Roccat Kone (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Official Store: https://en.roccat.org/Mice/Kone-AIMO-Remastered
ROCCAT is a German-originating Turtle Beach brand who specialises in third-party peripherals including mice, mousepads, headsets, and keyboards. Their mission statement reads "we're passionate about developing premium gaming hardware that makes you play better," and they have a partnership with Twitch streamer Dr. Disrespect whose motto "Violence. Speed. Momentum," is a perfect synergy to the products ROCCAT produces. Having reviewed a couple of gaming mice now I know fully what I expect from these devices, and with a week of use under my belt to get to grips with the ROCCAT Kone Aimo Remastered Wired Gaming Mouse, I am confident I can convey the pros and cons of this unit. As a baseline, I really like to test each unit in day-to-day use scenarios as well as gaming and a variety of online mouse tests, regardless of model or niche features. Let us dive in and get to grips with this sleek, modern-looking, input device.
From the outset, the first thing that strikes you are the ROCCAT Kone's devilishly good looks. The aesthetic is futuristic, vibrant, purposeful and edgy with its sculpted feel, lightweight materials and vibrant lighting. I'm a huge fan of the matte black neon look, and ROCCAT has certainly captured lightning here with the Kone as everything about it oozes style and simplicity. The initial "feel" is excellent in your hand, with a finely crafted chassis and exquisitely proportioned ergonomic feel. Every button is easily within reach, especially with the Easy-Shift button needing to be held to access alternate button functions, which makes this mouse a superb addition to your daily gaming arsenal.
- ROCCAT® Owl-Eye optical sensor with 16000dpi
- 50G acceleration
- 250ips maximum speed
- Mouse acceleration: no
- Angle snapping: on/off
- Adjustable lift-off distance
- Incl. Omron® switches
- 1000Hz polling rate
- 1ms response time
- ARM Cortex-M0 50MHz
- 512kB onboard memory
- 1.8m braided USB cable
- Height: 4.00 cm
- Width: 8.50 cm
- Length: 12.50 cm
- Weight: 130 g
- System requirements: USB 2.0 Port, Internet connection for driver installation
- Operating system: Windows® 10, Windows® 7, Windows® 8
The 1.8m braided cable is plentiful and thanks to the combination of super slick glide pads and the rigidity of the cable you can feel the device effortlessly sail across any given surface with a level of precision you absolutely were not expecting. The 16000dpi Owl-Eye optical sensor is incredibly accurate and with user DPI adjustment you can quite literally tune it to your level of speed while retaining a superb level of precision. Personally, I opt for 1000hz polling, 3000dpi for everyday use or 6000dpi or higher for gaming, with no snapping, and mouse acceleration enabled. The best thing is that every DPI zone is customizable and you can have up to five of them profiled on your mouse, with the + and - buttons being mappable for quick switching to suit your needs. The overall anthropometrics and the ergonomic feel of this mouse are fantastic in your hand, though disappointingly, the weight of the Kone is questionable. It's a fine balance of lightweight and incredibly easy and smooth to pilot around your desk, however, I felt that it just needed a little more weight behind it to really hold it down. There are no adjustable weights included with this mouse, but if they were optionally available I would consider this to be a superior mouse. It's quite literally all I feel that this unit is lacking, as the buttons are all perfectly snappy Omron switches, the grip is comfortable and the build quality is just sublime, but the meer 130g stature feels like it's too light for me personally.
ROCCAT Swarm software is currently deployed as a 155mb installation (at the time of writing: driver 1.9364, firmware version 1.03) that allows you to fully customize every aspect of this mouse. My personal setup revolves around daily media usage, and a splash of gaming, so the ability to preset profiles, setting my favourite scroll speed and button shortcuts, and of course edit the DPI on the fly is incredibly useful. Set up and customisation of this mouse are incredibly simple and intuitive, with every adjustable option available to you exactly where you would expect to find it. I have to say that from past experience of keyboard/mouse software I wasn't expecting much, but the ROCCAT Swarm software has given me fresh hope that it is possible to ship excellent companion software for a great product.
Macro functions allow you to record your favourite manoeuvres directly to your mouse. Thanks to the 23 button functions there is no end to the time-savers you can create and with a vast library of presets available for a library of games including Counter-Strike, GTA V and Siege, there is instantly something for everyone to get started with, and tune and tweak to your preference. The Kone comes with enough presets that anyone can deep dive into the catalogue of commands and even customise existing ones to suit their needs. You get 5 profile slots for your mouse so that you can quickly select a loadout for a variety of situations, and these are incredibly handy to have at your disposal as you can swap between gaming and leisurely usage in a matter of just three clicks.
AIMO is the naming convention used to link ROCCAT's RGBA-lit devices together in harmonious swathes of colour, and the AIMO synchronization in Swarm is as straight forward to initiate as you would wish. The LED array within the device allows for 5 zones of colour, illuminating the mouse wheel, and each side in two places. These zones can be edited to display any one of 16.8 million colours, from dimmed to zero through to full retina-burning brightness, and can be programmed to pulse and flow in a number of predefined patterns such as waves, heartbeat, or my personal favourite, snake. These zones can also be given further finesse by allowing for gradient colours to be applied, which make the aesthetic incredibly pleasing regardless of your preferences. AIMO itself allows for an unprecedented level of ambience through AI learning "living light" and more immersive colouration based on how you use these compatible devices.
The ability to fully customise this mouse with solid vibrant colour in a number of areas means fully personalised gear that you can appreciate on a higher level. I experimented with the built-in patterns and colours and found that you can pretty much theme this thing towards any pop culture aesthetic you can think of, keep it subtle and stylish, or just go wild and make it eclectic. For example, a green and purple combination will put you in mind of The Incredible Hulk, blue and red for Spider-Man, yellow and blue - vintage Batman. I had a lot of fun experimenting with combinations and just plain making it look cool, the possibilities are endless, and the configurations are stored onboard for you to take with you wherever you need them. The built-in animated light sequences are exceptionally well-implemented too, with distinct patterns emulating that of a beating heart and even of the cult retro mobile phone game Snake!
Overall this mouse is a finely chiselled futuristic LED super beast that I honestly didn't expect to like as much as I do. The grippy coating and ergonomic layout make it incredibly intuitive to hold, and though it's, yet again, not designed for south-paws, for us right-handers it is absolutely superb. While I understand that the majority are right-handed due to the incredible statistic that only 10% of the general population are lefties: there need to be more options for them. Though ROCCAT do have the Kova as an alternative for the ambidextrous and the Lua for those who want a pared back three-button mouse, its just not a great selection for them to behold, which is a shame. A lack of weighting also brings the review score down a tad as that is pretty much all I can find to grumble about this excellent, all-rounder of a mouse.
Verdict
- Incredibly customisable with 23 button functions
- Comfortable feel in your hand even after long sessions
- Silky smooth pads glide across any surface
- Excellent companion software
- No ambidexterity
- No weight adjustment
