When a Roccat mouse falls on my desk, I have a good idea of what to expect, and yes, I am a fan of their products. However, the Roccat Kone Pure Ultra gaming mouse is slightly different. Call it an upgrade? Maybe. It’s got a lightweight body, a new scroll wheel and one of the most popular sensors in the gaming world at its disposal. What do we think? Well, it’s definitely good start on paper.

Roccat Kone Pure Ultra gaming mouse

The new Roccat Kone Pure Ultra feels a lot smaller in the hand than the previous two mice that I’ve tested from the gaming peripheral manufacturer. I feel myself using my finger tips more to get a comfortable grip on the mouse. The mouse itself is covered in a soft to touch plastic which is smooth, but still grippy enough to get accurate button presses, and is also known as from Roccat as an anti-wear coating. The whole thing weighs just 66 grams too so it’s ultra light. No visible holes in this one either which is an achievement in itself. There are holes, but not visible. They’re underneath the soft housing, and it’s a lot lighter than other gaming mice we’ve looked at in the past, including those from Roccat.

On top is a standard left and right buttons which use Omron Switches, a 2D Titan clickable middle scroll wheel and two DPI switches – one for up and down, which is a nice touch. Mouse clicks are solid, and give decent return rate. They require some pressure to press, and are stiff enough to rest your finger without misclicking inside of games. On the side you have two thumb buttons. I’ll say now that this is a right handed mouse and has quite a sharp design. Underneath the thumb buttons is a small ridge, which was way too small for my thumb. I would have liked this protrude from the main body a little more, but of course, lightweight is the aim of the game here. On the rear you have the Roccat logo which isn’t exactly subtle, but doesn’t scream tacky gamer either. It uses the AIMO lighting, which reacts to button presses, and the holding down of a single mouse key.

Roccat Kone Pure Ultra gaming mouse

Roccat are sticking to their guns with their Owl-Eye 16,000 DPI sensor, and so they should. Sensitivity and accuracy go together hand in hand extremely well here. According to the Roccat website, it’s based off the PizArt 3389 sensor. I usually game between 800 and 1200 DPI, the former for sniping of course, and thanks to its raised plastic plates on the bottom, I’m able to glide across my wooden desk with ease. Lift off distance can be calibrated to under 1mm, as long as you’ve got a cloth mouse pad. Couldn’t test this properly, as we didn’t have one to hand. You’ve also got adjustible polling rates up to 1000Hz, and toggled angle snapping.

One thing I’ve noticed right off the bat with the Roccat Swarm software are the additional settings you can go through with the Roccat Kone Pure Ultra. Under the Settigns menu you calibrate your mouse for both X and Y axis sensitivities. This is a toggle, so you can stick to overall sensitivity if you wish. The second is inside the Advanced Settings menu where you now have the likes of Angle Snapping, or Zero Debounce feature which helps with the accuracy of mouse clicks. It ensures that only one “single signal will be acted upon for a single opening or closing of a contact.”

Roccat Kone Pure Ultra gaming mouse

You can expect to find all of your usual settings within the Swarm software too like polling rate changes, scrolling and tilt speeds, custom button macros and the inclusion of the AIMO lighting software, which again, works wonderfully with my Vulcan 121 keyboard. The only Sound Feedback option I turned on was for DPI changes, so I knew what my DPI was set to inside of games.

Lastly, the mouse uses USB 2.0 technology, which is tethered to the mouse using a rubber cable which was a little surprising. Although I never had any trouble with the cable snagging on the back of my desk, I was still expecting to see some kind of braid, just to top of the quality.

Roccat Kone Pure Ultra gaming mouse

There’s a huge amount to like here with the new Roccat Kone Pure Ultra. It’s lightweight, extremely accurate with positioning, has some nice tactile clicks and the extra large pads on the bottom really help with smooth movements. I would have liked to have it a little larger, as I am definitely more of a palm grip kind of guy, but I can’t take points away from this extremely impressive mouse for that, as it’s personal preference after all. For £59.99 on the Roccat website, it’s a little expensive, but for those wanting a small, ergonomic gaming mouse for competitive games, it’s definitely worth a look at. For more information, head on over to the Roccat website.