Happy Memorial Day weekend, hope you're all having a great long weekend. Here's a pretty sweet deal on a full-sized mechanical keyboard that's perfect for a bit of budget retail therapy or as a gift for a budding gaming setup that's not going to drain the wallet. At this price, it could easily be one of the best budget mechanical keyboards currently available.

Roccat's Pyro full-size mechanical keyboard is on sale for just $34 at Best Buy. Originally released with an MSRP of $100, the Roccat Pyro was priced for a mid-range gaming keyboard. It features TTC Red linear mechanical switches, RGB, vertical volume control knob, brushed aluminum upper body, and a detachable wrist rest. 

The Roccat Pyro uses the TTC Red linear mechanical switches (very similar to Cherry Reds), which have a 45g operating force, a 2mm actuation point, and a 4mm total travel distance. The keyboard has full-key rollover, which is essential for a gaming keyboard where multiple key inputs need to be recorded at the same time. 

Connectivity comes via a wired USB Type-A cable, with no extra luxuries such as a USB passthrough or audio port located on the keyboard. We've also had the opportunity to review the Roccat Pyro and gave it 3 stars. We liked the unique aesthetic, vertical volume knob, and two inputs on a single key, thanks to the Easy-Shift feature. Things we weren't so fond of were the software feeling outdated, lack of macro support, and no option for clicky or tactile switches. But what you get for $34 is a bit of a no-brainer if you're looking for a new budget keyboard.

Is there a “most beautiful” category on our best gaming keyboards page? Well, there will be, and it’ll go to Roccat’s new Vulcan II Max. 

Which. Is. Gorgeous. 

The Vulcan II Max is the full-size version of the recently-launched Vulcan II Mini, and it sports many of the same features: Roccat’s Titan II optical switches (in linear Red or tactile Brown), 24 “smart” dual-LED switches, an anodized aluminum top plate, and Roccat’s signature “organic” Aimo lighting experience. It also comes with a detachable translucent wrist rest that serves as a conduit for the keyboard’s lighting, and the effect is...hypnotizing. 

Okay, it’s not perfect. It suffers from some of the same issues the Vulcan II Mini suffered from; though its roomier layout means some of these problems (such as the convoluted button duplicator feature) aren’t as significant. But if Roccat is trying to distract me with a dazzling light show — well, success. 

The Vulcan II Max is available now in both black and white colorways (though the wrist rest looks better paired with the white version), for $230. 

Roccat Vulcan II Max Specs

 Design and Construction of the Vulcan II Max

 The Vulcan II Max is a full-size wired keyboard with a slim, lightweight plastic chassis and an anodized aluminum top plate. It measures 18.23 x 6.0625 inches (463 x 154mm) and comes with a 3.25-inch (82.6mm) detachable wrist rest — it’s not the best keyboard if space is a concern. Our review model came in white, which has a white chassis and white keycaps and a matte silver top plate with a shiny, mirrored border.  

 The Vulcan II Max sports three dedicated media keys in the upper left corner (rewind, play/pause, and fast forward), as well as a volume knob. The volume knob is notched, with tactile feedback, and is also clickable (mute/unmute). The media keys and volume knob cannot be remapped.  

Although the Vulcan II Max is fairly lightweight at just 2.29 pounds (1040g), it has large anti-slip strips on its back that prevent it from moving around as you type. It also has two sets of flip-out feet (each with anti-slip strips) for three levels of tilt adjustment.  

 The Vulcan II Max comes with a detachable translucent wrist rest, which measures 18.23 x 3.25 inches (463 x 82.6mm) and has a smooth, matte finish. It’s perhaps slightly lower than I would prefer, but it offers decent palm and wrist support otherwise.  

 The wrist rest is made of ribbed, translucent silicone and attaches to the keyboard via silicone tabs that slide into the slots along the bottom. There are 16 tabs (six of which feature notches to “lock” the wrist rest in place), which act as a conduit for the keyboard’s lighting — and the effect is very pretty, especially with Roccat’s Aimo lighting enabled.  

 The wrist rest isn’t particularly plush, but it’s beautiful and I love it.  

The keyboard is wired and has a fixed six-foot (1.8m) braided cable with dual USB-A connectors. There are no pass-through ports; the dual connectors are to ensure the keyboard receives enough power for its lighting effects. According to Roccat, the keyboard should be fine if connected to one USB 3.0 port, but may not receive enough power for some power-hungry lighting effects from just one USB 2.0 port.  

While this is understandable — especially considering 24 of the Vulcan II Max’s keys have dual LEDs — I’m not thrilled with a keyboard that takes up two USB ports.  I didn’t have any issues plugging the keyboard into just one USB 2.0 port, however.  

Typing and Gaming Experience on the Vulcan II Max 

The Vulcan II Max features Roccat’s Titan II optical switches in Red (linear) or Brown (tactile). Our review unit came with linear switches, which have a smooth, uniform keypress with no tactile “bump” or audible click. 

Optical switches are actuated via light rather than physical force — so while optical switches usually lack the tactile feel and feedback typists crave, they’re easier to press, faster, and more durable than traditional mechanical switches. Roccat’s Titan II switches have a lifecycle rating of 100 million keypresses — twice that of traditional mechanical switches and the same as competitors’ optical switches. 

The Vulcan II Max has thin, lightweight ABS keycaps that expose the keyboard’s switches. The keycaps are lightly dished but still pretty flat and slippery, which makes them less-than-ideal for people who are prone to sweating and/or used to typing on keyboards with more tactile feedback. The Titan II optical switches are compatible with third-party cross mounted keycaps, though, so you can always swap them out.  

Typing on the Vulcan II Max was — unsurprisingly — very similar to typing on the Vulcan II Mini. The combination of linear optical switches and thin, light, slippery ABS keycaps made for an overall mediocre typing experience, even if I didn’t suffer a significant hit to speed or accuracy. But this isn’t a major drawback, because the Vulcan II Max is, first and foremost, a gaming keyboard. 

The Vulcan II Max is much more suited to gaming than it is to typing, thanks to its smooth, speedy linear optical switches. The slick keycaps did help my fingers slide quickly around the board, but I don’t sweat very much — the keycaps would definitely be too slick if I’d been sweating at all. Speed is important, but so is accuracy.  

 Features & Software of the Roccat Vulcan II Max

The Vulcan II Max features 24 “smart” multi-function keys with dual-LEDs, most of which ship with default secondary keybinds. The dual LEDs light up to indicate which secondary functions are active, and can also change colors to display real-time information, such as headset or mouse battery life. 

The keyboard also features Roccat’s “Easy-Shift” button duplicator technology, which gives you a second layer of functionality; this is sort of like Razer’s HyperShift and SteelSeries’ SS key, but for some reason Roccat has decided to implement their version in the most confusing way possible. Most of the Vulcan II Max’s keys can have custom secondary keybinds, but some are implemented with the Fn key and some are implemented with Easy-Shift — the latter of which requires Game Mode to be toggled on. Since Game Mode also allows for some remapping, you sort of end up with three layers of functionality, but at that point you’ll probably be too confused to remember what’s remapped to what, and it won’t be very useful anyway. 

Luckily, this is a full-size keyboard, so the second- and third-layers of functionality aren’t nearly as critical as they are in a smaller layout. 

Key remapping and lighting settings can be performed in Roccat Swarm, Roccat’s universal companion software. I’ll be frank — I hate Roccat Swarm. Not only does it have settings nobody should ever even consider using, such as options to add artificial typing sounds to your keyboard, it’s quite possibly one of the least intuitive and most confusing pieces of peripheral software I’ve ever used (and, as we know, I am not a fan of peripheral software). 

Luckily, the Vulcan II Max has onboard memory and can store up to five profiles, so you can fight your way through the jungle that is Roccat Swarm, save your settings to the hardware, and (hopefully) never have to deal with it again.  

Bottom Line 

The Roccat Vulcan II Max is gorgeous. If you’re looking for a keyboard that will give you a bright, beautiful light show, this is it — everything about this keyboard is pretty much designed to dazzle you with lights, from the switch-exposing keycaps to the dual-LED switches to the included silicone wrist rest. In addition to being mesmerizing to look at, the Vulcan II Max also offers up decent performance — it may not be the best keyboard for typing (but no linear optical switch is); and it’s an excellent gaming keyboard thanks to its speedy optical actuation and built-in secondary functions. 

That said, if you’re not wowed by pretty lights, this probably isn’t the keyboard for you. For one thing, the lights may cost you two USB 2.0 ports, depending on what lighting effects you choose. Also, while the Vulcan II Max’s built-in secondary functions are useful, programming any customizable secondary functions is a chore, thanks to Roccat’s confusing implementation and unintuitive software. 

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If you think the Roccat Kone XP Air looks like other gaming mice you’ve seen, you’re correct: Roccat’s flashy new wireless mouse shares a similar silhouette with Logitech’s G502 and Razer’s Basilisk Ultimate.

It also shares a similar price point of $170 — which makes it more expensive than every other mouse on our list of best gaming mice and every mouse on our list of best wireless mice.

Roccat’s Kone XP Air is an RGB-infused wireless ergonomic gaming mouse with 11 physical buttons and multiple layers of functionality that allow you to program up to 29 different functions. The Kone XP Air is highly customizable, has both 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, and boasts 100 hours of battery life with rapid-charging — and it even comes with a convenient Rapid Charge docking station, complete with its own RGB lighting.

But even with all of these features, $170 is steep. The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro, which our peripherals editor is currently besotted with, costs $150 alone and $165 bundled with Razer’s HyperPolling Wireless Dongle — still $5 less than the Kone XP Air. Roccat’s newest gaming mouse may be dazzling, but it’ll need more than pretty, colorful lights to justify its price.

Specifications

Design and Comfort of the Kone XP Air

I’ve never been impressed with RGB in mice, because your hand covers the lighting, but the Kone XP Air is an exception: This mouse is beautiful. The mouse has a translucent shell and inside is some funky design that reminds me of an Energy Sword from Halo. My review model looked especially good in Arctic White, but the Kone XP Air also comes in an Ash Black colorway. Not everyone agrees, of course; while editor Michelle Ehrhardt liked the way the Kone XP (the wired version of the Kone XP Air) felt and performed, she did not love the way it looked.

The Kone XP Air is fairly lightweight, weighing in at just 99g — lighter than the 127g Asus ROG Chakram X, and just a tad heavier than the 93g Razer Basilisk V3.

The Kone XP Air has 11 physical buttons: The right and left mouse buttons, a “4D” scroll wheel with a DPI button, and seven side buttons. The scroll wheel scrolls up and down and can also be pressed to the right and left, hence the “4D” name. The side buttons include two near the top left of the mouse and four under your thumb, plus a paddle-type button on the thumb rest.

The left and right mouse buttons use Roccat’s Titan Optical switches, which have a nice bounce and aren’t obnoxiously loud. The 4D scroll wheel is notched, and offers decent tactile feedback but is extremely loud (and not in a good way). It’s hard to describe how bad the scroll wheel sounds, but it’s definitely loud enough that I can see it bothering your partner or colleagues.

The Kone XP Air has 11 buttons that can be programmed with up to 29 functions. Yes — you read that correctly — 29. The Kone XP Air features “Easy-Shift” technology, which is activated using the thumb rest button (unless you remap it). Easy-Shift works similarly to a modifier or function key on a keyboard, and allows for an extra layer of programming.

The Kone XP Air is an ergonomic mouse, so I expected it to be comfortable. While the mouse worked well with my large hand, the Easy-Shift button on the thumb rest is extremely annoying to use because it’s so sensitive. Thankfully, the button can be disabled or remapped in Roccat’s Swarm software. The mouse’s other buttons are well-placed; by default, the two buttons on the top left side of the mouse adjust RGB, while the button under the scroll wheel adjusts DPI.

The bottom of the mouse has a power switch, a pairing button, and storage for the mouse’s 2.4GHz wireless dongle. The mouse sports heat-treated PTFE feet, which make for smooth operation — I’ve always been a fan of the skates on Roccat’s mice, because they always feel broken-in and ready to go.

The Kone XP Air comes with a six-foot Phantom Flex USB-C to USB-A cable, which is brilliant as it feels solid in structure yet is flexible enough to prevent ripping. Roccat also includes a charging dock, which features RGB (also diffused gorgeously). The mouse offers rapid charging and 10 minutes of charging via cable or dock gets you five hours of battery life.

Performance of the Kone XP Air

I’ve been in the middle of revamping my desk at home and one of the items I threw out was my old desk mat — I’m stuck with a mouse pad while I wait for my new one to arrive. Luckily the Kone XP Air had zero issues tracking on my particle-board desk surface, and the heat-treated PTFE feet weren’t too slick. I’ve also been traveling with this mouse, and the Kone XP Air even did a good job tracking on a glass desk in my hotel room. 

The mouse is pretty comfortable overall, and it tracks and glides seamlessly across multiple surfaces. But I had a tough time getting used to not accidentally clicking the Easy-Shift button during normal use. Because the Easy-Shift button sits on the thumb rest, I found my right thumb hugging the side of the mouse instead. I prefer the gestures button on Logitech’s MX Master 3S, which is hidden at the bottom of the thumb rest, and is easier to use without accidentally clicking it.

Scroll wheels that feature horizontal scroll movement are a bit of a rarity, so I was excited to give the Kone XP Air’s 4D scroll wheel a try. However, this 4D scroll wheel doesn’t feel like it was designed to go left and right. While the horizontal scrolling worked, it wasn’t great — I often ended up accidentally pressing the mouse button straight down instead of scrolling side to side. Does the side-scrolling work? Yes. Does it work well? Eh. 

Back in the day, online first-person shooters allowed users to bind the most obscure actions in-game. Because this mouse has so many buttons, I booted up the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. After I set the lower two side buttons on the XP Air to page up and down, I set those keys in-game, so my player would spin, allowing me to attempt some trick shots. 

After disabling the Easy-Shift button, I experienced no input issues, and the Kone XP Air both performed well and was comfortable to use. The fun thing is, I can tell I’m just scratching the surface of this mouse’s potential with my gaming experience. I can see this being the perfect MMORPG mouse, with its programmable functions across multiple buttons, most of which are well-placed and easy to use.

Features and Software of the Kone XP Air

The software powering the Roccat Kone XP Air is Roccat’s peripherals companion software Swarm, which is feature-heavy but very easy to use. Using Swarm, you can adjust just about everything on the Kone XP Air, including polling rate, LOD, RGB, button assignment, scroll speed, DPI — even double-click speed.

Thanks to Easy-Shift, the Kone XP Air offers a lot of possibilities for button mapping. Swarm lets you remap any of the mouse’s buttons to do just about anything, from adjusting DPI on the fly to viewing DirectX Diagnostics (seriously).

Another neat feature in Swarm is its pinned page. The pinned page is the first page that pops up when you boot up the software, and it can display any specific features you want, such as the battery level or DPI adjustment. The Kone XP Air has onboard memory and can store up to four profiles.

Battery Life of the Kone XP Air

The Kone XP Air’s 100-hour battery life is very respectable, especially when you consider the mouse has five RGB zones and 29 programmable button functions. The Kone XP Air has rapid charging, so just 10 minutes of charging nets you an extra five hours of playtime. The 100-hour rating is for a 2.4GHz wireless connection; Roccat doesn’t mention the mouse’s battery life when it’s connected to Bluetooth.

Roccat includes both a USB-C charging cable and a Rapid Charging Dock, which is heftier than other charging docks I’ve used and has more built-in RGB than do most ergonomic gaming mice on today’s market. The charging dock looks especially cool when the Kone XP Air is taking a nap on it.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Kone XP Air isn’t your traditional ergonomic mouse — it’s packed with both RGB and programmable functionality. On top of that, Roccat’s Swarm software is both efficient and full of features. The mouse’s 100-hour battery life, included charging dock, and dual wireless connectivity make this an excellent wireless option. Its looks aren’t for everyone, but I think it’s attractive.

However, it’s not perfect: The 4D scroll wheel is a nice thought, but it’s implemented horribly and it’s incredibly loud, and the overly-sensitive Easy-Shift button didn’t work for me. And $170 is pricey for a mouse (even if competitors such as the Razer Basilisk Ultimate are similarly-priced).

It’s always a shame when a mouse is great to use but not so pleasant to look at. That may not be the case for you here, as the transparent plastic look that the Roccat Kone XP sports definitely took off in the late ‘90s for a reason. But this mouse definitely looks a little dated, and perhaps cheap, because of it. It hardly feels cheap, though, as it seamlessly melds into the hand, regardless of your grip style, and presents you with a banquet of highly customizable buttons that are easy to reach without straining. 

The Roccat Swarm software is also robust, even if some of its lighting features come across as smoke and mirrors. The RGB here is definitely aggressive (and perhaps poorly implemented, depending on how well AIMO actually works) but actually using this mouse is an experience that’s difficult for even the best gaming mice to top.

Roccat Kone XP Specs

Design and Comfort

The Roccat Kone XP is an aesthetically divisive mouse among my coworkers, but its comfort and amount of buttons is hard to dispute.

Its transparent plastic body and 3 AIMO RGB zones made one of our editors call it “ugly as sin” when they saw it on my desk. Another editor thought it looked cool, pointing out his 9-year-old would love it. Whether you share the aesthetic sensibilities of a 9-year-old is your business, and not necessarily a bad thing! There’s still something to be said for being able to see your device’s hardware bits through the shell, even if time has largely left that late ‘90s/early ‘00s trend behind.

But this mouse definitely screams “gamer,” and the transparent plastic makes it look cheaper than I’d expect from a $90 peripheral. I do find it charming in much the same way I found my old see-through indigo N64 controller charming, though.

It’s hard to be too harsh on the mouse’s looks when it feels this good to use, though. The Roccat Kone XP is built to seamlessly fit into your hand regardless of whether you use a claw, fingertip or palm grip. And while I naturally find myself gravitating towards a fingertip grip, pretty much every way I could hold this mouse felt seamless to me. I actually used a palm grip for much of my time with this mouse, as I found it was easy to just lay my hand on top of it and forget it was even there. Much of this is also probably due to the mouse’s light 104g weight, but the thumb rest and body shape were among the most ergonomic I’ve tested, for me even beating out some best productivity mouse contenders like the Microsoft Arc Mouse.

Part of that comfort is thanks to clever button placement, as I never felt I had to strain to reach any of the many extra functions this mouse offers. With a total of 15 remappable actions (11 if you don’t count the scroll wheel tilt and scroll controls), this mouse rivals MMO mice on sheer button count, while opting for more ergonomic placement than slapping a full keypad on the side of your mouse. Sure, a more spread-out layout might not be great for keeping track of a bunch of MMO abilities, but it’s ideal for other genres like shooters. What’s more, you can increase the remappable actions to 29 using an Easy Shift key to toggle between mapping layers. This isn’t a unique Roccat feature, but I’m always happy to see it included in official software.

When I say that this mouse has ergonomic button placement, that’s because it places most of its side buttons right above and below where your thumb naturally rests on the mouse, without requiring you to strain to reach them like on some larger mice a la the Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury (a rather old precursor to the Logitech Hero that is still my daily driver at home despite being a little too large for my hand). You get 5 immediate buttons this way, with 4 sitting right above your thumb and a paddle-like button sitting on the thumb rest below your thumb. It’s a little fiddly to describe, but it’s a little similar to the Razer Basilisk’s setup, except you get more functions. 

Briefly shifting back to aesthetics, I mostly used the black version of this mouse during my review, but there is a white version that we received as well. Both colorways are only available in a wired model, which has a lengthy, 5.9 foot braided cable.

Gaming Performance

The Kone XP screams gaming thanks to its RGB, and it lives up to those impressions on every front. You can setup 5 different DPI levels, ranging from 50 - 19,000, then swap between them on the fly with either custom mapped buttons or the two default DPI switching buttons to the left of left-click. That leaves you plenty of flexibility to adjust your needs based on game genre or even productivity, although many high-level players suggest simply sticking to one setting and allowing muscle memory to develop for it. Still, DPI swapping is a standard feature on high-end mice, and something I appreciate for when I work and game on the same PC, and it’s robustly implemented here.

The polling rate here is also handled in an oddly similar way to the DPI, in that you can choose whether you want it to be 100Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz or 1000Hz. There’s little reason not to use the maximum polling rate here, as it simply affects how frequently the mouse reports its location to the computer. Higher polling rates can use slightly more processing power, though, and you might not notice the difference between it and something like 500Hz or even 250Hz. That goes double if you’re using a monitor with a lower refresh rate, although we’re talking about extreme minuscules here.

Beyond the specs, the actual in-game experience of using the Roccat Kone XP is exceptionally smooth. That’s in part due to the comfort and button layout I menitoned above, but it’s also thanks to the three heat-treated PTFE feet that help the mouse glide effortlessly across most surfaces regardless of whether you have a mouse pad. Again, having PTFE feet isn’t necessarily special, but they work well here.

I’m pretty rusty, but the Kone XP served me well when I tested it in Halo: Infinite. It stood tried and true both in tracking with the classic assault rifle and flicking with the sniper rifle, and I managed to earn a kill streak in my first game and top the K/D/A chart for my team in the second game. Not to brag, but we won both, and I had a comfortable time in each. I also found myself relying both on melee attacks and grenades more often, since I mapped them both to the first column of side buttons and didn’t have to reach my thumb to activate either. This is different from my typical mouse, where my grenade button is a little further out from where my thumb naturally rests than my melee one. Because of that, I tended to use grenades less frequently, and I appreciated that I didn’t have that limitation here.

Features and Software

The Roccat Kone XP comes with Roccat Swarm, a robust software suite that allows you to select your DPI and polling rate, plus remap buttons and adjust lighting settings. So far, that’s mostly standard fare, but Swarm goes beyond that. You can also increase or decrease the amount of time your mouse needs between inputs to register a double click, or change the speed your mouse will scroll both vertically and horizontally when in tilt mode (which activates when you press in the middle click key, at least by default). You can also adjust your Windows pointer settings here without needing to enter Windows’ own mouse setting menu.

But it’s in the “Advanced Settings” tab where Swarm really lets you get granular. You can set how far you can lift the mouse from its surface and still have the cursor move (lift-off distance or LOD), plus turn on audio feedback for when you change your DPI or swap mouse profiles. The debounce time slider lets you control how much time your mouse needs after making an input to accept a second one, and angle snapping will attempt to straighten out minor squiggles when the mouse detects that you’re trying to move it in a straight line. Gaming experts tend to suggest keeping it off so that it doesn’t interfere with your aim, but some might get use out of it. Perhaps graphic designers?

Roccat Swarm is also where you’ll control lighting, which comes with several basic RGB patterns out of the box, including wave and blink. You can control the speed and brightness of these patterns, as well as toggle them off. But oddly enough, I couldn’t find an option to adjust colors. That’s a big problem, given how divisive this mouse’s looks already are.

Instead of being able to adjust colors, you can instead activate Roccat Aimo, Roccat Talk FX and Alien FX. Alien FX simply gives you the ability to adjust your RGB using Alienware’s software, which should give you missing controls like color adjustment but will require you to install another software suite. Talk FX, meanwhile, attempts to intelligently adjust the RGB to respond to your in-game status. For instance, when your health is low, your mouse will glow red.

AIMO is a bit more mysterious. It claims to offer similar lighting features to Talk FX, except instead of responding to the game, it responds to how you use your mouse. How it responds is all very vague, and the overall feature has big “blast processing” vibes to it. When you activate it, an “intelligence” bar shows up next to the feature toggle telling you your current “AIMO level,” and the more AIMO features you download or devices you buy, the smarter the effect supposedly gets. I have to assume this means that the mouse will start doing things like turning off lighting at rest, and perhaps showing more aggressive colors when moving faster. Roccat won’t say. After a week of use, I didn’t notice any differences when Aimo was turned on vs when it was off. My Aimo level was only 15%, but I would consider Aimo more of an experimental extra than a proper reason to buy the mouse, as it’s unclear what it does or how well it works. It’s a shame that it’s such a big part of the Kone XP’s marketing.

Finally, the Kone XP is also compatible with Nvidia reflex, which detects latency by measuring when you click your mouse and tracking it against how long it takes your monitor to respond.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Kone XP is perhaps my favorite mouse to use out of all the various pointers I’ve reviewed, but it’s also a bit embarrassing to have on my desk. I’m in my 30s now, and I don’t need a transparent mouse shell with heavy RGB that’s tied to a bunch of features that have shoddy support. What I do need is plenty of highly configurable buttons and a comfortable design, and the Kone XP knocks it out of the park on both fronts there. I’d love to see an opaque model in the future, but in the meantime, you might want to opt for the Razer Basilisk V3 or the Corsair Katar Pro XT if this mouse is a bit too flashy for you. Alternately, if you want a bunch of buttons but need them all laid out next to each other rather than throughout the mouse’s body, you might be better off with the Razer Naga Pro (now refreshed as the Trinity) or the Razer Naga X.

Roccat has been slowly building its way up to compete on even footing with the best offerings from Logitech and Razer. In a crowded field of amazing gaming headsets, Roccat is trying to bring players the features they need without digging too deep into their wallets. Of course, doing that means figuring out where to make cuts to reach the right price point.

Outside of a limited edition branded offering, the Roccat Syn Pro Air is the company's flagship headset. It's an upgrade to the Roccat Elo line, with 2.4GHz wireless and 3D audio as primary features. While the all-plastic build quality could use some work, the final product is comfortable to wear and the sound quality is decent. The question is whether a $150 MSRP is slightly too high for what's available here, even if you can sometimes find it selling for closer to $125. 

Roccat Syn Pro Air Specs

Design

Once taken out of the box, the Syn Pro Air doesn't command your attention like some other headsets. You've seen this standard black-on-black look on most of the best gaming headsets available these days. However, what will surprise you is the lightness. The Syn Pro Air is only 296g, and while that's not the lightest headset I've reviewed, there's not a lot of heft to it either. The lack of weight is attributed to an all-plastic construction, which leads to some give-and-take in the overall feel of the headset. 

The headband is a single piece of plastic with a foam cushion covered by breathable mesh fabric. There's some flex to the headband, but this type of construction means there's some slight clamping on the lower part of the earcups, especially if you have a larger noggin as I do.

The earcups themselves are attached to the headband via solid plastic posts set in a track. Some other manufacturers tend to include metal in the construction here, and it's odd not to see that with the Syn Pro Air. The problem with this design is two-fold. First, the plastic posts don't have any notches; they just slide within a set track. This means that the earcup location can shift a bit out of your most comfortable setting every time you put them down. 

Second, I found that the posts loosened a bit during the lengthy review period. This means the headset would shift during vigorous movement sometimes. So while there is some slight clamping on the lower end, the headband might shift slightly out of place, ruining the seal. It's not an ever-present problem, but an occasional one that could have been fixed by a better overall design.

