Roccat Kone Pure Ultra Review
An excellent wired gaming mouse with a comfortable and lightweight chassis
Verdict
The Roccat Kone Pure Ultra is an excellent wired gaming mouse with a comfortable and lightweight chassis, as well as a powerful sensor and reasonable software. It may not be the flashiest option out there, but the Kone Pure Ultra is a functional one.
Key Features
- 16,000 DPI sensor:The Kone Pure Ultra features lots of sensitivity with a 16,000 DPI sensor inside.
- Latency-free wired connection::A USB-A ended cable also ensures a zero-latency connection
- Roccat Swarm software:It’s also compatible with Roccat Swarm for addressing RGB or remapping buttons.
Introduction
The Roccat Kone Pure Ultra is a gaming mouse that aims to offer the fundamentals of a great peripheral for a reasonable price.
Priced at £69.99/$69.99, it’s one of the more affordable gaming mice I’ve tested in a long time, and arrives in good company alongside previous offerings from the brand including the wireless Roccat Kone Air and the older Roccat Kain 200 AIMO.
I’ve been testing the Kone Pure Ultra for the last few weeks to see how it stacks up against the competition and to see if it makes for one of the best gaming mice this site has tested. Let’s find out.
Design
- Comfortable, shaped chassis
- Ultra lightweight frame
- Sensible button placement
The Kone Pure Ultra is a comfortable mouse, with a contoured shape that makes it an excellent choice for right-handed users. There are small cutouts on either side to guide hand placement, with the one on the left-hand side operating as a thumb rest, which is nifty. The lack of any form of rubberised support is a shame however, as the Kone Pure Ultra features an entirely hard plastic shell.
With this in mind, the Kone Pure Ultra is a reasonably sturdy mouse too, feeling well-made for the price. At 66g, it’s closer to being an ultralight mouse than a lot of similarly priced competitors, while retaining an ergonomic shape. Roccat says this makes the Kone Pure Ultra one of the more unique gaming mice on offer, and I’d certainly agree with that.
The button placement here makes sense, with two side buttons on the left-hand side for navigation, as well as a DPI selector on top behind the rubberised scroll wheel. The Kone Pure Ultra’s scroll wheel is one of the more comfortable options I’ve used with precise action, although it lacks the dual-mode scrolling options of more expensive mice, nor is it a tilt wheel, which is a shame
The USB-A ended cable is fixed and non-braided but of a reasonable length at 1.8 metres, while the Kone Pure Ultra’s underside features two large PTFE glide pads for smooth movement across a desk. These two features are a major plus point, unlike the Kone Pure Ultra’s packaging. The mouse comes wrapped in a plastic mould inside a cardboard box, and it feels like an excessive amount for such a small product.
Performance
- Powerful 16,000 DPI sensor
- Comfortable for extended periods
- Convenient wired connection
The Kone Pure Ultra utilises a 16,000 DPI sensor, which is a fantastic amount of sensitivity, given the mid-range pricing on offer. In testing Roccat’s candidate in some fast-paced FPS titles such as Rainbow Six Siege and Counter Strike 2, the Kone Pure Ultra felt especially responsive when combining its great sensitivity and lower weight.
The sculpted chassis, with its indentations on either side, also made it a comfortable option for extended sessions, both for gaming and productivity-style work. The Kone Pure Ultra’s size was also ideal for my hands and worked well either with a palm grip or a claw grip. It also glides well across the desk thanks to those large glide pads on the underside.
FPS players will find the lack of a DPI clutch a bit of a sore miss, while the button arrangement on the Kone Pure Ultra is quite minimalistic. The mouse buttons felt snappy and rather tactile, especially the main two. A trope of more affordable mice is that they tend to feel a little mushy and lack tactility and feedback, which wasn’t the case here.
The wired connection also means there’s no latency compared to wireless mice, and its USB-A-ended cable is convenient, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of devices.
Software and Lighting
- Simple, but effective RGB lighting
- Swarm is easy to use software.
Roccat has never been a brand to go head-first into the fun of RGB, traditionally opting for a more conservative approach across their mice. The Kone Pure Ultra is no different, sticking with one RGB lighting zone with the Roccat logo on the back side of the mouse. Its lighting there is vibrant across a range of colours, and adds a welcome splash of colour to a mouse with an otherwise meaner aesthetic.
The lighting, as well as programming the Kone Pure Ultra’s inputs, is taken care of by Roccat’s Swarm software. It’s a reasonably responsive suite to use, although it doesn’t feel as polished as options from Corsair and Razer. With that being said, it still provides a solid amount of options for lighting customization with presets and the ability to customise the lighting yourself. You can also remap inputs and access a secondary function layer with Easy Shift, and choose the Kone Pure Ultra’s DPI staging at five different levels.
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Should you buy it?
You want a comfortable frame:
The Kone Pure Ultra offers a lightweight and comfortable frame, and if that’s your number-one priority, this is an excellent mouse.
You want more advanced lighting:
Where the Kone Pure Ultra arguably falls down is with its singular lighting zone where competitors can offer more zones. If that’s what you’re after, you may want to look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes you want a perfectly usable product with a lot of features that most people would be happy to use and that’s where the Roccat Kone Pure Ultra comes in. It’s a well-specced mouse that doesn’t cost a lot, and offers the makings of a great all-round mouse.
It’s well-made and comfortable with an entirely plastic chassis, complete with indentations for resting your hand on. The wired connection is simple and means it works on a variety of platforms, while the 16,000 DPI sensor is a great midway point for more casual and professional players.
The Kone Pure Ultra may not be as affordable or as lightweight as the likes of the Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air, or as flashy as the likes of the Razer Viper 8K, but it remains a solid all-round choice with a lot to like about it. If you want more options, check out our list of the best gaming mice we’ve tested.
How we test
We use every mouse we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by playing a variety of different genres, including FPS, strategy and MOBAs.
We also check each mouse’s software to see how easy it is to customise and set up.
Tested performance on a variety of games
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FAQs
While not necessary, the Kone Pure Ultra is compatible with Roccat Swarm for adjusting DPI, mapping inputs and changing the RGB lighting.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
