’s phenomenal battery life makes wi-fi operation with its bombastic lighting enabled an actual choice, even in the event you’re an influence person. That’s a commendable innovation, even when it solely applies to a really area of interest type of person. That area of interest is so particular — a small, premium, gaming, optical, wi-fi keyboard that may consistently dazzle you with RGB goodness — that it nearly justifies the excessive value.
Virtually. On the finish of the day we’re speaking a couple of $180 for a mini keyboard, and for that type of dough, you’d higher be delivering in any respect ranges. It’s out of consideration for many customers, however for that tiny little bit of the Venn diagram, it’s value it.
Additional studying: See our roundup of one of the best wi-fi gaming keyboards to find out about competing merchandise.
What’s new, Roccat (woah woah woah)?
At first look, not a lot has modified since I reviewed the Vulcan II Mini a 12 months in the past. You get the identical 65% structure with full arrow keys, the identical Titan II optical switches for quick, clean operation, and the identical “floating” keycaps that exhibit Roccat’s best-in-class RGB lighting (together with the brilliant LEDs and clear swap housing). The wi-fi model is about half an inch taller on the Y axis, simply sufficient to place an illuminated Roccat brand above the keys. It additionally well shifts the USB-C port to the left, provides an influence swap, and provides you just a little bay to stow the two.4GHz dongle.
The keyboard’s battery life makes wi-fi operation with its lighting enabled an actual choice, even for energy customers.
Michael Crider/Foundry
The keyboard is heavier than the Vulcan II Mini…however shockingly, not by a lot. On my kitchen scale the wired board is 17.7 ounces, whereas the wi-fi one (sans dongle) is 20.4 ounces. Roccat managed to cram wi-fi {hardware} and a battery in there with lower than 3 ounces. For the sake of comparability, I threw the Corsair K65 Professional Mini on the size, which has the identical 65% structure and optical switches however does not have a radio or battery, and it was a full ounce heavier than the Vulcan II Mini Air. Spectacular! That type of weight-saving makes the Roccat design a wonderful moveable board, although these floating keycaps imply you’ll positively need some type of protecting case on it earlier than you throw it in a backpack. That’s one thing the Asus Falchion contains within the field, by the way in which.
Michael Crider/Foundry
To reiterate what I wrote in regards to the absolutely new, full-sized Vulcan II: Roccat is unbeatable in relation to eye-popping RGB lights. When it comes to brightness, visibility (due to these skinny keycaps), and animation, it’s merely peerless in the meanwhile. All the identical issues apply to the Vulcan II Mini Air…besides that this little board is operating on a battery. Which is, counter-intuitively, a giant deal.
How is the Vulcan Mini II Air battery?
With the lights on full energy and in wi-fi 2.4GHz mode, the Vulcan Mini II Air lasted 5 days on a battery cost for me. That may not sound like a lot, so let me put it in context. One, keep in mind that Roccat’s lighting system is insane—the main focus and positively the spotlight of the Vulcan collection. And two, I’m a heavy person to a presumably unhealthy diploma. A regular mini keyboard operating absolutely animated RGB lights will final me sooner or later, maaaaaybe two if it’s fortunate.
Michael Crider/Foundry
So when Roccat claims that this keyboard can final 150 hours (on the clock, not lively utilization) in its customary mode, or as much as 750 hours with the RGB disabled, I’m inclined to consider it. The specs don’t say how large the battery is, however with only a few ounces of additional weight, it may’t be capacious. That is, with out qualification, one of the best battery life I’ve ever seen from a gaming keyboard.
And on high of that, Roccat managed a trick I hardly ever see: immediate wake. With the two.4GHz dongle, the keyboard immediately wakes up from sleep and begins shining, able to enter instructions. Presumably that is as a result of proximity sensors that the sunshine present will get going even earlier than you press a key, a really neat trick it is advisable to expertise in particular person to understand. I’ve seen related tech on Logitech’s MX Keys line, however even these high-end boards don’t boast this sort of insane battery life.
Michael Crider/Foundry
One final notice on the battery life. When you maintain down the Fn key, the LED beneath the V key turns into your battery bar, regularly going from inexperienced to yellow to orange to crimson because the battery drains. A closing warning, the V key and the Roccat brand flashing crimson, lets you realize dying is imminent. However even “imminent” is relative with such longevity — for me, it began flashing about two or three hours earlier than it lastly gave up the ghost. Spectacular.
