Roccat could also be about to be subsumed into the peripherals big that’s Turtle Beach, however in the interim their very own gaming equipment are nonetheless very a lot alive and properly, together with their Kone Pure Owl-Eye gaming mouse, seen right here in its not too long ago refreshed white version. I need to say, this little tiddler is sort of the ocean change after the altogether heftier waistline of the Corsair Ironclaw RGB, however this small £35 / $45 mouse nonetheless has quite a bit to supply over its jumbo-sized competitors. Is it best gaming mouse materials, although? Here’s wot I believe.
If it weren’t for the enormous Roccat lion blazing away in all colors of the rainbow on the Kone Pure’s decrease again, you’d virtually mistake this Owl Eye mannequin for a daily previous workplace mouse. While the white stripe will not be to everybody’s tastes in comparison with the common black mannequin, I’m really moderately keen on it, if solely as a result of it appears to be like refreshingly completely different from all the opposite black bits on my desk.
Weighing in at simply 88g, the Kone Pure Owl-Eye is among the lightest gaming mice round – simply 8g heavier than the Logitech G Pro Wireless mouse I take advantage of day after day. That’s sensible for somebody with tiny arms like me, and utilizing it to play fast-paced shooters like Doom or extra not too long ago The Division 2 felt splendidly fast and responsive as I moved it round my mouse mat. The scroll wheel, I ought to add, can be an absolute beaut.
There is one thing about its total form, nonetheless, that didn’t fairly sit proper with me. At first I believed it was as a result of it was too flat, however its top of 39mm is barely 1mm shorter than Logitech’s G Pro Wireless. So it may well’t have been that. Nevertheless, I used to be always shifting my hand round looking for a cushty place – a bit like once you unintentionally put a jumper on backwards. It matches, positive, however the form is all mistaken.
Then I realised that it most likely stemmed from its very outlined thumb and little finger grooves down the facet. These have a really distinct edge to their in any other case easy hollows, and it’s clear they need your fingers to sit down in a really explicit place. For me, although, this then meant my second, center and fourth fingers felt like they had been front-loading the mouse and never offering sufficient weight behind my hand to assist anchor it down. And given the remainder of the mouse’s moderately meagre dimensions, I’d think about the issue would solely be exasperated for larger-handed people.
Those preferring arched claw grips will most likely get alongside higher with the compact form of the Kone Pure Owl-Eye, as adopting this pose felt a bit extra pure. However, my fingers are too decrepit to carry that form of place for lengthy intervals of time, so ultimately I made do with a type of barely lop-sided fingertip grip as a substitute.
Design niggles apart, although, the Kone Pure Owl-Eye is surprisingly versatile given its low value. With a DPI vary that extends all the best way from 100-12,000 and 7 programmable buttons, this already provides you far more choices to personalise and customise the mouse to your liking than both the similarly-priced Steelseries Rival 310 or the HyperX Pulsefire FPS.
The facet buttons are set to ahead and again controls by default, whereas the 2 under the scroll wheel scroll up and down via the Kone’s 5 completely different DPI settings, however all of those (together with the scroll wheel and predominant proper and left click on buttons) may be assigned a large number of various capabilities by way of Roccat’s Swarm software program. What’s extra, its Easy-Shift+ operate means you can even assign a secondary operate to every of these buttons, supplying you with a complete of 17 instructions total. That’s extremely beneficiant for such a low-cost gaming mouse, though whether or not you’ll really ever want that many capabilities is up for debate.
Still, a variety of choices is at all times welcome in my books, even when Swarm’s interface is usually a little cluttered at occasions. DPI settings may be adjusted in 100 DPI increments, and you’ll even modify the vertical scroll and horizontal tilt pace in case you so want. Button capabilities are additionally in depth, together with dozens of game-specific macros which you could choose and select from in case you don’t fancy recording your individual, web, media and OS shortcuts, in addition to the flexibility to open particular packages, folders and web sites.
You also can cycle up and down via 5 completely different profiles, in addition to DPI and sensitivity speeds. The solely factor it’s actually lacking is the choice to assign a DPI ‘sniper’ button that you should use to vary the DPI on the fly once you’re lining up photographs in FPS games, for instance. That would have been the icing on the cake, however given the sheer variety of different issues you may get the Kone Pure Owl-Eye doing, it could be churlish to grouse an excessive amount of over one misplaced operate.
Add in a braided cable and the Roccat Kone Pure Owl-Eye is an absolute steal at its present value, providing high-end options you’ll discover on different gaming mice for a fraction of the associated fee. Personally, its compact form doesn’t fairly do it for me, however in case you like your mice small, gentle and packed stuffed with options, then I reckon it’s nonetheless an incredible price range different to our present best gaming mouse, the Corsair Ironclaw RGB.
