This week I’ve been playing around in my favourite games, working and wasting time on the internet, just like any other week then! The difference this week of course is that I’ve been using the Kone Pure Inferno Orange mouse from Roccat, the latest in a range of colour options as well as the latest addition to the extremely popular Kone mouse range.

These new limited edition colour editions of the Kone Pure were created to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the original Roccat Kone release, which has already gone on to win multiple award, including awards from eTeknix that I awarded myself. In Roccats own words “The Kone series includes some of the most successful gaming mice ever made, and has pioneered breakthrough design innovations such as Easy-Shift[+]™, Talk®, and Talk® FX – and tons more.” and they’re absolutely right, Roccat are doing some really exciting stuff with their products this last few years and its certainly set them apart from the competition.

It was only last August that I reviewed the premium grade Roccat Kone XTD, awarding it with our Editors Choice Award. Its a product I still use to this day and I personally regard it as the best gaming mouse money can buy, or its at least the one I’ve been most happy using on a day to day basis. So what new does the Pure Inferno Orange have to offer to the party?

The main impact here is definitely its design, this mouse has already proven its self to the gaming community, and this is Roccats way of saying thankyou and giving you a little more choice of style from the range. Just remember that the Kone Pure is a little smaller than the regular Kone, 91% of the size in fact, but still offers many of the same great features, so lets dive right in and see just what this funky little number can do.

The Kone Pure comes nicely packaged in a well designed, custom shaped box and it features plenty of information on the major features and functions, such as the high quality sensor, easy-shift[+] technology, multi-colour lighting and more, but of course well be taking a closer look at those features in a moment.

The box folds open to give us our first look at the mouse its self, which as you can see features a stunning black and orange chassis design. The inside of the box features a few bits of marketing and feature description.

In the box I found the mouse its self, which comes hardwired with a high quality braided cable and I also found a simple to understand setup and owners manual, not exactly a lot in the way of extras, but it keeps things simple and what else do you really need anyway!?

To my eyes, the first thing that really stands out is that fantastic colour scheme, sure its not going to be everyone liking, but I think it looks stunning. Both the orange chassis and the black top plate and made from a soft-touch plastic that gives a really smooth and premium quality feel to every surface of the mouse. Of course its not just about colour and there are plenty of practical things going on here too, down the left side of the mouse we have two high quality switches that function as back / forward tabs, although all buttons are customisable in the Roccat software.

The right side of the mouse features no buttons, but here you can see the ergonomic curves of the mouse chassis, its really well balanced too and both these combined make it really comfortable to hold.

The front end of the Kone Pure features some pretty hardcore components, such as the click Master switch tech – powered by Omron. These feature the world’s most advanced switch components (According to Roccat), that ensure extreme precision and a really nice tactile feedback (according to me). Between these two epic switches is the + / – controls that are used for DPI settings, although as with everything else on this mouse, these buttons can be configured from the included software.

The mouse wheel is pretty epic too, featuring the Roccat Titan Wheel, said to be build of the Earth’s highest quality components, with the world’s strongest axis shaft and most advanced encoder, making it strong, accurate and reliable. With 24 steps per rotation, rubber grip coating and 3KG push force in every direction, I have to agree with Roccat that this is one seriously high quality wheel.

On the underside we have the 8200dpi Pro-Aim R2 laser sensor, the same found in the Kone XTD mouse, lag free and extremely accurate thanks to its TDCU (Tracking and Distance Control Unit) that allows you to customise to your current gaming surface and more.

The other end of the cable, we find that the mouse comes with a nicely moulded USB connection that sits nicely with the style of the braided cable.

Setup & Installation

Just like any other mouse, you can plug in the Kone Pure and get gaming, it’ll work straight out of the box, but the real magic is in the Roccat software, as this gives you more customisation options than you can reasonably comprehend. Customise buttons, DPI calibrations, macros, extensive lighting colour customisation with 16.8 million colours, as well as lighting effects to choose from, and you can even have the mouse work in unison with other Roccat products such as the Isku Keyboard, combining macros between the two devices.

Gaming Performance

I’ve been using the Pro-Aim Laser Sensor in this mouse for a week and just as it was in my normal mouse (Kone XTD), its incredibly accurate. With 8200 dpi, a 10.8mp sensor, 1000Hz polling rate (effective 12000fps) and 30G acceleration its no wonder the mouse has never missed a beat, the only reason I miss a headshot these days is when I get it wrong, not the mouse.

The ergonomics of the mouse lend them selves well to gaming too and its easy to flick between the major buttons, dpi switches and deploy macros without missing a beat. Its a little smaller than the mouse I normally use, but I quickly adjusted to that after half hour on Borderlands 2.

The mouse buttons are very responsive and give great feedback that allows for some seriously fast paced clicking, switches are easy to press, but no so much that you find your self accidentally clicking them.

General Performance

Day to day use of this mouse is where it really shines, it gaming performance is right up there with the best on the market but that’s something that really translates into other tasks that demand accuracy. I do a lot of work in photoshop and other multimedia applications so its important to have something that is pin point accurate, but also comfortable over long periods of time, both of which I get with the Kone Pure.

Roccat really has gone the extra mile with the Kone range and its very easy to see why the product has been proving popular for them over the years, not only with gamers, but also with those that just want a rock solid and reliable product for day to day use, not forgetting the part of the market who just want something that looks cool, and the Kone Pure certainly does look cool.

The only issues I’ve had with the Kone Pure is that its fairly light weight, this isn’t an issue of course this is my personal preference and unlike the Kone XTD, the Pure doesn’t feature additional chassis weights. This comes with one benefit though as it means the mouse glides beautifully on a multitude of surfaces, from the hard cloth of the Zowie Speed TF to the thick padding of the TteSports Dasher, all of which work wonders with the Kone Pure, even more so thanks to the laser calibrations that ensure you get the best settings for every surface.

The mouse also packs quite a performance punch of its own, featuring a 32-bit Turbo Core V2 processor that gives it snappy computing speed of its own, perfect for handling the multitude of customisation options, macros and functions without any lag or delay. This is backed up by 576KB of on-board memory, giving the mouse plenty of headroom to store all its macros and profiles, giving you instant access to your profile and settings in the heat of battle.

Priced at around £60 its certainly great value for money, even though £60 is for many (including myself) a lot of money, you do get quite a lot in return. There are many mice on the market within this price range that are great value for money, but don’ offer half the feature that Roccat has managed to pack into the Kone Pure. The addition of the funky colour scheme makes this one seriously cool product to own, the performance makes it cool to use, and the build quality ensure that you can enjoy both for a very long time indeed.

Much like the Kone XTD, the Kone Pure Inferno Orange is deserving of our Editors Choice Award, easily one of the most flawless peripherals on the market today.