Roccat Kone Pro Wired Gaming Mouse Review
NOTE: Roccat kindly sent me an early retail production unit of this mouse to review at my discretion alongside marketing assets and technical information. I don’t receive anything if you decide to buy one, and none of the links in this article are affiliate links. I had full editorial control over this article. Click here to see my reviews policy.
Roccat’s PR folks talked a big game when the Kone Pro and Kone Pro Air (review of that one over here) showed up at my door. “Test these against any mouse you’d like! We’re confident ours is better.”
Challenge accepted!
Just like the wireless model, I’m pleased to report that the Kone Pro is the best wired gaming mouse I’ve ever used. I had two full weeks and many hours of gaming to put it through its paces. I’ve used it against the HyperX Pulsefire Dart, the Roccat Kain 200 and Burst Pro I reviewed recently, and a whole host of Razer and Logitech mice that normally live in my hallway closet. I played numerous favorite games including Outriders, Doom Eternal, and Borderlands 3, and used the Kone Pro as my main work mouse too.
If you’re looking for an excellent new wired gaming mouse and you’re fine with an ergonomic shape, the Kone Pro is the one to buy. It is literally that simple. It sells for a lower price than its wireless counterpart, going for $79.99 (official site here). Just like the wireless model, it comes in either Ash Black or Arctic White color options. The cable is about 1.8m long and employs Roccat’s “PhantomFlex” design. Essentially, it’s hyper flexible and when routed properly you won’t ever notice it tugging on the mouse or your desk.
The wired Kone Pro has the same excellent 19,000 DPI OwlEye sensor, Titan Optical Switches, ergonomic years-in-the-making sculpted design, and aluminum Titan Wheel Pro mouse wheel from the wireless Kone Pro Air model. It performs phenomenally for both intense gaming and productivity, and doesn’t ever need to dim the reactive AIMO RGB lighting to save on battery life since it’s connected to power all the time.
Roccat has truly spent years working on this mouse shape, and it immediately shows in just how comfortable it is to hold regardless of grip type. At first glance it looks like “just another” ergonomic mouse with a seemingly-familiar shape, but it’s packed with clever design touches that give it a truly bespoke feel. The back of the mouse is uniquely contoured to fit better into the bumpy shape of a human hand, rather than just using a perfect curve. Our hands aren’t smooth like circles or eggs right? Roccat has accounted for that. Whether you use a fingertip, claw, or palm grip you’ll be perfectly comfy for hours of gaming.
The buttons complete the performance package, with well-placed side buttons for all grip types, and main buttons that have the firm snap and response Roccat mice are known for. And the mouse wheel is so good it gets a whole paragraph to itself further on in this review.
If you’re looking for reasons to choose the wired version over the wireless other than the lower price, Roccat actually includes one extra perk here. The wired Kone Pro comes with an additional set of mouse feet in the box. I’ve never personally changed out my mouse feet (instead usually moving on to a new mouse when my feet finally wear out) but that’s how convinced they are that you’ll want to keep using this mouse for a long time after buying it. So if you’re an intense player or go to a lot of tournaments/quickly wear out your mouse feet, Roccat has you covered with the wired Kone Pro.
The wired version has a slightly lighter 66g weight compared to the 75g of the Kone Pro Air. Both have a solid and sturdy feel in the hands thanks to their non-hole-filled “Bionic” shells, and after two weeks of gaming and work neither my wired or wireless model has a single creak or build issue. I even shook them both around in the air like some other reviewers do, and I didn’t hear any rattling whatsoever.
I’m glad that the awesome aluminum Titan Wheel Pro is still featured on this cheaper wired edition. I’m not kidding when I say this is easily the coolest mouse wheel on the market. It’s thin and light, but clicks down with a shockingly impressive and crisp feel, and the stepped scrolling also feels perfect for my tastes. The material is apparently designed to quickly adjust to your hand temperature(!), and sure enough it’s instantly pleasant to touch without the cold shock that metal sometimes has. I’ve gushed about this mouse wheel over two paragraphs in two different reviews now, but you really have to feel it and see it and then you’ll totally understand.
The Roccat Kone Pro is a standard-setting mouse. It feels better to aim with than every other mouse I’ve tried thanks to its light weight, comfort, and excellent performance. I can’t think of a single thing I would change about it. Some folks might not like that there’s no DPI switching button on the top of the mouse, but the profile button on the bottom can be remapped to DPI switching instead with just one quick setting in Roccat’s Swarm software.
This is a mouse that sits atop the industry in numerous different ways. It has an eye-catching design thanks to its under-button lighting. The carefully contoured shape is perfectly suited to all grip styles. It has a sensor that’s more than up to any gaming task you can throw at it. It has the world’s coolest mouse wheel. And I’ve had so much fun using it over the past two weeks.
The Roccat Kone Pro and Kone Pro Air are those rare flagship products that actually deliver on their marketing promises and are more than worth the money they cost. This is a bold statement against the entire gaming mouse industry and should be the first on your list if you’re looking for a solid body ultralight gaming mouse with every perk you could ask for. I have no idea how it could be readily improved upon. I suspect it’ll be Roccat’s premiere design for years to come and inspire many imitators.
The Kone Pro is so exactly what I’m personally looking for in a mouse that if I didn’t have to review stuff, it’d be the one I kept on my desk forever. I’ll never get enough of the mouse wheel.
