Roccat is a well-respected brand when it comes to pro-gaming and the Roccat Kone Aimo mouse is one of the new additions to their product line-up.
This mouse comes with all the bells and whistles a serious gamer would expect to find and it has a few useful features for those that like to switch between games with different mouse button functions and sensitivity. But before we discuss features, here are the specs:
- ROCCAT® Owl-Eye optical sensor with 12000dpi
- ROCCAT® exclusive 50 Mio. lifecycle switches
- 1000Hz polling rate
- 1ms response time
- 50G acceleration
- 250ips maximum speed
- Mouse acceleration: no
- Angle snapping: on/off
- Adjustable lift-off distance
- ARM Cortex-M0 50MHz
- 512kB onboard memory
- 1.8m braided USB cable
How comfortable a mouse is in the hand is really dependent on the individual, but the Aimo is well designed and sits nicely in the palm of my not-massive hand. On the right-hand side of the mouse, the shape protrudes slightly which is something I have had to get used to. My usual mouse tapers in the way so this felt a little odd when I first started using it. The left side of the mouse includes a slight thumb rest and indent with buttons placed just above the thumb which are easy to access.
Below the thumb is an extra button which a lot of gamers may find useful. This additional button below the thumb is a shift function which gives each button a secondary function when it’s depressed. This effectively gives the gamer double the number of available buttons at any time across the whole mouse. This quick access means that if there is a button you would like to use for more than one function in a game it can be easily set up. Not all of the buttons positioning will suit everyone so this makes life easier.
The wheel is a really decent size, and as well as the scroll up and down, it can also tilt left and right which means you could assign a hotkey to peek around corners or assign it to whatever you want.
The mouse is smooth plastic, there are no grips or rubbery bits to contend with and it feels extremely silky in the hand. It’s quite nice to hold which can’t be said for every new mouse I’ve tried out recently. It’s worth pointing out that it feels weighty which may or may not be a plus for some gamers. Considering what this mouse can achieve it’s not surprising. If there was one criticism about the mouse, it’s quite “clicky”. You need to give the left and right buttons a decent amount of downward pressure and you can hear the click. My current mouse is quite light on the press so it’s taken some getting used to but it may ease over time. I’ve hammered the buttons long enough to see what would happen.
Gamers love the shiny stuff and this mouse comes with all the RGB lighting tricks with illumination going up both sides of the mouse and a well-lit mouse wheel. How you want the mouse to look is up to you thanks to the Swarm software that drives it. The software needs to be downloaded once the mouse is plugged in and is a firmware update waiting for new users. Once it’s installed there are a plethora of useful functions available.
The mouse utilises Roccat’s Intelligent Lighting System which they describe as a “‘learning lighting experience” where the mouse learns when not to be a distraction and when to “dazzle”. I’ll admit I really don’t care if my mouse glows and pulses, I’m usually paying attention to the screen and not what shade of pink my mouse has decided to display. Still, some gamers will get a kick out of it.
Once the Swarm application is launched, how the mouse looks and performs can be completely customised. Want green lighting? Change it to green. Want it to pulse like a heartbeat? Select heartbeat. All the settings come with colour themes too so there should be something here for everyone.
When it comes to tweaking how it will perform and react to movement, the settings panel comes with multiple scroll speed options such as vertical/horizontal tilt, DPI, and double-click. You can basically mess around with it until it’s absolutely perfect. The profile manager comes with five onboard profile slots which can be configured for different games and activated when a specific program is launched making it super easy to access settings you want when you launch a game. Profiles can also be imported expanding on what’s possible.
Having tested this out in a few games I am appreciating the customisation options available, I set up a few profiles with some tinkering in the Swarm app and it worked like a charm.
Roccat Kone Aimo Mouse is a quality and it’s slick. The supporting software makes it easily customisable, and if you like flashing lights, then this has all that too. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s a right-handed mouse only in case any left-handed gamers want to get their paws on this. Overall, the Aimo is worth it if you are serious about gaming, it’s £69.99 which might be more than you want to shell out for a mouse, but it’s a high-end quality piece of kit so it’s really worth considering the Kone Aimo.
