Roccat Kone Pro Air wireless gaming mouse review

Roccat's Kone Pro Air is maybe not the most wholly remarkable mouse, but there are some strong features that manage to make it just about worth the $130 (£120) price tag. It's not the lightest, nor is it the swiftest, nor does it have quite the number of easily accessible buttons we'd have liked, but it makes up for its downfalls with fantastic ergonomics, battery life, and more. It also lends itself to a certain breed of gamer, which we'll get to in a moment. 

The Kone Pro Air weighs in at around 2.6oz (75g), which is a commendable effort when it comes to trimming down a gaming mouse. That lighter weight is helped along greatly by it's hollow, aluminium Titan frame, and Bionic shell. 

Being the absolute lightest isn't the be all and end all, matching balance and strength is also important. And Roccat has managed to build a supremely well balanced gaming mouse, and one you'd have to put some seriously significant weight into breaking, too.

With the RGB zones placed beneath the translucent left and right buttons' honeycomb substructure, Roccat has managed to give the Kone Pro Air—along with the rest of the Kone Pro series—a twist on the ever popular honeycomb design so many lightweight mice have adopted. But it's done so without tastelessly poking holes in the shell. 

And, while that does mean there's a touch more plastic weighing it down, it's a refreshing aesthetic choice. Besides there's something about having that RGB glow at my fingertips that makes me feel a little bit like a Jedi.

That positive design appraisal extends across the mouse as a whole, too. It doesn't come across clunky looking, but is instead quite alluring in its soft curvature. The almost matte finish, and light scoring along the shallow thumb rest make it a pleasure to handle. That also means its lack of rubber grips isn't an issue. The Kone Pro Air always feels high quality despite the evident thinness of the material—nothing rattles and the buttons are reliable and sturdy.

My main gripe with the design, however, is the aluminium Titan scroll wheel. It does its job, sure—relieving some of the weight gamers have grown to detest, and looks kinda funky, too—but there's something about a totally flat and metallic scroll wheel that feels odd to the touch.

On the underside, you've got some nice slippy PTFE feet that are honestly a bit of a dream to sweep around the mousepad. The one issue with the underside is that's also where Roccat has decided to plonk the profile switch, which also allows you to change DPI by holding and scrolling the mouse wheel. Not the most logical place to put it, but the multifunctionality surely helps save a bit of weight. 

In attempting to change the DPI with the scrolling feature, however, it proceeded to buffer and flash for about 20 seconds before it realised what it was supposed to be doing. A testament to the Roccat Swarm software needing a bit of TLC perhaps.

There is a groove on the underside, in which to keep the mouse's wireless dongle when not in use, which is always appreciated. And the dongle itself—providing a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection—is just one of three connection options. The second is bluetooth (always a nice, though laggy fallback), and the third is via a light and braided Phantomflex USB Type-C cable. 

Although that means if you lose or forget your cable a replacement is less commonly found lying around, there's none of that 'right side up' faffing when plugging in. That also means the charging process is a lot faster than your standard USB Type-A, and that swift charge is also bound to last a while, too.

A battery life of around 137 hours, RGB turned on and in battery saver mode, is not to be sniffed at. That puts it just behind the Logitech G903 Lightspeed's fantastic 140 hours (which was actually measured with the RGB turned off). Bottom line, the Kone Pro Air doesn't disappoint when it comes to its battery. And that's not the only internal feature that deserves some recognition.

When it comes to the Owl Eye sensor, it may not have the highest DPI out there at 19,000, but accuracy is what we crave and those tests came back close enough to the line that I have no complaints. Pixel skipping and input lag are super minimal, and the 1,000Hz polling rate is consistent. 

So, while other mice around this price point may come with higher DPI, Roccat has indeed come a long way from the Kova AIMO's 7000dpi Pro-Optic Sensor R6.

There are enough great features about the Roccat Kone Pro Air that make it an entirely admirable mouse, but still for me not quite enough to make it stand out from other wireless mice of the same price point. For an RRP of $129.99 (£119.99), you could potentially walk away with a better sensor, with a greater DPI range, and more than just the 5 buttons to play with. 

Still, the Kone Pro Air's  battery life, fast charging, and sleek sturdy design manage to make up for where it's a little lacking. 

With a quick charge lasting a good week of gaming, at something like 19 hours of full use per day, it's definitely one for gamers on the go. Moreover, it's for the rough and ready among us, too: those who fling their mouse around a lot, or leave it rattling around in their bag all day—it sure feels like it could take a battering.