Roccat Vulcan 120 AIMO Overview

Let’s start with a quick overview of the Roccat Vulcan 120 AIMO, but be careful not to skip over the specifications section on the previous page – lots of additional information and context can be found there, direct from Roccat. It’s worth reading up a bit on the Titan switch and AIMO lighting system, as both are central features of the Vulcan 120 AIMO.

The product packaging is clean and tidy. The front contains only the most relevant details – a nice image of the product, product name, layout and only an essential description. It’s clear from just the front what we’re dealing with, and I always appreciate simple and effective communication.

The rear of the box features an exploded view of the new Titan switch and a few marketing talking points.

The keyboard itself is packaged adequately and should survive shipping without incident. A cutout for the magnetic wrist rest that is normally included with the 120 AIMO version of the Vulcan can be seen here, but the wrist rest itself is missing. It’s possible it was overlooked given that this is a review item; it’s hard to imagine a customer would be excited to discover they received a Vulcan 100 AIMO rather than the Vulcan 120 AIMO (the only difference between the two being the wrist rest and $10 MSRP).

There aren’t any accessories to speak of that accompany the Vulcan 120 AIMO keyboard – just a quick installation guide, user manual and some Roccat logo stickers. Of course, the magnetic wrist rest would normally be pictured here as well.

The keyboard overall is relatively flat. Tthe Vulcan doesn’t use a stepped arrangement like many other mechanical keyboards. Despite this difference, I didn’t find the Vulcan difficult or uncomfortable to use.

The keycaps are unique – the idea, according to Roccat, is to have the smallest amount of material (about half that of other keycaps) to make for a responsive, lightweight, rapid switch feel. The switch housing was designed to reduce wobble, and it seems to have done so for the most part.

A solid aluminum plate forms the majority of the Roccat Vulcan’s backing and creates a lot of stability. The Vulcan 100 and 120 feature a grey/silver/aluminum color, while the Vulcan 80’s aluminum plate is anodized black.

The bottom of the Vulcan 120 AIMO is mostly featureless, with a generous application of non-skid rubber surfaces to keep the Vulcan in place. The leading edge of the board has a rubber strip that runs nearly the entire width of the bottom.

The rear pivoting feet have rubber on both raised/lowered surfaces to accompany the large strips that run towards the center of the keyboard at the rear.

The raised position of the feet will incline the board at slightly steeper 8-degree angle (approximately).

A wrist rest most likely latches under this lip on the front edge, and is held in place by magnets. This sample was missing this component, so I won’t be able to say much about this feature – from what I’ve read, it’s a hard plastic addition that mainly adds to the overall look rather than adding much in the way of comfort. From the looks of this front edge, it doesn’t look like the wrist rest would be able to be thick enough to be of much benefit.

The plastic casing that forms the bottom of the Vulcan does sit at a small incline (approximately five degrees), but the overall profile of the Vulcan is flat. The keycaps have a small concavity to them that helps cradle your fingertips ever so slightly, but the lack of a stepped arrangement to the key rows means there will be a very slight adjustment period if you’re coming from a more standard keyboard.

The rear edge of the Vulcan keyboard is relatively non-descript; a few angles and a non-removable braided USB cord right in the center are the only features.

The chamfered edges catch the light in a subtle, beautiful way. Details like this really set the construction of the Vulcan apart from the various other mechanical keyboards on the market today. Let’s take the next page to take a closer look at some of those details.