Roccat Kone Air: A Wireless Gaming Mouse with Exceptional Features

Selecting reliable peripherals is crucial to optimize your PC setup, regardless of how impressive it currently is. Think of it like fitting a Ferrari with budget tires or having an Olympic sprinter run in boots. Among these essential peripherals is the mouse, which should be top-of-the-line. Roccat’s Kone Air Wireless mouse boasts ergonomic design, lightweight build, and gaming-friendly features while being affordably priced at just under $70. In this review, we’ll assess whether Roccat has hit the mark or not.

While Roccat offers several Kone variants, the Kone Air Wireless model is stripped-down and lightweight, hence its name. It’s notably lighter than other large-sized mice, weighing in at 0.26lbs, powered by a single AA battery. While not the latest technology, AA batteries have their advantages, such as lighter weight and the option to use two batteries for up to 800 hours of battery life, making them affordable and easily accessible.

The Roccat Kone Air’s battery life is impressive, especially if you have rechargeable alkaline batteries available to swap out. Accessing the battery slot is easy, requiring you to slide back the plastic cover where your palm rests, revealing the 2.4GHz Stellar Wireless USB dongle, which also includes Bluetooth connectivity. However, the mouse only comes with one battery, limiting your potential battery life.

Despite its lightness, the Roccat Kone Air has excellent build quality, especially for its price point. The top is made of plastic, while the sides and scroll wheel have a grippy rubber texture that provides excellent control. Its asymmetrical ergonomic design fits comfortably in the hand, allowing ample room for the thumb to rest. This mouse falls within the medium-to-large size range, making it suitable for the palm grip method.

While it caters best to FPS players, the Roccat Kone Air’s features make it a useful productivity mouse as well.

The mouse boasts a total of seven buttons, which include the side browser, forward and back buttons, and a multi-function button placed beneath your thumb. By default, pressing this button – labeled as ‘Easy-Shift [+] ‘ – allows you to access media controls from your mouse. Consequently, the left click becomes the previous track button, the right click becomes the next track button, the scroll wheel functions as a volume wheel, and the scroll wheel button controls the play and pause functions. You can experiment with this button by using Roccat’s Swarm software, which enables you to program these buttons to various functions, thereby making it an excellent productivity tool.

In more detail, the Roccat Kone Air employs Roccat’s TITAN optical switches that offer a snappy response and a durability of 100 million clicks. Audibly, these switches emit a light clicky sound. The Kone Air also incorporates Roccat’s Owl Eye 19K optical gaming sensor, which is based on the PixArt PMW3370 sensor. Within the Roccat Swarm application, you can select from five different DPI sensitivities, which can be changed on the fly using the DPI button beneath the scroll wheel. The mouse is highly responsive, and its lightweight construction, together with its heat-treated gliders, ensures smooth and effortless movement.

Retailing at less than $70, this mouse checks numerous boxes, including wireless connectivity, plenty of customization options with programmable switches, and excellent grip. Nevertheless, it doesn’t possess a modern USB Type-C connection, opting instead for the AA alkaline battery option. Additionally, there’s no RGB, and the overall design is rather lackluster, though not necessarily ugly. Despite these drawbacks, the Roccat Kone Air Wireless remains a good purchase within this price range.