Vid Review: The Future of Gaming Keyboards – Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro Review
Video TABLE OF CONTENTS
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Pwsx8pTu7v8
00:00 – Intro
00:28 – Official Box
01:10 – Unboxing
HARDWARE
01:50 – Product Walkthrough
03:25 – Total Control – Hall Effects Magnetic Switches
04:12 — How2 control actuation points
04:52 — Example: 0.1mm actuation in action
05:21 – Key Lifecycle
05:36 – Customized Actuations for Gaming
05:52 — Rapid Trigger
06:10 — Multi-input
06:38 — ReacTap
07:26 – EasyShift & Game Mode
07:53 – Create/Save up to 5 settings
08:18 – Tech bits (Processor, Memory, Polling rate, etc)
SOFTWARE (SWARM II)
09:01 – Where to Download/Install
09:51 – Starting up & updating firmware
10:16 – Customizing Hall Effects Settings
11:31 – Assigning Keys (Game Mode, EasyShift, Function Key)
12:09 – Light Settings & Hall Effects Visualizations
13:14 – Macros, Updates & Other Turtle Beach devices
13:38 – Final Thoughts (Yes’s, No’s & Recommendations)
15:51 – Outro
The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro is a ten-keyless gaming keyboard with linear Hall Effects Magnetic switches.
Hall Effects switches are the future; it gives you, the Gamer, power to decide how deep you press your keys before it registers the click.
Actuation points from 0.1mm to 4.0mm can be chosen (an example of 0.1mm is in the video), which makes this a multi-purpose keyboard for both:
- gaming (set low actuation, like 1.4mm) and
- normal typing tasks (set high actuation, say 3mm or 4mm).
You can easily change actuation for all keys globally, but if you really want, can also set each individual key to something different using Swarm II if you have the time, patience and the need.
For hardcore gamers, Turtle Beach has programmed customized actuations like Rapid Trigger and Multi-input; and just recently added another called ReacTap (updated via firmware).
Being that Hall Effects switches are magnetic, their lifecycle is rated at 150 million strokes as opposed to the 50 to 100 million strokes of their mechanical counterparts.
So far, the above are the newest technologies in the keyboard and we’ve only talked about switches. Other gaming keyboard features include:
- Polling rate: 1000 Hz
- Anti-ghosting
- Game Mode
- RGB back-lighting (includes AIMO synchronized gear lighting)
- EasyShift secondary button functions (Turtle Beach exclusive)
- 8MB Memory & ARM Cortex-M3 chip to save profile settings
- Replaceable keycaps (with Cherry MX cross-type caps)
A word about replacing keycaps; while it can be done, I don’t recommend it since generic replacement keys won’t have the lettering needed for proprietary functions (like lights, actuation levels, media keys, profiles, etc).
Hopefully some time in the future, Turtle Beach will sell replacement caps specific to their keyboards.
My personal take: as of November (it’s almost Thanksgiving), the Vulcan II TKL Pro has been my daily driver for 6 months of testing and I really like it. It works well with very few issues and Turtle Beach has been making steady improvements via Swarm II for it over the months.
Two thumbs up.
If you’re thinking of buying a new gaming keyboard, now’s a great time to add this model to your shopping list since Black Friday sales have started.
Check prices — Amazon affiliate link
https://amzn.to/3YVhVeM — Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro
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More Info: https://www.turtlebeach.com
(Test unit provided by Turtle Beach for this review.)
