Roccat Kain 120 AIMO review

Roccat is a German company that has been steadily producing some of our favorite gaming peripherals of recent times, and it’s now produced its latest gaming mouse, the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO.

Combining an industrial, yet stylish, design and some impressive tech specifications, the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO could be another winner.

However, there aren’t many markets as crowded as the one for gaming mice. To stand out in the (vast) crowd, the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO needs to feel comfortable, perform well and have a competitive price if it wants to win our custom.

Price and availability

The Roccat Kain 120 AIMO launches in early September 2019 for $69 (£63, around AU$100). That’s a decent price for a mid-range gaming mouse, and puts it in the same price bracket as the Logitech G502 Hero, Corsair Ironclaw RGB and Gigabyte Aorus M5 – which are all included in our list of the best gaming mice.

These gaming mice have a lot in common with the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO. They have a couple of extra configurable buttons, a touch of RGB lighting (without being too overbearing), are wired and have designs that don’t try to do anything too revolutionary.

They all come with features that you won’t see in cheaper gaming mice, such as high DPI, making them a good choice for PC gamers who are looking for a few extra tools to help boost their games without spending a huge amount on features they may never use.

Design

The Roccat Kain 120 AIMO doesn’t look like any previous Roccat mouse, featuring a much narrower and less rounded design than the likes of the Roccat Kone Aimo and Roccat Kova Aimo.

Some would say it’s a more restrained design than previous Roccat mice, and we kind of like that. It fits the hand well, and is a comfortable size of people with smaller hands. However, despite its more simple design, it still features elements of the industrial design Roccat has been using with its gaming peripherals – most notably with the stunning Roccat Vulcan 120 Aimo keyboard.

So, you get straight lines and angles around the buttons of the mouse, which contrast nicely with the curved body. While the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO has a symmetrical body, this is not really an ambidextrous mouse, as the two extra buttons are located on the left-hand side, within easy reach of the thumb for right-handed gamers.

Those two buttons are large enough to easily hit, though they do feel slightly soft to click. Unlike many mice, the left and right mouse buttons are not nestled up next to each other. Instead they are separated by a strip of brushed metal-style material. This acts to both space out the buttons (which feel comfortable to use), while also looking pretty nice. The scroll wheel and a DPI switch button are placed along the strip.

The body of the mouse itself is smooth – so there’s no grippable rubber or textured parts. While this makes for a comfortable mouse, some people might find it a little ‘slippery’ and harder to get a dependable hold on it.

This usually won’t be a problem, but in the heat of a hectic multiplayer game – when palms can get rather sweaty – you may get frustrated. But, that smoothness also translates into one of the more comfortable gaming mice we’ve tested.

Weighing 89g, this is light, but not overly so. That means you can whizz it around your desk with ease, yet it doesn’t feel insubstantial. We’d say Roccat got the balance just right here. There’s no way to adjust the weight of the mouse – like you can with some more expensive gaming mice – so if you want that level of customisation, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

As is often the case with modern gaming peripherals, RGB lighting is included – though here it is confined to the scroll wheel and the Roccat logo, which is at the rear of the mouse’s body, where you’d rest your palm. Like the rest of the design, this isn’t over the top or too garish, but a subtle extra that looks good without being too distracting.

Over all, the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO is a solid and comfortable gaming mouse with a design that’s in keeping with Roccat’s other gaming products, while also trying something new.

Performance

Depending on your playstyle, preferences and considerations like how large your monitor is, you probably don’t want to whack the DPI up to its maximum settings – as you’ll probably find the mouse cursor whizzes around the screen and is difficult to control.

According to Roccat, the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO has been a long time coming, with the company laboring over every detail of the mouse. Big talk indeed, and it means we should be in for a treat when it comes to performance.

The headline innovation with the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO is the Titan Click – an overhauled switch underneath the left and right mouse buttons that makes the Kain 120 AIMO feel satisfying and responsive – and subtly different to other gaming mice we’ve tried.

Now, if you’ve never paid much attention to how your mouse ‘clicks’ then the news of a new switch is unlikely to get you too excited. To be honest, if you don’t notice your mouse clicking, that kind of means it’s doing its job well.

However, we’re not saying the way the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO works is distracting – it’s just if you’ve used a lot of mice in your time (like us) or are particular about how a mouse feels (also like us) then you may notice a subtle difference. And that’s a good thing. A very good thing.

This is a mouse that feels responsive to clicks without you having to apply much pressure – but most importantly – doesn’t seem trigger-happy. By that, we mean this isn’t a mouse that registers a click by accident if you’re simply resting your fingers on the buttons.

Instead, you need deliberate pressure on the buttons – but not too much. Again, it’s a fine balancing act, and while it’s a little detail, when you consider how much you use your mouse, it can have a big impact.

The Roccat Kain 120 AIMO uses Roccat’s Owl-Eye optical sensor, which is capable of 16,000 DPI. This is higher than many mice at this price point (they usually top out around 10,000 DPI). The higher the DPI, the faster and more responsive the mouse can feel.

For more precise controls you want to set the DPI to a low setting – and for fast-paced action you want it high – but probably not as high as 16,000. In fact, in the default settings, the highest DPI setting is 3,200 – and there’s a reason for that. For most people anything even remotely near 16,000 will be far too sensitive.

So why include the option? If we’re generous, it’s because it gives players more choice when configuring the mouse. But to be honest, it’s also so there can be a high number printed on the packaging and in adverts. That might seem a little cynical of us, but there we go.

You can switch DPI settings via the DPI button on the mouse, and you can use the Roccat Swarm software to set each level, as well as change the lighting, assign buttons and record macros. You can also save up to five profiles, which means you can configure the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO to perform differently depending on the game or task you’re performing.

It’s a nice touch, and the software is straightforward and easy to use. We tried the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO with a number of different games, and found it to provide an excellent out-of-the-box experience, and with a bit of tweaking, you get an excellent and versatile gaming mouse for the money.

Verdict

The Roccat Kain 120 AIMO is a reasonably priced mid-range gaming mouse with a solid design and a decent amount of options for customising the mouse to behave the way that suits your preferences and playstyle.

The Titian switch feels satisfying and responsive, and helps make the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO stand out amongst an increasingly crowded market.

Meanwhile, the high DPI of the mouse gives players some scope to configure the sensitivity of the mouse just how they like it, but we can’t imagine many people will whack it all the way to the maximum setting.

While it doesn’t offer advanced customization options, such as swappable weights and loads of extra buttons, there’s a lot to like here, and it’s backed up by solid software as well. For the price, this is a very good gaming mouse.