Roccat Kone+ Review

Roccat Kone+ Review

Manufacturer: Roccat
UK Price (as reviewed): £62.27 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): Unknown

If there was a prize for size, weight and features, the Roccat Kone+ would push all other mice off the podium. It’s a deceptively huge mouse, which makes even the Razer Imperator and Cyborg R.A.T. 7 look tiny. It’s also one of the heaviest mice we’ve seen, weighing in at 126g; in contrast, the award winning Mionix Naos 3200 tips the scales at just 99g. As if this isn’t enough, the box also includes four 5g weights to increase the weight of the mouse.

Unfortunately, despite its size, the mouse doesn't feature any scoops for your ring finger and little finger, which means they’re left to drag along the desk. It’s a bizarre omission given the size of the Kone+, making the Mionix Naos 3200 and Razer Imperator more comfortable to use.

It isn’t all bad news, though. In fact, the rest of the Kone+ is otherwise well designed. The thumb buttons are well placed and the dpi sensitivity toggle buttons aren’t too far behind the scroll wheel. The scroll wheel has a good amount of resistance too, and it’s also able to move sideways, providing two additional buttons that scroll to the left and right in web browsers and other applications. These work well, although we aren’t sure about Roccat’s suggestion of using this for leaning in games, as you’d have to use your middle finger, which is uncomfortable.


In front of this is another button, which by default is assigned to the Windows key. It’s not until you fire up the bundled software that’s included with the Kone+ that you really see the mouse's capabilities, though. This provides what can only be described as an insane amount of adjustment, including up to five dpi settings, with the option of using two, three, four or all of them set between 100dpi and 6,000dpi in 100dpi increments.

Heading into the Advanced section reveals yet more tweakable options too. You can set the scroll speed for both vertical and horizontal scrolling, and also the height at which the sensor will stop tracking. A feature called the Tracking Control Unit is supposedly able to analyse the surface of your desk or mouse mat to optimise tracking, but this didn’t make much difference to tracking between our textured mouse mat and glossy desk.

The Kone+ also includes an interesting feature called Easyshift. Activated by pressing a pre-specified button on the mouse, Easyshift works in the same way as the Shift key on your keyboard. When pressed, it provides each button with an additional assignment. This is a great feature that makes the Kone+ much more usable than some of the terrible ten-plus button mice we’ve seen over the years.


Last but not least, you’re also able to customise two light strips at the edges of the mouse. Each of these can be set to one of 33 different colours, use one of four different effects and even make each lighting effect flow in one of five directions. Alternatively, you could just switch off the lights.

In games, the Kone+ was easily one of the better-feeling mice with which we’ve had the pleasure of gaming. Once we’d played with the plethora of options, it was very precise and accurate. Despite its weight and size, it was also fairly nimble, thanks to its smooth feet. However, we found that our ring finger and little finger were left to dangle, which was annoying.

Conclusion

The Kone+ is keenly priced given its epic list of tweaks and customisation options. However, you should consider how you hold your mouse and how much finger support you need before buying it, as we found the lack of support for our ring finger and little finger annoying.

• Design
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• 7/10

• Features
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• 9/10

• Value
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• 6/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 7/10

Specifications

• Connection Wired
  
• Material Plastic
  
• Buttons 8, scroll wheel with rocking
  
• Sensitivity 100dpi - 6,000dpi
  
• Extras Programmable lights, optional weights, on-board memory