ROCCAT Kone[+] Gaming Mouse Review

My favorite flavor of ice cream has to be Hagan Brothers Butter Pecan. That’s not meant to be a shameless plug for Hagan Brothers…I really do love their Butter Pecan. When eating ice cream sometimes people over look one very important aspect: How you’re going to eat it. Some people prefer a bowl. Others just eat right from the carton. Personally I prefer a Kone (see what I did there?).

ROCCAT (PRONOUNCED ROCK-ET) made a name for itself at Thinkcomputers when they allowed us to review the ISKU Illuminated Gaming Keyboard. The ISKU featured solid hardware accompanied by the most dynamic customization software I’ve ever seen. Today I’m taking a look at the ROCCAT Kone[+] – Max Customization Gaming Mouse. Let me start off by saying that MAX CUSTOMIZATION seems like an achievement I’d get in my favorite MMO. If MAX CUSTOMIZATION (I’ll stop with the CAP’s now) is anything similar to what the ISKU had, well, you can paint me blue and call me Babe (Pizza Pizza).

Bob took the liberty of doing a fancy un-boxing video of this mouse a couple weeks back so if you haven’t seen it take a look right now:

Package & Contents
Just like the ISKU the Kone[+]’s box is super sexy and quite informative. Most products I review these days have all the reviewer awards plastered on the back. ROCCAT did that plus added the more lucrative ones to the front to show off how “awesome” this mouse really is. Upon further examination the front door of the box opens up to show off the mouse even more. A nice feature is that if you were going to buy the mouse retail this allows you to somewhat grab the mouse to get a general feeling for it. There is nothing worse than buying a mouse and taking it home to find out it doesn’t fit your hand right. Well, okay maybe there are a few other things worse…but NOT MANY.

ROCCAT Kone[+] Gaming Mouse ROCCAT Kone[+] Gaming Mouse

Spread throughout the many panels of the box are listings of all the features packed into the Kone[+}:

Features

  • 6000DPI PRO-AIM LASER SENSOR  for maximum precision
  • EASY-SHIFT[+]™ BUTTON DUPLICATOR  for 22 directly accessible mouse functions
  • 4-LED LIGHT SYSTEM for individual colors + effects
  • TRACKING & DISTANCE CONTROL UNIT ultimate tracking; minimizes pick-up-flight
  • ROCCAT™ DRIVER + MACRO MANAGER  incl. Macro Presets for games & apps
  • ONBOARD MEMORY (576KB) store 5 Game Profi les with macros
  • 4 EASY-TO-CLIP-IN WEIGHTS (4X5G) for individual weight adjustment
  • 8 MOUSE BUTTONS programmable + solid 4D mouse wheel
  • ULTRA QUIET low friction mouse feet

Tech Specs

  • Pro-Aim Laser Sensor R2 with up to 6000dpi
  • 1000Hz polling rate
  • 1ms response time
  • 11750fps, 10.5megapixel
  • 30G acceleration
  • 3.8-5m/s (150-200ips)
  • 16-bit data channel
  • Tracking & Distance Control Unit
  • 72MHz TurboCore processor
  • 576kB onboard memory
  • 2m USB cable

After we empty the contents of the box we find ourselves with 4 items. First is the product registration card that you can use to register your product on the ROCCAT website. This registration is used for products updates along with your warranty. It also allows you access to their special owners forum. EXCLUSIVE. Next, we have the software and product info. We’ll get to the software a bit later in the review. After that we have a small container that I’m sure to lose in the next 3 days. This little plastic coach (girlie, I know) contains weighs that allow your mouse to be fat or skinny. Finally we have the Kone[+] itself.

ROCCAT Kone[+] Gaming Mouse

At first glance the Kone[+] looks like every other standard issue gaming mouse I currently see on the market: Slightly undersized palm design with the right mouse button extending slightly further than the left. I can think of 2 mice right off the top of my head that have a similar design; the Steelseries Ikari and the Cybersnipa Fierce. I guess if the design works don’t fix it, right?