Page 3 - Subjective Performance Tests
This is where the fun begins. After installing ROCCAT Swarm, I adjusted the Kone XP to my personal settings. This included modifying the sensitivity and calibrating the mouse for my current mousepad. Afterward, the tracking performance test began. This was done by using it for my typical applications. This included simple web browsing, gaming, and Microsoft Office. Some graphics testing was also done in Adobe Photoshop. As the ROCCAT Kone XP is designed for both first-person shooter or FPS and multiplayer online battle arena games or MOBA, I used games such as Valorant and League of Legends to test this mouse. Please note these are subjective tests, but we will attempt to make them as objective as possible with my cross-reference testing methods.
As previously mentioned, when it comes to mouse grip, I personally prefer to use a palm grip, but I can also adjust to claw grip if needed. I found that the ROCCAT Kone XP is a mouse practically made for claw grip users due to the placement of the sniper button. The finger grip style also works very nicely with the small size of the mouse, and the crisp clicks of the Titan switches only further complement these grip styles. While the mouse fits decently into the palm of my hand, it started to get uncomfortable after a longer period due to the small size of the shell. Therefore, I would say palm grip users may want to opt for a larger mouse. Even at a weight of 104g, this is still heavy for a wired mouse in 2022, and not super advantageous for first-person shooter games requiring swift actions for aiming and shooting. When it comes to sensitivity, I prefer it in the 3000 to 4000 DPI range, even when gaming, including FPS games. The 50 DPI to 19,000 DPI range of the ROCCAT Kone XP will have users enjoying the flexibility of sensitivity options. With that said, I found I was still able to have solid performance with this mouse when playing FPS games
The ROCCAT Kone XP is advertised as a gaming mouse, so I ran my tests on FPS and MOBA games. When playing Valorant, I was impressed with how responsive the ROCCAT Kone XP was. I like to hotkey common commands such as reloading and melee to available buttons on my gaming mice. While reloading and switching to melee, I found every button was quite responsive. The ROCCAT Kone XP gave quick response rates when in combat, further complemented by the crisp clicks of the buttons. When playing MOBA games, the tracking movement was very standard, although the heavier weight of this mouse made large movements more difficult, especially when compared to lighter mice like the ASUS TUF Gaming M4 Air and ROCCAT Kone Pro. I found this to be especially true with League of Legends, where I was constantly swinging the mouse around to move my champion to different areas of the map.
While the ROCCAT Kone XP is best utilized for games, I found that it continued to give good performance when using it for more work-related applications. When using Microsoft Office to write reports and track project progress, this mouse continued to deliver on its tracking performance, especially when going between multiple cells and sheets in Microsoft Excel. When doing my regular browsing between different websites, the side switches gave a very nice response, with going back and forth between pages being almost seamless. A big part of this is thanks to the PixArt PAW3370 sensor. This sensor gave pinpoint accurate responses and incredible control with a maximum tracking speed of 400 IPS.
I found the ROCCAT Kone XP to be very responsive and precise with the switch clicks. The response time was very consistent with no input lag when testing from 50 DPI to 19,000 DPI. There was some minor observable jittering at 19,000 DPI, although this is not entirely surprising given how high this sensitivity is, which I feel very few people would use. I should also note that the jitter could be a result of my hand. At lower sensitivity levels, I experienced no jitter issues. There was also no observable smoothing, which is another positive. The lift-off distance was also very low. From testing using my mouse pad, wooden desk, and kitchen tablecloth, I found there were no issues with tracking.
The ROCCAT Kone XP is a solid performer when it comes to gaming with pinpoint precision and fast switch responses. The large selection of programmable buttons will give gamers many options for optimizing their gameplay. The RGB LED lighting is incredibly vibrant and colorful, and looks great with the different lighting modes.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
