Usage
Our testing of the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO was comprised of both typing and gaming activities, and in both areas, the Vulcan 120 performed very admirably. As fate would have it, our review period was able to take advantage of a few new titles. Our first gaming experience was with our tried and true favorite, Fortnite Battle Royale, where the Vulcan performed just as expected. Moving over to the new hit, Apex Legends, we sped up our gameplay to see if the Vulcan could keep up, and it did. We were just as nimble and quick with the Vulcan and the Titan switches as we are with our standard gaming keyboard that uses Cherry MX Reds. At no point were the smaller keycaps of the Vulcan wobbly or unstable, which is most likely due to the reinforced switch stems. Last but not least was the hot-off-the-press Division 2, where we slowed things down a bit, but gamed for hours on end. Throughout these extended gaming sessions, the Vulcan was very comfortable. The only adjustment we had to make was getting used to a full-sized 104-key keyboard which spaced our hands apart more than they were with our tenkey-less board, which is just a minor comfort adjustment to make.
Regarding typing duties, the Vulcan 120 once again shined in its performance. As is standard, this whole review was typed out on the Vulcan, and the only issue we noticed was that our fingers tended to get caught here and there on the edge of some of the keycaps, depending on how far our fingers had to travel, and at what angle. This wasn’t noticed in our gaming testing, as our hand stayed placed in the standard WASD area, and didn’t require our fingers to move much at that time. As we worked more with the Vulcan, the dragging seemed to go away, and we attest that to the use of different switches, as well as the slightly more “sharp” edges of the keycaps on the Vulcan compared to our Corsair K65 LUX RGB.
Final Thoughts
From the very start of this review, we have been impressed by the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO. The combination of a brushed aluminum top-plate and plastic base come together for a very sturdy build. The stability of the ROCCAT Titan switches was also apparent, especially since we expected the keys to be a bit wobbly with their unique design, but that was never the case. Housed with the traditional 104 keys of the Vulcan are three rubber buttons and a rotating dial for additional manual adjustment of various functions, which can be configured to your liking.
The ROCCAT Swarm program provides a ton of options for customizing the Vulcan, including lighting, macros, profiles, and more. And speaking of lighting, the AIMO lighting mode looks absolutely amazing in our opinion, as it blends some of our favorite lighting modes into one, adjusting itself on the fly to your computing habits. We really dig the extra glowing that comes from the Titan switches and the reduced-height keycaps, and at no point did if feel overpowering or obnoxious.
Just as we expected, the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO turned out to be a pretty great keyboard. We were a bit apprehensive about the new Titan switches, but they work and feel great in both standard typing and gaming use cases. With great looks and great performance, the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO earns a 9 out of 10.
Pros
- Solid build
- Amazing looking lighting
- Customizable function buttons and control dial
- Titan switches performed well
Cons
- Sub-par wristrest
- Custom keycaps may not be compatible with Titan switches