The earcups are attached to arms that allow them to twist horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, they can twist far enough to allow the headset to lay flat on your desk. Vertically, there's only a slight twist to account for your head shape. Inside of each ear cup is memory foam covered by more mesh fabric. The foam itself is a little stiff, but it works overall, and the fabric covering the earcups does a good job of feeling cool and comfortable. Combined with the lightweight design, the Syn Pro Air is a comfortable companion for long-term gaming.

On the left earcup, you'll find a power button, a USB-C port, a volume wheel on the rear and a rubber plug over the port to connect the microphone. To attach the microphone, simply remove the plug and snap it in. The boom arm of the mic is flexible but only moves inward and outward. The arm itself only locks into two positions: down and upright. Given this, I couldn't quite get the mic right in front of my mouth. The microphone also lacks a mute button or an LED indicating that you're recording at all. You can mute the mic, but you’ll have to move it upright to do so. Finally, you'll find a volume wheel on the right earcup that adjusts mic monitoring volume. Holistically, it just feels like the Syn Pro Air is missing some key physical controls.

The Roccat Syn Pro Air has a 5-foot USB-C to USB-A cable, but this is only for charging. The actual connection with your PC or console comes purely from the included 2.4 GHz wireless USB 2.0 dongle (there is an included USB-C adapter). The ability to switch to a wired mode or use Bluetooth would've been great, but sadly you're stuck with the standard wireless. The problem here is the wireless connection isn't as rock-solid as it could be. It takes a good 20 to 30 seconds for the headset and dongle to find each other. Once connected, the audio is pretty reliable. I found I could get about 12 feet away before it would start stuttering or disconnecting, but that initial spin-up time persisted throughout my testing. 

Given that it relies purely on the dongle to connect, the Syn Pro Air works on PC, PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5, and a docked Nintendo Switch. I covered the PC connection above, but on the PlayStation 4 or 5, the headset comes up as a standard headset. No additional sound features are available. In fact, the volume wheel on the headset doesn't even do anything, which is perplexing.

In other words, the headset will work on those platforms, but there are better options out there. 

Roccat claims 24 hours of operation from a full charge, so if you plug it back in when not in use, you'll likely never run into a zero-charge situation. During the review period, I tended to land at the 15 to 16-hour range with the RGB lighting on, leading me to believe Roccat's stated performance is with the RGB lighting off. The headphones also charge pretty quickly, needing just over an hour for a full charge. 

That RGB lighting, by the way, does brighten up the black-on-black color scheme with a unique honeycomb pattern. However, it is perhaps out of place on a wireless and thus battery-dependent device.

Audio Performance of the Roccat Syn Pro Air

The Syn Pro Air boasts immersive 3D audio on the box, but what about the overall soundscape on these cans? Listening to Reviver's "My First Story" on Spotify, I found that the highs and mids sounded great. I wish the bass was meatier out of the box; it's present and sounds accurate, but I wanted more 'BOOM' from it. Luckily, the software comes with bass and treble boost toggles and a 10-slider equalizer, so I could tweak the sound to something more satisfying. Once I played around with the equalizer, the droning low bass in Seventeen's "Anyone" intro sounded fantastic alongside the crisp, clean vocals. 

I did notice the occasional distortion in the sound, though, and I'd hazard that the 2.4 Ghz wireless connection has some interference. It was more of a problem with the dongle on one of my rear USB ports, as it cropped up less when I shifted devices to bring it to one of the front-facing ports. 

Waves handles the 3D audio for the Syn Pro Air, but there are no options to change the placement of virtual speakers, so it's got more standard catch-all options rather than something more robust like THX Spatial. This has more to do with a lack of options in the admittedly early software, which I'll talk about later on. 

Overall, the 3D audio performance in games is fine. My go-to title, Horizon Zero Dawn, has great directional audio built-in and the Roccat Syn Pro Air didn't mess things up. I could clearly hear the clanks and metallic screeches of the machine life or the pops of a nearby vampire, just fine. I'll admit that the directionality of the sound wasn't great. I could roughly tell where a sound was coming from, but with, say, a Tallneck crossing my path, it was a bit muddled when it came to precision. With other headsets, I'd probably mess with the virtual speaker position, but again, that's not an option here. 

The same issue popped up in Dying Light and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Overall, game sound is great on the Syn Pro Air and the 3D audio works, but it's not as great as some of this headset's more premium counterparts, like the Asus ROG Delta S. If you're looking to use this for gaming, it'll do right by you, but if you want amazing 3D audio, there are better options. 

In this range, I'd honestly say that there are better options. The Syn Pro Air sits near the HyperX Cloud II Wireless at the same price point, but I prefer the build quality of the HyperX. More importantly, you can find the Razer Blackshark V2 Pro at the same $150 MSRP, and that's a much better headset all-around. Roccat has slashed the price a bit, bringing the Syn Pro Air down to $115 in some stores, which does take some of the sting out of it. 

With the Syn Pro Air on, the passive noise cancellation is just okay. I could hear my typing and pick out someone trying to talk to me. Low, deep noises, like a bus or Amazon truck going by also came through. With music or game audio on, this is less of a problem, allowing you to live in your own little audio world. However, there is some leakage, so if you work in a home office with your significant other, they will be able to hear you jamming out to Jam Project.

Roccat Syn Pro Air Microphone

As I mentioned before, the Syn Pro Air has a detachable boom arm microphone. Roccat lists the frequency response range at 20Hz - 20kHz, which is pretty standard. My recorded audio was clear in testing, but overall, the sound was very tinny and lacked robustness. The standard noise cancellation did work well, though; I recorded without vocals to see if it would pick up the air conditioner humming in the background, but it did not. 

I do have my problems with the physical options available on the boom mic. The placement choices aren't great, positioning is the only way to mute the mic and there's no recording indicator. It's just missing those bells-and-whistles available to a great headset mic. That said, it'll do just fine for Discord or Zoom meetings. Your voice will come through fine; you'll just need to kick the mic volume to full in the software.

Software for the Roccat Syn Pro Air

Speaking of software, I should warn you that the Syn Pro Air does not use the standard Roccat Swarm software, like the Elo 7.1 Air. Instead, it utilizes the newer, more streamlined Roccat Neon software. While Swarm was increasingly bloated, Neon's problem is that there's just not enough here. 

When you click on the Syn Pro Air within Neon, you're taken to a clean interface with four tabs. Settings allows you to monitor the battery life of the headset, change master and mic volume, toggle 3D audio presets (Game, Movie, Music, and Deactivate), and shift your game/chat mix. The EQ tab has the equalizer sliders and the Treble/Bass Boost toggles. The Assignments tab lets you change what the mic monitoring wheel on the headset does, out of a total of 8 options. Finally, the Illumination tab enables you to set the colors to either static RGB lighting, a simple color wave, or the standard Aimo color drift.

However, there's so much missing here. There are no profiles for any of these settings and the available effects for the headset lighting are anemic. There's 3D audio but no virtual speaker settings. Some sound options have catchy names but no explanation for what they do within the software itself. Compared to the major players like Logitech and Razer, this software isn't anywhere up to snuff.

Bottom Line

I can't say the Roccat Syn Pro Air is a bad headset. The sound quality here is pretty good, it's lightweight and comfortable and its wireless connectivity works pretty well. It's fine, but the standard pricing for this headset puts it in a tough spot. At $150, it's just pricey enough that you're looking at the competition much more closely.

As I stated before, the HyperX Cloud II Wireless boasts much better build quality and a more comfortable fit. The Corsair HS70 offers a Bluetooth wireless connection for cheaper. If you're willing to go wired, the Logitech G Pro X is another great choice with far superior software.

There are simply too many caveats to recommend the Roccat Syn Pro Air. It's priced like a flagship from the manufacturer, but it's not quite there yet. A more premium build, a better microphone, more 3D sound options, and far better software are needed to bring this into parity at $150. It's a good idea, but the execution isn't flawless. In fact, you're probably better off getting its predecessor, the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air, and that's never a good sign.

The Roccat Torch puts all of its controls at your fingertips with its mixer-style audio base, and with its intelligent and functional use of RGB lighting, it also ensures that your settings are always discernible at a glance. There is also no need to install Roccat’s unfortunately unfinished NEON software to get the full experience. It’s a shame that this software is incomplete, but it’s great to use the mic right out of the box, and the features that work do so very well.

Conversely, the gesture-based, contactless muting feature is neat when it decides to work but frequently makes errors. Thankfully, like the software, this gimmick can be safely ignored without compromising the overall functionality of the Torch. Roccat has created a solidly priced mic with good audio and some delightful convenience that makes it easy to like despite some flaws in overall execution.

Roccat Torch Specs

Design

The Roccat Torch is a slim and tall mic that mounts to its own included mixer style stand and can also be easily mounted to a boom arm using standard threads. The front of the mic features an RGB-lit Roccat logo and the back has the more understated, non-RGB logo next to a single USB-C port that connects the mic to the base. Roccat also includes a short cable for when the capsule is mounted to the stand and a long cable for use with a boom arm. 

On top of the mic is one of the Torch's more interesting features – a contactless, gesture-activated mic mute sensor. It's very cool to mute or activate your mic without touching the unit, but in practice, gesture detection and sensitivity are a bit of a mixed bag. I often found myself flailing my hand at the sensor, hoping that something would happen to no avail. Out of a mixture of frustration and embarrassment, I would often opt to use the physical mute button instead. The sensor's location can pose issues when adjusting the mic's position as well, as it will often read the proximity of your hand as a gesture input and mute the mic against your wishes. This can be particularly problematic when the mic is mounted to a boom arm.

The Torch's base features a pickup pattern selector, a notched monitor volume knob with a push-button mute function and a gain slider. The back of the base features two USB C ports (one for connecting the Mic to the base and the other for connecting the Base to your PC), a 3.5mm headphone jack for latency-free monitoring, a brightness level button and a three-position slider that allows you to adjust the proximity range for the contactless mute sensor or turn it off altogether. 

The mic itself has a solid feel, featuring a metal body and grille. However, the base is made of hard plastic and feels cheap compared to the mic. While the rubber feet on the base do a good job of keeping it from wobbling and shifting about on your desk, the mic mount itself wobbles with the slightest of movements. Unfortunately, you can't fix this as there's a certain point beyond which it can't be tightened unless you're fond of the mic being backward.

Sound Quality

The Torch provides good sound quality for its price range, with a wide frequency response, clear audio reproduction and a built-in pop filter that helps eliminate those annoying peaks when making consonant sounds. While the sound of your own voice through the Torch isn’t going to blow your mind with its level of fidelity, it is certainly in line with what you should expect out of a $99 mic. 

What sets the Torch apart from similarly priced mics is the variety of available pickup options. Via a conveniently placed dial on the front-mounted mixer panel on the Torch’s base, you can switch between Cardioid, Stereo and Roccat’s proprietary “Whisper” pickup pattern. If you’re streaming solo, Cardioid is what you’re going to be using most due to its narrow focus, helping to eliminate ambient noise. Stereo is a good option for podcasting with a friend or any situation where you’re trying to capture more than one source at once, but it should be avoided if you’re going it alone as it picks up far too much room noise. Both of these options should be familiar to most streamers or podcasters.

Where things get interesting is in the addition of Roccat’s “Whisper” pickup pattern. Aptly named, Whisper greatly boosts the mic’s sensitivity so it can pick up your voice clearly at very low volumes. This setting is ideal for streamers with roommates or family they don’t wish to disturb while active or for folks with naturally quiet speaking voices. Whisper is certainly not ideal for every situation as its extreme sensitivity can easily drive speech at normal volumes into distortion. Still, it is nice to have an option like this available at the twist of a knob.

The Torch also scores high marks for making its lighting more than just a gimmick. Instead of being there purely for aesthetic appeal, the RGB lighting employed by the Torch provides helpful visual cues. For example, your gain settings are indicated by how high up the lighting travels on either side of the mic – turn it all the way up, and the side lighting will reach the top of the capsule. These lights also change color to show which pickup pattern you’ve selected. The mic also glows red to indicate when it is muted. This is an extremely helpful way to read your settings at a glance and a thoughtful application of RGB lighting that I’d like to see more of from competitors.

Features and Software

The vast majority of features present in the Roccat Torch can be experienced with no additional software. The Torch does not work with Roccat’s SWARM software, but it is compatible with Roccat NEON, which is currently in Beta. So what do you get with Neon? Well, practically nothing, to be honest. In its present state, NEON only serves as a way to turn AIMO dynamic RGB lighting on and off and to send Roccat a support ticket – both of which are actions you can take without ever taking the time to install the software.

Bottom Line

Roccat’s first entry into the world of streaming mics is both a little bit more and a little bit less than what you’d expect – it is a well-built mic with a sturdy metal frame and grille attached to a plastic base, and it is overall more useful than it is attractive. Audio reproduction is solid and in line with what is generally acceptable for a mic in this price range – what takes the Torch a step beyond is its three selectable polar patterns, including the very useful “Whisper” mode. However, the most standout feature of the Torch is RGB lighting that is actually useful. Instead of just looking pretty (which it certainly does), the Torch’s lighting allows you to see what your settings are at a glance. Since RGB lighting isn’t going anywhere, let’s hope we see more creative and thoughtful uses of the effect like what the Torch has to offer.

Where the Torch doesn’t shine as brightly is in its software package, some design quirks and half-baked features. At least at the time of this writing, Roccat Neon is pretty much useless – offering nothing apart from the ability to turn the lighting on and off and send an email to Roccat. Sorry, chums, but both of those things can be accomplished without installing more driver software that I don’t really need. The Torch’s mixer-style dock is also useful from a control perspective, but the plastic construction feels underwhelming compared to the mic itself. The mic also never seems to screw into the dock tightly – it wobbles at the slightest touch. In my case, it can’t even hold still when I’m typing away next to it. It’s also odd that the Torch needs to be connected to its base via USB-C whether it is docked or not – the short connector cable included for use when the mic is docked can be awkward to wrestle into position.

The Torch’s biggest sin is its gesture-controlled mute feature. In theory, it’s great to be able to mute and unmute your mic with a Jedi-like wave of your hand. However, in practice, it can be quite irritating, because the sensor can occasionally be picky and indiscriminate when it comes to which gestures it will recognize and at what range. It’s a neat idea that is ultimately more troublesome than it is useful, often activating when it is not wanted or refusing to cooperate when it is needed. Thankfully, you have the option to turn this feature off completely. Use it and thank me later.

Where does this leave the Torch? It’s certainly not perfect, but at this price point, it doesn’t need to be – it needs to deliver a solid user experience and punch in its weight class in terms of features and audio quality. Despite its shortcomings, the Torch does that and offers a little bit extra, too, making it well worth a look.

The best gaming mouse options give you lightning fast switches, a great sensor and awesome ergonomics for long term use. Roccat's latest deal ticks these three boxes and gives you a discount to boot.

At Best Buy, the Roccat Kone Pro Air wireless gaming mouse, which uses fast actuating optical switches, is now $30 off — taking the price down to just $99.99!

• More: Best gaming keyboards
• Best gaming PCs
• Best Buy coupon codes

While we have not reviewed this mouse's wireless model , you can read our Roccat Kone Pro review for an overview of how we feel about the wired version. Spoiler: we like it!

Sporting a unique look and shape, this is a very comfortable ergonomic mouse with impressive ring finger and pinky support. There's also plenty of options to customize to your liking, such as button macros and the DPI for the Owl-Eye sensor, which can offer smooth, precise tracking up to 19,000 DPI.

All-in-all, this is a solid gaming mouse, which is now even better with this $30 discount. Snap one up now if you’re in the market for a new wireless clicker.

With its latest keyboard, Roccat has its eye squarely on the everyday gamer. Coming in at $100, the Roccat Pyro mechanical keyboard aims to deliver an exceptional gaming experience without breaking the bank. It’s a nice change of pace from the ever-increasing costs of flagship gaming keyboards from the likes of Razer and Corsair. The Pyro stands out from the pack with its unique look, lots of programmability and a solid set of features for the price. However, poor keycaps, rattly stabilizers and clunky software hold it back from being one of the best gaming  keyboards. 

Roccat Pyro Specs 

Design of the Roccat Pyro 

The Roccat Pyro makes a positive first impression with its unique appearance. Like many gaming keyboards, it features a brushed aluminum top plate in gunmetal gray. That plate is framed with black plastic bezels that match the keycaps and volume knob, breaking up the appearance in a pleasing way. The bottom bezel is trimmed in long lines that carry straight down to the detachable wrist rest, around the sides and through to the back. Add a vertical volume knob and low profile design, and you have a keyboard that stands out from the pack without having to turn to brightly colored keycaps or outspoken designs that’d turn off minimalist-leaning gamers. 

The Pyro has a standard footprint on your desk measuring 17.6 x 6 inches but feels more compact due to its shallow 1.4 inch depth. Compared to the ultra-popular Corsair K70 RGB TKL (1.9 inches), the Pyro feels downright low profile while still using full-height switches. Despite its slim profile, the Pyro has reassuring heft, weighing 2.4 pounds. It stays in place well, thanks to four non-slip rubber feet on its bottom four corners.  

That low profile design means that the board sits low and flat. As a touch typist, I found it difficult to use without the included palm rest to elevate my hands. The palm rest is hard plastic, but the grooved surface kept me from sweating even in my warm office. If the higher angle provided by the palm rest isn’t enough, a pair of tilt feet can adjust it further. There is only one set of feet, however, so there’s no fine tuning your angle of attack, which feels like a cut corner. 

While the design looks good, it’s certainly not the easiest to keep clean. Both the brushed metal and the grooved plastic have a tendency to hold bits of dust and debris from normal use. Trying to wipe these away was difficult because of the textured surfaces, so I found myself breaking out the compressed air just to keep the keyboard looking its best. 

Interestingly, Roccat also decided to use reflective plastic on the back of the keyboard inside the wider set of grooves. I was initially concerned this would be a fingerprint magnet but because it’s applied only in the recesses, it works well (even if you’ll rarely see it).

The Pyro’s keycaps are especially difficult to keep clean. They’re thin at only 1mm for each wall and use laser-etched legends to display the RGB backlight. The primary legends shine brightly, but the secondary symbols are positioned directly underneath and hardly light up at all. The coating on the keycaps shows finger oils terribly. My keyboard began looking messy after only a day of dedicated use. Wiping down the keyboard works, but unless you’re planning to scrub individual keycaps on a regular basis, you’ll be stuck with a keyboard that looks grungy sooner than later. 

Additionally, the use of laser-etched legends also means the ABS plastic keycaps will wear down more quickly than doubleshot keycaps, which use a separate piece of plastic for their legends. Thankfully, Roccat has used a standard bottom row layout, so the Pyro is compatible with most aftermarket keycap sets if you decide you’d like to upgrade. 

There are further cut corners when it comes to the switches and stabilizers, but these are minor differences that likely won’t be noticed unless used side-by-side with a Cherry MX Red keyboard. Still, the board uses TTC Red switches rather than more well-known brands, like Cherry, Kailh or even Gateron. Though TTC is relatively unknown, the switch mimics the design of a Cherry MX Red. Compared to Cherries, these switches are a mixed bag with less spring ping but a slightly scratchy, minutely less smooth feeling. 

The stabilizers follow the same mixed-bag pattern. You’ll find stabilizers under the larger keys (Spacebar, Backspace, Enter and each Shift). They use a pair of dummy switches connected with a wire to keep the key upright. Stabilizers should be developed with tight tolerances and use lubrication to keep the wire from creating a distracting rattle. The Pyro gets this half right. The stabilizers are fairly tight to the metal top plate but lack visible lubricating grease. Thus, the stabilizers were very rattly and loud out of the box. This was easy to fix with just a touch of dielectric grease but is an odd omission when even many budget gaming keyboards have begun lubing their stabilizers at the factory. This isn’t standard practice yet but is common enough that it stands out when a major brand like Roccat doesn’t lube its stabs. 

One thing the Pyro gets right is RGB lighting, albeit in a more basic way than you might be used to. It uses a floating key design, which leaves the translucent tops of the switch housings visible under the keys. The LEDs are bright and vibrant and do a great job of lighting up the top legends, so the board looks great no matter what angle you view it from. Within Roccat's Swarm software, you’re able to choose between 8 preset lighting effects and a custom mode. The presets cover the usual bases of breathing, reactive typing, a cycling rainbow wave and even a snake mode that slithers a row of lights in random patterns across your keys. 

The flagship lighting feature is Roccat’s AIMO Intelligent Lighting. This so-called “living light” is a step above your traditional rainbow lighting effect that comes stock on many per-key RGB keyboards. AIMO is said to work by applying a dynamic flowing lighting effect across the entire keyset. Roccat refers to the lighting in terms we would usually associate with AI (intelligent, evolving, adapting, etc.) and claims the light will change and adapt to your gameplay the more you use it. During the two weeks I had the keyboard, I didn’t notice any change based on my gaming but did appreciate the unique and seemingly organic way the lights shifted and flowed. 

However, I couldn’t see any loop or pattern. One second, they were fading between hues, the next they were moving in a directional flow, and in still others, the color seemed to be pushing in at the sides or flowing in and out. There is also a reactive typing element to AIMO where an expanding zone of light will grow depending on how much you’re typing on an area of the keyboard. It’s a neat effect that’s only found on Roccat keyboards. 

As per Roccat, it may be best to imagine AIMO lighting as a tapestry through which each peripheral is only a window. If you have other AIMO peripherals, the lighting is said to flow seamlessly between them. Since I only had the Pyro, I couldn’t test this for myself but it’s easy to see how the effect would be enhanced with a full Roccat peripheral setup. 

When it comes to additional features, the keyboard plays it light. There’s no USB passthrough or built-in audio jacks for connecting a headset, but given it’s price, I wouldn’t expect to find too many extras. Roccat did take the excellent vertical volume knob from its more expensive line of Vulcan gaming keyboards, including the Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro and Roccat Vulcan 122 Aimo. It’s a small touch, but being able to physically grab the knob really does lend a greater degree of control and feels great to use. I just wish Roccat included physical media controls or the ability to click to mute, each of which are left to secondary controls from F8-F12. 

Typing Experience of the Roccat Pyro 

Roccat only offers the Pyro with TTC Red switches, so tactile and clicky fans are out of luck. The switches are copycats of Cherry MX Reds and follow the same linear design preferred for gaming. They feature the same lightweight 45g actuation force, 2mm actuation distance and 4mm of total travel. The experience using them is very similar, but I found myself preferring the TTCs for the lack of spring noise when typing. The slight added scratchiness wasn’t noticeable when typing at full speed, where spring noise certainly would have been.  

Typing on the keyboard felt very nice. The keys are smooth and bounce back quickly. Even though the keyboard is on the thin side, it felt solid when bottoming out. There doesn’t seem to be any empty space in the case to make it sound hollow, which also mitigates the cheap feeling of the keycaps. 

The sound profile of the Pyro is light and clacky. Out of the box, the larger keys, especially Backspace and Spacebar, were distractingly loud and rattly. Thankfully, with a touch of dielectric grease I was able to make them sound much better. With this easy mod applied, the keyboard had a pleasant typing sound that I found quite satisfying for heavy typing. 

Between the flatter typing angle and the linear switches, the Pyro has a bit of a learning curve. Out of the box, I averaged 73 words per minute (WPM) on the 10FastFingers.com typing test. After a few hours of practice, this increased to 97 WPM. On my normal keyboard, TheKey.Company’s Portico, I average closer to 110 WPM with heavier linear switches, so the Pyro’s typing angle and lightness of the switch may have reduced my accuracy somewhat.

Gaming Experience of the Roccat Pyro 

After gaming with the Pyro, I had positive impressions, but the clacker may leave you wanting if you enjoy macros or freedom from companion software. 

Linear switches are popular among gamers, due to their smooth travel, and the TTC Reds are no exception. Gaming with them felt easy and natural. Even though this was my first experience with TTC switches, there was no learning curve because each switch felt consistent, reliable and without any unique characteristics to navigate compared to Cherry MX Reds. 

Outside of the switches, the Pyro offers a number of features to aid gamers in battle. Like many gaming keyboards, it has a Game Mode, but it functions a little differently than you might expect. Rather than disable the Windows key and common shortcuts like Alt+Tab, Game Mode is an onboard memory profile and can store a second set of keymaps, even without software running in the background. This was confusing at first since the keyboard also supports up to 5 profiles on software with additional keymaps, but these won’t work once the software is closed. 

Another core feature is Roccat’s Easy-Shift technology. Easy-Shift lets you access a second set of input sby holding down a dedicated button (Caps Lock by default) while in Game Mode. It’s only possible to remap the left half of the keyboard, numbers 1-5 and the alphas underneath those keys. That opens the door to 20 additional keymaps without needing to take your hands off the movement keys.  

Playing through the campaign of Doom Eternal and several matches of Battlefield V, I didn’t make heavy use of the Easy-Shift features, but depending on your game and playstyle, they could come in handy. Ultimately, I appreciated the key switches much more than software features and that the keyboard was easy to get used to, allowing me to quickly get up to speed with my gameplay. 

That said, another limitation is that the keyboard doesn’t offer any kind of macro support, so MOBA and MMORPG fans will be out of luck for their advanced key sequences.

Software for the Roccat Pyro

The keyboard relies on the Roccat Swarm software to achieve its full functionality. That software feels antiquated. The art assets, for example, are low resolution and look soft and pixelated, even when running windowed on a 4K resolution display. There are also features that feel like they’re straight out of the 2010s, like the ability to add artificial noises, like typewriter sounds, to your key presses.  

Functionality is broken into three tabs for general settings, remapping keys and customizing the keyboard’s lighting. 

General Features is a section where you can turn on different typing sounds and set audio cues for other actions, like changing profiles. It also lets you control basic parameters, like the repeat rate for holding down a key or how fast your cursor blinks.

Key Assignment is where you program shortcuts and keymaps. Despite its limitations in macro recording and where Easy-Shift keys can be mapped, Roccat includes a generous array of secondary functions to choose from. Windows shortcuts, internet browser controls, media controls and even custom program launches can all be mapped keys for use in Game Mode. 

There’s a lot to choose from, but actually applying these keymaps is janky. It’s not as simple as clicking a key and choosing which function you’d like to map. Instead, every function must be clicked and dragged to the proper location in the sub-menu below the keyboard. Actually remapping keys can be done by clicking "remap" and pressing the button you would like, but if you want to assign a combination, that’s a whole separate function that needs to be dragged from the side menu. It’s an old approach to key mapping that hasn’t aged well at all.

Finally, the Key Illumination tab is where you control the keyboard’s backlight. Choosing a preset is as simple as clicking it and customizing simple parameters like color, speed and brightness. The degree of control is more limited than competing software from flagship keyboard brands, but it’s fast and easy to get your keyboard looking great.

For custom layouts, you can select individual keys and clusters by clicking and dragging across the keyboard or choosing individual zones on the left side of the app. Each zone is customizable with color and direction and even custom gradients. That makes Swarm more in-depth than it first appears but still a far cry from the Photoshop-like options in Corsair’s iCue or Razer’s Chroma Studio.  

