Roccat Brings Its Vulcan Keyboards To Computex 2018

This year Roccat had only a single product line to show during Computex 2018, a group of mechanical keyboards called Vulcan. This is actually a series of products including three members: the Vulcan 80, the Vulcan 100 AIMO, and the high-end Vulcan 120 AIMO.

The differences between the three Vulcan keyboards can be broken down to the palm/wrist rest, which is only available to the high-end model; the lighting capabilities; the media keys; the volume knob; and the finish. The smaller member of the family, the Vulcan 80, doesn't have a palm rest and also lacks the media keys and the volume knob. It doesn't feature RGB lighting either, but it does still have blue lighting per-key, and it also lacks the shiny aluminum finish of the higher-end models. Apparently the only difference between the 100 and 120 models is the detachable, magnetic palm rest which Roccat will also offer separately for users who get the 80/100 models and decide to upgrade them later on.

The switches used by the Vulcan keyboards were co-developed by Roccat and TTC and are called Titan. Those are tactile switches featuring a transparent case, which is ideal for the RGB lighting, and according to Roccat the switches allow keystrokes to be recognized 20% faster than competing switches from Cherry and other manufacturers. The Titan switches have a similar feeling to the Cherry MX brown switches, but they are faster, because their travel distance is shorter (by 0.4mm) at 3.6mm and the actuation point is also lower at 1.8mm.

We only had a short time to try the Titan switches, but we came away thinking that they felt great, and the build quality of the keyboards looks good as well. We also liked the shiny aluminum finish of the Vulcan 100/120 models. The keyboards are slim and their dimensions are normal, so they don't require much space. The list of downsides is rather short--the boards lack a detachable cable, and there is also no USB passthrough or audio ports, which is a shame for high-end keyboards like the Vulcan 100 and 120 models.

The Vulcan keyboards will be available in Q3 of this year. The Vulcan 120 AIMO will cost $160, the Vulcan 100 AIMO will run $150, and the Vulcan 80 will sell for $130. The magnetic palm rest will be offered separately as well for owners of the Vulcan 80/100, and its price will be around $15.