Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard Review - Smooth, Fast, Affordable

Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up

Turtle Beach's Vulcan series of keyboards, which were previously released under the brand Roccat, which Turtle Beach acquired, have always stood out thanks to one unique design choice. And that is to pair full-sized mechanical switches with custom low-profile keycaps that amplify both the 'floating keys' look of the keyboard and the per-key lighting. And per the naming, you're getting this unique design and look in compact TKL form with the new wired Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard.

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Being able to differentiate your product from a competitor's from a physical design perspective makes sense, especially in a peripheral market that has seen the arrival and availability of a wide range of mechanical keyboards at affordable price points. We're now at a point where picking up a mechanical keyboard for PC gaming over the older membrane style is the norm, with the latter slowly becoming the exception. With the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard priced significantly closer to $100 than $200, it's a competitive release worth considering - or at least further investigation to see how it stacks up.

As we've been reviewing keyboards here at TweakTown for several years now, one of the great things about modern keyboards (for the most part) is that the overall focus on quality and customization has improved. For the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard, this means you have pre-lubed hot-swappable switches, an aluminum top plate, and sound-dampening to enhance the overall typing feel. Additionally, there's in-depth software customization, a dedicated volume knob, and gaming-friendly features like SOCD, which Turtle Beach refers to as ReacTap.

Specifications & Close Up

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Kosta's Test System

Best Deals: Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$109.99 USD	$134.98 USD	-	Buy
	$109.99 USD	$134.98 USD	-	Buy
	£105.61	£131.96	-	Buy
	$109.99 USD	$134.98 USD	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned 11/18/2025 at 3:18 pm CST - prices may be inaccurate. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We earn affiliate commission from any Newegg or PCCG sales.

Design & Software

Design

Depending on what keyboard you're coming from, there will most likely be an adjustment period when you start using the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL for the first time. This will be most noticeable when typing, as the low-profile keycaps and shorter travel distance of the company's impressive linear TITAN HS mechanical switches give the impression of some stiffness or more initial force required for each keypress. This is different when you're gaming, where you're mostly pushing the WASD keys in a first-person shooter like Battlefield 6 or Call of Duty, but it's something we noticed. It's not a deal breaker, but it is a different feel for what is still a very smooth and snappy response that you get from all keys.

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The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL is also relatively compact and lightweight, weighing approximately 595 grams. However, thanks to the rubberized feet on the plastic underside and the brushed aluminum top plate, it remains a solid unit that won't move, rattle, or otherwise echo when placed on a hard surface or mouse mat. The floating keycap design allows you to see most of the switch when in use, alongside the vibrant RGB lighting. On the lighting front, the per-key lighting is impressive; however, some tones, such as red and orange, were slightly off in our testing.

Further Keyboards Reading – Our Latest Reviews

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• Corsair VANGUARD PRO 96 Gaming Keyboard Review - Magnetic Performance

As for the custom low-profile keycaps, unfortunately, they're of the ABS variety, which means they're prone to picking up fingerprints, and this started to happen after a week or two of solid use. The keycaps, like the switches (rated at 50 million keypresses), are replaceable, so the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL is something that will last you a while. Even though it's compact, the TKL design is spacious enough that you've got plenty of room for the function keys and arrow keys.

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Where the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL comes into its own as a gaming keyboard is with game-specific features like SOCD for the A and D keys (with the option to assign this feature to another pair of keys) for strafing, where you don't have to let go of either key fully to make quick movements. This feature, generally found on Hall Effect or magnetic switches, is an excellent addition here. Then there's the 'Easy Shift' Game Mode, which disables the Windows keys and offers the option to remap them for additional functionality.

Software

All customization for the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard is handled via the company's intuitive and user-friendly Swarm II software, which downloads the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL module when you launch it with the keyboard connected. Not only is Swarm II easy to use, with only two main sections for Vulcan II TKL customization, but it doesn't take up many resources. Remapping keys is straightforward, as is setting up secondary functions thanks to Turtle Beach offering a wide range of functions to choose from - including the ability to shortcut your favorite AI chatbot in addition to system, keyboard, mouse, media, and other options.

With Swarm II, selecting a key displays its main mapping, secondary function, Easy Shift function, and whether it has been assigned the SOCD or ReacTap functionality. The only feature of the keyboard that you don't have direct access to for customization and remapping is the volume dial, which is strictly used for that singular purpose. This was a surprise, as scroll wheels and dials on a keyboard are usually customizable or can be assigned different functions. That said, most people only ever use the dial to control volume, so it's not something we had a problem with during our time with the keyboard.

Swarm II also includes a dedicated section for recording Macros. With on-board profile support, you can remap, reconfigure, and set up different profiles for different situations or games and save them to the keyboard. Outside of this, Swarm II features a dedicated section for customizing the lighting, offering a wide range of effects to choose from, including the company's custom AIMO lighting preset, which is part cyberpunk future, part dreamy deep space exploration.

Gaming Performance and Productivity

Gaming Performance

The custom linear TITAN HS mechanical switches inside the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL feature a short 1.8mm actuation point, resulting in a smooth, quick, and satisfyingly clicky response in its acoustics. This fast, linear response is optimized for gaming and playing a range of shooter-like games, such as Battlefield 6 and DOOM: The Dark Ages. It all felt fantastic. Although the 1,000 Hz polling rate isn't quite up there with pro-grade esports keyboards, most gamers won't really be able to tell the difference or notice any lag - 1,00 Hz polling is still the standard.

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There's also Full Key (NKRO) with 100% Anti-Ghosting support for accuracy, and with a 45G actuation force rating, we found that the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL felt and performed best during gaming. In addition to playing a variety of shooters, we also explored several city builders, indie titles, and Diablo 4 during our review period, finding the experience to be uniformly impressive, regardless of the genre or style of game being played.

Productivity

This might be a personal preference, but the combination of the 1.8mm actuation point, additional initial force, and low-profile keycaps resulted in a general day-to-day typing experience with the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL that fell a little short in terms of comfort and accuracy. It's not unusable or objectively bad due to some issue with the switches or dampening. Still, when you factor in the TKL design, the Vulcan II TKL is not exactly a keyboard built for productivity. That said, the programmable secondary functions and Easy Shift modes do open the door to customization, and the dedicated volume dial's tall and prominent design makes it far more valuable and accessible than some others we've tested.

Keyboard Click Sound Level

To test a keyboard's overall sound level, we use the Ozito Digital Sound Level Meter, capturing the sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" multiple times and recording the maximum dB level. This indicates how "loud" the switches used are for everyday usage. The following chart showcases where the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Gaming Keyboard sits.

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Final Thoughts

Turtle Beach has been on a bit of a roll lately, releasing solid and attractive peripherals, such as the Burst II Pro mouse we recently reviewed, as well as the affordable Atlas 200 gaming headset. The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL is another standout performer, a responsive and snappy mechanical keyboard that delivers impressive performance and a unique design, pairing low-profile keycaps with full-sized switches. It's not perfect. The keycaps themselves are prone to fingerprints and grease due to the materials chosen, and the typing experience doesn't quite match the feel you get when gaming. That said, the price is competitive, the acoustics are solid, and the feel is where it needs to be for a gaming keyboard.

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Customization is also where it needs to be with hot-swappable switches and intuitive software that includes gamer-friendly features like SOCD and a dedicated Game Mode that goes beyond what you'll find elsewhere. Even with so many keyboard options on the market (and two keyboards ever really feeling the same), the linear and snappy Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL is worth considering.