Expert’s Rating
Pros
- The 19,000 DPI sensor could be very exact, and the buttons are fast and clicky
- An ingenious design elevates your set off finger prepared to fireplace
- A light-weight physique provides to its pace and precision and prevents fatigue
Cons
- No devoted DPI button means you’ll be able to’t as simply change DPI settings
- Wired connectivity solely, so that you’ll must plug it in to play
- The mouse wheel lacks lateral left / proper clicks
Our Verdict
The Roccat Kone Pro is a formidable gaming mouse with a light-weight design that makes it fast off the mark in your mouse mat. It additionally has impressively quick buttons and appears very fashionable thanks to 2 dazzling RGB lighting zones.
Price When Reviewed
39.99
Best Prices Today: ROCCAT Kone Pro
$39.99
Weighing simply 66 grams, the right-hand-centric, wired Roccat Kone Pro sports activities one in all Roccat’s iconic “Kone” designs, eschewing the symmetry of the corporate’s Burst lineup for extra curves and arguably much more person management.
Accordingly, it has wave-shaped grooves on its flanks that present loads of grip, and up high, a delicate left-to-right slant poises your set off finger on the highest level prepared to fireplace. Add to these profitable traits, a really exact 19,000 DPI optical sensor and very fast optical switches, and by advantage, then, the Kone Pro is an especially efficient gaming mouse for FPS avid gamers.
This evaluate is a part of our ongoing roundup of the best gaming mice. Go there to find out about competing merchandise, what to search for in a gaming mouse, and shopping for suggestions.
Roccat Kone Pro: Design and construct
Its principal deserves established, there’s much more to love in regards to the Kone Pro’s design. In reality, you could possibly say it’s the mouse’s greatest asset, offering the correct amount of consolation with out compromising on efficiency. Size-wise, the 4.94 x 1.57 x 2.83 inches are smack-on to suit giant to medium arms, and the form works completely with any of the three principal grip sorts.
The modest eight-button choice can be best for fast motion video games the place you might have only some instructions to recollect—so followers of the Call of Duty, Battlefield, or related franchises, are nicely suggested to take be aware. In addition to the 2 principal clicks, you get two buttons on the left-hand aspect and a mouse wheel with ahead, backward, and downward performance. An further button on the underside switches between your onboard profiles.
The Roccat Kone Pro’s high has a slight left-to-right slant that poises your index finger able to click on.
Dominic Bayley / IDG
The principal buttons are generously proportioned, such that I may simply get two entire fingers on the proper one. To my delight, I discovered that utilizing an additional digit right here gave me millisecond-faster aiming that made a big effect on my gaming.
Roccat has completed extraordinarily nicely giving the Kone Pro a skinny plastic coating. As nicely as enabling its 66-gram weight, this outer shell is essentially chargeable for its beautiful seems to be. The Kone Pro has simply two RBG zones on the entrance beneath the principle clicks however the skinny casing lets simply sufficient gentle move via it to create a mesmerizing glow impact.
This dazzling RGB bathes your fingers in colourful gentle, guaranteeing you at all times get a spectacle whenever you look down, irrespective of whether or not you’ve opted for the black or the white coloration choice on the checkout.
Simple wired connectivity is one other manner Roccat has achieved such a light-weight design. By comparability the wi-fi model, the Kone Pro Air, weighs an additional 9 grams. But the 1.8-meter USB-A to USB-C cable doesn’t really feel low cost, being each very versatile and robust. It additionally comes with a helpful cap to forestall mud and moisture getting inside.
Roccat Kone Pro: Software
Swarm is Roccat’s supporting software program app the place, amongst different issues, you’ll be able to assign capabilities to the eight programmable buttons, make adjustments to the RGB lighting, and construct out its 5 onboard reminiscence profiles. The textual content in Swarm generally is a little small and tough to learn at occasions, however to its credit score the app goes above and past in regard to what you’ll be able to modify.
For the button task, for example, you’ll be able to develop the generic eight instructions to 16 by making one of many Kone Pro’s buttons an Easy Shift [+] set off. Doing this allowed me to play (and stand an opportunity in) RPG and MMO video games the place a much bigger command financial institution is an asset, so making this modification was undoubtedly definitely worth the trouble.
You can improve the variety of instructions with Roccat’s Easy-Shift [+] setting.
Dominic Bayley / IDG
The choices for assigning DPI are additionally very thorough. You can set values between 50 to 19,000 in increments of 50 items, or else make use of a calibration software that units you an approximate DPI primarily based in your actions. Regrettably, nonetheless, the Kone Pro lacks a devoted DPI button, so you’ll be able to’t merely change between DPI settings at will in video games with out organising one other button in Swarm to take action beforehand, or else altering profiles.
That stated, if you happen to’re the type of gamer that likes to simply set and overlook, you could end up spending much more time in Swarm than you’ll in any other case need to, which might get just a little tedious.
Roccat Kone Pro: Performance
The Kone Pro sports activities the identical 19,000 DPI Owl-Eye optical sensor because the Roccat Burst Pro Air—one other of our latest PCWorld critiques. Consequently, it may observe motion at 400 IPS (inches per second) and has an adjustable liftoff distance—a characteristic that professional avid gamers particularly will discover helpful.
As this wasn’t my first rodeo with this sensor, I used to be much less fascinated about the way it carried out (it’s a ripper) and extra fascinated about the way it may carry out in a very completely different design. To that finish, I fired up Call of Duty: Black Ops to match efficiency between the Kone Pro and the Burst Pro Air.
My playtesting proved the Kone Pro to be the faster, extra exact gaming mouse, which I attribute to the Kone Pro‘s extra beneficiant PTFE glide skates on its underside, together with across the sensor itself, which allowed for a smoother movement on my neoprene mouse mat.
At simply 66 grams, the Kone Pro additionally required a lot much less effort to wield in comparison with the Pro Air, which is a full 15 grams heavier. This meant I may make a lot lighter and extra exact actions and moreover play for longer than I may with the Burst Pro Air, with none uncomfortable pressure in my wrist. Considering the Kone Pro at the moment ships for $35 cheaper, it appears overwhelmingly like the higher worth choice.
The RGB lighting zones sit beneath the principle clicks, so that they bathe your fingers in a stunning RGB glow.
Dominic Bayley / IDG
The Kone Pro’s buttons, that are powered by Titan Optical switches, additionally deserve reward. They actuated immediately and by no means mis-clicked. In reality, at occasions they had been so fast that I discovered I’d already relaxed for the countdown to respawn, solely to seek out that I’d come up trumps in firefights. Roccat charges them for 100 million clicks, so they need to even be fairly sturdy.
The good thing about the sloping high can also’t be emphasised sufficient. It supplied the right leverage for my set off finger, thereby permitting me to get a slight pace benefit when firing. A bonus for me was that the buttons additionally felt tactile and surprisingly cool to the contact on scorching days, which added to my consolation in a giant manner when the temperature in my gaming den was pushing 86 levels.
Should you purchase the Roccat Kone Pro?
With the Kone Pro you get a lovely, light-weight, and inexpensive RGB gaming mouse with a exact sensor and really fast optical switches. True, it might lack a devoted DPI button, and wi-fi connectivity, however an excellent design that orientates your fingers for the quickest potential response greater than makes up for these shortcomings. Consequently, if precision and pace are in your gaming-mouse want listing, then the Roccat Kone Pro is a wonderful alternative.