Bottom Line

The Roccat Pyro lands squarely in the middle-ground for gaming keyboards. For $100, it offers the aesthetics of a more expensive keyboard with most of the features you would expect for gaming. But if you need macros or don’t like running software in the background, this keyboard isn’t a good fit. 

At this price, the lack of macro support really is disappointing. Likewise, while the keyboard has room for two onboard profiles, you can only customize one, which is also a disappointment. However, you can store five more profiles in the keyboard's software

If you need similar features, plus the addition of macros, the Patriot Viper V765 is only $70 as of writing and offers clicky switches. Another option that maintains the low-profile form factor is the HyperX Alloy Origins which also has a greater range of switch options. Neither of those look quite as good as the Pyro, however.

Ultimately, the Roccat Pyro is a good keyboard but leaves much to be desired. If you love the look or can’t live without the vertical volume roller, it’s worth a closer look, especially if you’re willing to add a touch of grease to its stabilizers. Otherwise, there are more fully featured options available, sometimes for even less money.

When it comes to the shape of your best gaming mouse, you may prefer an ambidextrous design that’s symmetrical in shape or opt for an ergonomic mouse, which typically curves in a way that caters to the right-handed gamer’s thumb. The Roccat Kone Pro (and wireless Kone Pro Air) are a more unique approach to ergonomic gaming mice with bolder curves that also provide support to the ring and even pinky finger.

For $80, the Kone Pro can keep up with the competition when it comes to specs, software and functionality. But an unimpressive plastic chassis with some questionable gapping in places like under the primary click buttons stop it from being flawless.  

Roccat Kone Pro Specs 

Design and Comfort of Roccat Kone Pro

The Kone Pro’s best asset is, perhaps, its shape. It caters to parts of the hand that many gaming mice today neglect: the ring and pinky fingers. Ergonomic mice often focus on curving in for a righty’s thumb, and the Kone Pro does too. But it also provides a subtler, longer curve in its right side, where the ring finger can easily rest and the pinky may find respite too. I have longer hands for a woman, and sometimes I noticed my pinky dragging on my mouse pad in my typical claw and palm grips still, but this happened less often than with most gaming mice I’ve tested.

The mouse’s shape makes palm gripping very comfortable. My palm’s outer edge makes comfortable contact with the Kone Pro’s hump, while the deepest part of my palm hovers above. In both palm and claw grips, my ring finger often grazes the gap underneath the right click button. This is a small annoyance but one worth noting for perfectionists. This wouldn’t be an issue if I used a fingertip grip, but I find the mouse a bit bulky for that, and a more symmetrical shape would be helpful too. 

Roccat’s Kone Pro measures 4.94 x 2.83 x 1.57 inches and weighs 2.34 ounces. For comparison to other ergonomically shaped wire mice for righties, the Razer DeathAdder V2 is longer, less wide, taller and heavier (5 x 2.43 x 1.68 inches / 2.89 ounces), and the honeycomb-filled Glorious Model D is about the same length and weight but less wide, taller and lighter (5.04 x 2.4 x 1.65 inches / 2.4 ounces). Especially with its lightweight plastic, the Kone Pro does a good job of feeling light for its size, but I wouldn’t call it lightweight, especially with the likes of honeycomb mice like the 2.08-ounce Glorious Model O- around. 

Available in black or white (the above picture shows both color schemes available for the wired and wireless versions of the mouse, and the white version is wireless), the Kone Pro’s plastic shell is nothing remarkable. It's carved with a gathering of parallel lines on the sides where it curves in, and it’s easy for fingerprints together there and elsewhere, making the mouse look extra unremarkable, especially with the black unit we’re reviewing. The chassis lacks gripping and is a little slick without being gross or too slippery, but some more grip would be appreciated. 

A Roccat Kone logo stamped on the plastic chassis is inoffensive, yet snooze-worthy. The chunky, plastic side buttons don’t look the most premium to me; although I like the contrast they create on the white version of the mouse. Of greater concern is the amount of spacing under the primary click buttons, between them and throughout the scroll wheel, where dust accumulated during my weeks of testing. The gaps under the primary click buttons allow RGB to shine through in a unique, appealing way. But if you look through the spacing at the right angle, you'll be alarmed to see some of the mouse’s internal components. (Note that the mouse has a 2-year warranty.) 

Although the scroll wheel can get dusty and some might think it looks flimsy, it adds a special touch to the Kone Pro. Instead of opting for some pattern-textured rubber, the Kone Pro’s scroll wheel is a thin, but hard, piece of aluminum. It makes for a cool side profile, as I can see through the wheel into some RGB lighting. Tactile scrolls are subtly reassuring, and it’s a little heavier to press in than other wheels. It’s also not as grippy as some rubber wheels, but slippage shouldn't be a problem unless you’re literally sweating. And if you are (no judgement here), this wheel may be a bother.

Gaming Experience on Roccat Kone Pro

The Kone Pro starts off with the right tech to compete with other gaming mice in its price range. Its Roccat Owl-Eye sensor is based off PixArt’s PAW3370 and can reach 50g max acceleration and a sensitivity of up to 19,000 CPI. But while many mice offer a way to change CPI settings without ever opening an app, the only way to change the Kone Pro’s CPI out of the box is by downloading software. There’s even a profile switch button on the mouse’s underside, but this doesn’t change CPI by default. Even worse, CPI was set uncomfortably low. Swarm eventually confirmed it was set to 800 CPI, when I’d prefer around 2,500-3,000. 

I used the Kone Pro across CPI settings, from a comfortable 2,500, to the lowest (50) and highest (19,000). Regardless, tracking seemed as smooth and accurate as expected of a premium gaming mouse. I had no trouble with large sweeping swipes or careful, small movements, meaning the mouse was part of the action rather than a hindrance. 

The primary click buttons use what Roccat calls Titan Switch Optical mechanical switches. If you haven’t heard the hype around optical mechanical switches, (which are finding homes in some of the best gaming keyboards too), yet, basically they actuate when their stem goes through a light beam, rather than via metallic contact. This should prevent them from suffering from accidental double-clicking, which has been reported among some premium gaming mice after a years of extended use. Roccat claims these Titan switches are particularly “great for FPS and action games.”

I tried the Kone Pro across some shooters and found it easy to press the primarily click buttons with my fingers at various positions. It didn’t take much force or effort to press those buttons or the cheaper feeling plastic side buttons. 

Compared to left-click, right-click felt clunkier though. In a side-by-side comparison with mice using standard mechanical switches I had on hand, including the Logitech G203 Lightsync, Cooler Master MM711 and Razer Orochi V2, the Kone Pro’s clicks sounded noticeably softer and seemed easier and lighter to actuate, but the other mice’s clicks felt sharper. 

In the Human Benchmark reaction time test, where you must click when the screen turns from red to green, I averaged 178.6ms with a low of 168ms with the Kone Pro, compared to 205ms and 163ms, respectively, with the Orochi V2.

Meanwhile, the side buttons are large and high enough to be easily accessible without repositioning. Both myself and a man with larger hands had no issue accessing both buttons that way with palm and claw grips and without accidentally pressing another button on the mouse. 

The Kone Pro keeps up with the design trends of other gaming mice in its price range, with its 5.9-feet-long braided cable and “heat-treated pure PTFE glides.” The PTFE feet are spread across the top of the mouse’s underside, plus around the sensor and on the bottom. Roccat also includes an extra set of feet in the box. The mouse moves slightly easier and more lightly than I expected from looking at the chunkier rat, but it’s not as slippery a glide as I’ve experienced on other mice, such as the small Razer DeathAdder V2 Mini.

Roccat’s Kone Pro proved comfortable enough for hours of gaming but after a few minutes of heavy gaming it felt a little clammy and moist. There’s not much in the way of grip here either. There are slimier mice out there, but after a bit you may want to take a moisture break from the Kone Pro.

Features and Software of Roccat Kone Pro

The Kone Pro uses Roccat’s Swarm software, which is a required download if you want to change the mouse’s default CPI setting. There’s no button that’ll change CPI out of the box unless you program it to in Swarm. Swarm’s UI is pretty extensive but harmless to use; however, every saved change in Swarm results in a 1-2 second delay, making detailed changes to the mouse a little tedious. 

The Settings page has tweaks that many gaming peripheral makers don’t include in their software, including vertical scroll speed and double-click speed. Here’s also where you can change the DPI settings from 50-19,000 in 100-unit increments. There’s a CPI calibration tool too, but I’ve found it ineffective here and with other Roccat mice because it always suggests I go just a little higher or lower than what I’ve already set it to. 

Swarm’s Button Assignment section lets you assign functions for the programmable buttons: left and right click, scroll up, down or in, the two side buttons and the profile cycle button on the underside. Swarm even includes 3 extra presets to give you some ideas for using all that functionality. Additionally, if you program one button as the Easy-Shift[+] button, all aforementioned inputs can have a secondary function when pressing the Easy-Shift[+] simultaneously. The mouse’s RGB will automatically switch to blue to inform you that Easy-Shift[+] has been activated. 

That ultimately means you can program 16 different inputs with the Kone Pro, from launching programs, to keyboard functions and macros and opening a new browser window. A macro manager also lets you set up macros that’ll automatically launch with games and other apps. 

Illumination controls the Kone Pro’s 2 RGB zones, including a brightness slider. You get 5 RGB presets, (plus off), with most offering a slider for speed too. You can pick a solid color for each individual zone if you want via a color selector or by entering red, green and blue values.

I used the Kone Pro as my primary mouse for about a month on and off using its Aimo reactive RGB setting. According to Roccat, Aimo RGB is meant for “adapting to your play the more you use them, and becoming more dynamic and nuanced as AIMO products combine.” Swarm adds that “Roccat is continually developing exciting new features and effects for Aimo, which will see your level increase.” But I’ve never been able to get my AIMO level past 15% when reviewing Roccat’s Kone Pro, Burst Pro or Kain 200 Aimo; however, I haven’t combined Aimo peripherals. I did hit 35% with the Vulcan 122 Aimo keyboard but didn’t feel like RGB was reacting to what I was doing on the PC. The case was the same with the Kone Pro. 

In Swarm’s Advanced Settings tab you can choose among  a 125, 250, 500 or 1,000 Hz polling rate (sorry, extremists, no 8,000 Hz here yet). There are also tools for playing with things like distance control and angle snapping. 

Swarm lets you program a generous 5 onboard memory profiles. If you have Swarm open, you can also have the profiles launch automatically with specific programs.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Kone Pro is a solid gaming mouse, especially where ergonomic shapes are concerned. A well-endowed hump, accessible buttons and space for the ring and smaller pinky fingers make it a win for palm and claw grips especially. And while it’s not the most exciting look in all black (the white version does pop more), an aluminum scroll wheel and RGB-lit left and right-click buttons help differentiate the mouse.

The Kone Pro’s plastic shell is not a standout though. There’s nothing to help boost your grip, and it easily starts feeling moist when gaming. Plus, there are gaps throughout the design where dust easily builds up. For a better grip in an ergonomic design, consider the Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro, which is going for $30 less ($50) than the Kone Pro as of writing. And if you hate cables, note that there’s a wireless version of the Kone Pro. 

But if your fingers have earned some extra attention, the Kone Pro knows what to do.

PC gamers will find a lot to love about the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air and don’t have to spend a huge premium to obtain it. At $99.99 as of this writing, the Elo 7.1 Air is cheaper than a lot of wireless gaming headsets. Plus, it offers comfort, solid audio with the option for virtual 7.1 surround sound and enough bonus features to spare.

In its fight to be the best gaming headset, these cans opt for a wireless connection, letting you cut the cord and simply plug in a USB Type-A dongle. (Sorry, console gamers; this is PC-only). But although dropping the cable is convenient, being limited in how far you can move from your PC and unsure of exactly how much battery life remains are not.

Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Specifications

Design and Comfort

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air is a sleek, matte-black beast, from the top of its headband all the way down to the metal forks holding its earcups. Apart from the RGB-illuminated Roccat name and logo adorning the headset’s earcups, the Elo 7.1 Air sports a relatively understated look for a gaming headset, allowing it to camouflage its gaming pedigree and looks just as at home in a more professional environment as it does in a gaming setup.

There are a number of subtle, thoughtful touches to the Elo 7.1 Air’s overall design that make it very pleasant to use for long gaming sessions. The earcups swivel, allowing for comfortable neck wear when not in use. Controls are conveniently located (on/off, microphone and headset volume and microphone on/off ) on the left earcup. The mic mute and power buttons differ greatly in size, so they are easy to locate by feel alone, and the individual volume wheels for the cans and the mic are satisfyingly tactile. Thanks to the headset’s simple, intuitive layout, my fingers never ended up pressing the wrong button.

The Elo 7.1 Air weighs in at 0.8 pounds with the microphone attached, making it a tad on the girthy side. For comparison, the similarly priced SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless is 0.6 pounds. But the Elo 7.1 Air isn’t a dramatic outlier: the wireless Corsair HS70 Bluetooth and Razer Blackshark V2 Pro are only slightly lighter at 0.7 pounds each.

Most importantly, the Elo 7.1 Air’s weight did not result in any discomfort during long play sessions. The headset’s leatherette headband offers ample cushioning. Roccat opted for a self-adjusting headband, rather than allowing gamers to manually tweak how the Elo 7.1 Air sits on their head, and I’m pleased to report that Roccat got it right. The headset clamps down tight with minimal wobble and stays in place without any need for further adjustment. I usually detest self-adjusting headbands because they never seem to fit my rather large noggin without significant slippage, so it’s wonderful to finally experience one that works as advertised.

Adding to the Elo 7.1 Air’s ability to stay rocking for the long haul, the memory foam padded earcups are comfortably tight with just the right amount of depth to avoid crushing ears against the drivers. They also include Turtle Beach’s so-called ProSpecs Glasses Relief System, which features softer foam in the area where glasses would rest for less pressure.

If you want to change the look of the RGB logos on the earcups, you’ll need Roccat’s Swarm software (more on that in the dedicated section below). Note that there’s only 1 RGB zone, so the two earcup’s settings aren’t individually addressable. You can choose between Color Cycle, Fully Lit, Heartbeat, Breathing, Blinking or Roccat’s Aimo Intelligent Lighting, which is supposed to react to how you use the headset and improve the more you use it. This sounds cool in theory, but I didn't notice it responding to gameplay or other actions. I even played with the headset sitting on my desk to see if I could notice gameplay-specific lighting reactions, and while there were some cool effects, it didn’t seem obviously triggered by any audio cue. It’s possible Aimo could improve with more use, but experience with other peripherals tells us it takes a lot of use to fill up Aimo’s capability meter to 100%.

In general though, each RGB effect looks striking, if a bit too bright even at lower brightness settings. You can also pick your speed preference (aside from AIMO and Fully Lit, which only allow brightness controls). As cool as AIMO is, there is little to recommend about using it on a headset where you will not be seeing the effect during gameplay -- unless, you prefer to look at your headset instead of your monitor while gaming. We won’t judge you (much).

Audio Performance

Roccat equips the Elo 7.1 Air with 50mm neodymium drivers with a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz. Those drivers are a little bigger than the 40mm drivers in the Arctis 1 Wireless, which has the same frequency response. And even some pricer wireless headsets, like the $130 Logitech G733 Lightspeed (40mm, 20,-20,000 Hz) offer lesser specs than our review focus; although, you’ll get beefier spes front he Razer Blackshark V2 Pro and HyperX Cloud II Wireless. Still, the Elo 7.1 Air has good specs for the price and should cover the full frequency of what human ears can hear. Ultimate audio performance is about more than specs though.

And the Elo 7.1 Air ultimately delivers exceptional audio. The booming bass we’ve all come to know and love from gaming headsets is well represented here but thankfully doesn’t interfere with clarity across the frequency range. Mids and highs are crisp and clear, making the Elo 7.1 Air well-suited for music, movies and gaming.

What we’re all here for, however, is gaming performance, and the Elo 7.1 Air fared exceptionally well in this category. With virtual 7.1 surround sound on, positional audio cues were readily apparent in DOOM Eternal and CS:GO, as well as in slower paced titles like the Dark Souls series dripped with atmosphere. Even in frantic firefights with explosions aplenty, these cans didn’t distort the overall mix. Gaming with the ELO 7.1 Air is still a good experience in stereo mode, but the virtual 7.1 brings out a level of spatial detail that you miss out on in stereo.

The Elo 7.1 Air also makes use of Turtle Beach’s “Superhuman Hearing” feature (Turtle Beach acquired Roccat in 2019), which is a bit of a mixed bag in my experience. Superhuman Hearing amplifies more subtle sound effects like footsteps in both stereo and virtual 7.1 mode, and this can certainly be useful in competitive titles. But it does so at the expense of the overall sound mix. Everything simply sounded too compressed for my liking with Superhuman Hearing turned on. Those with less ears meticulous though, may opt for the potential gaming advantage. But I felt like I wasn’t hearing the game as the developers intended.

When I tested the headset in stereo mode, music really popped, whether headbanging to Meshuggah or relaxing to Marvin Gaye. Movies, meanwhile, were a treat with virtual 7.1 surround sound on. The horrors of Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan felt very real. Likewise, the epic battles of The Lord of the RIngs: Return of the King were extremely convincing.

The Elo 7.1 Air is loud without being earsplitting (whether 7.1 was on or off), but these cans are not well-isolated. While outside noise isn’t allowed in, there is significant spillage of audio into the outside world when listening at 80-100% volume. This is perfectly fine with your gaming setup at home, but it’s not ideal in an office setting or out in public, where the excess sound pouring out of your headset will likely annoy those near you.

There was no noticeable signal degradation or audio artifacting when using the Elo 7.1 Air’s 2.4 GHz dongle. Sound remained crisp and clear. However, the advertised 30-foot range didn’t prove to be accurate in my home. At approximately 18 feet from my desktop I started to notice signal degradation and breakup. When I reached a distance of 25 feet, I lost signal completely, and the headset shut itself off. As with all wireless headsets, your environment will make all the difference in getting the best reception at range, so your experience may vary. An open concept space will no doubt fare far better than my railroad-style apartment in Queens.

Of course, you also have the option to use the cable (USB-C to USB-A) for a wired connection or to use the cans while it’s charging.

Microphone

The Elo 7.1 Air’s mic is exceptionally well-tuned, avoiding the nasally top end found in many gaming headset mics. While some background noise, such as clicky mechanical keyboards, can be picked up, it is well within acceptable noise levels, even without noise cancelation turned on via software. With noise cancelation enabled, there was a notable improvement, and you can easily adjust sensitivity via software. I found dropping the mic’s sensitivity is necessary, as the default level is a bit too high gain and can distort occasionally. The addition of a windscreen on the mic would have been nice, as there is noticeable pop with hard consonants.

Battery Life

Roccat claims the Elo 7.1 Air has a 24-hour battery life, and my testing confirmed this to be true. In normal use cases, this amounts to roughly a week before the headset will need to be charged.

But Roccat’s Swarm software (more on it below) doesn’t provide exact battery meter readings. The battery life indicator only decreases in 25% increments, meaning you’re never sure what exact level of charge you’re at. While this is less of a problem than it’d be on headsets with shorter battery life, it’s still strange to see the indicator jump from 100% to 75% with no warning. Hopefully, a software update will provide more accurate data on the state of the Elo 7.1’s charge.  

The Elo 7.1 Air can be fully charged from a dead battery in as little as 90 minutes, so, thankfully, downtime between marathon sessions is minimal.

Features and Software

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air has ample audio tweaking options available via the Roccat Swarm software, including a number of different EQ settings (Balanced, FPS, MMO, MOBA, Racing, Action, RPG, Dynamic, Instrument, Explosion and Default). In a movemore rare for gaming headsets, especially in this price range, you can store up to five profiles in onboard memory, making for easy switching to preferred settings by individual games or genre.

Each EQ curve is tailored to its specified gaming genre, with the Racing, Explosions and FPS presets offering a significant bass boost and the others a more mid-frequency focused experience. The Balanced and Instrument presets were best for music with their flatter curve, and Dynamic was well-suited for movies with its high and low frequencies boosted. The Default preset was a little too ‘scooped’ (mid frequency range de-emphasized) for my liking.

Swarm lets you play with the bass frequency EQ, but I mostly left that alone because it disables the ability to play with the full frequency range via the 10-band graphic EQ.

You can tweak a large number of other parameters with Swarm, including toggling virtual 7.1 surround sound, Magic Voice (voice masking), mic noise cancelation and Superhuman Hearing. The app also lets you play with the clarity of voice and audio and adjust mic sensitivity and the bass frequency EQ. 

The Swarm UI is very clean and intuitive, free of clutter and with all functionality clearly labeled.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air manages to punch above its weight class in all of the categories that matter, providing great value for your hard-earned cash.

The virtual 7.1 surround sounds huge and crisp, even with its wireless connection. The self-adjusting headband manages to be comfortable instead of an exercise in futility. And the mic is a step above what is commonly found on many gaming headsets

There are a few small issues that prevent the Elo 7.1 Air from achieving perfection, most notably the lack of a truly accurate battery level monitor. The inclusion of Turtle Beach’s Superhuman Hearing tech will be hit or miss for most as well. But these issues are relatively small when all of its advantages are considered.

Coming in at $99.99, the Elo 7.1 Air is worth a look. It’s also a good option over the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless for the same price if you want virtual 7.1 surround sound more than you want additional connectivity options. Small quibbles aside, affordable wireless gaming headsets don’t get much better.

For a long time, we’ve argued that mechanical switches help make the best gaming keyboards. But over the past couple years, we’ve seen manufacturers play with the idea of what it means to be a mechanical switch. From the Razer Huntsman line to the more recently released Corsair K100, keyboards vendors, including gaming ones, are offering more light-based optical mechanical switches that claim to offer better durability and speed than traditional mechanical ones.

It’s practically impossible to spot the difference between the Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro and the Roccat Vulcan TKL. They have the same layout, the same dimensions and many of the same features. But the Vulcan TKL Pro, (as well as the full-sized version), features Roccat’s new optical switches instead of the mechanical ones found in the Vulcan TKL, and that’s supposed to be enough to justify the Pro version’s higher price tag ($160 versus $130, respectively). But is it really?

Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro Specs

Design of Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro

Here’s a surprise: The Vulcan TKL Pro is a tenkeyless version of the Vulcan Pro. That means it’s smaller, lighter and easier to transport than the version that hasn’t lost its number pad, which is handy for those with small desks or who like a lot of room for moving their best gaming mouse. It also leads to a few differences with the layout--most notably the loss of some multimedia keys found on the full-sized Vulcan Pro. But the design’s between our TKL review unit and its full-sized sibling are similar enough that it’s easy to see why Roccat kept the brand intact.

Let’s talk specifics. The Vulcan TKL Pro is roughly 14.17 inches wide, 5.25 inches long and 1.34 inches tall with a weight of 1.46 pounds. It would be hard to find a smaller keyboard that doesn’t rely on a less-common 75% or 60% layout. Yet, the Vulcan TKL Pro still feels sturdy thanks to the “aircraft-grade aluminum layer” Roccat incorporated into its design.

For comparison, the Vulcan TKL Pro packs a similar, if not slightly thinner, build to other TKL gaming keyboards, including the Asus ROG Strix Scope TKL (14 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches) and Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition, which also has optical mechanical switches, ~14.2 x 5.5  x 1.5 inches).

Roccat claims that its Titan Switch Optical, uh, switches help make the Vulcan TKL Pro “virtually indestructible” because they’re rated for 100 million clicks, compared to the 50 million clicks Roccat’s Titan Switch Mechanical (available in linear or tactile options) is expected to withstand. Unfortunately, I have neither the forearm strength nor the patience to put either of those durability claims to the test.

In addition to optical switches, the Vulcan TKL Pro features a detachable and braided USB-C to USB 2.0 Type-A cable that should make it easier to transport. Plus, you’ll also have the option to pop in a new cable. Roccat also equipped the keyboard with a volume knob, dedicated mute button and RGB backlighting that quite literally shines through the Titan Switch Optical’s transparent housing. (More on the keyboard’s RGB-ilities later.)

Typing Experience on Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro

Roccat’s optical mechanical switches are available in linear form only, and they feel quite different from their mechanical counterparts. Both the Roccat Titan Switch Optical and Roccat Titan Switch Linear have 1.4mm actuation points.  The linear switch has 3.6mm total travel and actuates with 45g of force; however, the optical switches feel a bit firmer than the standard ones throughout each keypress. This contributes to that feeling of sturdiness I mentioned before, even if they don’t necessarily feel twice as durable in a side-by-side comparison.

I’m on record saying that linear switches are worse for everyday typing use than their tactile rivals. They were designed to respond as swiftly as possible to every keypress via low resistance and shallow actuation points. That’s great for gaming--and we’ll talk more about that later--but it’s not so great for people who have to type actual English words for a living.

All of which is to say that I’m grading the Vulcan TKL Pro on a curve, at least so far as the typing experience is concerned, and that I’m more grateful than ever for the existence of spell check. (I would have kept typos in this section, but I’m pretty sure Joanna Stern patented that gimmick.) Someone more comfortable typing on linear switches will have a better experience.

With that out of the way: I like  typing on the Vulcan TKL Pro more than I do most linear keyboards, including the Vulcan TKL, simply because of the added resistance I mentioned before. It’s slightly harder to accidentally press the wrong key on our review unit than it is on the version equipped with mechanical switches, and that alone helps improve the typing experience.

I also like the way the Vulcan TKL Pro’s keycaps felt even after extended use. Some keycaps can get awfully grimy, especially when I used the keyboard all day, but that hasn’t been a problem so far. The keycaps also haven’t shown any sign of wear; although, I’m assuming they’ll give out before the optical switches do, just because the switches are so durable.

Anyone planning to use the Vulcan TKL Pro for anything other than gaming has to answer two questions: Do you like typing with linear switches, and are you content to go without a number pad? If you answered “yes” to both questions, then you won’t be disappointed using this clacker for general productivity. If you answered “no” to either, however, it’s worth looking for a better fit.

Gaming Experience on Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro

Gaming is where the Vulcan TKL Pro shines. Roccat promises that its optical switch “harnesses the speed of light with firmware that recognizes each keystroke cleanly, distinctly and with zero delay.” That certainly feels true. I never had a moment in Valorant or Risk of Rain 2 when I could reasonably blame something on the keyboard instead of my own shortcomings.

Let’s say I’m playing Valorant and need to quickly use a movement ability to get behind cover, lest I get treated to a piece of molten slag penetrating my virtual cranium. Using that ability can mean the difference between a lost fight, round or even match. Saying it would be a bummer if that ability didn’t go off would be an understatement--especially if it’s my keyboard’s fault.

The benefits of linear switches generally, and the Titan Switch Optical in particular, are easiest to gauge in those situations. I want something that’s responsive and reliable; the Vulcan TKL Pro is both. That doesn’t mean I was suddenly a better player, as evidenced by my inability to contribute to Risk of Rain 2 runs, but it does mean I wasn’t hindered by my equipment. For all their differences, however, there’s no denying that Roccat’s optical and mechanical switches feel similar on the battlefield, especially for mainstream or casual gamers.

