Hardware Turtle Beach KONE II Review

Turtle Beach has recently launched its Kone II line of PC gaming mice which include the wireless Kone II Air and the wired Kone II. We'll take a look at the latter in this review.


On Turtle Beach's official website, the wired KONE II retails for €70/£60/$70 and comes with the following items:

• Turtle Beach Kone II gaming mouse
• Grip Tape
• Quick-Start Guide

Specs of this gaming mouse can be found below:

General

• TITAN Optical Switch
• 100 million click life cycle
• On-board memory: 5 profiles
• 1.8m/5.9ft PhantomFlex(TM), USB-A cable
• USB Report Rate: 1000 Hz
• NVIDIA Reflex
• Software: Swarm II

Sensor

• 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

Dimensions

• Length: 130.2mm
• Height: 43.6mm
• Width: 82.6mm
• Weight: 90g

With gaming or general purpose mice, you'd likely want an ergonomic design for comfortable use. Turtle Beach designed the KONE II with this need in mind. The mouse, aimed for medium to large hands, provides enough real estate to comfortably rest your palms for a palm grip while having 7 additional buttons within easy reach of your fingertips for claw and fingertip grip styles.

This versatility is welcome, especially if you want to use the mouse for both PC gaming and regular PC use. That said, the larger design means that it is not well suited for smaller hands and Turtle Beach has only one size of the model.


Each of the mouse's buttons deliver satisfying, audible clicks. This is a plus for competitive gaming to provide added feedback when keys are pressed. This tactile feel is provided by the TITAN Optical Switches which are also durable, with a 100 million click lifecycle.

Regarding the overall hardware, its plastic build does not feel cheap and the matte finish adds a nice feeling to the touch. Weighing 90g, the KONE II is also relatively lightweight, which makes it easy to control. Added control is provided with the optional textured grip tape which I found to be a nice inclusion.

For some extra "gaming" aesthetics, this mouse features some customizable RGB lighting zones. These can be tuned via the companion Swarm II desktop app.

While the KONE II is designed to be a wired mouse, I do lament that it has a fixed cable. This reduces its repairability in case of damage and a detachable cable would easily fix that. However, the included cable is a quality one, being braided to minimize drag. This, combined with the PTFE feet, ensure smooth mouse movements.




Designed with gaming in mind, the KONE II performs well in use. With easily adjustable DPI ranging from 50 to 26K DPI with 650 IPS (16.5m/s), you can use this mouse for competitive or casual gaming alike. I have tried it with indie point-and-click title Minds Beneath Us and the first-person cyberpunk noir adventure Nobody Wants to Die, and the KONE II did not disappoint. The controls have been swift, accurate and responsive in every case.

Its ergonomic design allows for seamless controls, with easily accessible customizable extra buttons. These and the scroll wheel can be edited into 23 functions via the companion software and stored as one of the 5 profiles in the onboard memory. Having that many profiles stored on the device is really handy as it lets you easily toggle between profiles based on the game genre.


Beyond gaming, the KONE II is well suited for general PC usage. With the customizable profiles, you can easily have one dedicated for productivity use cases; and the ergonomic design ensures a comfortable experience.

While the companion software is welcome, it is only available for Windows. If you are on a different OS, you are out of luck and I hope that Turtle Beach considers bringing support to other platforms as well.


Overall, the Turtle Beach KONE II is a very decent and versatile mouse that is well-rounded for gaming and general purpose uses. It can be a bit on the pricier spectrum, especially considering its lack of repairability, and its larger design isn't suited for smaller hands. If you can look past those downsides, the KONE II is an easy choice as a daily driver.