Hey there readers, I am back with another mouse review, the performance segment is getting a lot of choice. Roccat, now a subsidiary of Turtle Beach, has not slowed down with product releases and I am pleased to say that the quality has continued based on our recent reviews. To test this continuation of quality further, I have today the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO mouse, an RGB enabled gaming mouse for right handed users.
Roccat Kain 120 AIMO Gaming Mouse Specifications & Features
Sensor
| ROCCAT® Owl-Eye optical sensor with 16000dpi |
| PixArt PMW3381 |
| Adjustable lift-off distance |
| 50G acceleration |
| 400ips maximum speed |
| Mouse acceleration: no |
| Angle snapping: on/off |
General
| 1000Hz polling rate | |
| ARM Cortex-M0 48MHz | |
| 512kB onboard memory | |
| 1.8m braided USB cable | |
| Incl. Omron® switches | |
| ROCCAT® Easy-Shift[+]™ technology | |
| ROCCAT® Swarm software suite | |
| AIMO illumination – RGB Backlighting and LED lighting effects |
Roccat Kain 120 AIMO Gaming Mouse Closer Look
The Kain 120 AIMO arrives in a well sized box which should be plenty to protect the contents inside. The box is adorned with an image of the mouse itself, the logo and product name along with the ‘German Design and Engineering since 2007’ tag showing over a decade of product development.
Around the back of the box we have a side-on image and some marketing text advertising some of the features, these are repeated further down in various languages.
Oh dear Roccat, what is this? we don’t need plastic bubbles in packaging anymore, it’s about time to stop this waste and get on with proper recyclable materials to protect the products in transit. Along with this bubble packed mouse we have a manual and marketing pamphlet in an equally unnecessary plastic pouch. I will be scoring on this excessive packaging.
The mouse itself looks excellent, finished in a smooth plastic texture, the shell feels solid and at the bottom we have the Roccat logo window which will illuminate with RGB effects. The DPI button is very special to me, it is in the style of the buttons found on DJ Controllers, it has a rubbery quality feel to it that instills confidence in stamina over long usage. The scroll wheel does not go for any fancy tyre styles just useful ridges that give good grip. The left and right mouse buttons are separate from the main body and have a satisfying click to them. What looks like a metal strip in the middle appears to be metallic coated plastic. The mouse itself feels quite long and will suit palm grips well, likely best for those with larger hands.
The left hand side of the mouse features two well placed forward and back buttons, the smooth material continues for the body with no grip pads applied so it can feel slippery.
On the right hand side there isn’t much to talk about other than the visible slope which gives the mouse a good ergonomic feel for right-handed users.
From the front the mouse displays little frills, sensible styling with a center mounted cable, no lighting or anything here other than the scroll wheel illumination. The main mouse buttons offer a Titan Click experience giving a faster than usual response from the switches claiming a 16ms advantage.
Ugh, more packaging underneath, these strips are unnecessary they are supposedly protecting the teflon glide pads which do not really need such protection in transit. The OWL EYE sensor is in the middle giving up to 16000 DPI which should suit just about any user, I myself rarely go over 1800. A product label fills the rest of the mouse base.
The packaging nightmare finally comes to an end at the connector which has a cap over the standard USB connector, in all my years handling USB devices I have yet to have one arrive with a connector damaged or contaminated in transit.
Plugging the mouse in, it quickly springs to life with an RGB show on the two lit areas of the Scroll wheel and Roccat Logo. It is a good looking mouse and the form is ergonomic.
Software:
Installing and updating the Swarm software package which is Roccat’s unified desktop device management suite, we are presented with a pleasant main screen which can scroll down through most of the options available.
Preferring to go through the individual screens we get a bit more of an overview for each section. That DPI drops as low as 50 in the DPI Switcher which is impressive and we have five settings readily available for each of the 5 profiles. There is a handy calibration button for smooth things out on the surface you are using. Other options here include scroll wheel speed which I don’t seem to see very often, other pointer adjustments are available here too.
As with many mice at this level being able to assign buttons is important, plenty of customisation available here. [Note: Easy Shift+ is the ability to activate a second set of buttons on ROCCAT peripherals without switching profiles – think of it like an extra Alt key to activate different combo functions quickly.]
RGB features are the mainstay of most gaming devices these days and this mouse is no exception, there is this AIMO intelligent lighting system which would help synchronise across compatible devices and of course individual control over the two lighting zones with various effects.
An advanced settings page gives us control over things like polling rate and angle snapping, an interesting sound feedback option is present here to give you audio cues on DPI change or profile switch which could come in useful if an activation is done unintentionally.
A profile management page is available to handle the generous five onboard profiles which give the mouse portability to events without having to install the software, profiles can be imported and stored with further profiles created to swap out from the Swarm software.
It is always great to see a macro manager included in mouse software, there are occasions when this is missing and there are those who make use of macros not just for gaming but for other repetitive tasks.
The Roccat Kain 120 AIMO Gaming Mouse Review: The Verdict
I have been testing a thoroughly well built mouse from Roccat with a great sensor, the fit and ergonomics are well done, the technical features onboard are excellent and plentiful and the shell material feels of a good quality but does lack some grip. I do really like the DPI button which would be at home on my DJ Controller, in fact all the buttons have a quality feel to them while the Titan switches are indeed very good. Disappointing plastic packaging is becoming a problem which I have also highlighted against other manufacturers and it must be tackled. The software implementation is excellent, stable software which is useful with great options and layout.
What’s hot:
- Excellent sensor and DPI arrangements
- Solid ergonomic build quality
- Great software package
What’s not:
- Way too much plastic packaging
- Lacking grip on the mouse surface
- Pricey for a wired mouse
After a good few days of testing I have many things I like about the Kain 120 AIMO, the quality of the sensor is excellent, the buttons are also fantastic. The technical functionality of this mouse cannot be faulted, a great DPI range from 50 to 16000 and five DPI settings per profile is generous. The build quality is great but the final materials are a little disappointing due to the slippery nature of the final finish. Many manufacturers use individual rubbery grips often glued onto the shell to aid grip.
General Use: Day to day usage is fine, switching between DPI settings for editing photos makes the sensor really shine, there is some serious accuracy which is a great help when working on detail. The shape of the mouse helps fight fatigue over long sessions.
Gaming Use: What a great technical setup for a gaming mouse, the buttons and precision of the sensor gave me a great gaming experience in shooters and RTS games. The slippery surface did trip me up a little during intense moments but overall the mouse is very reliable.
Being up against the likes of the Corsair Glaive Pro and the Fnatic Flick 2 this mouse is at the very top of its price range at around £60 at the time of writing, the competition also features great software and sensors along with a little more thought into materials. The Kain is indeed a very solid offering however it could do with a little rethink on grip and of course packaging. With that in mind I am still happy to award Roccat our Silver Award for the excellent technical build.
Thanks to Roccat for sending a sample of the Kain 120 AIMO Gaming Mouse in for review.
