ROCCAT is coming out swinging this March 29th with their launch of the ROCCAT Kone XP mouse. This is another follow-up to their first ever product, the Kone mouse from 2007, alongside a few other Kone options, like the Kone Pro. This wired mouse brings so much to the table, that I won’t even fault it for not being wireless—we know how I feel about wires.
Out of the box, the ROCCAT Kone XP mouse has a foggy, crystal-like casing, allowing you to see its inner workings. The device comes in black or white depending on your needs, I had the black one. Each side is textured for a secure grip, and the mouse fits nicely in the palm of my hand, with curvature to fit my thumb comfortably. Everything down to its cable is pleasing to the eye, and that is before you even plug it in.
Power is what makes the Kone XP mouse come to life. Once plugged into your PC via a standard USB-A cable, the device lights up—everywhere. It has 22 LEDs and eight separate programmable light areas, allowing you to adapt the device to any setup you’d like. The lights on the ROCCAT Kone XP mouse go above and beyond simple colour and motion changes. Several of the light areas allow for a pattern, meaning in the Swarm app, you can customise the order and colour of each light, allowing for more dynamic colour combinations on top of its regular light show like Wave, Heartbeat, Breathing etc.
“Power is what makes the Kone XP mouse come to life. Once plugged into your PC via a standard USB-A cable, the device lights up—everywhere.”
The ROCCAT Kone XP mouse has 15 different programmable buttons, making it great for gamers. The buttons are a little more scattered than I’m used to for a gaming mouse. A device like the Razer Naga keeps everything in neat lines, whereas the Kone XP leaves that space free for thumb comfort, and positions the buttons above and below your thumb, as well as a few you would use your index and middle fingers for. To use these, it has been a bit of a challenge to train my hands, but it works!
ROCCAT brings its Swarm app to most of its devices, allowing for customization with lights, keybinds, settings, and more advanced settings. You can control your scroll speed, DPI, even the settings to cycle through your DPI. Usually, with a button click it will switch between pre-set DPI settings, but with Swarm, you can set them up to be whatever you want. Advanced settings include Sound Feedback, Debounce Time, LED Time-Outs, and Polling Rate. The app is very easy to use, and you can add up to 5 different profiles depending on which game you’re playing or who is using the Kone XP mouse.
“The ROCCAT Kone XP mouse has 15 different programmable buttons, making it great for gamers.”
Because the ROCCAT Kone XP mouse is wired, setup was simple—plug and play, plus downloading the Swarm app, which didn’t prompt automatically. The wire takes away the worry of charging, but realistically, a mouse with this many lights would eat through any battery very quickly, so wired just makes sense. The wired connection allows for flawless connectivity, and I never once came across an issue with the mouse not responding. It’s Titan Switch Optical makes each click feel and sound good, built for gamers. The ROCCAT Vulkan Pro keyboard uses the same switches, and it has quickly become my favourite keyboard, with the Kone XP right beside it.
Compared to other gaming mice, the ROCCAT Kone XP is very affordable, especially for what it’s offering. Most recently, looking at the HUAWEI Wireless Mouse GT sitting at $148.99, albeit wireless, the Kone XP comes in at $119. Other wired devices range from around $50 to around $150, so with light show and customizability on offer, I would pay what ROCCAT is asking with ease.
Providing the ultimate smooth experience, with a reasonable price and endless possibilities for customization, I can’t find a flaw in the ROCCAT Kone XP mouse. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone in the market for a wired mouse and will be using it at my home office—where all my flashy gear is—from here on out.