There’s one other small touch that almost feels silly to call out: The Vulcan TKL Pro features an indicator on the W key as well as on the F and J keys in the home row. As someone who occasionally fails to cradle the WASD cluster when I set my hand back on the keyboard, that indicator proved useful more than once. Thank you, Roccat, for the tactile guidance.

Features and Software of Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro

The Vulcan TKL Pro houses a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0 based processor and uses the Roccat Swarm app to manage settings and update its firmware. This app houses the AIMO lighting engine, too, which Roccat describes as “a state-of-the-art intelligent lighting system that reacts organically to your behavior without the need for extensive configuration.” What exactly that means isn’t clear even after weeks of use, as I didn’t notice any obvious reactive behavior with the setting enabled. Although it’s possible the feature could be more powerful if I got the AIMO capability meter up to 100% (via more usage).

There are other ways to manage the Vulcan TKL Pro’s RGB, however, thanks to a variety of built-in effects as well as the ability to create a custom light show. Those customizations are limited to specific “zones,” like the main keys and WASD. but Swarm does at least offer controls over the theme, effect, speed and brightness of the illumination within each of those zones.

You can also use Swarm to assign functions to keys, create up to five different profiles and record macros. It offers character repeat settings, too, as well as the ability to have sound feedback play when keys are pressed. All of those customizations can be stored to the Vulcan TKL Pro’s onboard memory, with an option to have certain profiles launch alongside specific games and programs, and Swarm features the ability to restore default settings as well.

Bottom Line

It’s easy to like the Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro. Roccat designed a keyboard that feels sturdy, includes numerous quality of life features that other companies might have skipped and optical mechanical switches that some might call the future of typing. I’m going to miss the volume knob, mute button and “W” key indicator when I have to stop using this keyboard.

At the start of this review, I asked if the Vulcan TKL Pro’s optical switches are enough to justify the keyboard’s $30 premium over the Roccat Vulcan TKL, which uses standard mechanical switches. For me, the answer is yes. The optical switches felt better than their traditional counterparts during everyday use, and the added durability should make this a keyboard worth using for a long time.

Other folks might prefer less resistance in their keys, in which case the Vulcan TKL should do just fine. The Vulcan TKL also offers tactile switches in addition to the linear ones, and that would probably be my first choice when it comes to everyday use. (I can’t say for sure, though, as I haven’t used Roccat’s tactile switches.) Besides, how many people will actually press a key 100 million times?

So let’s go back to the questions I posed above. Do you like typing with linear switches? Can you live without a number pad? Let’s add one more: Are you willing to pay more for new technologies that are technically superior to their predecessors even if they feel very similar during normal use? There are no wrong answers. The Vulcan TKL Pro and Vulcan TKL are both high-quality keyboards that shouldn’t disappoint any informed customer.

Editor's Note: This review was originally published on December 6 and was updated on December 9 with more details on the switches. 

For FPS players, the best gaming mouse is often one that’s so well-crafted that it’s light and easy to command with fast flicks and swoops. Such mice won’t bog you down with extra weight, allowing you to move your weapon freely, quickly and without forfeiting from exhaustion even after hours on the battlefield.

As such, the honeycomb-style mouse can be a valuable asset. With holes cut out of the chassis, you’re saving on weight while bringing a striking design that everyone will at least notice, if not always enjoy. But buying something with a bunch of holes in it can feel counterintuitive. Sure, ripped jeans may look stylish, but will they just fall apart when you wash them?

Recently, we’ve seen an increasing number of ultra lightweight mice creep up. Glorious has made a name in this regard, but we’re also seeing more mainstream gaming brands get into the competition. There’s the Cooler Master MM11, the recently released HyperX Pulsefire Haste and our review focus, the Roccat Burst Pro ($60). The Burst Pro is sort of a hybrid though. It’s only 2.40 ounces and has a honeycomb shell, but the holes are covered up by a translucent cover. And while the Burst Pro gets a lot of things right for FPS gamers, like helpful PTFE feet and a workable shape for long-term gaming, some design flaws stand out in this elite category of lightweight mice.

Roccat Burst Pro Specs

Design and Comfort

The Burst Pro dips its toes into the honeycomb-styling without fully committing to the hole-filled chassis. Instead of fully cutout holes, the Burst Pro’s holes are covered which, Roccat argues, is better for fighting grime. The plastic covering the holes is translucent and definitely makes the mouse look more normal.

Most importantly, the pseudo-honeycomb design still enables a very light weight. The Burst Pro is just 2.4 ounces, while other gaming mice without honeycomb shells can easily weigh over 3 ounces (the Razer DeathAdder Elite, for example, is 3.70 ounces).

Roccat also includes other touches that makes the Burst Pro feel even easier to move. That’s primarily the PTFE feet covering the top and bottom of the mouse’s underside. A braided cable also helps. The soft fabric is an upgrade over rubber cables, but there are gaming mice with more flexible wires. The hard plastic covering where the cable connects to the mouse’s chassis is thick and helps keep the cord up off the desk a little.

Our review focus measures 4.72 x 2.28 x 1.52 inches and has an ambidextrous shape, save for the side buttons on the left side clearly catering to righties. To my hand, which is long for a woman my size, the mouse initially felt short. But eventually, my hand grew accustomed to the shape, allowing me to lower my palm for my claw grip. I also use a palm grip occasionally, but the Burst Pro’s hump is a little too close to the primary buttons for my ideal palm grip.

As mentioned, there are a few ultra lightweight mice vying for gamers’ attention these days. The matte version of the Glorious Model D is the same weight as our review focus but wider, longer and taller (5.04 x 2.40 x 1.65 inches). There are also lighter honeycomb-style mice than the Burst Pro. The HK Gaming Mira-M is 2.22 ounces. It’s also slightly longer and taller, as well as wider (4.88 x 2.52 x 1.55 inches) than the Burst Pro. The Glorious’ Model O- is even lighter at 2.05 ounces, with very similar dimensions (4.72 x 2.28 x 1.42 inches) to the Burst Pro.

You can get the Burst Pro in Ash Black or Arctic White. With the RGB off, it’s harder to see the holes in the black version, but you can find them, especially in the right light. With the Arctic White version, the holes are pretty apparent, even without the RGB.

Both options have a lighter, translucent shell running down the middle. In the black version, this shell tends to attract fingerprints, but in the white version it makes the mouse look a little cheaper. But black accents, including in the side buttons and the cable on the Arctic White mouse help it look a little more stylish.

The sides of both mice have very subtle details, in the form of a speckling hexagonal shapes. These accents have a little extra sheen to them, making them standout on the black version but harder to spot on the white version.

If I had to pick, I’d opt for the white version because of the fun the black-and-white combo and the chassis’ knack for fighting off fingerprints.

Regardless of color, the mouse will look interesting once you turn on the RGB. Burst is the right word to describe this mouse, as the RGB under where your palm rests stands out the most, with an asterisk-like shape.

But overall, the RGB can look uneven. The lighting under the palm area and scroll wheel are, understandably, the brightest. RGB still comes through on the left and right click buttons, but it looks heavier on the right side. In addition to that star-like burst of RGB in the palm area, there are some rogue LEDs off to the right side, including one particularly bright one. This is the case with the both the black and white versions. Of course, I’m complaining about RGB here, which means I’m essentially complaining about nothing. But from a top-down view, these variances are something you’ll notice if you’re a perfectionist or expecting more from a $60 mouse.

Gaming Performance

The Burst Pro uses Roccat’s Owl-Eye optical sensor, which is basically a PixArt PMW3381 optical sensor that has “been specifically made for Roccat only,” the vendor told me. However, the sensor never showed any obvious advantages over its competitors. More importantly, it can handle up to 50G of acceleration, a max velocity of 400 inches per second (IPS), and up to 16,000 CPI, which is competitive with high-end gaming mice on the market.

The Burst Pro’s sensor felt reliable whether I had it sent at 50 CPI or the max of 16,000. This is good news. The mouse boasts an unnecessarily labeled DPI button, and hitting it takes you through 5 different settings (changeable via software), while the RGB flashes a unique color so you know which level you’ve selected. This is easier than having to flip the mouse over to change CPI, and I never accidentally hit the dedicated button. The problem is that the light flashes for a very brief moment, making it hard to know what setting you’re at until you start doing some trial and error with mouse movements.

On the battlefield, the Burst Pro moved smoothly and near effortlessly, thanks to a light build coupled with well-sized PTFE feet. But my middle finger was also gliding occasionally. Roccat gave the primary mouse buttons a UV coating that it claims helps with durability. The buttons aren’t slippery, but they’re a smoother plastic and the buttons are quite curved. That all led to both myself and someone with larger hands seeing our middle finger slip off onto the right edge sometimes. The person with larger hands even found their pointer finger sliding sometimes.

Additionally, the Burst Pro is Roccat’s first mouse to use the brand’s bespoke Titan Switch Optical. Unlike standard mechanical switches, which actuate with metallic contact, the Burst Pro’s left and right-click buttons activate when their respective switch stems go through a light beam. These optical mechanical switches are supposed to be resistant to the degradation that causes the accidental double-clicking that have plagued some gaming mice after extended periods of heavy use. Roccat also claims that this switch “registers  clicks  up  to  100  times  faster” than mice with standard mechanical switches.

In actual use, these buttons felt a bit heavier to hit than the non-optical-based buttons in many other gaming mice I’ve used. When you depress, there’s a tactile feeling that makes clicks feel responsive and accurate and even produces a solid, plastic sound. This amount of required force typically worked well, like during productivity or slower paced games. In fast-paced shooters, although I could fire off rounds rapidly, it felt more exhausting compared to other mice. In a side-by-side comparison with the Razer DeathAdder V2 Mini, which also uses optical mechanical switches, the Burst Pro’s buttons felt slightly heavier to click. Again, this is at least partially due to the material and shape used for the buttons. However, the Burst Pro’s left- and right-click buttons are well-spaced, which helped me avoid misclicks.

Similarly, the scroll wheel and side buttons are well-positioned. The scroll wheel has a comfortable rubber feel, and its horizontal notches prevent the type of miscrolls that can leave you awkwardly firing a flare gun at enemies. Side buttons were also easy to incorporate, as I could easily reach both of them without taking eyes off the screen. They also have a pleasant click and don’t feel too cheap or hollow.

Features and Software

The Burst Pro works with the Roccat Swarm, which is quite robust -- if not over the top. It includes sliders for double-click speed, Windows pointer speed, as well as the ability to turn mouse acceleration on or off. The mouse can store up to 5 CPI settings in its toggle from 50 to 16,000 in increments of 50.

If you want to get more complex, CPI settings also include an X-Y Sensitivity area and a calibrator that recommends a setting for you based on how you go about clicking 5 dots. It doesn’t seem very helpful. When I tried it with 600 CPI, it recommended 1,600 CPI, and when I tried it with 3,400 CPI, it recommended I drop to 3,350 CPI. 

If you include the scroll wheel up, down and in as separate buttons, the Burst Pro has 8 programmable buttons (also left and right click, two side buttons and the CPI switch). A more rare feature, the software also has an option for setting up Roccat Easy-Shift [+], which allows for a button to have a secondary function when you press it and another button on the mouse designated as the Easy-Shift [+] key simultaneously.

You can save 5 profiles on the Swarm software and set them to automatically launch with different games or apps. There’s also a macro manager with dozens of games and other apps present, from Fortnite to Skype.

In a high-end touch, Roccat included one profile’s worth of onboard memory. That means you can program the buttons and 5 CPI presets a certain way in Swarm software, and then carry those settings over to a new PC without having to download Swarm again. 

In terms of RGB control, the Burst Pro is pretty standard. There’s one RGB zone in the scroll wheel and another under the palm. Depending on the preset, you’ll get a brightness slider, speed slider and/or color picker with spaces for entering red, green and blue values. Presets include a rainbow wave, breathing function and the aforementioned Aimo “reactive” RGB.

You can also activate Roccat’s reactive Aimo lighting feature that “reacts organically to your behavior,” the software notes, based on how you use the mouse. However, Aimo has been largely disappointing, including with other products I’ve tried, specifically the Roccat Vulcan 122 Aimo keyboard and Roccat Kain 200 Aimo. After a couple weeks of use, my Aimo meter has only reached 15% capacity, and I don’t see any rhyme or reason to how it works -- the RGB only appears to be cycling random colors. It’s possible the feature would impress more if I could get the Aimo meter to budge further, but that will apparently take a lot of time.

In the Advanced Settings section of Swarm are adjustment options that many peripheral software vendors leave out. You can adjust polling rate, lift-off distance and toggle angle snapping, for instance.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Burst Pro is an interesting experiment in ultra lightweight mice. Roccat’s managed to deliver the light weight of a honeycomb mouse without the divisive holes that can make some worry about grime or damage. For FPS games especially, pushing around a mere 2.40 on some well-placed PTFE feet feels almost effortless.

But there are some mild issues here. The RGB in both review units I tested was a little uneven in terms of vividness throughout the mouse. My right hand, which is long for a woman my size, also needed some adjustment to the shape, although the Burst Pro’s semi-ambidextrous shape has obvious appeal.

But in terms of super light mice, competition is getting thick. Glorious has a strong following in the Glorious Model D and Model D- honeycomb mice. They’re each $10 cheaper than the Burst Pro’s current MSRP, (although mice tend to go on sale), and the Model D- is even lighter. Additionally, the Glorious Model O and Model O- provide a less symmetrical shape option, and the HK Gaming Mira-M and HyperX Pulsefire Haste are also lighter.

Of course, all those mice have open holes, which admittedly can be polarizing. But between the fingerprint smudges the black version of the Burst Pro picks up and how off the white translucent shell covering the holes looks on the white version, it may have been better to shave off a little more weight and commit to the exposed holes.

But yocan’t ignore that the Burst Pro gets a lot of things right. For those seeking a light mouse that’s not drilled with orifices, the Burst Pro fits the bill while adding some high-end touches.

Editor's note: This review was originally published on October 17, 2020 with 3.5 stars. Since then, Roccat reached out to tell us that this isn't typical and we likely received a faulty product. Our replacement unit had a much better mic, so we've updated the microphone section of this review and increased the headset's rating to 4 stars. 

The Roccat Elo X Stereo is the brand’s latest affordable ($49.99) over-the-ear cans for gamers. Competing with the best gaming headsets in the budget category, it succeeds in bringing high quality audio at an affordable price. The satin black metal and plastic headset with soft leatherette (what happened to calling it pleather?) are lightweight and really comfortable. It’s also handy for those battling across multiple gaming platforms (PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation and smartphones).

But if you want to do some tweaking, be prepared to be left wanting.

Roccat Elo X Stereo Specs  

Design and Comfort 

Roccat’s lineup of Elo headphones are all very similar in design with different colored logos alerting gamers to which pair they’ve purchased. The Elo 7.1 USB and wireless Elo 7.1 Air both have RGB logos, but our review focus, the lowest end of the Elo line-up, is LED-free. 

The Elo X Stereo uses an adjustable metal headband, and underneath the metal headband is a plastic one. The latter is seamlessly covered in the same soft leatherette and memory foam used on the ear cups, while the rest of the unit is made from quality plastics to ensure they remain lightweight. In addition to the cozy leatherette, the Elo X Stereo’s ear cups have excellent memory foam that makes wearing these headphones a pleasure. Overall, the Elo X Stereo has some of the feel of higher end over-the-ear headphones. At just $49.99, you’ll feel (literally) like you’ve gotten a good deal.

The onboard controls for the Elo X are on the left ear cup. A well-incorporated slider knob controls the volume level, and right beneath that is a mute button.They both work as they’re meant to and perform solidly. 

On the right ear cup we find the Roccat silver logo and removable microphone area. The microphone detaches and reinserts easily and firmly, again letting you know this is a well crafted pair of headphones.

Audio Performance 

The Roccat Elo X Stereo’s 50mm neodymium magnet drivers reproduce sound so excellently that you’ll think you spent more than $49.99. Immersion is the name of the game. When I played Grand Theft Auto V, every crash, every scream and every screeching peel out was fantastically reproduced. Rich sound came from every direction, making me feel like I was actually inside the vehicle causing mass quantities of mayhem and destruction.

While playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Joker’s laugh came through with the bone-curdling chill expected. I thoroughly enjoyed the bone crushing audio reproduction of Batman’s punches as they landed squarely on the jaws of The Joker’s evil minions. Also, the timbre in Batman's gruff voice came through beautifully, tense and angry, as the caped crusader spoke. I also enjoyed every step I took around Arkham, thanks to the audio’s immersive nature. I even noticed subtle differences in tone when stepping through wet ground.  

I grew up in a home of audiophiles, so I turned my attention to John Coltrane’s 1961 My Favorite Things album, and it came through wonderfully on the Elo X Stereo. The highs of Coltrane’s horn were eloquently reproduced, and the mids and highs of the entire album sounded as magically as intended. 

Next, I wanted to hear how the Elo X’s 50mm neodymium magnet would reproduce the deep baselines of my teen years. While listening to Boogie Down Productions’ KRS-One rap about how “Love’s Gonna Get’cha,” the thick baseline came through flawlessly and with delicious depth. There was no distortion to be found as the Roccat Elo X Stereo produced the warm rhythmic bass of my youth as I ended my listening flashback with the smooth jazzy bassline of Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life”. Again, I have to say, for $49.99 you can’t go wrong.  

Microphone 

Update November 4, 2020: 

When we first published this review, we reported that the Elo X Stereo's unidirectional, detachable and flexible mic showed poor performance. While noise cancelling was effective and audio was audible, my voice sounded low in volume and somewhat tinny. After we posted our initial review, Roccat contacted us informing that it suspected the microphone was fault and sent over a replacement unit, and the results were much better.

While video chatting with my daughter to discuss raising her allowance, she mentioned that I sounded great and asked if she could have the headset if she can't get the allowance raise. So, 1 point Roccat. When I sat down to record voiceover audio for a project, the sound quality was really good. The Elo X Stereo's mic caught the depth and timbre in my voice excellently. Mic performance was impressive enough that I could see this working for recording and livestreaming with no problems. It also did an excellent job of blocking out background noise and staying  focused on my voice. The tinny recording experience I had with the original microphone was non-existent, and it was a pleasure to go about my day taking Zoom meetings, chatting while playing games and denying my child a raise in her allowance.

Note that the Elo X Stereo has a one-year warranty. You can find details here. 

Feature and Software  

As with any new device I review, I went in search of compatible software to enhance the user experience. Sadly, the Elo X Stereo isn’t compatible with Roccat’s Swarm or Talk FX software. Both apps are meant for Roccat’s higher end headsets and grant gamers finer audio control, as well as control of the RGB lighting, including those on other Roccat peripherals. In this case, software might have been able to help the microphone experience with the Elo X Stereo. Maybe in the future Roccat will come up with software for their mid-tier and lower end headsets -- one can dream.  

Bottom Line  

The Roccat Elo X Stereo sounds great with games, offering a surprisingly immersive experience. You get driving bass, warm mid tones and wonderful highs, all for the low price of $49.99. 

Tweakers will miss the option for software though. And if you're into virtual surround sound, you might want to opt for the similarly priced Asus TUF Gaming H3. 

But for those seeking an affordable gaming headset with amazing sound, the Roccat Elo X Stereo is a solid choice. 

When it comes to mid-budget mice, some impress on form factor, yet fail to deliver on programmability or RGB. Roccat’s premium Kone AIMO Remastered, however, is on sale for $39.99 on Amazon, making it easy for disappointed gamers to address those concerns, And that’s a pretty hefty discount too -- half off its usual price of $79.99.

At 4.6 ounces (130g), this mouse if heftier than something like the Roccat Kone Pure Ultra, so it's not the best gaming mouse for those seeking a lightweight mouse. But if you like something that feels more substantial, the Kone AIMO has 8 programmable buttons and 5 RGB zones. Its mouse wheel can also map up to 5 functions of its own, and the most southern button defaults to an “easy-shift mode” that allows for secondary functions for the 12 other buttons, up to 23 functions in total. Even among MMO mice, that’s a lot of programmability.

The Kone Aimo carries 512kB of onboard memory for remembering your mappings and includes Omron mechanical switches. It also features Roccat’s new “Owl Eye” sensor, which lets it achieve a max CPI of 16,000.

The Kone Aimo’s 5.9-foot (1.8m) braided cable and choice between both black and white color schemes also means it should fit in with most desks, regardless of space or aesthetic. But what really makes this deal exciting is how it takes Roccat’s second most expensive mouse and makes it one of its cheapest. If you were considering buying a Roccat Kain 100 AIMO or Roccat Kain 200 AIMO, a Kone AIMO Remastered will currently give you more features for less.

Whether you have a white PC build to accommodate, are looking to evoke Apple’s premium styling, or just want something to liven up your desk space, the Roccat Vulcan 122 Aimo is one of the best gaming keyboards. This full-sized keyboard has a high-end look that’ll steal the show -- even when the RGBs are off. 

With the Vulcan 122 Aimo, Roccat looked to forge a reliable gaming partner by using homegrown switches with shorter travel than traditional Cherry MX ones. But at $160 at the time of writing, this is an expensive mechanical keyboard. 

Roccat Vulcan 122 Aimo Specs 

Design

Roccat used its pretty stick on the Vulcan 122 Aimo, resulting in a good-looking, full-sized gaming keyboard. Without heavy lines, a polarizing shape or aggressive layout, the Vulcan 122 Aimo still says ‘gaming,’ but in a more mature tone.

The Vulcan 122 Aimo and Vulcan 121 Aimo are essentially the same keyboard, but the former comes in white and the latter in black. Both versions have an anodized aluminum top plate, but on the white model this effect is much more striking. The silver brushed metal runs across the plastic base of our review unit, anchored by visible screws that give it an industrial touch. If you want a keyboard that’s colorful and noticeable before your turn on the light show, this is it. 

If a white and silver keyboard isn’t stylish enough for you, Roccat ups the ante with a floating keycap design that makes its transparent RGB switches scream for attention. This elevation lends for brilliant RGB effects that reflect off the silver top plate and into my heart. With Aimo, Roccat’s RGB tech that’s supposed to be reactive and improve the more you use it, the colors are often changing at whim, so it’s easy to get distracted by the light show. 

The dished curve in the vast majority of the plastic caps help fit your fingers and are very cozy. Roccat placed bumps on the F and J keys for home base, as well as the W key for gaming. The bottom row of the main keys don’t have dipped keycaps like the rest. Instead, they’re concave. I prefer consistency, but this wasn’t distracting when typing. 

Roccat used thin, shortened keycaps that are supposed to help with cleaning. The vendor’s  switches, meanwhile, are purportedly dust-resistant, but with all the exposed space between the keys, it wasn't surprising to see dust accumulate after a couple weeks of use. 

Roccat’s chosen font is mildly blocky but less jarring than what many gaming keyboards go for these days. Its symbols are a little more playful, and I like the use of highlighting to emphasize the Game Mode and macro buttons.  However, decoding some buttons, like the tab, shift and caps locks, may take a moment. 

The magnetic palm rest, stamped with a nearly invisible Roccat logo, is a thin, flimsy thing that doesn’t offer much support. You’ll want to upgrade to something more substantive, like the HyperX wrist rest. 

With its thin frame, the Vulcan 122 Aimo can lay nearly flat against the desk, but it also has flip-out feet. The keyboard’s plastic base is lightly textured and thin, but numerous rubber strips kept it in place during aggressive typing or gaming. 

For this price, we’re relieved to see media keys, including a volume dial with a notched feel to its adjustment. However, a play/pause or fast forward/rewind buttons would’ve been much more convenient than an FX button, which turns the RGB brightness darker or brighter, depending on which way you turn the volume wheel (the button is programmable, thankfully). It’s also annoying that the volume media button flashes when sound is muted. 

The Vulcan 122 Aimo takes up more desk space than similarly  priced full-sized mechanical gaming keyboards with dedicated media keys. For example, the SteelSeries Apex 7 ($160 as of writing) is 15.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches, and the Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 ($140) is 18.7 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches. Our review focus is much longer and wider at 18.2 x 9.3 x 1.3 inches.

Typing Experience

Our review unit came with Roccat’s tactile mechanical switches, but it’s also available with linear ones. With the tactile switches, there’s a discernible bump as the button actuates before traveling a little further and bottoming out. The keyboard’s plastic keycaps make a pleasant clacking sound when activated, but the switches are silent, just like traditional Cherry MX Brown switches.

Roccat’s homegrown tactile Roccat Titan switch has 3.6mm total travel distance and actuates at 1.8mm versus Cherry MX Brown’s respective 4mm and 2mm. Roccat claims its switches are also designed to fight debouncing and be stable. Although the keycaps can feel thin, the switches themselves felt just as sturdy as those on any other mechanical keyboard of this price. While the keyboard’s thinner keycaps make a snapping noise with each press, the tactile Titan switch still lacks the loud clickiness of something like a Cherry MX Blue. 

In a blind test between Roccat’s Titan tactile switch and the Cherry MX Brown, it’s hard to notice a difference. Sometimes I felt the bump was more pronounced on the Roccat Titan switch, perhaps because the total travel is shorter.

I prefer using tactile switches for typing, and the Vulcan 122 Aimo’s tactile switches were no different. With its pronounced bump and the snapping sound of those keycaps, it was a somewhat familiar experience. However, the keys are spaced further apart than I’m used to, which called for a longer adjustment period. The dished keycaps were comfortable during long sessions, but they sometimes felt thin and like they weren’t providing enough stability, especially with longer keys, like the numpad’s plus sign. 

On the 10fastfingers.com typing test after a few weeks I averaged 106 words per minute (wpm) with a 90.4% accuracy rate. This is on par with my typical 108 wpm speed, but more erroneous than my usual 98% accuracy, which I blame on the distance between the keys.

Gaming Experience

Roccat says its switches use particularly programmed firmware to help fight debouncing and to read key presses at an earlier point after actuating than rivals for 20% faster input. You’d have to be pretty quick to notice that alleged 20%, but the Vulcan 122 Aimo is still a reliable gaming keyboard. 

In Battlefield V, the amount of distance between the keys was handy, as it made it easier to identify keys without looking away from the screen. The bump on the W was also helpful in that regard. Overall, the keys’ snappy and quick bounce back after actuating proved great for fast input or movements. 

Dished keycaps on the Vulcan 122 Aimo were particularly cozy when I had to press and hold the same button for a long time, such as when trudging through the mud for a series of stealthy assassinations. 

In Overwatch, the Vulcan 122 Aimo offered similar performance, but when engaging in heavy battle and performing a lot of moves rapidly, I noticed how slick the keycaps can get. If your keyboard tends to get sweaty, you may want something with more textured keycaps.