How is the Vulcan Mini II Air for gaming and typing?
Like its non-wireless variant — and not like the full-sized, wired Vulcan II — the Vulcan II Mini Air comes geared up with optical key switches. In distinction to a standard mechanical keyboard swap that closes a circuit with {an electrical} contact, these detect a key press by interrupting a beam of sunshine. This permits for (theoretically) super-fast efficiency and clean, unhindered motion from the highest of the important thing press to the underside, and again once more.
Roccat and Corsair each supply optical switches, giving us a possibility to match the Vulcan II Mini Air to the K65 Professional Mini. And by way of typing and gaming, it isn’t nearly as good. Roccat’s switches really feel extra free and chattery, with extra motion within the keycaps even after they’re not getting used. Throw within the flat, slippery ABS keycaps that Roccat makes use of on the Vulcan line versus the pleasantly tough PBT caps on the Corsair, and the latter is the clear winner by way of typing and gaming “feel,” if not by an infinite margin.
Michael Crider/Foundry
In fact, you might all the time put PBT keycaps on the Vulcan. You can even put Corsair’s keycaps on the Vulcan, because the structure is sort of equivalent. However then you definitely wouldn’t get the total good thing about Roccat’s lighting system, and I doubt anybody eager about shopping for this board is prepared to go that far. You can also’t swap out the switches, however that’s typical for optical designs.
Roccat’s structure can be much less intuitive than Corsair’s, although each commit the cardinal sin, for my part, of an unmovable Fn button. The Vulcan II Mini Air is much more restrictive than most, because the Home windows, Esc, and proper Ctrl key are additionally off-limits. By default media keys are unfold between Z and the interval, generally necessitating two arms, and the Print Display key’s on the O, precisely one spot left of the place it needs to be (in my thoughts, anyway). In fact all of that is configurable through software program, with a second operate layer obtainable through the Straightforward Shift system (set to Caps Lock by default). However no quantity of software program can re-print the default structure onto the keys. There’s no choice for re-binding or programming macros on the fly.
So far as gaming chops go, the Vulcan II Mini Air presents 1,000Hz polling and N-key rollover, greater than any mere mortal may need make use of. Except the slippery keycaps, I discovered it moderately cozy, although I want the single-stage keyboard toes had an choice for a better profile. I additionally suppose that for the value tag, an included and matching wrist relaxation isn’t an excessive amount of to ask for. In any case, the Vulcan II — a less expensive, wired board — has one.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Roccat’s Swarm software program is useful, if unspectacular. Just like the Vulcan boards themselves, the large draw is the lighting, and all the included defaults are each extra attention-grabbing and rather more easily animated than any of the competitors. You may customise the pace, brightness, and shade of every, and if that’s not sufficient, program a completely customized system your self.
As a wi-fi board Swarm has just a little extra to handle for this system, and it does so admirably. If you need much more excessive battery life you may regulate the sensitivity of the keyboard’s proximity sensor or disable it fully. Doing so implies that the keyboard must wake from sleep, nevertheless it does so in a tiny fraction of a second, so it looks like a good trade-off to me.
The Vulcan II Mini Air will delight your eyeballs with a lightweight present that lasts for days.
Do you have to purchase the Roccat Vulcan Mini II Air?
Once I reviewed the $180 Corsair K70 Professional Mini Wi-fi, I referred to as its value sky-high and dinged it for an absence of worth. The Roccat Vulcan II Mini Air is similar value, with a variety of the identical options, like a alternative of Bluetooth or 2.4GHz dongle wi-fi. So why do I believe it’s a significantly better deal?
A number of causes. One, it’s only a higher board for touring, being the identical weight regardless of a bigger structure that features user-friendly arrow keys. It has sooner optical switches, and it has an unbeatable battery life. That’s true whether or not or not you favor your gaming classes illuminated, and in the event you do, the Vulcan II Mini Air will delight your eyeballs with a lightweight present that lasts for days.
Michael Crider/Foundry
That being mentioned, $180 remains to be some huge cash for a keyboard, particularly one which’s this small and doesn’t include extras like a wrist relaxation or case. So it’s solely value it for a really particular type of gamer. That gamer is one who needs that stunning RGB goodness, needs it to final a protracted, very long time, and is okay with switches, keycaps, and structure that aren’t one of the best round.
If these caveats don’t hassle you, the Vulcan II Mini Air is well worth the excessive asking value for a super-portable board that takes its mild present on the highway.
