Xbox Addict

Kone II and Kone II Air Review

Kone II

SPECS/FEATURES

- TITAN Optical Switch (100 million click life cycle)
- On-board memory: 5 profiles
- 1.8m/5.9ft PhantomFlex USB-A cable
- USB Report Rate: 1000 Hz
- Owl-Eye 26K optical sensor
- Minimum DPI: 50
- Maximum DPI: 26,000
- Adjustable lift-off distance
- 50g acceleration
- 650 IPS (16.5m/s) Tracking Speed
- Length: 130.2mm
- Height: 43.6mm
- Width: 82.6mm
- Weight: 90g

UNBOXING

- Turtle Beach Kone II
- Grip Tape
- Quick-Start Guide

Inside the box is what you’d normally expect; simply the Mouse itself, a Quick-Start Guide, but also something I didn’t expect though, Grip Tape. By default, the Kone II is quite smooth and doesn’t actually have any textured grips on the left and right sides where you normally grip with your thumb and ring finger. I assume this is by design to give people the option of a smooth or gripped mouse, so I was surprised to see that if you want to have the grips on the sides, you’ll need to apply these stickers yourself. I did try using the Kone II without the grips for a few hours, but didn’t enjoy it with being ‘slippery’ in my hand. I knew that I was going to want the grip texture on the sides for better control.

That’s right, you’ll need to place the gripped adhesive on yourself, which is no big deal unless you’re a perfectionist. It’s clear which sticker goes on which side as they are completely different shapes and sizes, but what annoyed me was making sure it was JUST perfect. The grooves and lines on the mouse make it easy to apply in the right area, but I wanted it perfect, so it took a few applications to get it just right. Thankfully you can easily remove and try again without any issue the second and third time I attempted. I instantly noticed the difference with the gripped texture and it felt immensely better.

Kone II

This review is going to cover both the Kone II and Kone II Air together, though this first section is solely on the wired Kone II mouse. With an MSRP of $69.99 USD / $89.99 CAD, it’s in line with what you’d expect for a quality gaming mouse with a bunch of features. If the Kone name sounds familiar, these were the ROCCAT lineup up of mice before Turtle Beach bought them, and it seems like they’ve kept the same quality I’ve come to expect from previous ROCCAT products.

Having used both mice for the last few weeks, I certainly have a preference of one over the other, but both are great in their own rights. I’ll admit, the mouse I’ve used for years is from another brand, so I didn’t expect that I would get swayed away from my preference and what I’ve been used to for many years, but I can say that I’ve permanently switched from a competitor’s mouse to the Kone II full time for a variety of reasons.
First Impressions

First impressions mean a lot. If I take the mouse out of the box and it doesn’t wow me or impress, it’s going to be hard to sway me. That wasn’t the case here, as right out of the box the Kone II feels great ergonomically, though once I added the side grips mentioned above, it went from feeling good to great. While I don’t have large hands, the Kone II seems as though it would be well suited for those that do with its shape.

Regardless of how you hold your mouse, be it Palm, Fingertip, or Claw, I had no issues using the Kone II. While I’m a Claw grip guy, I forced myself to try the other common ways of usage and found no glaring issues. The left side of the mouse is slightly raised compared to the right, allowing for your palm to rest naturally on it, slightly angled which helps with wrist strain over time. Adjusting to the Kone II from my previous daily felt natural, though trying to go back to my former mouse felt odd due to it being a more symmetrical mouse, and I could tell the difference right away.


There are two color options, White and Black. My Kone II is the white one, and while I’d normally not go for a white mouse due to worrying about it getting dirty and crud on it over time, I have to say, it’s extremely visually appealing. Even after weeks of use I’ve not have any issues with it staining or having marks left on it yet, so maybe it was an irrational worry I had.

Let The Wheel Turn

While comfort, buttons and features are all things that are important in a mouse, I have an abnormal obsession when it comes to the mouse wheel. I absolutely need a mouse where the wheel ‘clicks’ and has some sort of tactile feedback, as I simply can’t use the free scrolling wheels. I know it’s an odd hill to die on, but it’s a make or break for me choosing a mouse. Thankfully the Kone II has a clicky style wheel that has a great feel to each notch. The wheel is also a 4D scroll wheel, so you can tilt it to the left and right sides as well, able to customize those as two more inputs.


Let It Slide

Often not thought about, the feet on the mouse can play a large role in how it performs. The feet are the smooth plastic bits on the bottom that help it slide seamlessly across your desk or mouse pad. The smoother the texture the quicker it will move across the desk. Your average person probably doesn’t care about this all that much, but competitive players are always looking for every advantage they can get.

Touted as having Pure PTFE Glides that are heat-treated, all you really need to know is that this means the feet offer a great glide and there’s no friction to be had. Fun fact, PTFE is another term for Teflon, found on many mice, just don’t forget to peel away the protective layer when taking your Kone II out of the box.


Sensor-tive

How a mouse performs rests mainly in the quality of its sensor. This is how it tracks the most minute movements and translates that to your screen. While everyone has a preferred sensitivity setting or range, The higher the DPI (Dots Per Inch) and IPS (Inches Per Second), the more range the mouse has and adjustable sensitivity. With its Owl-Eye Optical Sensor, the Kone II touts a 26k DPI/650 IPS (16.5m/s) sensor also able to track with 50g of acceleration.

