Page 4 - Conclusion
Did ROCCAT manage to do the impossible in keeping everything that made the Kone XP Air's wired counterpart, the Kone XP, great, all while reducing the weight of the wireless Kone XP Air we are looking at today? I would say so. The Kone XP Air has a plethora of well-placed buttons -- ten of them not including the 4D scroll wheel -- for a total of twenty-nine programmable inputs is quite a bit to behold. I am a big fan of the awesome 3D RGB LED lighting effects underneath its translucent shell. Speaking of its shell, the Kone XP has a comfortable fit thanks to its ergonomic shape, and the materials used for the shell grip well and feel nice, too. Underneath the shell, the Titan Switch Optical gives great actuation response, and strong tracking performance is delivered by the popular PixArt PAW3370 sensor. Combine all these with its lag-free wireless performance and awesome battery life of over 100 hours depending on your configuration, there is a lot to like about the ROCCAT Kone XP Air. The mouse's dedicated battery indicator LED is the icing on the cake. It even comes with a stylish RGB LED-loaded rapid charge dock to refill the mouse's juice should it ever go low. And did I mention the company did all these while reducing its weight compared to its wired counterpart by 5g? The Kone XP Air is no ultralight, but 99g is quite reasonable for a wireless mouse with these specifications. With all these in mind, I do have a few things to say about the Kone XP Air, and if you have been following my commentary on ROCCAT products on this website, you probably know where I am going. First, while the PhantomFlex cable is nice, a paracord is still better. Second, Swarm is outdated in both look and functionality, and we have been saying this for countless years already. For about $170 at press time, the ROCCAT Kone XP Air commands a lot of dough. The wired Kone XP is $90, and the Kone Pro Air is $100 at press time. But if you are looking for a fully loaded mouse with awesome RGB LED visuals plus a rapid charge dock, the Kone XP Air will fulfill all your requirements.
ROCCAT provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH:Renewal Award | APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks, but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 7.6/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The ROCCAT Kone XP Air is a high-performance, fully loaded wireless mouse with awesome 3D RGB LED lighting effects that is even lighter than its wired counterpart.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
