Closer Examination

As we saw before, the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO keyboard comes inside a plastic wrap to keep it pristine and free of dust out of the box. Removing it, we get our first good look at the keyboard, and it is on the smaller side of average for ROCCAT full-size keyboards, which tend to be big and aggressive in design. It is also lighter than all other Roccat full-size keyboards I have handled to date, and even compared to the general market as a whole. A lot of this comes down to the adoption of an aluminium cover plate and thin plastic case, as well as extremely low-profile keycaps with a lot less plastic. The Vulcan 120 has a brushed gunmetal gray finish to the aluminium plate and bezels slightly larger than most keyboards today. We see a Roccat logo in the top-right corner, and that entire row does not really have any functional aspects underneath.

The indicator LEDs are at the bottom right of the keyboard, with what ROCCAT describes as "mixer style media keys" taking their usual space above the numpad. The numpad, incidentally, has secondary legends underneath the primary ones, as is the case with the rest of the keyboard, and the keyboard-specific secondary legends in the Fn key row and Prt Scr-Pg Dn key cluster. This and the location of single legends being in the top center is indicative of where the backlighting will be more uniform, and those at the bottom may not end up as bright as those at the top.


Flipping the keyboard around, we see the usual certification sticker in the middle. There are multiple long rubber pads along the top and bottom, as well as two feet which can be raised for a steeper angle for those who wish it. Both feet have a rubberized bottom for further friction against the resting surface.


The cable is non-detachable, in black to match the keyboard, and braided as seen above. It comes out the middle on the side facing away from the user and is the usual 6 feet long. It is recommended you use a USB 3.0 (3.1 Gen 1) port, which is not a big ask in 2020. Installing the wrist rest is as simple as navigating it in place, with the magnets doing the rest. It is not as secure a fit as with plastic clips or screwed-in wrist rests, but stays in place when typing, also because of the notches the wrist rest goes into, and that is all you can really ask for at the end of the day.


The Vulcan 120 AIMO keycaps are effectively cut down in size and shape from the top, which makes them ~50% lighter than typical mainstream mechanical keyboard keycaps. This means that you get less support and more flex on average, but it also makes for a stronger lighting effect. ROCCAT claims this helps with "rapid response," but that's marketing talk that has little merit. The problem with such a design was evident on my sample already, with one keycap having cracked out of the box. It was still functional during testing, but I doubt it will last much longer. In general, the keycaps are mediocre at best, composed of thin ABS plastic (average wall thickness 0.92 mm) with laser etched legends for backlighting compatibility as seen above, but these will also wear out sooner rather than later relative to PBT plastic keycaps with doubleshot injected legends, for example.


ROCCAT developed their own branded switches last year, with the Vulcan keyboards being the first and to date only keyboards to use the ROCCAT Titan switches. These come in either a linear (red) or tactile (brown) option, and I have the latter here. The switches have a wall around the stem for minor dust and spill resistance, and have a shorter actuation distance than usual. We will talk more about the switches later, and note here that the larger keycaps use a Cherry-style stabilizer which is somehow capable of making the keycap experience even worse with a pretty rattly noise and mushy typing experience. I really think ROCCAT made a bad move with these keycaps since you lose more than you gain, though it is easier to clean the keyboard now.