These specs are all completely overkill for your average player, but those that care about having the best equipment available will surely care about all the numbers and specs. From someone that usually sits at a 1600 DPI, the sensor won’t have any issues keeping up with the quickest actions and games that require a lot of twitch movements.


Titan Switch and Plenty of Buttons

Utilizing TITAN Optical Switches, as opposed to mechanical, these allow for less friction between the components, which wear and tear over time causes a lesser life expectancy. Optical switches eliminate much of this problem, so it should last much longer. With being rated for 100M clicks, you shouldn’t wear out the switches anytime soon.  Even if you clicked every second nonstop, it would take over 3 years to hit the 100M lifecycle they are rated for.

I initially expected there would be a tactile difference with these switches, but it feels and sounds like any other click from a mouse, so I wasn’t able to discern any type of difference if I didn’t know ahead of time. The Kone II also has more than enough buttons for you to program them to whatever you wish, increased to 23 programmable functions when you factor in Easy-Shift [+], essentially somewhat like a Shift button you can use for specific combinations. I don’t personally have a need for that many programmed buttons, but you can easily make any command or macro linked to any of the buttons via the Swarm II software.


Gaming Lights

Any gaming peripheral wouldn’t be for ‘gaming’ if it didn’t have the prerequisite RGB lighting of course. Don’t worry, the Kone II has you covered here. Like Roccat devices before it, the default RBG setting is illuminated and set to AIMO with its multi-zone lighting. The AIMO syncs with your other similar devices lighting and shifts the colors from one section of the mouse to the next. This can be customized in the Swarm II app if you prefer something else or even don’t want the RGB on at all. Since the Kone II is wired, I left the RGB on full blast since I didn’t have to worry about battery life (which is a completely different story with the Kone II Air), and it accented the white very well.


PhantomFlex

Normally I wouldn’t bother mentioning the cable for a mouse, but Turtle Beach has gone to the effort to making and trademarking a name for their PhantomFlex cable, so I figured it’s worth highlighting. Just shy of 6ft long, the USB-A cable is plenty long enough to be routed through or across any desk, usually a problem I deal with when a device has a short cable. The cable is lightweight and braided nicely, and after about a day of use after it ‘relaxed’ from being tightly wound in the box, I had no issues with it dragging the mouse at all.
NVIDIA Reflex

Also supporting NVIDIA Reflex, when combined with compatible GeForce cards and G-Sync monitors, it’s said to drastically reduce your response times. Again, this is really only something pro players at an eSport level will probably care about or notice, but anything that makes the product better only helps its value.


Swarm II

Any newer Turtle Beach product you purchase will utilize their new Swarm II app for updates and setting adjustments. The software is not bloated, simple to navigate, and has all the settings for your devices. Not only can you change your RGB lighting options in the app, but also any of the buttons to different presets as well, able to fully customize your Kone II to your liking. For example, the buttons right near the wheel default to DPI switching, but I changed them to Page Up and Page Down to easily navigate pages when browsing. You can of course change all your DPI settings and even the Angle Snapping, so its worth loading up the Swarm II app and fully make the Kone II how you want it.



Final Thoughts

I’ll admit, I didn’t think there would be a mouse that would make my hang up my old favorite brand, but here we are. The Kone II is very comfortable, has more than enough buttons for all of my games and software, and it looks damn good in white to boot. Trying to think of any complaints, the only thing that really comes to mind is having to attach the grips myself after unboxing due to wanting it to be perfect, but with some patience and applying it so my OCD doesn’t notice, I’ve really got nothing negative to say about the Kone II at all. This is my new daily mouse, bringing a swift death to my DeathAdder.

Kone II Air

SPEC/FEATURES

- TITAN Optical Switch (100 million click life cycle)
- On-board memory: 5 profiles
- 1.8m/5.9ft flexible charging cable, USB-C to USB-A
- USB Report Rate: 1000 Hz
- Owl-Eye 26K optical sensor
- Minimum DPI: 50
- Maximum DPI: 26,000
- Adjustable lift-off distance
- 50g acceleration
- 650 IPS (16.5m/s) Tracking Speed
- Rechargeable Battery: Up to 350 Hours (Bluetooth), Up to 130 Hours (Wireless)
- Length: 130.2mm
- Height: 44.1mm
- Width: 82.6mm
- Weight: 110g

Connectivity:

- 2.4GHz wireless via USB-A Adapter
- Bluetooth
- USB-A

UNBOXING

- Turtle Beach Kone II Air
- Wireless USB-A Transmitter
- PhantomFlex USB-C to USB-A Charging Cable
- USB-A to USB-C Transmitter Adapter
- Grip Tape
- Quick-Start Guide

Just as described above for the wired Kone II, the Kone II Air also comes without the side grip stickers attached. I tried using the Air without the grips for a short while as well, but it simply felt too slippery, so I had to place the grips on. Again, this took me a few tries to get perfect until I was happy with it, and once the texture was there for my fingertips to grip, it felt much better than without.