The keyboard also comes with some desirable features (more in the dedicated section below) for gamers, including four easily accessible profiles via the first four FN keys that you can set to launch with individual games (or any other program). You also get six macro keys, which can come in handy for programming commonly used moves and have pre-set configurations for over 30 different popular PC games. Finally, Easy-Shift makes the key binding possibilities even greater by giving every main key a second function by holding the shift key. 

The Vulcan 122 Aimo’s product page makes no claims of n-key rollover, but using an online tool I informally recorded 48 key presses simultaneously.  

Features and Software 

The Vulcan 122 Aimo packs a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0-based processor and 512KB of memory that lets you store up to four profiles. Each profile is easily swappable by holding down Fn and F1-F4. The free Roccat Swarm software makes it so profiles automatically engage with specific games, and includes the ability to remap almost every key on the board and program macros. 

Through key assignment, you can program each key to a wide variety of different functions, including opening certain software and documents. The FX and volume key are programmable, but not the volume wheel or mute button. The macro manager lets you create different macros for 41 different programs, including games Battlefield V, Fortnite, Overwatch and Grand Theft Auto V and Photoshop and Skype. .

According to text in the Swam software, the Vulcan 122 Aimo’s titular Aimo RGB lighting reacts “organically to your behavior without the need for extensive configuration” and is enhanced by using other supported peripherals, like the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo. Aimo is supposed to get better the longer you use it. But after about 2 weeks of use, my keyboard had only reached 35% of its Aimo potential. 

While the RGB looked great in Aimo mode, I didn’t notice it reacting to anything on my screen or in-game. I did a Google Image search for “purple” and watched the keyboard’s RGB slowly shift from orange and pink to a purple and bluish scheme, and sometimes searching for yellow would result in yellow and orange light. But the color scheme would always just keep shifting after a few seconds. 

The Aimo setting also had each key change color when I pressed it, but I often wished it would react a little quicker, as my finger would usually be off the key already by the time the color switched. Sometimes the color wouldn’t change at all even though it actuated. 

Outside of Aimo, the Vulcan 122 Aimo has seven additional pre-configured RGB effects, plus the ability to customize your own with per-key programming and the ability to make colors with red, green and blue values and control over effect, speed and brightness.

Swarm software also has features you might never mess with, like the ability to add clicking, “sci-fi,” “beam” and other sounds when typing.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Vulcan 122 Aimo is a no-brainer for owners of a white system or gamers seeking a bold design that still looks classy (the black Vulcan 121 Aimo isn’t too shabby either). Roccat’s mechanical switches felt comparable to Cherry MX ones in my review unit, providing solid options for tactile or linear gaming.

The Vulcan 122 Aimo comes close to evoking a typewriter feel with its clacking keycaps and spread out keys. But those distanced keys may take some adjustment for typing, and the thinner keycaps sometimes felt less premium than expected for a keyboard that’s over $100. For that extra oomph in typing performance, consider the MSI GK50 Low Profile, which has clicky switches that are closer together but lacks media keys. 

At $160, this on the pricier side of the spectrum for a mechanical gaming keyboard. But with its fashionable looks and modern featureset, the Vulcan 122 Aimo makes a well-dressed argument for your money.  

One of the first quality-of-life upgrades gamers often make is finding the best gaming keyboard for them, which will 9 out of 10 times bring them to mechanical switches. Contrasting from keyboards that track button presses using an oftentimes squishy-feeling capacitive pad laid across the whole keyboard, mechanical keyboard keys have individual physical switches, which allow for greater comfort, feedback and precision at the cost of noise and a higher price tag. With its “Titan Click” technology, Roccat’s Kain 100 Aimo mouse is looking to do the same, but for mice...and without the extra heavy price tag.

Of course, mice with capacitive pads don’t exist. Barring touch mice or certain special ergonomic mice, all mice are mechanical. However, the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo aims to be the best gaming mouse for tactile feel with help from its “Titan Click.” The buttons’ click is supposed to offer functionality akin to a mechanical keyboard with “low-tolerance” springs and Omron switches that cushion clicks for greater precision and physical feedback. Add an RGB scroll wheel and a max CPI of 8,500, and you’ve got a mouse that promises, and mostly delivers, a lot for its $35 (as of writing) price tag.

Roccat Kain 100 Aimo Specs

Design and Comfort on Roccat Kain 100 Aimo

The Roccat Kain 100 Aimo comes in lighter than I’m accustomed to, making it most suited for fingertip and claw mouse grip styles. At 3.14 ounces, Roccat calls the Kain 100 Aimo an ultra-light mouse, though it’s heavier than the Razer Viper Mini's 2.15 ounces and the Glorious Model D’s 2.4 ounces. Still, it’s almost 1 ounce lighter than the Logitech G402 (3.8 ounces) that I use as my daily driver and manages to stay lighter than many other wired gaming mice as well, like the HyperX Pulsefire Raid (4.4 ounces). While lightweight mice are more of a personal preference than competitive necessity, some might find the extra ounce and change that the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo shaves off useful in a particularly hectic shooter match.

At 4.88 x 2.56 x 1.69 inches, the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo is bigger than it looks. Though it is significantly under my G402’s length and somewhat under its height, these dimensions are actually fairly standard when compared to rivals like the MSI Clutch GM30 (5.03 x 2.01 x 1.38 inches) or Razer DeathAdder V2 (5.0 x 2.43 x 1.68 inches). Still, when I was gaming, I didn’t have to stretch my usual fingertip grip style as often as I was used to, which helped me feel like I had greater control over my aim. These factors combined with the mouse’s lighter than usual weight meant that the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo felt perfect for my small to mid-sized hands and preferred grip style.

However, palm grippers might have a hard time getting purchase on the mouse’s somewhat shallow back. Those with larger hands might also want to look elsewhere -- my boyfriend, a palm gripper with mid-to-large sized hands, almost immediately disliked how the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo felt.

For fingertip grippers like me, however, the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo is a good fit. Its textured and rubberized side panels are supposed to improve ergonomics, and while my inability to comfortably rest my palm on the mouse prevented that feature from taking full effect, they felt comfortable to touch and made it easy to move the whole mouse with the lightest pressure from either my thumb or pinky. The Roccat Kain 100 Aimo has 8 programmable buttons, including the ability to program a flick up or down on the scroll wheel. 

I found all of the buttons pretty easy to reach, and I didn’t have to use as much of a stretch as I do to hit the extra buttons on my G402. To access the side buttons, I simply needed to move my thumb up off the side panel, while the built-in CPI switching button lives just under the scroll wheel. The CPI switch here is a more easily accessible solution than Logitech’s standard of placing the CPI controls to the left of left-click. 

The Roccat Kain 100 Aimo's scroll wheel left me with a more mixed impression. While the click is more substantial than I’m used to, making it perfect for actions like a melee attack or grenade toss, the stepped movements on scrolling often felt too minuscule during daily common tasks such as browsing the web. 

The wheel’s tire-like markings somewhat negated that feeling and made it easier to keep track of how much I scrolled, but a hardware option to quickly swap to a smooth-gliding wheel, such as what’s found in the Logitech MX Master 3 productivity mouse, would be appreciated for tasks involving heavy scrolling. However, as this is a gaming mouse that values precision first, it’s easy to understand making detailed inputs the focus, especially for those who like to map less frequently used in-game actions, like a melee attack, to the scroll wheel.

There’s also an option to adjust the mouse’s scroll wheel speed in its software, though on-the-fly control would be more appropriate for gaming and more convenient in general. The Roccat Kain 100 Aimo’s wire isn’t braided and is as thin and vulnerable to damage as any standard cable. However, as I use a simple mouse bungee on my desk, I had no issues with drag while testing the mouse.

Roccat heavily promotes the Kain 100 Aimo’s RGB capabilities, fittingly dubbed Aimo. The inclusion of Roccat’s custom Aimo RGB AI software is front-and-center on the box, and this same “intelligent lighting” functionality takes up most of the back of the box as well. It’s a shame, then, that the only parts of the mouse to feature RGB are the sides of the scroll wheel. While the DPI button’s gray, transparent-looking rubber sides give the feeling that it should light up as well, this is ultimately a red herring. Unfortunately, this renders most of the RGB features moot, as the scroll wheel is usually either covered or surrounded by fingers.

Apart from the disappointing RGB, though, I generally like the look of the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo. Unlike many competitors, it eschews sharp corners, jutting thumb rests and brand-specific flair for an almost business-like design. But if you want something flashier, there’s also a white version of the Kain 100 Aimo. The left and right-click buttons are hinged trapezoids with rounded corners, and the rubberized grips on the side have a pattern akin to a briefcase. A Roccat logo on the hand rest and the Roccat name on the left click button still give it some gamer flair, but this is a mouse that you can safely show to your less-techy friends and family without mockery.

Gaming Performance on Roccat Kain 100 Aimo

The Roccat Kain 100 Aimo features a Pro-Optic Sensor R8, which is a customized version of the PMW3331 sensor. It has a 1,000 Hz max polling rate with 35G of acceleration and a max tracking speed of 300 IPS, as well as up to 8,500 CPI. Software allows users to set five CPI presets anywhere between the 200 CPI minimum and 8,500 maximum, which they can then swap between at any point by pressing the mouse’s CPI button. 

This places the Roccat Kain 100 towards the lower-middle end of the CPI spectrum for mice in its original $50 price range and beats competitors like the MSI Clutch GM30’s max 6,200 CPI but easily loses to the Razer DeathAdder V2’s 20,000 max CPI or the HyperX Pulsefire Raid’s 16,000 max CPI. However, since the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo has been lowered to $35, its ability to stand up to a more expensive tier of mice is impressive.

The standout feature on the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo is the “Titan click,” which enhances the already clicky feeling provided by the left and right-click’s Omron switches by adding a low-tolerance spring that cushions every press. The scroll wheel, meanwhile, uses what Roccat calls the “Titan Wheel 2.0” to supposedly make the mouse wheel click “as solid as a normal click.”

To test a wide variety of use cases, I decided to play a few matches of Overwatch with the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo, using the mystery heroes mode to consistently bounce between different playstyles. Over the course of several hours, I played as tracking-based heroes, like Soldier 76 and Orisa, flick-based heroes, like McCree, and movement-based heroes, like Genji, Mercy and Pharah.

The Roccat Kain 100 Aimo’s light weight and side grips made tracking feel easier and more comfortable, while the extra heft to the clicks helped me know more easily when to start and stop firing, which is useful for avoiding the bullet spread that Soldier 76 acquires the longer you hold his gun. That “Titan Click” also made flick shots with McCree feel more satisfying, though I’m not sure it made them any easier to pull off. Unfortunately, the light weight meant it felt easy to accidentally over-aim my mouse when quickly moving to a target, though this is something that I could potentially adjust to over time.

Movement-based heroes felt exceptionally more comfortable than usual, thanks to the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo’s lighter weight and quick CPI swapping. While I normally play shooters on 800 CPI for steadier aim, characters like Genji and Mercy tend to require more camera control than usual. Being able to increase my CPI on the fly helped me adjust to those characters’ play styles more quickly, making it less daunting when they popped up on my mystery heroes roulette. Additionally, being able to move the mouse with ease made positioning a breeze. 

For all three play styles, the Titan Click and side button placement came in handy for melee attacks and hero abilities. The Titan Click surprised me by being more than a marketing gimmick, and while I’m not sure it actually helped me perform better, the extra physical feedback definitely felt more fun, as well as a touch more comfortable.

For ease of access, I have my hero abilities mapped to my mouse’s side buttons and melee mapped to the middle mouse button. This is because, for aimed abilities, I feel more comfortable pressing a mouse button than the default keyboard button mapping. Unfortunately, on my G402, the stretch required to press my side buttons was often an extra burden in combat, while the weak feel to the middle click made it difficult to quickly fire off a melee attack effortlessly. 

With the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo, on the other hand, I didn’t have to do any reaching to access the side buttons. The scroll wheel’s click was also sturdy and precise, allowing me to focus on the fight rather than my inputs. Overall, the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo was a joy to use. By the end of my in-game testing, only two minor points of contention remained.

First, the stepped movements of mouse wheel scrolling, while useful for pulling off individual actions, might make spamming difficult for those who like to quickly repeat inputs, like Lucio players who bind jump to a scroll of the mouse wheel. Scroll speed is adjustable through software settings, though a lack of on-the-fly control would make swapping between heroes who work better with different speeds difficult.

Second, the CPI switching feature has no visual feedback aside from in-game feel. Without any RGB or LED features on the mouse telling me which preset I was using, I had to pull up the mouse software to be sure. There is an option to turn on a voice that reads out your CPI to you in the mouse’s software as you switch between presets, though that was quite distracting mid-game. There’s also no button to go back to a previous preset, meaning that you’ll have to swap through all your other presets first to return to an earlier setting. In the heat of action, this makes changing CPI a liability.

I also compared my results on tracking and flicking aim tests on 3daimtrainer.com for both the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo and my usual Logitech G402. With the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo, I earned an average tracking score of 205,683 and average flicking score of 40,999, while the Logitech G402 gave me a slightly higher average tracking score of 206,934 and a much lower average flicking score of 34,170. All of these results are still well within the top 30th percentile, often much higher, and more rigorous testing and time spent using the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo could correct any disparities. It did seem, though, like the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo made flicking easier for me out of the box, despite my complaints about weight earlier.

Features and Software on Roccat Kain 100 Aimo

Aside from physical features, most of the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo’s features are controllable through the Roccat Swarm software, which is available as a free download on Roccat’s site.

Swarm offers a robust suite of mapping and sensitivity features, including adjusting the mouse’s vertical scroll speed, horizontal tilt speed, double-click speed and setting the Windows pointer to move at either a higher or lower sensitivity than in-game cursors. It also allows users to set five CPI presets, anywhere from 200 to 8,500, as well as disable presets to allow for easier cycling and even a way to calibrate the mouse to get a suggested default CPI.

Users can also fully program the mouse’s 8 buttons with both default actions and “easy-shift” actions that take over when holding a programmable “easy-shift key,” or even full macros that can be set per game. All of these features are also applicable to specific profiles that can be swapped out either in software or with the push of a button.

Advanced settings allow users to change the mouse’s polling rate, sleep the RGB either manually or after a set amount of inactivity, as well as toggle angle snapping and zero debounce on and off. Angle snapping is a common feature on gaming mice that attempts to predict when a user is trying to move their mouse in a straight line and then removes jittery inputs, while zero debounce is supposed to reduce click latency. 

While most competitive gamers suggest leaving angle snapping turned off, as its unreliable prediction tends to hurt more than help, I could happily leave zero debounce active without it interfering with my gameplay. Roccat warns that quick mouse movements can trigger false clicks with zero debounce turned on, though I haven’t experienced this yet. I’m also not sure if I’ve experienced any noticeable decreases in latency, though.

RGB on the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo

The much-touted Aimo RGB, unfortunately, was less stellar. Aside from the RGB being restricted to the scroll wheel, I could only choose between six presets- the “AIMO intelligent lighting system,” a wave effect, a heartbeat effect, a blinking effect, a breathing effect and just leaving the RGB fully lit on one specific color. Brightness, color choice and speed are all available to manipulate for settings where appropriate, and standard effects like blinking or breathing acted as expected. Aimo, meanwhile, touts to “react organically to your behavior” to give users “fluid, nature-inspired scenarios.”

I usually left Aimo lighting on but I didn’t notice much reaction to my input. However, the RGB’s tendency to gently dim in and out of what seemed on the surface to be random colors gave me the most variety of the available choices, which I felt was the best option for ambience. Unfortunately, the RGB is useful for little else. I was hoping to be able to associate specific colors with specific CPI settings so I could tell at a glance how my mouse was operating without needing to open its software. However, this isn’t possible in Swarm. This is a standard feature on the Logitech G402, so seeing it missing on a mouse that emphasizes its RGB versatility feels like a missed opportunity.

Bottom Line

When it comes to standard gaming mouse selling points like high CPIs or high polling rates, the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo comes in at the middle of the pack but does so at a low price. Originally debuting at $49.99, the mouse is now available for about $35. The left and right mouse buttons’ Titan Click adds genuine satisfaction and physical feedback to button presses, and its textured side grips and relatively light weight make it easy to move.

The mouse’s more muted visual design is perfect for those who prefer a more professional battlestation, while its size is well-suited to smaller hands and finger/claw grip styles. Palmers and those with larger hands might want to look elsewhere, though.

I had little difficulty reaching any of the Roccat Kain 100 Aimo’s additional buttons, except perhaps the CPI switcher. While I would prefer more visual feedback for some of the mouse’s customization options, I was happy with my experience overall and the Titan Click's mechanical-keyboard style reliability.

Just because you want an easier wire-free setup doesn’t mean you’re eager to sacrifice performance from your gaming peripherals. The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo and Kain 202 Aimo, the white version, make plays for the best gaming mouse that cuts the wire by maintaining core gaming features, like high CPI count, plus a crazy amount of performance customization options via software.

But while the Kain 200 has a lot to offer those with long checklists for the best wireless mouse, its unique shape won’t appeal to every hand long-term. At $70 at the time of writing however, the mouse offers more features than expected, including the intriguing Aimo reactive RGB lighting.

Roccat Kain 200 / 202 Aimo Specs

Design of Roccat Kain 200 Aimo

This mouse comes in two styles: the black Roccat Kain 200 Aimo and white Kain 202 Aimo. Our review unit is the white model and looked rather simple at first. From its white, matte hue to the visibly brushed metal between the left and right buttons and starkly stamped DPI button, the mouse’s looks didn’t immediately earn its price tag. The the rubber scroll wheel didn’t instantly feel like anything special either. But I soon began to learn that the mouse’s design is a great effort at comfort, and that white starts looking more premium with some tastefully designed RGB added.

The surface started winning me over first. It’s smooth but not slimy or slick, providing an ideal balance of textures that stands out among other gaming mice. It’s a good thing it feels good too because the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo lacks rubber or textured side grips. Despite feeling nice, it won’t be as sweat resistant as mice that have those features. But overall, the more I held the Kain 202 Aimo in my hand, the more I appreciated its shape, feel and color. Roccat claims that the chassis is dirt-resistant and durable, due to its “hybrid anti-wear coating,” and I have to admit that after about a week and a half of use, its white is still bright.

While I’m frequently a palm gripper, I found myself shifting to a fingertip grip with the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo. It has a good amount of height and the chassis’ smoothness felt good in my palm when it made contact, but the mouse’s hump didn’t align perfectly and fill the cup of my palm like the MSI Clutch GM30. However, the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo is 1.69 inches (4.30cm) at its tallest point, while the MSI’s tallest point is shorter at 1.38 inches. I lined the two mice up together, and the MSI’s hump is further back, making it a better fit for where my palm lands. The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo is also slightly less long and a touch wider than the Clutch GM30 (4.88 x 2.56 x 1.69 inches versus 5.03 x 2.01 x 1.38 inches), affecting the hump’s placement.

The 3.70-ounce Roccat Kain 200 Aimo is comparable in build to similarly specced wireless mice, like the Razer Basilisk x HyperSpeed (5.11 x 2.36 x 1.65 inches, 2.90 ounces) and Corsair Ironclaw RGB Wireless (5.5 x 3 x 1.6 inches, 4.59 ounces), but it can feel a little more portable with its shorter length. The white design of my review unit gave the mouse a lighter vibe too. But more height or shifting its tallest point closer to the back would’ve helped some palm grippers’ comfort during long gaming sessions, giving them a more accessible place for resting those palms. Roccat claims it spent two years developing the mouse’s shape, and I can get my palm resting if I slide my hand closer to the front of the mouse, but the experience isn’t an intuitive one for me. Of course, other users may beg to differ. 

Roccat boasts of the Kain 200 Aimo left and right buttons’ “Titan click” that’s supposed to have a 50 million click life cycle and uses Omron switches. The buttons do produce a satisfying click, but my fingers have felt more powerful clicking with other pointers that offered a slightly louder click and a springier response. However, the mouse’s left and right mouse buttons are decently flat, making them easy to press with almost no effort, and the click is still a premium feeling one, even if it’s not my favorite. The buttons are also programmed via firmware for aggressive speed when gaming.

The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo’s two side programmable buttons are easy to access. The left and right mouse buttons, left and right buttons, DPI switch and scroll wheel in are also programmable. You’ll definitely want to program that scroll wheel to its full potential. Its rubber is slightly softer than others, but its steeped movements offer audible sound and a reassuring click in make it a reliable component of the mouse.

Peeking at the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo’s underside reveals the wireless pairing button and flat on and off switch that’s difficult to toggle. There’s also a MicroUSB port for attaching the included cable and recharging the mouse, which thankfully means there’s no need to ever carry around batteries.

Reactive RGB Lighting on Roccat Kain 200 Aimo

Helpful to jazzing up that white build is the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo’s RGB scroll wheel and Roccat logo. But this isn’t just any RGB lighting; this is Roccat’s Aimo tech that uses RGB that reacts to how you use the mouse. Allegedly, the more you use it, the better the tech gets. After about a week of using Aimo, I reached 15% of its max ability, and I’ve yet to notice it truly “react” to what I’m doing on my PC. In fact, the lighting will often keep changing colors even if I’m idle, like reading an article online. It’s possible Aimo will get more impressive as I get past 15%, but at first glance it’s not a game-changer.

In addition to its Aimo reactive lighting feature, the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo’s RGB zones’ color is controllable via software, and you also get a choice of six themes: Aimo, wave, fully lit, heartbeat, breathing, blinking and battery indicator, plus control over each theme’s speed and brightness.

When not using Aimo, I went for a pink scroll wheel and yellow cat that especially stood out with my review unit’s white shell. The mouse has two individually controllable RGB zones, but with the DPI button being transparent rubber makes me think it should light up, making me dislike the button’s design even more.

Gaming Performance on Roccat Kain 200 Aimo

The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo uses a PixArt PMW3335 customized for wireless performance driving low-power consumption without hurting precision. According to Roccat, this Owl-Eye sensor is optimized for accuracy and responsiveness from 400-3,000 DPI. DPI goes up to 16,000 and is controllable on the fly (five profiles) or via software in 50 count increments. That max CPI is on par with many gaming mice, like the Razer Basilisk x HyperSpeed, but Corsair’s Ironclaw RGB Wireless goes up to 18,000, and the wired Razer Basilisk V2 goes up to 20,000 CPI. The typical gamer will be fine with the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo, but if you’re a very competitive gamer or demand the highest CPI counts for flick-shotting, you might want to look elsewhere.

In Battlefield V, the max CPI of 16,000 was sufficient for me, and movements were smooth regardless of CPI setting. At higher CPI settings I felt accurate and in control of my weapon. The Owl-Eye sensor also has 40G acceleration and a maximum speed of 400 IPS. The mouse had no problem keeping up with fast flinging and stopping at the drop of a dime to target a soldier’s head.

Less effortless was accessing the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo’s two side buttons while gaming. As mentioned, the mouse’s shape often forced me out of a palm grip and into a fingertip grip to the point where the forward button became impossible to reach without a longer thumb, and even the back button was occasionally hard to hit. On the other hand, the mouse’s reliable steeped scroll wheel movements were handy in this game, allowing me to easily tick through my weapons arsenal one by one.

Roccat claims the left and right mouse buttons process a button press in just 1ms, thanks to an advanced algorithm in the mouse’s firmware, claiming a 16ms advantage of other mice for faster competition You’ll have to be a very competitive gamer to be able to notice or confirm such a claim. However, with the light amount of force needed to actuate and flat buttons making the work even easier, firing machine guns as fast as possible was easy and without fatigue using the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo.

Features and Software on Roccat Kain 200 Aimo

You can set profiles to automatically engage when you launch a certain program, and also a macro manager for 41 different games and apps, including Apex Legends CS:Go, Photoshop and Skype. Overall, you get some functions that evoke capabilities of an expensive productivity mouse, like the Logitech MX Master 3 wireless, which costs $100 as of this writing and also lets you have profiles automatically launch based on the app you’re using.

Powered by an Arm Cortex-M0 at a clock speed of 48 MHz and with 512kB of onboard memory, the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo packs a lot of features beyond its Aimo RGB lighting. The mouse works with Roccat’s free Swarm software that takes up just 152MB of space and offers fine control over the Kain 200 Aimo. You can change five onboard profiles and countless others stored in the software with settings for DPI profiles and sniper drop, polling rates, angle snapping, activating zero debounce, setting lift-off distance (low or very low), pointer speed, mouse acceleration and much more. Advanced button programming includes the ability to add alternate functions powered by your keyboard’s Alt key.

Swarm also has a calibration function, which has you repeatedly click on moving targets as quickly as possible. The calibrator is not a mind reader though. When I tried using calibrating at the max CPI of 16,000 (second picture above), way faster than the 3,200 I ended up settling on for general use, the calibration process took longer than previous attempts because I struggled to hit the targets before time ran out. After, the software recommended that I take things down by just a few dozen CPI, instead of the thousands that would be more suitable.

Battery Life of Roccat Kain 200 Aimo

The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo uses a 1000mAh battery that’s rechargeable with the included MicroUSB to USB Type-A cable. Roccat claims it can last up to 50 hours, and mine lasted about 45.5 hours, which is impressive considering I always had RGB on. The software was automatically set to dim RGB at 40% battery, which I hit on about the fourth day of using it for approximately 8 hours. The software has additional battery-friendly features, like turning off the sensor after the mouse is idle for a certain amount of time.

Bottom Line

The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo (black) and the Kain 202 Aimo (white) are good options for wireless gamers, coming in at a lower price point than many rivals. With other tether-free pointers, such as the Razer Viper Ultimate, passing the $100 mark, a $70 wireless mouse with RGB, a wired option and detailed software is a good deal.

The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo isn’t your only wireless option at this price, however. The Razer Basilisk x HyperSpeed, for example, is currently at $60, and Corsair’s Ironclaw RGB Wireless is $70. But the Razer has fewer programmable buttons and no options for going wired, plus it isn’t rechargeable, and the Corsair also has less programmability and isn’t as accommodating to claw and fingertip grippers.

But while our reviews praised those Razer and Corsair mice’s ergonomics, we don’t think Roccat nailed the Kain 200 AImo’s shape perfectly, particularly for long-term palm gripping with effortless access to side buttons. I even had someone with larger hands give it a go, and they couldn’t see gaming with the Kain 200 Aimo for hours and lamented how the shape made their ring and pinky fingers crash into each other.

But for a feature-laden mouse that games well wirelessly out of the box with plenty of ways to tweak performance and a chassis with a pleasing feel, the Roccat Kain 200 Aimo is a good value.

When you're shopping for gaming peripherals on a budget, you know there'll be a few trade-offs along the way. On the components side, it's easy to quantify those trade-offs precisely with GPUs, CPUs and even storage devices. However, when it comes to peripherals and specifically headsets -- well, headsets are basically The Wild West. If you're an online shopper, you often end up buying a device without hearing or wearing it. And when you do get to try out a headset, determining sound quality isn't like running a few Cinebench tests. To a degree it's about personal tastes, but Roccat's Noz budget cans have a few highlights on their spec sheet that everyone will enjoy.

