Roccat’s Kain 120 mouse was one among my favorite and best gaming mouse champs of 2019, so after I heard they have been making a wi-fi model within the type of the Kain 200, you may say I acquired a bit excited. Not solely does it have the Kain 120’s pretty Titan Click switches, nevertheless it additionally makes use of the identical comfortable chassis, too. How, then, did all of it go so terribly improper?
It began out so nicely. As you would possibly count on from a mouse that’s the spitting picture of its wired counterpart, the Kain 200 feels simply as pretty beneath the hand because the Kain 120. At 105g, it’s fairly a bit heavier than the Kain 120, which weighs simply 89g, however the further weight by no means made it really feel like a chore to maneuver round my mouse mat. If something, the additional freedom afforded by its 2.4GHz wi-fi made it even simpler to swish backward and forward.
The Kain 200’s pair of aspect buttons have been additionally simply as straightforward to achieve and press down because the Kain 120’s, if solely as a result of they’re in precisely the identical place as they have been earlier than. Out of the field, they’re set to go forwards and backwards in your net browser, however you possibly can assign all of them method of various features by downloading Roccat’s Swarm software program, together with macro instructions, media controls, hotkey shortcuts, use them to open folders and functions, or cycle by means of completely different DPI or sensitivity speeds.
Inside, the Kain 120 truly has a barely completely different sensor than its wired sibling. It’s nonetheless classed as one among Roccat’s 16,000 DPI Owl-Eye optical jobs, nevertheless it truly has one among PixArt’s PMW3335 sensors sitting on the coronary heart of it as an alternative of a PMW3381. This technically means it has a touch slower acceleration pace than the Kain 120, however in observe I actually couldn’t inform the distinction. Super delicate esportsers would possibly say in any other case, however for a decidedly non-esportsing particular person like myself, they each felt a lot of a muchness.
So far, so Kain 120, then. And but, all through my time testing the Kain 200, there was one thing about it that saved making me extremely irritated with it. Part of it was to do with its battery life. Roccat claims the Kain 200 can last as long as 50 hours in whole when you change off its RGB lighting, or 35 hours with it turned on. That’s not dangerous in comparison with the competitors. The cheaper Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless, for instance, is simply rated for 30 hours with customary lighting and 45 hours with out, whereas the significantly costlier Logitech G Pro Wireless can do 48 / 60 hours.
When I used the Kain 200 for work day-in and day-out, nonetheless, these 35 / 50 hours shortly disappeared into nothing. It continually gave the impression to be working out of battery throughout my testing, usually requiring one other cost after what appeared like simply a few days use. What’s extra, after I enabled the battery indicator choices in Swarm to assist in giving me a greater concept of when it wanted charging, the mouse nonetheless usually conked out even when it was meant to have 20% battery left. Either Swarm isn’t very correct, or there’s one thing extra worrying happening with the Kain 200’s battery.
I additionally acquired a bit pissed off with Swarm’s Automatic Standby setting for the Kain 200. Out of the field, this switches off the mouse’s RGB lighting and sensor after 30 minutes, serving to to preserve battery life once you’re not utilizing it. However, it additionally signifies that each time I come again to my PC after having lunch, for instance, I’ve acquired to click on one of many buttons earlier than it springs again to life once more – and the variety of instances I’ve tried shifting the mouse just for nothing to occur have been too many to depend.
Even after I do click on the button, the cursor’s by no means the place I count on it to be, and I’m continually anxious about by chance shutting one thing down or, heaven forbid, closing my whole Chrome browser within the course of. Yes, it’s one thing that may be simply fastened, both by disabling Automatic Standby altogether or just unticking the ‘turn off sensor’ field, however in comparison with the seamless Logitech G Pro Wireless and Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless, the Kain 200 simply looks as if a little bit of a faff.
It is, admittedly, a quite minor factor to get hung up on, however my troubles didn’t cease there, both. Charging the Kain 200 can be a little bit of a nightmare, because it requires its personal particular microUSB cable. You see, the deep recess the place its charging port lives has two tiny grooves down the aspect of it, making it unimaginable to suit a traditional cable into it. Instead, you need to use the particular grooved one which’s bundled within the field, in any other case you gained’t be capable to cost it. This occurred to me after I took the Kain 200 with me on a piece journey earlier than Christmas. Foolishly, I didn’t clock the grooves beforehand and assumed I’d simply be capable to cost it with one other one of many microUSB cables I had in my bag. Oh no. Luckily, I had one other wired mouse with me as nicely that I might use as an alternative, however what occurs if I find yourself shedding it sooner or later or my cats determine to chew by means of it? Roccat don’t promote alternative cables on their web site, so does that imply I’ve to purchase one other mouse fully?
I ought to level out, in fact, that this isn’t distinctive to the Kain 200. The Logitech G Pro Wireless additionally has its personal particular cable, however there’s additionally nothing stopping it from taking different microUSB cables on the similar time.
All in all, I wished to like the Kain 200, however at £87 / $65, there have been only one too many nit-picks that ended up making me hate it. Instead, all it made me really feel was a deep and intense longing to have my Logitech G Pro Wireless again on my desk. Yes, the Logitech is nearly twice as costly because the Kain 200 at £120 / $150, however holey moley is price it. Failing that, the £40 / $47 Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless continues to be my finest price range wi-fi gaming mouse of alternative, and a significantly better and fewer irritating purchase than the wi-fi Roccat Kain.
