Thank you Turtle Beach/ROCCAT for sending us this keyboard to review!

Last year, I was blessed with the opportunity to review the ROCCAT Vulcan II Mini, my first-ever 65% mini keyboard. And I love it - I use it almost daily as a secondary keyboard; my desk has work and gaming setups, and I use it to control my desktop while using my main keyboard for work. The only thing that could make it better is a wireless version - and lo and behold, here comes the Vulcan II Mini Air, fulfilling that exact wish. I reviewed the black version then, and am reviewing the white model this time around. While I probably prefer black overall, this white color scheme is quite sharp, and has the benefit of being very easy to find in a dark room, even if the contrast of certain colors doesn't work as well. You see, I prefer my RGB to be set to solid dark blue on most of my devices, but that doesn't look very good against a white background or key caps. However, lighter colors look fantastic, so pick whatever you think looks best to you.

Because I've already spent a lot of time with the Vulcan II Mini I'm not going to spend as much time exploring or explaining the 65% keyboard format, or most of the basic features of the keyboard. Please refer to that review if you would like my explanation about the keyboard layout itself, basic functionality and so on, as it's basically identical with this one.

While 'basically identical', there are a small number of changes, and some of them are pretty useful. Of course it's wireless, but we'll get to more on that later. There are now three battery status LEDs under the V, B, and N keys. The V key is for the keyboard, and I absolutely love that it only shows up when you press the Fn key; I don't need to watch it all the time, but it's important to check in on occasion. The other two, mouse battery status under B and headset battery status under N, only work with ROCCAT Swarm-compatible devices. (Swarm is ROCCAT's device customization software.) They also do not glow when Swarm isn't running, while you can check on the keyboard's battery status at any time, even when Swarm isn't running by tapping Fn and glancing at the 'V' key's bottom light. I love this.

The other four new buttons directly relate to the wireless functionality, so we might as well dive into that. This keyboard supports five different connected devices, and I absolutely love this. First, of course, you can connect via the high-quality USB-C cable that's included; it's a nice braided cable, and it looks and feels nice. It's 1.8 meters, or about six feet long. If you plug it in, it charges the keyboard, and works well at sending your keystrokes via the cable; you don't need to use it wirelessly at all if you wish.

The T, Y, U, and I keys are how you access the wireless features. If you plug the 2.4GHz Stellar Wireless dongle into your computer, and press the Fn+T key, the keyboard activates wireless mode. You can also toggle back to wired mode at any time by pressing Fn+T again, as long as the keyboard is USB connected to a computer. In this way, you can already switch between two computers if you are so inclined with a simple keystroke.

By using the Fn+Y, U, or I, you can connect to and switch between up to three other devices via a Bluetooth connection. Once paired, you can switch to them just as easily; by a simple keystroke, just as you can between wired and wireless mode. Also, if you aren't sure what you are connected to, you can press and hold Fn by itself, and the appropriate device light will glow white on your keyboard; nothing will glow in wired mode, T will glow white when connected via 2.4GHz wireless, and Y, U, or I will glow blue (for Bluetooth, get it?) if connected via Bluetooth to those devices. I used this feature to switch between my home and work devices, and it worked great - I just love how quick and easy it is to switch between them, as a work-from-home warrior. It's fantastic.

I also must say that the battery life on this thing is for real. After I received this keyboard to review, I charged it up right away, and the next morning started using it exclusively in a wireless mode (a mix of 2.4GHz and Bluetooth). I had my desktop connected via 2.4GHz, and my work MacBook Pro via Bluetooth. It lasted ten days in this mode, after which I noticed that the Bluetooth started to get flaky; it would sometimes miss keys. I assume that ROCCAT can fix this issue via a firmware update, but it is what it is. After that, I switched to exclusively 2.4GHz mode, which has worked flawlessly since. I have only plugged it in for short moments since, to update the firmware or other testing. The battery on this keyboard is around ten percent at around two weeks' time. Considering that the LEDs are usually on in use (though at a lower level), this is mighty impressive. I can say that for most people, charging it weekly or even a bit less can easily be all you need to make this keyboard as wireless as you can reasonably expect.

To contribute to this great battery life, there is a proximity sensor, so if you move your hands close to this thing, it will light up as you probably want it to. Otherwise it will go to sleep to save power. You can tune the power management settings in Swarm, basically tweaking how aggressive the standby and sleep modes are. Standby is how many seconds until the lights dim, and sleep mode is how many minutes until it puts the keyboard to sleep until you touch it again. These have all worked as expected, with a quick keyboard wake-up and minimal frustration (outside of the aggressive power-saving when the battery goes below 25% while using Bluetooth).

The keyboard looks pretty much identical to its non-wireless brother, except for the top half-inch or so. The USB-C port is moved to the left from the center, there is a power switch on the top now, and there is a receptacle to hold the Stellar Wireless dongle (thank you for doing this!). There is also a logo-embossed white plastic strip along the top of the keyboard (with an LED-colored ROCCAT logo) which is probably there because wireless signals don't transmit as well through metals like aluminum. This makes the whole keyboard a tad taller and heavier than the standard Vulcan II Mini, though hardly a big deal given what you get.