Priced currently at $35/£35, the Noz features a 10-20,000Hz frequency response range that you'd expect to find on much pricier gaming headsets. There's a smart and understated all-black look to the headset, and it's super light at 0.5 pounds (210g), so it both looks and weighs the part for competitive players who log serious hours at a time and don't want to watch their own RGB lights reflecting off their screen. However, it faces stern competition from fellow sub-$100 models that deliver stronger audio quality.  

Roccat Noz Specifications

Design and Comfort

I'm totally on board with the look of the Noz. Sticking firmly to an 'all black everything' design principle, it looks smart and subtle rather than basic, and that's thanks to some nice typography choices and well-finished materials. Sure, those materials are predominantly plastic, but they add up to an incredibly lightweight headset. In fact, this is among the lightest we've tested, even more so than the eSports-focused Logitech G Pro, which in comparison is positively portly at 0.6 pounds.

The earcups themselves are smaller than most models, but even with big ears I didn't have any problems with their size. At the rear of the left earcup is a volume scroll wheel and mic mute switch, both easily located without having to stop what you're doing or remove the headset. A few headset manufacturers are moving away from inline controls in favor of this on-cup design, which I'm behind 100%. It's just easier to locate the buttons this way.

The cushioned contact pads are covered with cloth fabric that feels slightly rougher than what I've felt on headsets from other brands. Perhaps it's the coarser weave. The foam padding doesn't feel quite as luxurious as rivals models, like the HyperX Cloud Alpha, which seems as though it drapes the clouds of Mount Olympus around your delicate auditory organs by comparison. The Noz certainly has enough padding to avoid discomfort or that telltale 'I've been wearing a gaming headset' wave in your hair. Ultimately, the coarse cloth and mediocre padding are barely noticeable when you have the Noz on your head; they're just little details that remind you this is a budget headset.

The microphone can hack 100-10,000Hz and stayed just about in position after I set it, with minimal noise during adjustments. It's also detachable, but I'm not so eager to use the Noz as on-the-go headphones. That's partially due to the 3.5mm connection, which is awkward to connect to modern smartphones, and partially due to the look. The Noz looks great next to your rig, but not quite appropriate for streetwear.

Audio Performance

Moving onto sound, the Noz's major weakness reveals itself. Firstly, through some combination of contact point materials and the exact size and shape of the earcups, it produces the dreaded 'seashell' effect. For those who've never had the misfortune of enduring the seashell effect firsthand, it's a subtle but maddening constant sound akin to a whoosh of air -- a bit like holding a seashell to your ear. Years ago, the market was rife with low-priced headsets that produced this effect, but it's been a while now since we've spotted it in the wild.  Unfortunately, the seashell effect negatively impacts the headset's overall audio quality.  

Closed-back headphones like this (which feature a hard, enclosed outer shell) are engineered on the basis of creating a chamber around your ear inside which frequencies resonate. Contrastingly, open-back headphones -- like Sennheiser's Game-series cans -- give their drivers more space to resonate. The important thing for closed-backs is to isolate the outside world and direct all sound into your ears. In this way, the soundscape produced by closed-back headphones sounds like it's coming from your head.

Closed-back and open-back designs both have their pros and cons, including narrow stereo spread from the former and sound from the latter. But when a closed-back headset isn't able to properly isolate the sound from the outside world, the whole principle's thrown off. The result in the case of the Noz is an imprecise, slightly reverberating aspect to all sounds. Let's be clear: it's subtle. Subtle enough that you can still hear all the sound cues in games and recognize the mix of your favorite songs. But it's there. And it means that extra oomph down in the low-end doesn't get the opportunity to show its stuff. Rather than feeling powerful around your ears, the bass response sounds slightly muddy.

This is a shame, considering you can actually hear a lot of good things with the Noz. As flappy as the bass can be, it doesn't distort at higher volumes. And higher up the EQ range, frequencies have a way of cutting through assertively without sounding jarring. All in all, it sounds like the 50mm drivers are very well-engineered -- they just belong in a different chamber. A V2 of the Noz with a slightly adjusted designed would prove a real contender for king of the budget headsets, but sadly it's not there yet.

Features and Software

This being a low-cost proposition, you're not showered with freebies and accessories to accompany this headset. All that's in the box is the headset, detachable mic and 3.5mm cable. And we have absolutely no issue with that, as extras like travel bags, replacement earcups and adapter cables often just end up on a landfill.

Software functionality would have been a nice bonus, however, since it's always handy to tweak the EQ a bit for different usage scenarios.

Bottom Line

Despite its problems with sound isolation, there's a lot to like about th Roccat Noz, particularly in looks and feel. But the pluses also extend to its control layout and in the characteristics and low-end power of its 50mm drivers. I'd genuinely love to see a new iteration of the Noz with sound quality that could actually go toe-to-toe with the SteelSeries Arctis 3, Corsair HS35, Corsair HS50 and HyperX Cloud Alpha.

At the time of writing, the Noz's price has dropped from $70 upon launch to $35. However, there are still better headsets available at that discounted price, including the Corsair HS35, which is currently sitting at $30, depending on the color. 

As it stands, we just can't quite recommend the Noz with our whole hearts for anything above $35. But if you see it for $35 or less, it's worth grabbing this good quality headset with decent sound and comfort levels.

Image Credits: Roccat
MORE: All Gaming Headset Content

While some gaming mice value an armada of buttons and lights above all else, the Roccat Kova AIMO is a peripheral that’s far more understated in its original design. At first glance, this pixel pointer, might lead you to think it’s just a regular, boring, budget mouse, but it’d be unwise to judge this book by its cover. The Kova AIMO is a powerful ambidextrous gaming mouse that offers enough customization options to appeal to a wide spectrum of PC enthusiasts, no matter what genre they play, or what hand they use.

Right now, you can pick up a Kova AIMO for around $50 (£53) and that relatively-affordable price explains a lot of the decisions Roccat made when developing this mouse. We’ll touch more on that later. Yet it’s important to know that this price tag sets this mouse’s sights directly on the heady heights of two of our favourites, the Logitech Classic MX518, and the SteelSeries Sensei 310, both of which are top entries in our best gaming mice list.

Design and Comfort

The design of the Roccat Kova Aimo isn’t quite as eye catching as other gaming peripherals. Recently Roccat has stepped away from its traditional stylings, and instead produced some great gaming devices that utilize what the company calls "industrial design," a no-nonsense look that is smart, minimalist, and gets the job done. 

Because the Roccat Kova AIMO sets out to be ambidextrous, the layout of the mouse is symmetrical. You’ll find, aside from the usual left click, right click, and scroll wheel buttons, you also have access to two quick fire buttons to the sides of the main left and right click switches, followed by two thumb located buttons (you know, the ones usually allocated to forward and backwards options on internet browsers) on each side of the mouse, and a single DPI button below the scroll wheel. All are well within reach of those with average sized hands, no matter which one, left or right, you use to control the mouse.

Gaming peripherals are no strangers to the world of the whacky when it comes to outlandish aesthetic decisions, so it’s a nice change of pace to see something as simple and as elegant as the Kova AIMO. It’s still undeniably a gaming mouse, it still features those cliche aggressive angles, and now almost obligatory RGB lighting, but thankfully all of that doesn’t come at the expense of comfort. Hell, you could even get away with using it in an office environment if you so desired.

Roccat has shown that it’s perfectly capable of producing an over-the-top looking gaming mouse with the Roccat Kone Aimo, but to be honest, we prefer the look of the Kova here.

As for comfort? We used the mouse for hours on end, both in-game and for our day-to-day tasks at work, and the dulcet ache of that journalistic induced RSI was kept at bay with ease. At 99g, the mouse doesn't put a strain on your wrist nor does it feel too light and insubstantial that you’re about to accidentally embed it in your screen with one wrong flick. It’s a solidly-built gaming mouse that feels like it will last a good time as your go-to pointer.

The braided cable that connects the mouse to your system of choice is a nice touch too, and it’s long enough to allow it to be used with PCs placed on the floor or away from the desk. If the black color looks a bit too boring, it also comes in an optic white finish as well, and the RGB lighting, which illuminates the scroll wheel, as well as a strip across the back of the mouse, can be configured using Roccat’s Swarm software too – although more on that in a bit.

Specifications

Gaming Performance

Out of the box performance with the Kova is pretty solid. It’s a good experience, even if you don’t have the time or inclination to tweak the settings on this thing. As far as precision goes, in World of Warcraft, there was little jitter, or lag, when playing that big ol unit frame healing game, and overall the experience was pleasant, we didn’t notice we were using it at times, and that’s high praise in those kind of situations. One thing we would say is that the left click and right click buttons do feel a bit heavier compared to our trusty Corsair M60 Pro, but it wasn’t enough that anyone died in our Mythic dungeon runs.

Overall it felt fast and responsive, across MMOs and RTS titles alike, although for those after something for FPS games you might want to consider that slightly slower click time as a negative. The DPI switch below the scroll wheel is also a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to sensitivity. It’s handy to have when you need to drop to something slower quickly for that perfect headshot in Apex.

However as standard there’s five DPI profiles enabled, and only one button meaning each time you press it you have to then cycle through the other four, unless you configure it in Roccat’s Swarm software ahead of time and disable the other profiles. This is compacted by the fact that it’s all too easy to hit that DPI button by accident, if you’re pressing the scroll wheel button.

As for the other switches, the buttons along the side do need a decent click to register. While this might feel a little awkward at first, we appreciated it, as we’ve used too many gaming mice that have sensitive side buttons that can be all-to-easily clicked by mistake.

While the out-of-the-box experience of the Roccat Kova Aimo is very good, you’d be doing the mouse a great disservice (and yourself, at that rate) if you didn’t delve into Roccat’s Swarm software.

Features and Software

Roccat's Swarm software, which requires both a reboot and two different downloads to install, lets you configure the look, feel and performance of the Kova Aimo.  You can finely tune the five DPI levels from between 250 to 7000 DPI, which you can then switch among using the DPI button. You can set the Windows pointer speed and configure the 10 mouse buttons, with the option to give each one a secondary assignment when a modifier key is applied.

The Swarm software lets you switch the polling rate among 125, 250, 500 and 1000 Hz rates. You can add audio feedback here and configure all the RGB lighting effects.  You can also  save up to five profiles with different settings, a great feature when you're playing different games.

Bottom Line

The Kova Aimo's ambidextrous design, combined with a simple aesthetic, and impressive software suite make it an impressive competitor for those looking for a solid, jack-of-all trades mouse. However, outside of the software level customization (something that’s available on any gaming mouse within Roccat’s lineup), you can't modify the gaming experience. You can’t add more weight for instance, or swap out the cable to something smoother, and there’s no hot swappable sensors or anything along those lines either, but for some people that level of configuration isn't necessary. 

What the Roccat Kova AIMO does offer is an easy, plug and play experience, for those looking for a no fuss, pixel pointer, that’ll get the job done. For this price point, it's a very compelling choice. 

Image Credits: Roccat, Tom's Hardware

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Turtle Beach has agreed to acquire Roccat for $14.8 million in cash, $3.4 million in earn-out payments, and $1 million in cash or stock (Roccat's choice) for a total cost of $19.2 million.

The deal was announced on March 14. Turtle Beach said in a press release that its Roccat acquisition "further strengthens its market position in key PC-centric European territories" and gives it "distribution into new Asian markets" where Roccat operates.

Turtle Beach said that it also plans to expand Roccat's market share in North America using its existing sales and distribution platforms. The acquisition, at least in theory, is supposed to allow both brands to grow around the world.

This arrangement would also help Turtle Beach's efforts to branch out from consoles, where it said it'd held more than 40 percent of the gaming headset market for nine consecutive years, to PC. Roccat specializes in gaming mice, keyboards, and PC accessories.

Turtle Beach CEO Juergen Stark said in the press release:

"The acquisition is also a key step in achieving our goal of building a $100 million PC gaming accessories business in the coming years. ROCCAT accelerates our expansion into the roughly $1.6 billion PC gaming headset market, as well as directly enables us to address the roughly $1.3 billion PC gaming keyboard and mice market. We believe our combined product portfolio is one of the strongest in the industry, covering gaming headsets for consoles and PC's, gaming keyboards and mice. Together we will have 48 core product models to pursue the total addressable market of over $4.7 billion in North America, Europe and Asia."

The company said it expects the deal to close by the second quarter. If it does, Roccat's contribution to Turtle Beach's net revenues for the rest of 2019 could be $20-24 million, with Turtle Beach expecting that number to rise to $30 million in 2020.

If a company like Roccat wants to win over hearts and minds with a $100 headset, then its product needs to be better than the usual gamer forum recommendations, which are cheaper now than ever before. Can the "competitive, high-resolution" Khan Pro earn our recommendation? Let's start with its specs and dig in from there.

In addition to the actual headset, Roccat's package includes a quick-start guide and Y-adapter, which combines the two 3.5mm connectors (headphone-in and mic-out) in a multi-purpose jack for use with mobile devices.

However, Roccat should have implemented this solution the other way around, putting a single plug at the end of a shorter ~1.5m cable with an extension and an I/O adapter, rather than using a ~1.8m cable with two jacks (plus adapter) to start with. For mobile use, you're going to have to figure out what to do with all of the extra cable, particularly if you're in workout gear without any pockets.

What Is High-Res Audio, Anyway?

First things first: this is not really a high-resolution audio solution, even though the implication is certainly no coincidence. Years ago, Sony was the first company to use this term for one of its record players. The JAS (Japan Audio Society), as the leading organization behind this label, requires that analog devices achieve a "speaker and headphone performance of 40 kHz or above" in order to qualify.

Beyond that, the JAS does not list any requirements concerning actual reproduction quality. In short, the only hard criteria is that the upper end of the frequency range must be twice that of conventional transducers, except that there are no real limits to tolerances either. So, what sounds good remains up to each company: "Listening evaluation process is added and final decision as Hi-Res Audio product to be proved according to each company's sound evaluation standard." As always, in the end it is up to us to listen, measure, check, and judge objectively.

Look & Feel

At first glance, the graphite-gray headset (also available in white or black) leaves a good impression. It's hard to find anything wrong with it visually.

You only figure out everything is plastic once you turn the Khan Pro over in your hands. Apart from the headband, which has spring steel inside, metal is entirely missing from the body. And in light of the $100 price tag, that's a pretty bold decision.

Microphone

The rotating microphone arm, on the other hand, is a clever design implemented as a flat band with memory functionality. When the arm is folded up, a very useful automatic mute feature is activated. Not only can you feel the switch engaging, but it's also audible as well.

We also like the lack of RGB lightning. Not everyone shares our opinion on the matter, but we've found that vivid colors are conceptually cooler at first. Over time, they can be harder to bear.

Roccat has us convinced that simple elegance can be convincing indeed. We only wish the company used beefier materials. There are certainly worse-built headsets out there though, and you might even get used to the all-plastic design eventually.

Comfort

Adjustable in three axes, the Khan Pro simply fits the way it should. Roccat's dual-hinge implementation isn't novel by any stretch. But why reinvent the wheel if you have tested and proven solutions that work well? Adaptation to smaller or larger head sizes is easy to achieve. However, given the choice of materials, we unfortunately cannot estimate how well this headset will hold up. To start, avoid exposure to UV radiation as much as possible.

The headband is sufficiently padded on the inside and does not apply unwelcome pressure, even after long periods of use. It's only a shame that the material used to cover this area does not appear to match Roccat's premium price tag. Similarly, the material used in the ear pads has a bad habit of collapsing, creating folds that may affect your ability to achieve a perfect seal. If you're particularly unlucky, both ear pieces may end up with a different fit, the result of which can be acoustically noticeable.

Functionality & Interface

The small volume control performs its function just as we'd expect. Although the wheel is positioned intuitively enough, you may find it difficult to reach. Worse, synchronization at the beginning of the potentiometer's range is somewhat inaccurate. In our sample, that means one of the channels comes on before the other.

There are no screws on the ear pieces. Therefore, it seems impossible to open them without using force. We chose to forego a look inside and avoid damaging our sample. But based on the way the cover is laid out, the driver appears to be positioned asymmetrically and tilted slightly towards the ear.

Measurements & Sound-Check

To read about our test methodology in depth, please check out How We Test Gaming Headsets, particularly page 6 where we detail the measurements we take.

We start with a measurement of the microphone's frequency range. For this test, we use a calibrated mic (for reference) in our purpose-built measuring room. This allows us to take comparative measurements and generate a curve that comes close enough for what we're trying to do (even if it isn't the most ideal method for testing Roccat's mic). So, while the limitations of our equipment don't allow us to calculate the microphone's exact frequency response, we do have a reasonable approximation to confirm our subjective impression.

There is a measurable low-cut below ~100 Hz that is also easy to hear. This is important because the microphone is inherently a bit bass-heavy. Thus, rumbling sounds should not be much of an issue. Speech intelligibility is good, and the overall output level is sufficiently high. Nevertheless, you might want to adjust your sound card's settings to slightly boost its level.

All sibilants (hissing sounds) are well-executed, since the high frequencies are not overly dominant. The sound leans toward a warm timbre due to strong upper bass and the audible presence of lower mid-range.

Headphone Measurement

The original curve doesn't look bad, except for one or two dents. Even at the upper and lower bounds of the frequency range, we still find the output to be at sufficient levels.

With that said, we abstained from any attempt to measure Roccat's claimed 40 kHz ceiling. Given our semi-professional equipment, the results just wouldn't be reliable. Then again, since we don't have many bats in our audience, you probably aren't missing out on anything exciting. It's safe to say that the 40 kHz specification is more theoretical in nature (though a great marketing fantasy).

A kink in the lower mid-range at about 325 Hz is not exactly a disaster. It appears to be the result of a bass boost (mechanical manipulation) through targeted tuning of the resonating body. Typically, this type of boost provokes a depression of the next higher frequency range as a consequence. Further, at ~3.6 kHz we notice a small hole attributable to the driver's properties. Of course, human ears just so happen to be sensitive to that particular frequency range. This more or less balances itself out subjectively, though you can use a software equalizer to fine-tune more precisely.

Our own tweaks bring the lowest bass down a bit by reducing its level. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it's not. In return for our small sacrifice, level stability improves enormously. There's less observable distortion in the resulting chart, along with cleaner peaks.

Subjective Audio Experience - Original versus Optimization

Now let's subjectively test the original tuning compared to the results of our manual equalizer adjustment. We began by running the headset for two days straight at a source with decent sound levels to make sure it is properly broken in.

Bass Reproduction

We test the lowest bass in the sub-contra octave (16.4 Hz to 32.7 Hz) with a recording of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (19 and 25 Hz), as well as the festival overture composed in 1880 by Tchaikovsky (10 Hz and 12.5 Hz). The same applies to the lower ranges of the contra octave (32.7 to 65.4 Hz). The large bass drum, usually tuned to ~55 to 60 Hz, is used to complete this evaluation.

By default, the bass is as dark as can be. But after our correction, the bass is audibly subdued (yet still noticeable). The new settings make everything sound more differentiated and clear without a loss of pressure. Granted, from about 30 Hz down, the reproduction gets a bit thin. This doesn't actually hurt the result, though. The contra octave is still covered in its entirety, pleasing those of us who enjoy powerful bass.

Reproduction of the large bass drum is sufficiently clear, with level stability appropriate for this price segment. The transient response is also acceptable. Ultimately, bass is definitely not one of the Khan Pro's weak points, either in stock form or after our optimizations.

Upper bass, up to 150 Hz, contains the male voice's fundamental speech frequency. Thus, it has a strong influence on the lifelike reproduction of male vocals.

This range sounds reasonably-balanced right out of the box, though it can get overly exaggerated. The reproduction of male vocals is almost too rich, though instruments sound quite natural. All in all, good resolution makes it easier to identify and locate non-dominant sound sources.

Mid-Range

The lower mid-range (sometimes called "fundamental range") spans from ~150 to 400 Hz. Together with the upper bass, this range plays an important role in producing the subjectively perceived warmth and fullness of sound. This is also where the fundamental range of female vocals can be found.

The reproduction of female vocals is spot-on. In stock form, voices and instruments are more neutral, leaning a bit towards cooler-sounding reproduction.

Frequencies leading up to 500 Hz sound a lot better with our optimized profile, since it almost completely eliminates the nasty dent at 325 Hz. Our tuning makes the Khan Pro sound warmer and more pleasant in this range. If you're a music-lover, you'll want to use them. Gamers won't care as much; the default setup works just as well.

The upper mid-range, from 400 Hz to about 2 kHz, contains the 1 kHz point that's used as a reference for many measurements. Unfortunately, this is often very noticeable, especially with cheaper devices, as manufacturers tend to overemphasize it a bit. This frequency range also plays a significant role in gaming, and its balanced reproduction contributes significantly to good spatial resolution.

With the Khan Pro's weaknesses behind us, we have more to be optimistic about. Instruments deliver the nuances we require of them, and resolution is good. Details shine through and the sound stage is ideal.

From a purely subjective point of view, music fans can expect the orchestra to be positioned wide enough, even if some quieter sources cannot always be placed accurately. These probably aren't the headphones you'd want for this purpose exclusively. Gamers, on the other hand, should be unconcerned. Your experience won't be affected; we're just being nit-picky.

High-Frequency Range

Between 2 kHz and 3.5 kHz is where the human ear is most sensitive, especially since the lower levels of this range are responsible for the human voice's overtone reproduction. This frequency range is crucial to the recognition of a voice or an instrument. Thus, in this context, it also relates to the respective tone color, or timbre.

Our improved profile makes everything in this range sound more natural, even if Roccat's stock settings already sounded pretty good. In both implementations, in-game sound localization seems fairly accurate. The result could always be better, of course. But there are worse-performing headsets selling alongside the Khan Pro. All things considered, then, our observations are quite acceptable.

The mid-high range (3.5 to 6 kHz) determines the success or failure of speech reproduction as a whole, since sibilant sounds (like the letter "s" and hiss sounds) fall into it. The upper trebles range up to about 10 kHz, where we pass into the territory of super-high frequencies.

High and super-high frequencies are dominant, without question. However, the reproduction does not sound metallic or sharp, which would lead to overemphasized sibilants and air noises. Instead, the sound is more or less neutral.

Roccat's specified frequency response from 20 Hz to 44 kHz seems realistic, at least up to about 20 kHz. The Khan Pro ends up being a little too bass-heavy for our tastes, even if that's what gamers seem to be into these days.

Conclusion

A $100 price tag is overly ambitious, given the Khan Pro's construction and measured performance. We see this headset more in the $80 category, and if it was selling in that range, it might have even earned a recommendation. To be a player up where the Khan Pro is priced, it really needs to be built from higher-quality materials.

By no means is this to say that Roccat's offering looks or feels cheap, because it doesn't. But similar to the food being served in a high-end restaurant, sufficient quality isn't good enough. You also expect an attention to detail that goes above and beyond. This is where the Khan Pro comes up short. Though the issues are minor, we cannot overlook the price...

We can only advise Roccat to take a step back, consider the market's realities, and make some adjustments based on competing solutions.

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Roccat has released the Khan Aimo 7.1 gaming headset, an upper-end product in Roccat’s audio lineup featuring RGB lighting, a built-in sound card, and a comfort-focused design.

It has been a while since we last saw a digital surround-sound gaming headset from Roccat. The Kave XTD 5.1, which was released in 2014, actually had multiple speakers, two to be precise, per ear cup. True, that’s not enough channels for 5.1, but “multi-channel” headsets don’t typically actually contain multiple speakers. Rather, such headsets either receive multichannel analog input, which is down mixed internally, or, if they’re digital, re-process multichannel sound with an internal sound card. The Khan Aimo is an example of the latter. 

Roccat’s new Khan is a step up from its analog, two-channel sibling, the Khan Pro. It adds an internal 7.1 sound card to feed the single 50mm speaker in each of its ear cups. Similar to the Khan Pro, comfort is a major focus of the Aimo. The Khan series’ ear cups are mounted on traditional-style headphone yokes that allow for three axes of motion. The ear cups sit flatter on the side of the head with this design, allowing pressure to be distributed more comfortably than with the limited-motion mounts popular on many headsets. The Aimo’s earpads are memory foam and have a smooth material surface.

To help define the Aimo’s place above the Pro, and because the Aimo is a natively digital headset, Roccat added RGB lighting to it. As always, the feature is questionable for a device that isn’t seen while in use. It’s for the better, then, that configuring the Aimo’s lighting will be easy due to Roccat’s integrated Swarm driver suite, which aggregates all Roccat RGB controls into one place. As with the Pro, the Aimo has an integrated fold-up microphone and controls on the ear cup. All its additions only bring its weight to 275g, 45g more than the Pro.

We do not yet have information on North American pricing and availability for the Roccat Khan Aimo.

The $50 price bracket forces you to make compromises. It lands you somewhere between bargain-bin headsets without many redeeming qualities and higher-end models with a lot more features starting around $75. Are there gems to be found in that middle range?

Roccat would like us to think so. The company tries to strike a balance with its stereo headphones that mix acceptable sound with good comfort, along with a reasonable price tag. This is an open-air solution that aims to be more than an amplified bass drum.

Since the headset doesn't boast simulated surround sound or any other type of acoustic manipulation, it only really needs a Y-adapter for combining two 3.5mm jacks into a multi-jack connector. That gives you microphone-out and stereo-in from the headset, ensuring compatibility with PS4, Xbox One, and any number of mobile devices.

Specifications

Look & Feel

To be honest, Roccat's Renga appears deceptively high-quality. Its material mix seems almost perfect at first glance, reminding us of much more expensive headsets. The polyurethane not only looks appealing, but it feels good in our hands. Even the headband mimics a real piece of leather well. In the end, the materials are so cleverly styled and blended that Roccat deserves kudos for its work.

Our only real criticism is the cheap, rigid cable covered with a plastic shell. Its color may match Roccat's corporate identity perfectly, but it smells like the plague and offers little flexibility or suppleness.

Comfort

A clever concept doesn't require resizing the Renga's headband to make it fit. Instead, the band simply stays flexible enough so that you don't require vertical adjustments at all. The mechanism slides and bends as desired, allowing the plastic headrest to adapt to your head shape.

Unfortunately, if you're short on hair, the headband may get sweatier than a lot of other padded designs. The Renga might not be ideal for you if that's the case.

This open system's large ear pads are big enough to fit over any size of ears, and they provide a comfortable seal. You'll even be fine with glasses on (though on-ear headsets tend to work better in that case). After hours of use, sweaty ears were never a problem for us; there is always plenty of ventilation.

Functionality & Interface

There is a control unit built into the cable. You'll find a volume knob on one side and a small switch for muting or enabling the microphone on the other. Both controls could have been a little bigger.

We'd have no problem getting used to the control unit. But that stiff and bulky cable is less tolerable. It's always in the way!

As mentioned, this headset features an open design. In the following picture, you can see a gap between the ear piece/driver and ear pad. This means that ambient noise is clearly audible at all times. On the bright side, you'll never miss a call for dinner.