A Price to Pay

I’ll admit, before looking into the specs of both mice, I simply thought the only difference from the Kone II to the Kone II Air was going to be its wireless capability, but there’s a few other minor differences as well. Given than the major points talked above are also included in the Air, this portion will be more what makes the Air different from its wired sibling.
Yes, the main distinction of the two mice will be wired versus wireless, but there’s also a price difference as well that needs to be mentioned. With an MSRP of $119.99 USD / $159.99 CAD for the Air, there’s about a $50-$60 difference depending on your currency. Yes, wireless mice do cost more, so this is expected, but for a $60 difference, I was curious what else would be all that different.

First Impressions, Again

Slightly heavier than its wired counterpart, the Air comes in at 110g compared to 90g, though its not really noticeable when holding both mice simultaneously (aside from the cord). The same White and Black options exist, and the Air I got to use was Black. Comparing both colors, I certainly thought the white looked much more pronounced and slicker when the RGB was on full blast, but that’s of course a preference.
A Wheel of Choices

A quick glance at both mice side by side, I didn’t really notice a difference, but that’s because I wasn’t looking hard enough. The main difference was the Wheel and the button right beside it (that I mapped to Page Up on the Kone II). As mentioned above, I detest the smooth wheels on a mouse for no good reason, it’s just a preference. I NEED that ratcheted click per scroll. Of course one of the first things I did was scroll the wheel only to be heartbroken to feel that it was an infinite scroll wheel that was smooth.

I was almost ready to write off the Air right then and there, until I noticed the button adjacent to the wheel was not the same flat button that the Kone II had, this was much higher. Upon pressing, I didn’t notice anything happen on screen, so I was initially confused what it did when I heard that ‘click’. I try the wheel and it’s as if my prayers were heard. This changed the infinite smooth scrolling wheel back to the tactile clicky wheel that I absolutely can’t live without. I know, I'm odd like that, but the fact that you can alter the wheel to either way you prefer is a great touch. The wheel still has its 4D capabilities with the tilting, so there’s no other difference compared to the wired Kone II.


Virtually Similar

Before I delve into the Air’s wireless capabilities and what makes it mainly differ from the Kone II, almost every other feature listed above for the Kone II is also present in the Air. The ergonomic design is very comfortable and will accommodate any style of grip, even Claw grippers like myself. 21 buttons able to be customized means you can map virtually anything to any of which, easily usable with the Easy-Shift [+] system, all of which have the same TITAN Optical Switches as well that will last for 100M clicks.

The Air also has the same 26k DPI/650 IPS (16.5m/s) sensor also able to track with 50g of acceleration, so even though it’s wireless, it won’t lag behind. The same pure heat-treated PTFE glides make for smooth movements across your mousepad or desk. The same premium feeling PhantomFlex cable is included for charging, and of course it’s also capable of RGB illumination. All of your settings will be done via the Swarm II app as well, though here it will also show you the battery percentage remaining.


Wireless Options

The Kone II Air employs a dual wireless system, able to be used via the included dongle for 2.4GHz wireless, or with Bluetooth. The 2.4GHz is touted as being the quickest, so if you’re really trying to get every advantage you can, this is the option you’ll want, able to offer up to 130 hours of use (with some caveats). Alternatively, the Bluetooth connection gives you up to a whopping 350-hour battery life, which is just over two weeks of use, again, with some caveats.

I was confused at first, as I was getting absolutely nowhere near these numbers initially, so I was curious what setting I was missing. Turns out the awesome looking RGB is a serious battery killer, naturally. If you turn off RGB and enable Battery Saver, these listed numbers were much more accurate. I was a bit bummed at first needing to turn off the RGB to get the battery life vastly extended, but quickly realized I’m never looking at my mouse, and even if I was, my hand was covering the lighting, so off it went. I do wish it had a dock or something to simply rest on to charge when not in use though.


The bottom of the Air has a notch for the dongle to rest if you’ll be travelling with it, and the included cable also has a USB-C to USB 2.0 adapter where the dongle can rest as well, so no needing to crawl behind your PC to plug it in. My only minor annoyance is that the USB-C port at the front of the mouse for charging has a notch cutout and is indented inside the mouse a bit, so any of the regular USB-C cables I already had routed on my desk weren’t able to fit in the port.

Final Comparisons

There’s no doubt that I truly enjoyed using the Kone II and Kone II Air. I don’t mind using a wired mouse, and really just prefer it so I don’t have to worry about charging it. For a $60 difference (CAD) between the two, unless you really have a need to change the wheel from smooth to tactile, or have a heavy preference for wireless mice, I’d suggest choosing the Kone II.

Both mice are great choices regardless, and I was absolutely shocked that my previous preferred mouse of many years has finally been dethroned. I’ve been converted into a Kone II believer, as it’s incredible comfortable, look great (especially in white), and has all the functionality I need for gaming and everyday use.

Overall Score: 10/10 (Kone II)
Overall Score: 9.5/10 (Kone II Air)

**Kone II and Kone II Air was provided for and tested on PC**