Turtle Beach - Vulcan II TKL Pro Wired Magnetic Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Analog Hall-Effect Switches - Black

I understand this is not of the big brands when comes on to keyboard, I upgrade to this keyboard and I have no complaints.

Very good quality, satisfying key presses and fast response time. Highly recommend. It would be nicer if the armrest actually connected to the keyboard somehow, but it's still nice and comfortable for the wrists.

I love this thing! The keys are super smooth and responsive. Actuation can be adjusted. I have a few gaming keyboard and this one is my favorite. The lighting is beautiful, bright, and just right. Would highly recommend!

Of all the keyboards I’ve used over the part 42 years, this one is unique. Not just the way it works either. The hall-effect tech has been around a long time. I’ll talk about that later in my review. The way it looks and feels is different than your typical keyboard. Gaming or otherwise. The way it implements the hall-effect detection for each key is pretty impressive. You can have set the sensitivity for each key in 30 steps. 1.0mm to 4.0mm. Each key can be a different color and brightness. You can set up macros and there’s a list of popular game macro presets for various keyboard setups. See photos. Connecting to a PC is pretty straightforward for a wired keyboard. Plug in in with the included USB-A to USB-C cable and it works. But you will need to download and set up Swarm II software to use all the features it offers. Swarm II will first look for firmware and software updates when you run it for the first time. You have options for the lighting effects and key travel sensitivity. Interestingly, the first time I ran Swarm II and set up the lighting and colors for certain keys, it didn’t save it. You can save / export customizations as Profiles. The next time I used my PC, it was on the default settings. I set it up again. Same thing next time. Not good. Just set the keyboard to a static color and brightness. No problem on the third time. I don’t care for how Swarm II designed. It’s not very intuitive to use and doesn’t feel like it finished. A rushed minimum to get the product out there? I really like the feel of how the keys move compared to my Logitech MX and Spark 910G. The somewhat pastel-ish looking RGB colors are easy on the eyes. Build quality feels solid. The top deck under the keys feels like aluminum. It’s cold to the touch, whereas plastic generally isn’t. The bottom is plastic. I like the three height positions the dual function feet provided on the back. I like how the sculpted keys feel. Not quite up to a vintage IBM Selectric typewriter, but getting close. I learned to type on those in the early eighties in HS and college, and I don’t think anyone has made better feeling keys. The Neoprene wrist pad included is ok and helps with comfort, but a gel pad would have been better. I like that you can change the keycaps. I was able to put some of the keycaps from my Logitech MX on the TB to see how it felt and looked. See photos. Performance wise, the action is snappy. You can adjust the trigger point per key, and cause different functions at up to 4 different key heights with macros. That’s about all one could want in that area. You can customize the lighting per key too. Color and brightness. I really like the volume knob that you push to mute. What I don’t care for is the size of the keycaps. Yes, they are nicely sculpted, but too small for my personal tastes. I don’t care for how high the keys sit above the deck. Different keycaps can help. The MX keycaps I tried were thinner and so sat lower. I also don’t care for all the light bleed around those small keys. The MX keycaps minimized that some. Even at minimum brightness, it can be annoying in a dimly lit room. Setting it to static color and to red works best in that case. A well-lit room or brighter is no problem. See photos. Again, my personal tastes, but even I wouldn’t consider it to be a deal breaker. I do wish this one had a numeric pad too. However, it wasn’t offered to review. Turtle Beach sells the same keyboard with the numeric pad and I’m certain it will work the same as this one. Conclusion: I think this keyboard is a good value for the money. What I didn’t care for on the keycap size, height and lighting, may not be an issue for others. And you have the option to change the keycaps. Hopefully, TB will improve Swarm II. I’d give it a 4.5, but since I can’t I’m giving it a 5 star rating because it’s closer to that than a 4 star rating. Extra info for anyone interested. Hall-effect key sensing for computer keyboards isn’t new. It was used in the 1970s and later for some computer brands. Here’s my first dealing with it. When I was 17 in 1982, I got an Atari 400 computer. It had a flat membrane keyboard to cut costs, but was usable. Albeit, slow. My father worked for ALCOA and they upgraded their mainframe computer in 1982-83. He was able to get me a full stroke keyboard from the old 1960s / 70s Sperry Univac system. I’m not sure exactly how old and dad has passed and I can’t ask him. Anyways, some research shows that the first hall-effect keyboards they developed that looked like the one he got me was from the late 1960s about 1967. Needless to say, it wasn’t going to connect up to my Atari like a modern USB keyboard will to about any PC. Since I grew up in a house of electricians and electronic engineers, father and older siblings, I was already into building electronic projects and such. I took that Sperry keyboard apart and was surprised that those keys were not mechanical switches. Each had 4 wires and a donut shaped ferrite core around them. The wires were like a couple of lower case “n”s with the ferrite core around one leg of each. I think. That’s over 40 years ago 😉. A couple of ceramic magnets on opposite sides of the core slid down passing the core to generate a pulse when the key was pressed. All of that went to a bunch of transistors used to amplify the pulse that was generated with a key press and then went to logic chips. Anyways, the conclusion is that I wasn’t able to use the Sperry keyboard. Not without designing and making an interface. At 18, I wasn’t that smart. But I wasn’t stupid either. I came up with a clever idea that worked. Snip the n wires remove the cores, bend the stiff wires to one side, put aluminum duct tape to the bottom one of the magnets and when it came down to just before it bottoms out, it makes a circuit by connecting the two wires. I peeled the membrane keyboard apart, drew a schematic for it. I then converted all the keys in the big Sperry keyboard to work like I needed them to. I took a Dremel tool and cut all the traces from the keys. I then rewired it all to work with the Atari. Including the numeric pad and cursor keys. I had to rig the cursor keys to also include the CTRL key when pressed too, to work correctly. It took me about three weeks or longer to do it, but it worked! I don’t have the Atari 400 or Sperry keyboard, but still have the schematic I drew. Bonus info: In the late 1980s and 1990s, the synthesizer company, Ensoniq, produced several music keyboards that had polyphonic after-touch that used a type of hall-effect. This means that pressing a single key down harder to get vibrato, or another effect, only affected that key / note. Using after-touch on most other brand’s synths, pressing one note down harder would affect all the notes that were currently being held down. They usually used a long membrane resistive strip to detect pressure. The harder you pressed, the more intense the effect. The Ensoniq system worked the same way as far as pressure and intensity, but per note. They used a printed circuit board that had a swirl under each key, and each key had a metal disc under it that sat above the swirl (antenna). When you pressed a key, it worked like a metal detector. They were able to calculate velocity of the key and the after-touch pressure this way. They used them in the VFX series, EPS series and MR-61. Maybe a few other too. If you read all of that, thanks! I hope you found it interesting.