Of course, anyone listening to their tunes loudly on a plane, train, or bus is bound to attract glares from neighbors. Just be aware of who might be in range before sharing content others might find objectionable.

Microphone

The omnidirectional microphone is positioned at the end of a folding (yet completely rigid) arm. Its level is relatively low, so you may have to raise your voice quite a bit to make yourself heard. Fortunately, modern audio codecs usually include support for adjustable mic gain, as much as doubling sensitivity. 

If you go that route, the result sounds pretty good, especially since raising the level via software hardly generates any additional noise. Speech remains fairly intelligible. But because of Roccat's price tag, there is no real low-cut filter, no compressor, and no clipping.

Measurements & Sound-Check

To read about our test methodology in depth, please check out How We Test Gaming Headsets, particularly page 6 where we detail the measurements we take.

Our measurement results reveal that Roccat is using heavy bass in an effort to hide the Renga's acoustic compromises. In the company's defense, though, we should also note that the drop-off on either side of 100 Hz is relatively shallow. Let us not forget that we're dealing with a $50 headset here.

The subjective listening test turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant for a piece of hardware in this price range.

Down low, Roccat serves up plenty of bass, even if it doesn't make much of an impression as real low bass. The tuning, which leans toward upper-bass, may trick untrained ears into hearing the full range, when in fact the subcontra octave is hardly perceivable at all. This is a flaw that not even an equalizer can fix, as the flat 50mm drivers simply lack the necessary level stability. Another technical challenge is the open concept, since low bass, which relies on small ear pieces for a resonating body, is difficult to achieve with this design.

Nevertheless, what remains is not bad (though a slightly more powerful driver would have worked even better). Anyone biased to drum beats and explosive gaming will probably want to look elsewhere, while first-person snipers may be more interested. Spatial resolution, including good acoustic positioning of incoming opponents, is pretty good as long as output levels stay within reasonable ranges.

The experience is similar from the lower to higher mid-range. Though slightly underrepresented, the mid-range is technically present and good enough to reproduce the fundamental frequencies of almost all instruments and voices with ease. The timbre remains reasonably natural. This also applies to sonority in the somewhat higher range (important for making sounds recognizable).

High and super-high tones are of average quality. An overemphasis at about 6 kHz makes the sibilants sound somewhat sharp. As a result, some instruments get an almost metallic touch. This isn't a big deal for gaming, fortunately. Only trained music lovers will really notice the dent at ~9 kHz, and this particular detail is in fact rather unpleasant since it causes strings and wind instruments to lose some of their high-frequency brilliance.

We are left with the positive feeling that Roccat made an honest attempt to achieve reasonably neutral and balanced sound, even though the Renga does suffer from necessary cost-cutting measures.

Conclusion

We've eliminated our "Editor Recommended" award, but if we hadn't, the Renga would get one. How can a $50 headset earn a purchase recommendation? Despite slight weaknesses in sound, level stability, and microphone sensitivity, the total package represents such good value for your money that it's almost a bargain. If you want more than what the Renga offers, you'll have to dig deeper into your wallet. At its current price, Roccat already offers more than you could reasonably expect.

Sure, the economic constraints are obvious every step of the way. It is even possible to physically feel them in the rigid cable and somewhat under-powered drivers. But we still feel the headset deserves a recommendation as an all-around performer. This is no exaggerated sub-woofer, even if Roccat tries advertising it as such. The Renga simply can't be due to its open design. The result still sounds mostly natural with distinguishable nuances.

We found the astonishingly good spatial positioning and relatively comfortable fit of this flyweight, which works well even on larger heads, to be especially appealing. For all of this and a reasonable price, our purchase recommendation is well-earned.

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Update, 5/15/17, 7:13am PT: Roccat announced that the Leadr wireless mouse is now available. We found it listed only on Roccat's own site, and it costs $140. If you're a "Roccateer" (someone who's registered at least one piece of Roccat hardware), the price drops to $126.

Original article, 1/14/17, 5am PT:

At CES 2017, Roccat debuted not only a trio of mice (not to mention an analog gaming keyboard), but its own mouse sensor, which is the result of a venture with PixArt.

The Owl-Eye, Not To Be Confused With The Eagle Eye...

Called the Owl-Eye, Roccat built its sensor by modifying a PixArt 3360 sensor; the special Roccat version is dubbed the “PixArt 3361.” The company proclaimed that it offers true 1:1 accuracy. You can configure it with a so-called Distance Control Unit (DCU), and the DPI range is 100-12,000. Roccat, though, recommends using 400-3,000 DPI (allegedly, a range pro gamers tend to prefer).

It has a 70Hz system clock and sits in a “16-pin molded lead-frame DIP package with integrated IR LED.”

The new sensor is shipping on all three of Roccat’s new mice: the wireless Leadr, the ergonomic Kone EMP, and the Kone Pure 2017 (for the slim-handed).

Look Ma, No Wires

Wireless gaming mice like the Leadr tend to have a few inherent disadvantages compared to their wired brethren. By dint of the wireless connection, there can be lag and latency issues, and of course one must consider battery life. The battery tends to add weight to the mouse, too. Roccat promised that this mouse will suffer no such lag or latency, and you won't run out of a charge mid-game because of its charging dock and “top-up cable.”

It operates over 2.4GHz, and the wireless module is in the dock itself. Roccat promises 20 hours of battery life, but if you need to charge up in-game, you can remove the cable from the back of the dock and plug it into the mouse. It will charge back up while the cable is connected. When you want to remove the cable again, there’s a release--which also ensures that the cable won’t accidentally pop out when you’re playing.

One of the key features of the Leadr is an odd little trigger mounted just above the thumb rest area. Roccat said that it’s essentially a joystick--an analog control.

The Leadr should be available mid-April, and it will cost about $140. That undercuts one of its closest competitors, the wireless Razer Mamba, by $10.

What Is The Plural Of “Kone”?

In addition to the Leadr, Roccat has a pair of Kone mice--the Kone EMP and the Kone Pure 2017.

The Kone EMP is essentially the successor to the Kone XTD. Designed to be an ergonomic option for those with moderately- and larger-sized hands, it has RGB lighting that wends around both edges of the mouse’s shapely top. Note that even though it’s aimed at those with heavy mitts, it’s actually a fairly light mouse, at 116g.

A key feature is the four-way movement of the scroll wheel, which Roccat calls the “4D Titan wheel.”

The Kone EMP has seven buttons (left/right click, two DPI switchers, two left-side navigation buttons, and the aforementioned 4D scroll wheel), and it supports Roccat's Swarm software. It does, though, have 512KB of onboard storage for macros.

The Kone Pure 2017 is similar to the Kone EMP in many ways, but it’s really the successor to the original Kone Pure. It’s 91% the size of the other Kone mice, and it’s quite the flyweight at a mere 88g, making it one of the lightest gaming mice you’ll find. It’s aimed at those with smallish hands, and it boasts of a “pro-grip coating” as well as “enhanced button handling.”

Expect the Kone EMP to land at the end of January for $80; the svelte Kone Pure is coming mid-April (the same time as the Leadr) for $60.

Roccat announced today that its newly-formed Roccat Games Studio is already hard at work at its first game. You heard that right: a PC peripherals company is making its own game, and you can get in on the action as early as June.

The game is called Sick City and the company classifies it as a “modern real-time tactical combat game.” Furthermore, the company said that it would have elements inspired from other games such as Commandos, Company of Heroes, and Warcraft 3. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world, and you’ll have to manage squads and vehicles as you play in a four-versus-four-player match. The main goal is to take control of an energy source called Aimo. According to the press kit sent to us, it seems that the game will start with two factions called “The Legion” and “Kidz.”

As the development process continues for the game, the studio will need user feedback to determine additional features for the game. This includes the introduction of new factions, maps, or game types, but this will only take place after the closed alpha session, which starts in June. During the alpha, a select few will be able to play the game and provide feedback on technical issues and bugs that need attention. It’s unclear as to how long the closed alpha will last, but once it’s over, the game will move on to Early Access where anyone can play and provide their own feedback on the type of content that needs to be in the game.

If you’re keen on playing the game in its closed alpha state, you can sign up now on the game’s website. Because of the need for player feedback, it’s apparent that the game could be in a closed alpha or early access state for quite some time. The company did not reveal the release date for the completed version of the game.

What was that we were just saying? That there aren't any established keyboard companies with analog switch keyboards? Well, Roccat is the first to break the mold by announcing its Force X technology, which is making its debut on the Isku+ Force FX keyboard.

The Isku+ Force FX, though, is a significant departure from the two analog keyboard designs we’re familiar with. This is an oversimplification, but whereas both Wooting and Aimpad use an optical sensor to detect the depth of the key press, and therefore the level of input sensitivity, the Isku+ Force FX uses something else. Roccat described it thusly:

“By employing a special chemical layer which modifies electrical conductivity beneath the QWEASD keyzone, our engineers have found a way to allow pressure-sensitive input on a rubberdome keyboard.” It uses a polymer-piezoelectric composite material--how it works, exactly, we do not yet understand.

Further, the Isku+ Force FX is a membrane keyboard, so it lacks the switches that Wooting and Aimpad employ.

Modes And Features

The Isku+ Force FX's analog controls are limited to the QWEASD keys, as noted above, but Roccat supports it with its Swarm software, so configuring the input should be easy. There are three modes of operation: The default mode gives you standard input. Another mode lets you assign up to three functions to a key, and you can activate any of them by pressing a modifier key. (For example, you would press Shift or Ctrl or Alt or what have you and then press the assigned key to perform the secondary or tertiary actions.)

The secret sauce is Smooth Mode, wherein you get pressure-sensitive analog input on the aforementioned key cluster.

Roccat did not elaborate further on the analog controls, such as how many levels of sensitivity they offer, if you can change the actuation point, and so on. However, the company made it clear that this is not a one-off product; expect Roccat to launch more analog-enabled devices in the future.

The Isku+ Force FX is a large, chunky-looking thing with a wrist rest attached, and for a membrane keyboard, it has several choice features. It offers RGB lightng with six levels of brightness, several lighting effects, five dedicated left-side macros keys, and the capacity to store up to 180 macros. There are three programmable “thumbster keys,” too, and of course the whole thing is supported by the Swarm configuration software.

It costs the same as its predecessor, the Isku FX, with a price tag of $100.

The Specs

Be Sensitive

As we wrote when we recently spent time with the Aimpad R5 prototype analog keyboard, current keyboards offer us precision, but analog keyboards will add nuance.

Analog keyboards potentially portend a positive change in what we can expect out of enthusiast gaming gear. It is, perhaps, a slight shift, but the increased pressure-sensitive control that analog switches enable (among other benefits) could become a key feature that gamers won't want to do without.

It appears that Roccat will win the race to market with an analog keyboard, but it’s notable that it lacks the mechanical switches that its closely-following competitors employ.

Update, 11/10/16, 8:18am PT: Roccat reached out to let us know that the Suora FX will also be available with TTC Blue switches in the U.S.--by popular demand.

Roccat has added a second “Suora” to its portfolio of mechanical keyboards. The new product, called the Suora FX, boasts RGB lighting whereas the original Suora had just blue LEDs.

Like the original, though, the Suora FX has a simple aluminum chassis--what the company calls “frameless”--which should appeal to office types and those with more conservative aesthetic tastes.

In fact, other than the RGB lighting, the Suroa FX appears to be identical to the Suora. They both offer NKRO, a 1,000Hz polling rate, a Gaming Mode button, six (non dedicated) macro keys, on board (non dedicated media controls), and support for Roccat’s Swarm software. Both also sport TTC Brown switches--perhaps seemingly an odd choice, but subjectively we’ve found TTC switches to be perfectly fine, and Browns are typically a nice compromise between linear Reds and clicky Blues.

The enhanced lighting does introduce a few key differences (aside from the copious color choices) between the two keyboards. Roccat said in its materials that you get “ quick access to stunning effects” with the Suora FX, and the F1-F4 keys toggle through wave, breathing, ripple, and solid lighting effects.

The Suora is currently available for $100, and the Suora FX will be out December 6 for $140. Given that the two devices are identical save for the RGB lighting, this is as clear an indication as ever how much it probably costs keyboard makers to employ RGB on a device.

Headline: Keyboard Maker Makes Lapboard, Details At 11. We’ve read this story before, and not too long ago, when Corsair finally released its Lapdog, an enormous lapboard with a Corsair K70 dropped into it. Roccat has now released its own take on a living room gaming lapboard with the Roccat Sova MK, and although it took the same basic approach that Corsair did (no compromises on performance, period), the Sova MK is smaller and arguably more comfortable to use.

Just...Tighten

We had few complaints when we spent hands on time with the Lapdog save for a few minor quibbles over ergonomics. Specifically, I found that the bezel around the keyboard was too thin, the edge of the mouse pad dug into my palm, and the USB cable was ungainly and always in the way.

With the Sova MK, Roccat has mostly solved those issues (but introduced one of its own).

The Lapdog’s bezel is thicker along the top edge to accommodate the mouse and keyboard cabling. This left the bottom bezel thin. On the Sova MK, this is flipped: The bottom bezel is quite large--in fact, it’s less a bezel and more a bona fide wrist rest--and the keyboard is mounted higher up, such that the top edge is thin.

Even better, the Sova MK has a beveled edge all across the bottom, as opposed to the sharper edge of the Lapdog. I found that this minor design difference significantly affected my comfort level. Whereas the edges of the Lapdog bugged me almost immediately, the Sova MK was more comfortable for long stretches of gaming.

Further, although we understand why the Lapdog has such a mass of cables, it seemed like we could have done with a little less in that department. Roccat apparently feels the same, because the Sova MK has a simple USB cable (with two special ends) and no AC power plug. There is a short stub of a cable and a special connector sticking out the back of the Sova MK, and to this you connect the lone USB cable.

The cable has a sort of Y-adapter end with two USB connectors, and it’s about 13 feet long, which should be sufficient reach for most living room setups.

That’s about four feet shorter than the Lapdog’s cable, but that brings up a key point: Everything about the Roccat Sova MK is smaller or thinner than the Corsair Lapdog, and that’s a good thing. The lapboard is several inches narrower, the whole assembly is about half as thick, and the soft lap cushion is thinner, too. Even the USB cable is physically thinner. As I wrote about the Lapdog, the whole thing just feels large and takes up a lot of space; the Sova MK, though by no means small, takes up less room--enough so that it’s easier to stow it away when you’re not using it.  

Where the Sova MK bows to the Lapdog is in regard to cable routing and keyboard options.

On the Lapdog, Corsair made a large trench across the top of the lapboard and then included a removable piece of metal to hide and route the mouse and keyboard cables. It’s simple and clean and tidy. The Sova MK, by contrast, has a thin trench on its outside edge; the mouse cable barely fits into it and doesn’t stay put especially well, and there’s no ideal spot for the cable to emerge. Roccat included a little mouse bungee to help you route the mouse cable where you want it on the mousepad, and that was handy, but there’s not enough room anywhere to completely stash the mouse cable. No matter what, a long length of it will droop off the back.

The biggest issue for some, though, will be the lack of flexibility in keyboard choice. Corsair limited your options with the Lapdog to its K65 and K70, but the Sova MK offers no alternative choices at all. The keyboard is built into the lapboard.

Roccat does offer you two Sova options, but they’re limited to a TKL version with TTC Brown switches or one with membrane switches. If you prefer a numpad, or don’t like the feel of Brown switches, or have reservations about TTC switches in general (I, for the record, have none), you won’t want the Sova. It’s as simple as that.

Set Up, Software And Use

One thing I particularly like about the Sova MK is the setup process: You connect one end of the included cable to the Sova MK and the other to your PC. Connect a mouse to the Sova MK. That’s it.

This is compared to setting up the Lapdog, which requires the removal (and replacement) of many screws and the installation of a keyboard.

The Sova MK is supposed to work with Roccat’s Swarm software, but even after updating, I was unable to get the software to even recognize the Sova MK. This is because the unit I have (there aren’t many in existence) is pre-mass production, and Roccat didn’t have the software driver ready for it yet.

Overall, I found the Sova MK delightful to use. As I mentioned, the beveled edge was comfortable even after long gaming sessions, and I particularly loved the huge wrist rest. The lapboard offered sufficient padding on my legs, and the mousepad area (10.8 x 9.45 inches) is plenty large. Roccat told me that the retail Sova MK will have slightly different material than the one I have on hand, but I don’t think any change is needed; although it’s a slightly bumpy plastic surface, which may turn some users off, I used a Roccat mouse with it and found the performance exemplary. Roccat has hinted at the possibility that it will make the mousepad removable and offer different surfaces, so users could ostensibly opt for a hard plastic surface, metal or different fabrics. (Roccat stated in its materials that the wrist rest and lap cushions may all be replaceable, too.)

As with the Lapdog, the Sova MK leaves you wondering what to do with your arms. This is simply an issue inherent with any lean-back lapboard device, though, so one can hardly complain about either company’s design here. With a small throw pillow under my left arm, I was completely comfortable. I didn’t need anything under my right arm.

There were a couple of issues that I bumped into, though. One is that any time I moved at all, the mouse slid off the edge of the Sova MK. (The same thing happens with the Lapdog.) Again, this is a problem that will arise on virtually any lapboard. However, I did accidentally disconnect the USB cable a couple of times right in the middle of a game. I must have stepped on it without noticing; suddenly my input just stopped, and I got fragged. It took me several seconds to figure out that I’d yanked the cable out.

Specifications And Price

Although there are two versions of the Sova--one with membrane keys (Sova) and one with TTC Brown switches (Sova MK)--they are otherwise essentially identical.

The Sova offers onboard storage for profiles, and there is blue backlighting on both models. It has two USB 2.0 ports so you can connect a mouse, and perhaps a headset (as long as that headset is USB).

As I mentioned previously, expect Swarm software support for the Sova--but for now, there’s no driver.

Curiously, Roccat is selling the Sova only in bundle form, at least for now. You can get either the membrane or the mechanical version for $149.99 or $199.99 respectively, and Roccat will include a “free” Kova mouse, which costs $50 by itself. That means the mechanical switch version of the Sova essentially costs $149.99.  

It Disappears

There is much to like about the Sova MK, and Roccat deserves credit for creating something that surpasses the Corsair Lapdog in design. The Sova MK is smaller and thinner (read: more convenient to use and stow) without losing anything to the Lapdog.

Roccat needs to fiddle some more with the mouse cable routing, though, and I wish it offered audio jacks instead of (or perhaps in addition to) the second USB 2.0 port. Further, although I tested a (slightly) pre-production Sova MK, it’s disappointing that the software wasn’t ready.

Also, Roccat may have done itself no favors by limiting the Sova’s keyboard options to a membrane and a tenkeyless TTC Brown switch version; it’s betting that users won’t want Red or Blue switches, or a different switch manufacturer, for that matter, and that's a tricky wager.

However, pricing and a few small issues aside, like the Lapdog, the Sova MK disappears when you use it, and that’s the whole point of a living room lapboard mouse and keyboard setup. Roccat opted for a design that doesn’t compromise on performance, at all.

Update, 6/15/16, 7:40am PT: The original version of the article incorrectly stated that the lap cushions were not removable.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Roccat, it seems, is learning its market. Although many enthusiast gaming keyboards--such as Roccat’s own existing products--have extravagant, funky, chunky chassis designs, many in the enthusiast keyboard community seem to prefer products with a less-is-more look--smaller bezels, backlighting is unimportant. That sort of thing.

To that end, Roccat announced the Suora, a mechanical keyboard with a decidedly more mature look. It’s a full-size keyboard with a metal backplate and a numpad and F keys that serve double duty as media controls. Instead of RGB, Roccat opted for blue backlighting--a specific color that a representative told me is exclusive to Roccat--with a breathing effect and 11 brightness levels. It offers a 1,000 Hz polling rate and supports Roccat’s Swarm software, and it offers up to six individually programmable macro keys.

In a departure from the all too familiar Cherry-or-Kailh norm, the Suora comes with TTC Brown switches. These are uncommon, although we would not be surprised to find them on more keyboards in the near future. We found TTC Red switches in our recent review of the iBuypower MEK, and based on that, I'm optimistic that they will serve as a capable alternative to Cherry or Kailh.

There are few additional details to share about the keyboard at this time. We do know that the Suora will cost $99 when it ships in July.

(As an aside, other than the fact that it’s devoid of specifications, I love the press release for this product. It’s written in the same spirit as the Suora’s design: In the release, it’s as if the author wrote a paragraph or two stating little more than, “This keyboard has mechanical switches and no nonsense,” and then a manager said, “You have to add some market-speak,” and the author begrudgingly crammed some in. In the design, it’s as if they wanted to build a simple, clean keyboard, and then a product manager came in and insisted, “You have to add some flair--how about some lighting,” and the team begrudgingly added blue backlighting.)

Whether or not the Suora’s diffident austerity is indicative of high quality German engineering or is merely an attempt to chase a trend is something we’ll have to determine when we get a Suora in the lab.

Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Roccat’s Ryos lineup of keyboards has a new member in the form of the Ryos MK FX. It was initially shown at CES 2015, but it’s finally available for customers.

This is the first mechanical keyboard from Roccat to include full RGB lighting. Other keyboards from Roccat have full keyboard lighting, but you can only assign a single one color for all of the keys. With the MK FX, you can have the full color spectrum on each key.

You can set it to one of two lighting modes: preset and custom. Preset features programmed effects already included in the software, but you can also create custom lighting effects with various colors. All of the programming is done through Roccat’s “Swarm” software app.

It also comes with Roccat’s Easy-Shift function, which allows a secondary assignment for most buttons by holding down the Easy-Shift button key. There are a total of 94 programmable keys, five macro keys and three “thumbster” keys (located below the spacebar). There are also two jacks, audio in and audio out, located on the side of the top-left corner of the keyboard.

The MK FX is powered by two 32-bit ARM Cortex processors and has 2 MB of flash memory to store your custom lighting and programming configurations. It also uses Cherry MX Brown switches, and it’s unclear whether or not Roccat will accommodate other color switches from the Cherry MX roster. The MK FX is available now for $169.99.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Roccat's latest product puts a third gaming headset in the company's audio lineup. At $49.99, the Renga is considered to be the low-tier entry point for those who want a gaming headset without forking over too much money.

The Renga utilizes 50mm neodyium magnet drivers to deliver its bass-focused sound. It also looks slightly different than its predecessors with a new dual-headband design, which is supposed to make it more secure around your head as well as comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.

It also comes with a microphone for online gameplay, but you can flip it up out of the way when you're watching a movie or listening to music. The cable also includes an in-line remote to control volume and the ability to mute your microphone.

Out of the box, the Renga works with most gaming consoles, PC and mobile devices because of its 3.5mm connection. Roccat expects to launch the Renga by the end of February.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

German manufacturer Roccat has an extensive lineup of mice, but it doesn't think its arsenal is complete just yet. Today, the company announced the Kiro -- a modular "superdextrous" gaming mouse.

Now, superdextrous isn't really a thing. It's just a word that Roccat has made up to describe an ambidextrous mouse that can be turned into a non-ambidextrous mouse.

The Kiro features a very simple design, with the standard left and right click buttons over Omron switches, a 2D Titan scroll-wheel, a full-cover soft-touch design, and back and forth buttons on each side of the mouse.

That's where the customizability comes in. The mouse comes with four side parts (two for each side), each of which has a symmetric counterpart for the other side. The one is a sidepiece that comes with the forward and back browser buttons, while the other is blank. With these, you can choose to have the forward/back buttons on each side, one of the two sides only, or not at all.

At the heart of the mouse, users will find a 2000 DPI Pro-Optic R2 sensor, with which we have only one issue: The mouse comes with a DPI-doubler. This allows the mouse to simulate having a 4000 DPI sensor, but that will go at the cost of tracking accuracy.

Finally, Roccat topped the Kiro off with RGB lighting, and all of the hardware is addressed through a Turbo Core V2 ARM chip. Pricing will sit at $49.99, with availability slated for November 27.

Update, 12/03/2015, 1:15pm PT: The mouse only ended up hitting shelves today, as opposed to this time last week, but Roccat did drop the MSRP down to $39.99. Nice!

______________________________________________________________________

Niels Broekhuijsen has been with Tom's Hardware since 2012, and works as a Contributing Editor on the news team. He covers mostly hardware, components, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Outside of work, he likes to travel, cook, and fix things that are broken.

You can follow him at @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Following the success of its Kova[+], Roccat has released a new higher-performance Kova gaming mouse.

The new Kova gaming mouse possesses a more advanced Pro-Optic R6 optical sensor, allowing it to run natively at 3500 DPI, which is 300 DPI higher than the Kova[+].  The new Kova also has a built-in "Overdrive" mode, which takes advantage of a Turbo Core V2 72 MHz 32-bit ARM-based MCU to artificially double the DPI sensitivity to 7000 DPI.

"The Kova[+] was cherished by gamers for its sleek aesthetics, and that's something we wanted to keep when re-imagining the mouse for the games of today," said ROCCAT founder and CEO, René Korte. "The new Kova is a worthy successor to the name, carrying on the tradition of streamlined performance. It features a high-octane, sports-car like build with staggering power under the hood. We're sure it will delight hardcore gamers as well as fans of the original."

In addition to the typical mouse buttons, Roccat placed two programmable "Smart Cast" buttons on each side of the mouse. Roccat claimed that with the use of its Easy-Shift[+] technology that the available buttons could be doubled to a total of 22.

The mouse has LED lights on all sides, which can be configured to up to 16.8 million colors. The scroll wheel and the mouse body can be changed independently.

The new Kova will be released worldwide November 17. In Europe it will retail for 59.99 Euros, but a U.S. price has not been set at this time.

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Roccat's Kave XTD 5.1 Digital gaming headset has already been on the market for a while, but if you were looking for a cheaper 5.1 headset from Roccat, you would be at a loss. Now, however, the German gaming peripherals maker announced the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog – a nearly identical version of its digital headset, but without the included USB sound card.

The headset's drivers are 40 mm on the front channel and 40 mm on the rear, with additional 30 mm "subwoofer" drivers. The front and rear units all have a frequency response between 20 and 20,000 Hz and have a maximum input power of 50 mW. The vibration driver responds between 20 and 100 Hz, and has a maximum input power of 300 mW, so it should offer some explosive bass.

The microphone on this headset can pick up sounds between 10 and 10,000 Hz, and it has an omni-directional pickup with four 1.5 mm coils.

To connect the headset, you'll have to plug in four different 3.5 mm jacks to your sound card, along with a USB 2.0 port. This being an analog headset raises the question of what the USB 2.0 port is for, but the answer is easy: to power the auxiliary devices, such as the LED lighting.

Also note that a lower price tag isn't the only reason you may want to buy an analog headset. Because it's analog, it allows you to connect it to your choice of sound card, which can potentially offer much better sound quality than the included USB sound card would.

The Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Analog will be available sometime midway through this month, with Roccat suggesting a retail price of $119.99.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Roccat, the German-based gaming peripheral company, already boasts a plethora of gaming mice, keyboards, and headsets, not to mention that it also has its own esports team. At CES 2015, the company showed off its latest products, some of which seem to show a new plan for the company.

The first step in that new direction comes with the Ryos Phobo, a revamped version of the Roccat Phobo concept shown in 2012. It sports Cherry MX switches and features two USB ports, but lacks the NUMPAD keys. The big difference between the Phobo and its other products is that it comes with a unique driver called Swarm.

With this driver, users can bring their smartphone to the gaming experience as a second screen for peripherals when attached to an Ipuri smartphone stand and connected through two Bluetooth channels. You can configure settings on each of your Roccat products as well as access different programs on your PC all from your smartphone.

In an age where almost everyone now has a smartphone, using it to control peripherals and launch games makes some sense. It removes the need to switch between multiple programs on the computer screen to change your keyboard or mouse settings; you can just change them on-the-fly with a smartphone.

If you're looking for something more familiar, the company also upgraded its MK and TKL line of keyboards with the MK FX and TKL FX. Both keyboards feature Cherry MX switches and two USB ports, but unlike the Phobo, the two devices come with RGB LEDs, giving your keyboard a more colorful palette. Also, the MK FX comes with NUMPAD keys while the TKL FX does not.

On the mouse side, Roccat also announced its Nyth gaming mouse, which shows off a new innovation for gaming mice. In some ways, it's similar to Mad Catz's R.A.T. PRO X because you can easily swap out the buttons on the side as well as the side parts. The interesting part about the whole thing is that you can also create buttons of your own for the Nyth, but that requires a 3D printer. Instead of continually waiting for approved parts to choose from like Mad Catz, Roccat pretty much lets users create their own buttons to fit their play style.

Finally, the company also added to its Kave headset lineup with the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog. Its brother, the Kave XTD 5.1 Digital, offers a lot of features such as 5.1 surround sound, Bluetooth link to your smartphone to allow phone calls during gameplay, and a sound card to increase its audio quality. It seems that the Analog version has about the same features as the Digital, but according to Roccat, it's 25 percent lighter than the Digital version and its "sound engineering goals have catapulted the XTD 5.1 Analog's audio to new heights."

The Ryos Phobo is expected to hit stores in Q3 2015. The Nyth has a release window in Q2 2015, and the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog should be coming along in Q1 2015. No prices were given for any of the devices. The interesting part for Roccat is its Future Ready program, which is the company's plan to ensure that its latest products, such as the Nyth mouse and Swarm driver, will still be able to work with future Roccat products.

This works because of the Swarm software having central control over multiple Roccat peripherals, and customizable parts such as on the Nyth mouse that adapt to every player's needs. It seems that most of Roccat's products down the road will either have Swarm, customizable parts, or both. Either way, players are always looking for more ways to customize their gaming experience, and Roccat just might have the answer for them.

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Roccat Studios launched on Thursday the Ryos TKL Pro, a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard built from the ground up for eSports. Tenkeyless means that the peripheral was designed without the number pad, making it somewhat lighter and narrower than other mechanical keyboards with the number pad intact.

"I'm in it to win it, so you'll never see us put gear in our eSports team's hands that don't give them an edge," said René Korte, CEO and founder of Roccat Studios. "Team Roccat uses the Ryos TKL in competition because it optimizes their play."

According to Roccat, the keyboard uses "best-in-industry" Cherry MX Key switches: customers can choose between brown, black, blue or red. The keyboard also provides per-key illumination, meaning you'll be able to see these keys better in the dark than if the keyboard merely had backlighting. In other words, the letters and symbols are all lit with their own individual LEDs.

The new keyboard includes 470 programmable macros and 2 MB of flash memory for storing those macros and other settings. The keyboard also includes two 32-bit ARM Cortex processors, a smudge-proof glossy exterior, three programmable thumbster keys, a built-in cable channel and five rubber feet so the keyboard doesn't move across the desktop surface during heated gameplay.

The specifications also show that the keyboard has an N-Key Rollover feature to prevent ghosting, a 1000 Hz polling rate, a 1 ms response time, and 91 total programmable keys. The keyboard also supports Roccat's Easy-Shift[+] tech, which allows the user to assign a secondary function to most of the keys. There's also a huge integrated wrist rest so that your hands are more relaxed while gaming or surfing the web.

Roccat indicated on Thursday that HyuN, the number one StarCraft II player in the world, had some input in the design, as did several other professional gamers. Having input from pro gamers is a good thing, as it means Roccat fans will have a high-quality product that gives them as much of an edge as Roccat's own eSports team.

The keyboard is available now at retailers and online shops for $139.99.

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When we saw the Roccat Tyon mouse back at Computex, we already knew that Roccat had a winner on (or should we say in?) its hands. We saw that with the Tyon, Roccat took a whole new approach to building a gaming mouse, giving you more control than ever before. Since then, we've also seen a lot of excitement in the community for this mouse, along with a sheer overload of impatience. Well folks, the Roccat Tyon is now available in shops, so be careful not to run each other over on the way.

Aside from carrying a heap of switches, the Roccat Tyon also comes with two distinct paddles, which are what set the Tyon apart from all other gaming mice. The paddle at the top of the mouse is the so-called fin-switch, which you can press either to the left or to the right where it will act as a standard clicky switch.

What's really interesting, though, is the paddle on the left of the mouse -- the X-Celerator Thumb Paddle -- because it acts as a single-axis analog joystick. Using just a little bit of imagination, you can already figure out what such a control is good for, as it will work for almost all axis-operated movements that you can use in games. The demonstration that we got at Computex involved flying a jet in Battlefield 4, where we were instructed to use the X-Celerator Thumb Paddle to operate the plane's pitch, which made mouse-operated flight very easy.

Beyond the paddles, the Roccat Tyon follows a fairly standard gaming mouse recipe. It comes with a high-quality 8200 DPI laser sensor, an on-board ARM processor with 576 KB of memory, 16 programmable mouse buttons and a Roccat Easy-Shift[+] button for additional macros. There's also dual-zone 16.8 million-color RGB LED lighting, a 1000 Hz polling rate over USB and a 1.8 meter braided USB cable.

Roccat priced the Tyon at $99.99, and it should be available in black and white through a handful of online retailers and Best Buy.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Roccat introduced on Tuesday two new peripherals for PC gamers: the Nyth gaming mouse and the Skeltr gaming keyboard, both of which will make their public debut during Gamescom 2014 in Cologne, Germany next week.

"We've wanted to develop our own MMO mouse for a long time, but like always, we end up seeing a bigger picture once we begin brainstorming," René Korte, CEO and founder of Roccat, explained. "MMO mice have these massive button grids that are locked in. You can change the button functionality, but what if you don't like the layout?"

The solution: invent a modular MMO mouse that has interchangeable button combinations. He said that gamers will have access to Roccat's button inventory files, and those with access to 3D printers can even create their own buttons.

"With a replaceable side-part, coupled with our button modularity, the Nyth can absolutely transition into a perfectly fine-tuned MOBA mouse, and yes, even an FPS mouse," Korte said. "The Nyth adapts, evolves, and keeps on giving far into the future. It's a remarkable peripheral conceptualized and created by our amazing design team."

As for the Skeltr, it's a keyboard with a built-in smartphone stand capable of grabbing most phones thanks to a sliding rail. Users can pair their smartphone to the peripheral via Bluetooth, a capability that allows the phone to serve as a second screen. Unfortunately, Roccat didn't elaborate on this feature.

"It allows gamers to use their phones as a highly interactive compliment to the game they're playing," Korte said. "We also believe being able to use your keyboard to communicate on your smartphone is a no-brainer feature ROCCAT fans will deeply appreciate. Our designers worked very hard to make these integrative experiences that gamers can use second nature, without distraction."

He said that the Skeltr includes brilliant RGB illumination, no ghosting, and most every other function that Roccat has provided in its other keyboards on the market. This peripheral is both familiar and "trailblazing" all at the same time, he said.

We expect to see additional details when the peripherals actually make their debut at Gamescom next week.

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A Sova For Your Sofa

Who wouldn’t like to sit on the sofa, comfortably playing a game with a keyboard and mouse? This is what Roccat asked right before the company set out to provide an all-in-one couch-gaming solution that didn’t result in awkwardly bent limbs and a sprawl of wires. We're not sure if the folks at Roccat were being humorous or straightforward when naming their device quite simply: Sova.

Today we're posting exclusive photos, drawings and renders that Roccat shared with Tom's Hardware Germany.

Some Doodles

It’s easy to come up with a design idea in your mind, but if you want to get other people on board with it, having a pencil and some paper handy is absolutely essential.

Tenkeyless Saves Some Space

With space at a premium, Roccat settled on the reduced tenkeyless keyboard layout in order to give the mouse as much space as possible to roam around freely.

Taking Shape On Paper

Daydreaming, brainstorming and kicking around ideas is all well and good, but in order to actually build the thing, the conceptual drawings must also continue to evolve.

Form Follows Function

A cutting board with handles? Maybe a flying saucer? Roccat certainly has its own design style, which makes the company's products easy to identify just by looking at them. The trick is to translate the huge lap tray idea into an acceptable design without sacrificing form or function.

After Some Tinkering, Things Get Real

Following some work with the jigsaw, we were permitted to relax on the couch with the Sova’s first wooden mockup with Roccat’s Power-Grid attached.

A Professional Gamer as a Lab Rat

Ko "HyuN" Seok Hyun is a Team Roccat member from South Korea. He loves playing StarCraft II, and he does so very successfully - and probably earns a nice bundle doing so, too. Here you can see him using a slightly modified version of the earlier mockup, sans Power-Grid.

A Desk for the Lap

The professional gamer seem astonished. Is it the shock that the Sova is actually usable, or bewilderment that anyone would even think that it could be?

Entering Three Dimensions

After putting the pencil and paper, as well as the jigsaw, back where they belong, it was time to iron out the details on the PC, where the first real design renders were created.

Mechanics at Work

Bad news for those who prefer a nice, squishy, rubber dome keyboard: it looks like the keyboard part of the Sova will use mechanical switches. Cherry MX Black, now made by the ZF Friedrichshafen AG in Germany, were used for the mockup and are also reportedly on the short list for production.

Laptop-Inspired Wrist Rest

As with another ubiquitous lap-based device, the notebook computer, the Sova most definitely needs a wrist rest. In a pinch, this space can also double as an easy-to-clean place to rest a slice of pizza.

Still More Space

Oh, and that place where you can actually store an entire pizza, that's supposed to be the mouse pad. Well, we guess that makes sense. The mouse surface is still being hotly debated, since low DPI mouse users might still run into some limitations with the amount of space available.

Keeping Things Steady

There needs to be a way to balance the Sova on your legs so that it's both stable and comfortable. Roccat’s current favored solution contains two thin bands on the bottom of the Sova.

A Closer Look at the Bottom

The entire solution will look something like this, and feature comfortable, soft padding. After all, nobody wants to have their upper legs look like those of a zebra after a couple of hours of gaming.

Connectors for All

What looks like a disassembled warp drive is really just a view of the connectors from the inside. Right now, they’re sporting a blue and black metallic finish, but we’ll have to wait and see what Roccat settles on for the final product.

Putting it All Together

Looking at the fully assembled version, this is clearly a design which makes sense, given the typical scheme seen on all of Roccat’s other peripherals.

Beefing it Up

Power-Grid needs to be on board to be actually usable, which makes a smartphone holder unavoidable. The only problem we see here faces those with 6-inch phablets - better practice keeping all thats balanced!

First Impressions in 3D

Wireless, desk-less, but, at least as far as we’re concerned, not pointless. For some of us, this 3D prototype would definitely have its uses.

The First Version

Now we’re looking at one of the final 3D renders. It’s depicting a mix of aluminum, several types of plastic, and a lot of ideas. However, this isn’t the end, but rather, another beginning. On the company's blog, Roccat invites everybody to take part in the decision of what should stay, what should go and what might be good to add.

The Second Version

This one looks a bit more aerodynamic and a bit less like a cutting board. However, this design doesn't address a lot of the sharp corners and edges.

The Third Version

After a good long look at the third, much more rounded version, let’s recap. Should it be the straight and flat version behind door number one? Or the one with the sharp corners and edges behind door number two? Or maybe the last version behind door number three would be the perfect fit for a well-rounded evening of gaming?

The Roccat Kone XTD has been on the market for over a year now, but that has not stopped Roccat from making a new version: the Roccat Kone XTD Optical. We already saw this mouse about six months ago at CES, but Roccat has now officially announced market availability.

The original Kone XTD carried a laser sensor; however, many gamers prefer optical sensors. The new sensor is a 6400 DPI Pro-Optic R5. This sensor does not render as high a DPI rating as the original Kone XTD, but 6400 DPI is still more than enough for most gamers. Beyond the different sensor, there's nothing different about the mouse. It still has the same Easy-Shift[+] technology, the onboard ARM processor, the onboard memory, and a 1000 Hz polling rate which results in a 1 ms response time. The Kone XTD Optical also still has the same customizable LEDs. The scroll wheel has been updated to the more durable 4D Titan wheel, and the weight of the mouse can also be adjusted using weights of 5, 10, 15, and 20 grams.

"We wanted to make this a special gift to our fans," says René Korte, CEO and founder of ROCCAT Studios. "The Kone XTD Optical is a unique mouse with a lot under the hood, that maintains all of the expectations gamers that love ROCCAT products have come to expect from the Kone family of gaming mice. We're proud to bring it to gamers."

Pricing for the mouse is set at €89.99 in Europe, where it should be available any moment now. US availability is slated for the end of August.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Peripheral maker, Roccat, is calling on fans to help develop its wireless modular gaming board, the Roccat Sova. To get this collaborative party started, the company launched on Monday a new blog dedicated to the development of Roccat's Sova. The company's designers and developers will drop in to discuss fan feedback, features, the technical and aesthetic side of creating groundbreaking peripherals, and more.

René Korte, CEO and founder of Roccat, starts the blog with a personal note to the company's fans. He says that the blog will include surveys and comment sections so that the fans can help guide the development and help bring Sova to the market.

"We realize that now is not the time to sit back and wait, but to give fans what they want as quickly as possible," Korte writes. "We're ready to go full speed into our refinement process, and want our fans to see the hard work that goes into moving a ROCCAT product from its development phase, into what you see at retail. The Sova is coming, it is going to be an amazing piece of gaming hardware, and you'll get to follow every step on that journey in our newly launched Sova Development Blog."

The Roccat Sova is a PC gaming peripheral that can sit on your lap. The device starts with a premium brushed aluminum board with cutouts in the top-left section allowing for 74 keyboard keys with Cherry MX switches and illumination. A palm rest resides at the bottom of the keyboard, and a mouse pad takes up the right half of the board.

The Roccat Sova also includes an integrated cable channel that rides along the top edge, two padded leg rests for "maximum comfort and ventilation," and a long-life battery pack for extended playing sessions. The device also provides anti-slip side panels, several USB ports, and a clamp that holds the user's smartphone horizontally.

Unfortunately, as pointed out during E3 2014, the term "modular" does not mean the device caters to left-handed gamers; this gadget is strictly for right-handed customers.

"Follow this blog to be part of the journey the Sova prototype takes – until it becomes a real product that we can ship," the blog reads. "Also make sure to check our Facebook and YouTube updates if you don't want to miss a step in the further development. Please keep sharing your thoughts and comments on the Sova and let us know what your ideal version of the product would look like."

Head here to take part in the development.

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Want to dress up your desktop with a little flair? German peripheral maker Roccat on Thursday introduced the latest in its Kone Pure series of gaming mice, the Kone Pure Military. This "themed" series comes in three flavors to choose from: Camo Charge, Naval Storm and Desert Strike. The company also introduced mouse pads with the same themes.

"The positive feedback we received with the introduction of the Kone Pure Color edition in 2013 encouraged us to come up with a second limited version of the Kone Pure," said René Korte, CEO and founder of Roccat. "Many popular games played with ROCCAT products have a military theme, and we thought it fitting that we extend this to the Kone Pure Military mouse and Sense Military mouse pad."

All three of Roccat's new mice include its Pro-Optic (R4) 5000 dpi optical sensor, which the company deems as the most high-powered optical sensor to date. The DPI on each mouse is adjustable from 50 to 5000, and there's also an Adjustable Distance Control Unit for manually configuring the lift control.

Despite the new paint job, users can configure the LED-based lighting, which supports 16.8 million discreet colors; there are also lighting effects that will dazzle up your desktop. Easy-Shift[+] technology allows users to program a secondary function to each button, which should be quite handy when using the mice in MMOGs.

As for the tech specs, these mice have a 1000 Hz polling rate, a 1 ms response time, 130 IPS max speed, 30G acceleration, and a 16-bit data channel. Also included is a 72 MHz Turbo Core V2 32-bit ARM-based MCU, 576 kB of on-board memory, zero angle snapping/prediction, and a 1.8 meter braided USB cable. The max width is 7 cm and an approximate max length of 12 cm.

The company indicates that the Sense Military mouse pad, despite its coloring, is an excellent companion thanks to its no-slip backing. The pad also has enough room for even the most active gamer: 400 x 280 mm. Features include minimized friction and an ultra-low height of 2 mm.

The Kone Pure Military mouse and Sense Military gaming mouse pad are available now for $69.99 and $19.99, respectively.

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Editor's Note: While Computex took place last week and all of the news announcements are behind us, we're still sorting through hundreds of in-person meetings and demonstrations, picking out just a few more of the most interesting items we saw up close.

Roccat announced a new gaming mouse at Computex 2014, and it brings a couple of nifty new control methods to your desk. The mouse itself will be known as the Tyon. What sets it apart from the rest of the available mice are new switches.

Before we get there, though, the Tyon follows the typical styling cues from the other mice in Roccat's arsenal. It comes with a nice sleeved cable, comfortable ergonomic design that is suitable for both palm-gripping and claw-gripping, and shows the typical Roccat cat on the back. There is also an LED strip around it; you can change the colors as desired. The color of the LED lighting on the scroll wheel can also be changed.

To demonstrate the mouse to us, our Roccat representative fired up Battlefield 4 and put us in an airplane. The WASD controls remained the same, but rather than using the up and down arrow keys, or moving the mouse up and down to control the pitch, we were instructed to use the thumb operated lever. This lever worked just like an analog joystick control, where pushing it harder would change the pitch even faster. This made mouse-operated flight control very easy, even if you're someone who normally uses the arrow keys to fly. You can also set the thumb operated control to operate the roll or yaw; it's just a matter of what you prefer. Roccat calls this the X-Celerator thumb paddle.

Other specifications of the mouse include that it packs an 8200 DPI laser sensor, a top-mounted fin switch, 576 KB of memory for macro storage, and a polling rate of 1000 Hz for extreme responsiveness.

Pricing is expected to sit at €99.99, with US pricing expected at about $105, or so we were told.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Looking for a new set of headphones? Roccat may have what you're looking for in the Kave XTD 5.1 Digital gaming headset. This new model builds upon the original Kave, bringing improved features and adding even more "impressive innovations."

This new headset ships with its own desktop remote packing a premium 5.1 sound card inside. The remote also includes the company's Smart Link patented technology that lets users pair their smartphone via Bluetooth so that they don't miss a call while gaming.

"Roccat Smart Link technology eradicates the problem of overlapping conversations during gaming sessions caused by talking on the phone with the headset still on," explains the company's announcement. "The patented technology automatically mutes the chat software when a call is picked up, giving you complete privacy and preventing you from disturbing your teammates."

The desktop remote includes headset and system audio controls, and 5.1 speaker ports. Thus users can connect the device to their existing speaker system and easily toggle between the system and headset. That definitely saves time and a lot of rewiring aggravation.

According to the company, the new headset packs three individual drivers per ear cup, aligned at a 12-degree angle. The headset also weighs 25 percent less than the original modes thanks to a completely redesigned head band. The microphone is redesigned to be detachable, and features improved sound quality and reliability.

The new Kave XTD 5.1 promises to be suitable for extended hours of gaming thanks to new materials that enhance the comfort and durability. Customers can purchase the new headset now for $169.99.

Roccat has introduced a new mousepad, and this one is a little different from products that it may have released in the past in that it is rather thin.

The mousepad, which is to be known as the Roccat Siru, is less than one millimeter thick. Scratch that, under half a millimeter thick, at just 0.45 mm. Beyond that, the mousepad features a highly sticky bottom, and has been tested for compatibility with over 80 different optical- and laser-based mice.

"At 340 x 250 x 0.45 mm, the Siru is truly knife-edge thin. The benefit of having such a blade-like gaming surface is that your mouse is on exactly the same level as your desktop, and you're provided with direct desktop feedback. This means exceptionally true and precise tracking, and the ability to make rapid, accurate cursor corrections – perfect when aim is the name of the game."

The Roccat Siru should be arriving at stores shortly, and will be available in two different colors: Pitch Black and Cryptic Blue. No word on U.S. pricing, but EU pricing is set at €14.99 including VAT.

Roccat is adding to its Ryos mechanical gaming keyboard series with two compact ten-key-less versions: one with per-key illumination feature and one without backlighting. The new versions are called the Ryos TKL Pro and Ryos TKL.

Roccat says that these new keyboards were developed based on feedback from the company's Facebook page.

“We posted the ten key less version of the Ryos as an “easter egg” earlier this year. The demand from the community was overwhelming so we basically had no choice but to build it”, says René Korte.

The company adds that the TKL Pro version features a "cutting-edge MCU" (microcontroller), which supports illumination effects such as "per-key breathing" and will be available in four different switch colors.

Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!

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Kone XTD Optical

New from German PC accessories maker Roccat is a new entry in its Kone Series mice. The new Kone XTD Optical has an adjustable distance control unit to customize lift-off distance and a new 6,400dpi optical sensor. Roccat says that gamers will be able to significantly improve their accuracy with optical sensors. The Kone XTD Optical offers renowned features like Omron switches, the 4D Titan Wheel, Easy-Aim and Roccat Talk.

Kone Pure

For the smaller Pure version of the Kone Series, Roccat has three new designs that it'll be rolling out at CES 2014. The Kone Pure Military features a 5,000dpi optical sensor with TDCU and will be available in three different styles: Desert Strike, Naval Storm and Camo Charge. ROCCAT will also make the new Kave XTD 5.1 Analog plus a mousepad available in the same design and sell the mice alone or as a bundle.

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Kave XTD 5.1 Analog

The Kave XTD 5.1 Analog is the successor to original Kave 5.1. Made for gamers with a 5.1 soundcard already built into their PCs, the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog features classic 5.1 audio jacks plus a USB connector to power up the in-cable remote and the LED lighting. The headset features unique Zero Noise technology thanks to the interference isolator built into its dual-mode in-cable remote. The remote can be used either as a desktop or clip-on remote. The overall comfort should be improved as well, with the weight impressively reduced by 25 percent.

Kave XTD Stereo

The Kave XTD Stereo offers the same build and design but with two powerful driver units. The detachable noise-cancelling microphone includes features like the mute LED found in the original Kave 5.1.

Kave XTD 5.1 Digital

The flagship of the entire line will be the Kave XTD 5.1 Digital, which features a built-in premium 5.1 soundcard, a "world's first" headset-to-smartphone Bluetooth pairing and full audio controls with the comprehensive desktop remote.

Stay tuned for more from Roccat at CES.

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Back in late October, Roccat launched its remote control service for Windows-based PCs, Power-Grid. The software is comprised of a desktop client and apps for iOS and Android. It features preset Grids and Controls that offer functionality ranging from adjusting Windows settings to executing in-game macro sequences in popular games like StarCraft II and League of Legends.

Roccat revealed on Monday that fans have downloaded Power-Grid over 250,000 times since its launch in October, and more than 1,000 positive reviews have sprouted up on Apple's App Store and Google Play combined. To celebrate the milestone, Roccat is introducing new features to make the experience, currently in open beta, even better.

"Running the open beta is very important for us," says Roccat founder and CEO René Korte. "With this large user base we get way more feedback than we did in the closed beta. That makes it easier for us to focus on in-demand features that are beneficial to users, because more free Power-Grid content gets shared through our store."

This latest release adds an auto updater that will open a small pop up window, informing the user of a new version that needs to be downloaded and installed manually. There's also a new plug-in importer that supports both imports and exports, and a new home screen that allows for the user to navigate via tabs, before even connecting to the PC host software.

The update also brings brand new Roccat-created Grids for the app including a Trackpad for turning a smartphone or tablet into a computer's trackpad. Another new Grid is the Ryos, which allows users to control eight effects for the per-key Illumination of the Ryos MK Pro mechanical gaming keyboard.

"Releasing the Ryos MK Pro Grid is the first step towards combining Power-Grid with Roccat hardware. You remember our Phobo keyboard concept? Well, we've been working on that and I can promise you a mind-blowing solution for 2014," says Korte.

Roccat reports that this release of Power-Grid also brings the official release of the SDK. Now professional developers and "ambitious" users can create advanced Power-Grid content.

To download Power-Grid, head here.

Looking for a sleek new mouse for your PC gaming rig? Roccat may have the tool you seek, a limited edition Kone Pure Color Phantom White model that's available now as part of the Kone series' five year anniversary. The Phantom White variation of the mouse follows the Inferno Orange, Hellfire Red and Polar Blue Kone Pure Colors, as well as the Kone Pure Optical.

"Like the original Kone Pure, the Color edition features a high-end 8,200 DPI Pro-Aim R3 laser sensor and high quality Omron switches," reads the company press release. "With features like Easy-Shift[+], Easy-Aim and ROCCAT Talk, the Kone Pure Color is a powerful weapon in the hands of gamers fighting for point-streaks, lanes and bases. It is one of a series of limited edition products released over the course of 2013, which marks the 'Year of the Kone.'"

The specs include a 1000 Hz polling rate, a 1 ms response time, 30G of acceleration, and a 72 MHz Turbo Core V2 32-bit ARM-based MCU. Other features include 576 kb of on-board memory, zero angle snapping/prediction, a tracking and distance control unit, 1 mm to 5 mm lift off distance, a 16-bit data channel, and a 1.8 m braided USB cable.

The mouse also features a cool Easy-Shift[+] switch that lets owners set two functions for each mouse button and the scroll wheel. Users can also change the Roccat logo to any illuminated hue thanks to the support of up to 16.8 million colors. The fully-adjustable sensor on the Kone Pure reportedly offers superb tracking, transmitting even the fastest mouse movements with no lag.

According to Roccat, the original Kone was the company's first product, developed back in 2008, and has since become one of the more successful lines of gaming mice due to its "outstanding performance and innovative design."

"Early on, I was involved in the professional gaming scene," said CEO and founder René Korte. "So, I was aware of the many professional players who were dissatisfied with their gaming devices. Since then our overall mission has been to build high-quality peripherals that satisfy the needs of all ambitious gamers."

Roccat believes that its Kone series is one of the most successful gaming devices in the world. Decide for yourself by grabbing one of these limited edition mice and taking it for a spin!