Introduction

ROCCAT was arguably the first major PC peripherals company to introduce addressable RGB LEDs to keyboards, mice, and headsets alike, and then they announced AIMO at CES 2018, which was meant to be a "living light" that continuously adapts to the surroundings and added peripherals. In practice all that resulted in was a dynamic lighting effect that sometimes took input from the display color scheme provided you gave it access, but was not as big a feature as they would have liked. Much has changed since our coverage of AIMO with the ROCCAT Horde AIMO two years ago, with the company having being acquired by a bigger fish in Turtle Beach. The company has continued to bring out new peripherals under the brand, which means we take a look at one of their recent keyboard offerings. Thanks again to ROCCAT for sending a review sample to TechPowerUp!


The ROCCAT Vulcan is a family of keyboards that comes with different features, beginning with the Vulcan 80 that uses single color LEDs for backlighting and moving on to the Vulcan 100 AIMO which adds in their AIMO RGB backlighting support. The Vulcan 120 is just the Vulcan 100 with an included wrist rest, and there are two other color variants of the Vulcan 120 numbered 121 and 122. All of these are full-size mechanical keyboards that are also the first to use ROCCAT's own Titan mechanical switches. We will go over the Vulcan 120 in great detail in this review, and this will serve as a good look at the rest of the Vulcan keyboards as well.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

ROCCAT's packaging has always been impressive, and the Vulcan 120 AIMO does not buckle the trend. There is a plastic cover over the packaging itself, which I continue to maintain is a waste of materials, and removing it helps get our hands on the box. In contrast to other keyboards from the company, the box is actually not on the larger side of things this time. On the front is the company and product name along with a large illustration of the keyboard, salient marketing features, and the language version for the specific unit inside. More illustrations, specifications, and features are listed on the back and sides, with some in multiple languages as well. In the US, this particular version happens to be a Best Buy (retailer) exclusive, which of course does not affect readers outside the US.


Two seals and a double flap on the edge help keep the contents inside in place during transit. Opening the box, we see a layered cardboard unboxing experience with the wrist rest on top and the keyboard underneath, with the cable inside the compartment above. ROCCAT includes a multi-language quick installation guide, a few stickers, and a disposable information manual to abide by if or when you need to. I do recommend reading the installation guide, especially if you are new to gaming keyboards and unaware of the set up and where to find the installer for the software drivers.


The wrist rest also comes inside a plastic wrap and has a matte textured surface with a glossy ROCCAT logo in the bottom-right corner. There are six long rubber pads on the bottom, which span the length of the wrist rest for scratch resistance and added friction against the resting surface. Magnets on the side touch the keyboard, which no doubt helps with getting it in place properly.