The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro is a pretty interesting keyboard. Despite not really associating Turtle Beach with high end keyboards, their offering is top notch, with really good build quality, USB-C, excellent software, USB-C, and lots of hardware features. All this executed in a nice TKL (ten keyless) form factor that really does improve ergonomics over a full size keyboard (your mouse is closer). Read on for some highlights. Hall Effect Linear Switches The Vulcan II TKL Pro features hall effect linear switches, which are known for their smooth and consistent actuation. Unlike many mechanical keyboards, these use magnets for actuation, which makes them super flexible. These switches also have adjustable actuation points, so you can customize the keyboard to your liking. What this means is that you can use the Swarm II software to adjust on a per key basis the actuation point. For instance if you wanted to configure the WASD cluster and left Ctrl to be more sensitive than the rest of the keys you absolutely can. I found the ability to adjust the actuation point to be pretty awesome - leaving it lower during typing, and higher in twitch shooters. Another thing that’s interesting about analog switches, is the ability to emulate an analog stick on a controller. Despite this being kind of gee whiz, it’s really hard for me to recommend using the keys like this. It’s a bit strange trying to get your brain trained. I’m sure some people can, but not me. RGB Backlighting The Vulcan II TKL Pro features full RGB backlighting, which can be customized to your liking using the Turtle Beach Swarm II software. The built in lighting effects are pretty cool, with many familiar patterns, including colorwave, snake, ripple, and fade. Swarm II Software The Turtle Beach Swarm II software allows you to customize the Vulcan II TKL Pro's lighting, macros, and performance settings. You can also use the software to create custom profiles for different games and applications, adjust the RGB lighting per key, update firmware, and adjust the hall effect sensors. The software even includes a visualizer for the switches, which light up the numbers 1-9 to show the amount of force applied to the current key (which can be helpful for tweaking your analog sensitively). The software was speedy, and never felt sluggish or was heavy. The profile engine seemed complete, but I only tested a couple games, and find little use for macros in general. Beyond the software, there are hardware profiles, lighting controls, and shortcuts using the Fn key found next to right Alt. You can easily turn off the backlight, adjust it’s brightness, turn off the Windows key, and execute up to 6 macros. Pressing Fn+F8 followed by a Fn and one of the 6 macro keys starts a recording. Pressing Fn+F8 will end the recording and you can then access that macro easily. Volume Wheel The Vulcan II TKL Pro features a dedicated volume wheel, which is a great convenience. I’ve had keyboards with dials, rollers, and buttons, and there is something about a dial that I just enjoy. It has a satisfying click as you turn it, and you can push it in to mute. T-Shaped Keycaps The Vulcan II TKL Pro features T-shaped keycaps, which are designed to… err… look really cool. Honestly I found the ABS keycaps to be fairly good initial quality, and didn’t appear to get shiny right away. After a week of use they still look pretty good on the surface. The advantage the T shape has is simply to show off the lighting, which it does well. Overall The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro is a high-end mechanical keyboard that offers some sweet hall effect magnetic switches. The hall effect linear switches are smooth and consistent, the RGB backlighting is well executed, the software is on point, and the volume wheel is a great convenience. Overall, the Vulcan II TKL Pro is a great choice for anyone looking for a high-quality mechanical keyboard.