Roccat Kone Pro Review
An affordable wired gaming mouse with a lightweight design
Verdict
The Roccat Kone Pro is the chunky lightweight mouse to beat thanks to a great price, smart looks, unique lighting array, and deep, satisfying mechanical click. Its limited lighting options are a little disappointing these days and you’re going to need some software clutter to dial in your settings, but this mouse gets the feel and price just right.
Pros
- Satisfying deep mechanical click
- Super responsive tracking
- Smart design and smooth to the touch
- Ultra comfortable regardless of grip
Cons
- No dedicated DPI button
- Limited lighting
- Requires software install to use
Availability
- UKRRP: £69.99
- USARRP: $79.99
- EuropeRRP: €79.99
Key Features
- Fast and Responsive:A 19,000 DPI sensor isn’t the highest around, but it’s certainly all you need.
- Lightweight Design At 66g, this is one of the lightest mice around. Your wrists can rest easy.
- Large design:Others mice sacrifice size to reduce weight. This one’s for the palm players.
Introduction
The original Roccat Kone was a wired gaming mouse I just couldn’t love. But someone had to.
However, it now been redesigned 12 years later, with this new iteration hitting almost all the right notes and standing out in a crowd of lightweight gaming mice that look like cheap plastic cheese graters. This is a lightweight gaming mouse for the practical gamer, not the trendsetter.
You can grab the Roccat Kone Pro in white or black right now for £69.99/$79.99/€79.99. At that price, it’s one of the best value lightweight gaming mice around.
Design
- Smart and smooth design that hides detail under its skin
- Comfortable for practically all grip types
- Ultra-light at 66 grams.
After 12 years of feedback from millions of gamers, Roccat’s best-known pointer is back with a new look and that same iconic click. The Roccat Kone Pro joins the growing ranks of the lightweight gaming movement, doing whatever is in its power to shed a few extra pounds to make flinging this thing around a desk all day just that little bit easier on the arms.
The Roccat Kone Pro is an unassumingly basic-looking mouse: until you actually plug it in. Its sleek, smooth matte-plastic shell feels tough despite there likely being next to nothing reinforcing it within. It looks like the smart but oh-so slippery Logitech G Pro X Superlight before the big moment it’s plugged into its forever home.
After that, the uniquely positioned RGB lighting illuminates the main mouse buttons, revealing the iconic lightweight mesh beneath. It’s a best of both worlds situation: the overused design is there if you want it, but easily hidden by flicking off the RGB lighting if you don’t.
Now back to how this thing actually feels in use. Thanks for the generously deep thumb zone, you get that silky smooth surface without sacrificing on that all-important grip. The two side buttons are utterly enormous and perfectly placed as well, ensuring you’ll never miss a quick tap or a serious squeeze.
It’s a shame there’s no pinky rest on the opposite side. Paired with its impressive 66 gram weight, the addition could have made an already brilliant mouse into a comfort king. There could be a strong case for its omission. Either way, what we have here is a mouse that still somehow makes palm, claw, and fingertip grips all surprisingly usable.
Performance
- Zero tracking issues
- 19,000 DPI isn’t ground-breaking, but is easily enough
- Customizable lift distance and other advanced niceties
Nothing you’ve read so far really matters if the sensor powering the experience isn’t up to the task. Thankfully, the 19,000 DPI Owl Eye sensor is perfectly up to the task.
It’s based on the same PixArt tracker used in the Mountain Makalu 67 mouse. And after using that for a few weeks in the past, I can confidently recommend it. Drift and lift off distance won’t be a problem, and even fur shed from my cat’s summer coat couldn’t interrupt this thing.
This ensures a snappy, responsive performance, so you can quickly aim at your target without delay. A high DPI is essential for competitive shooters.
Before you attempt to waltz into battle, though, make sure you peel the film back from the long and wide PTFE feet. Your experience may differ, but my review sample came riddled with air bubbles. Fix that little mistake and the Kone Pro will effortlessly glide around your mouse pad without any avoidable bumps
And if you use a not-so-smooth surface, you can rest easy knowing there’s a second pair of pads in the box to slap on when the first begins to wear down. Though you should invest in one of the best mousepads if mouse feet are things to wear down regularly.
This mouse uses a wired connection, so you don’t need to worry about the likes of input lag and battery life.
Software and lighting
- Limited lighting options
- Relatively easy to use
- Needed to boost the default 800 DPI setting
Even on the box, Roccat states that the Kone Pro features driverless setup. And that’s mostly true. It’s a plug & play mouse, but not everyone will be happy with its default settings.
Though it does come maxed out with 1000Hz polling enabled so that it’s sending position data back to your PC as often as possible, the default DPI is set at a measly 800 DPI. As such, most gamers are probably going to need to download the Roccat Swarm software to dial in their settings.
For all your troubles and storage space, downloading the software will grant you access to five custom profiles you can switch between at the push of a button. You’ll even be able to add a DPI switch or modifier if the omission of a dedicated button really affects your game.
It’s sad to see you can’t simply have the Kone Pro’s lighting react to your touch to replicate your fingers firing out bolts of fire or lightning, but at least you can specify the colour, speed, and brightness of the lighting array. Or you could just turn them off. It’s up to you.
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Should you buy it?
You want a lightweight gaming mouse that doesn’t look like one:
The Roccat Kone Pro does a fantastic job of using tried and true methods to drop a bit of weight without looking like every other mouse in its category.
You want a really flashy mouse:
With very few bells and whistles and minimal RGB lighting, the Roccat Kone Pro is one of the least “in your face” gaming mouse around.
Final Thoughts
The Roccat Kone Pro is a an excellent gaming mouse, with a a lightweight 66g design and a solid performance thanks to the 19,000 DPI sensor. However, the lack of DPI button is a nuisance, while the limited lighting mean it’s not the flashiest option around.
FAQs
Yes, the Roccat Kone Pro uses a wireless connection. The Roccat Kone Pro Air is the wireless version.
The Roccat Kone Pro features a 19,000 DPI
The Roccat Kone Pro has a 1.8 metre cable.
Specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
