With the Kone Air, Roccat announces a gaming mouse from the old school. With an extraordinarily high weight of up to 142 grams in 2022 and a correspondingly long battery life of up to 800 hours with AA batteries, the input device falls out of the trend and positions itself against Razer's Basilisk X HyperSpeed (test).
< h2 class="text-width text-h2" id="section_roccat_breaks_with_dem_gamingmauszeitgeist">Roccat breaks with the gaming mouse zeitgeist
A few months ago, the manufacturer, which belongs to Turtle Beach, launched the Kone XP (test) and Kone XP Air, a new Kone with a lavish all-round button configuration for all kinds of game genres, which will replace the Kone Aimo Remastered in the medium term. As with the Kone Pro and Kone Pro Air (test) designed for shooter players, which provide the technical substructure for the XP, these are either wired mice or wireless mice equipped with a permanently installed lithium-ion battery. For the Kone Air, on the other hand, Roccat chose a different approach: the wireless mouse can hold up to two AA batteries. And while the manufacturer has kept the weight of the Pro models as low as possible at around 70 grams and the XP series is around 100 grams, the up to 142 grams of the Kone Air seem a bit outdated.
The considerable mass is primarily due to the batteries, because the mouse “only” weighs 96 grams when empty. With an AA alkaline battery, the Kone Air weighs 119 grams, says Roccat. However, lithium batteries are actually predestined for gaming mice, as they deliver a longer runtime with a lower mass of usually 14 instead of 23 grams. The catch: the price is a bit higher, which is why Roccat includes an alkaline manganese dioxide battery with the Kone Air.
Functionality between Pro and XP
Apart from the Kone XP Air's much shorter runtime of around 70 hours, there are other differences. The Kone Air doesn't offer a four-way mouse wheel, four fewer hotkeys, comes without a charging dock for obvious reasons and also has no RGB lighting. With an additional button on the back of the mouse and two thumb buttons, it stays with the standard fare, which is only supplemented by a third thumb button on the overlay. Since a complete secondary assignment can be configured via software, all but one button can be assigned twice to ensure significantly more extensive functionality.
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Roccat Kone Air (Image: Roccat)
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Roccat Kone Air (Image: Roccat)
The main hardware inside the mouse, meanwhile, is the same as the Kone XP or Kone Pro. Roccat again uses PixArt's PAW-3370, marketed as Owl-Eye, as the optical sensor – a common choice in the upscale segment in 2022 – and the opto-mechanical titanium switches for the left and right mouse buttons. The wireless connection to the PC uses 2.4 GHz wireless for gaming with a maximum USB polling rate of 1,000 Hertz or Bluetooth 5.1 for office purposes, with the polling rate dropping to 125 Hertz as usual. As usual, the Bluetooth mode is therefore not recommended for games.
The advantage of the slower connection, however, lies in the longer battery life – this is the only way for Roccat to achieve a value of up to 800 hours with two or 400 hours with an alkaline battery. Experience has shown that if the 2.4 GHz mode with 1,000 Hertz is used, the runtime is halved, but the manufacturer is silent on this. The editors asked Roccat for clarification on this, but have so far received no answer.
Comparatively cheap for a wireless gaming mouse
In addition to the Basilisk X HyperSpeed from Roccat mentioned at the beginning, Logitech's G604 Lightspeed can also be seen as direct competition. In terms of price, the Kone Air with a recommended retail price of around 70 euros is below the RRP of the two competing models, but in the price comparison the Basilisk X HyperSpeed is now listed from around 42 euros. According to RRP, the Kone Pro Air costs 130 euros and the Kone XP Air costs 170 euros >Optical
Lift-Off-Distance: 1.0-2.0 mm PixArt PMW-3389
Optical Logitech Hero 16K
Optical Resolution: 100-19,000 CPI
5 Levels 100-16,000 CPI< br>5 levels Speed: 10.2 m/s 11.4 m/s 10.2 m/s Acceleration: 490 m/s² 392 m/s² USB polling rate: 1,000 Hz Primary button: Roccat Titan Optical, 100 million Clicks ?, 50 million clicks ? Number of buttons: 6
Top: 3 Bottom: 1
Left side: 2 13
Top: 8
Left side: 5 7
Top: 4
Left side: 3 6
Top : 4
Left side: 2 15
Top side: 8 Bottom side: 1
Left side: 6 special keys: Mouse wheel
cpi switch 4-way mouse wheel
cpi switch mouse wheel
cpi- Switcher Releaseable 4-way mouse wheel
cpi switcher software: 5 profiles
Fully programmable, secondary occupancy
Macro recording
Internal memory: 5 profiles 5 profiles
Fully programmable, secondary occupancy
Macro recording
Internal memory: 1 profile 5 profiles
Fully programmable
Macro recording
Internal memory: 5 lighting profiles: Color: RGB, 2 addressable zones
Modes: Breathing, Waves, Color loop
Reactive Color: RGB, 5 addressable zones
Modes: Breathing, Waves, Color loop
Reactive – Case: 126 × 72 × 40mm
Hard plastic, metal, coating
Gloss elements
Sliding feet: PTFE (pure) 126 × 76 × 40 mm
Hard plastic, coating
Gloss elements
Sliding feet: PTFE (pure) 132 × 82 × 43 mm< br>Hard plastic, coating
Glossy elements, rubber elements
Sliding feet: PTFE (pure) 130 × 60 × 42 mm
Hard plastic
Glossy elements, rubber elements 130 × 80 × 45 mm
Hard plastic, coating
Rubber elements Weight: 73 grams (without cable) 99 grams (without cable) 142 grams (without cable) 107 grams (without cable) 135 grams (without cable) Connection: USB-A to USB-C cable , 1.80 m, coiled
Radio: 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
proprietary battery, 100 h runtime
Charging: cable USB-A to USB-C cable, 1.80 m , wrapped
Radio: 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
proprietary battery, 100 h runtime
Charging: cable, charging station Radio: 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
AA batteries Radio : 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
AA batteries, 450 hours runtime
Charging: External radio: 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
AA batteries, 240 hours runtime Price: from €100 from €170 €70 from €42 from €70