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Roccat Kain 120 AIMO

We've been getting our click on with Roccat's new mid-priced gaming mouse.

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The mid-tier market for gaming mice is becoming increasingly competitive, and those who have 50-60 coins to spend on their next mouse are being increasingly well served. Sliding straight into that robust and well-contested scene is the new Roccat Kain 120 AIMO, a reasonably priced and capable gaming mouse that we've been testing for the last couple of weeks. Does Roccat's new mouse have the chops to compete with the likes of the Corsair Ironclaw and Razer's enduringly popular DeathAdder?

First up, let's talk design. The Kain 120 AIMO is an elegant looking device, and its style is a slight departure for Roccat, which previously focused on a more distinctive form. This new design is simpler, more streamlined, and less fussy. There's a simplistic elegance to the whole thing that we immediately liked, and this no-nonsense approach is only reinforced by a limited selection of buttons, although we'll get to that later.

RGB is pretty much an essential feature in a modern mouse, and the feature duly appears here. The Roccat logo and the mouse wheel can be aluminated as you see fit, and once again we appreciated the straightforward style. If you like an explosion of colour in your hand, then we daresay that the Kain 120 AIMO is probably not the mouse for you, but if you like clean lines and a less-is-more approach to design, we doubt the limited options in terms of RGB lighting will be a deal-breaker for you.

The body of the mouse is geared towards right-handed gamers - sorry lefties - with two prominent buttons positioned on the light hand side of the device, accessible to your thumb. Behind the illuminated mouse wheel that also doubles as a button, sits an input that lets you adjust your DPI on the fly, making the mouse more or less sensitive as desired (it comes equipped with an Owl-Eye optical sensor that offers options up to 16,000 dpi). And that's it - no more, no less. If you're after something packed with buttons so you can map a multitude of actions to your mouse, you won't find that here.

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Roccat Kain 120 AIMORoccat Kain 120 AIMO

Despite a minimalist approach to features, perhaps because of it, the Kain 120 AIMO looks great. The chassis has a satisfying matt finish that feels soft to the touch, and we really liked the shape of the body. The braided cord was also appreciated, as were the pads underneath that offered a smooth glide over our gaming surface (at 89g it's a nice weight too). Simply put: it looks and feels good to use.

But a mouse is more than just aesthetics, and a great mouse offers more than just cool gimmicks. Happily, Roccat's new wired mouse seems to be built to a high standard. The mouse wheel is satisfying to roll back and forth, and it has an equally satisfying click. In fact, click satisfaction is at the heart of the Kain 120 AIMO's design, according to the mouse's marketing. Apparently, the company left "no stone unturned" as they searched for the ultimate click, and the resulting "Titan Click" is the result of this effort. Is it the greatest click we've ever experienced? We wouldn't want to make a bold claim like that, but it's certainly a pleasingly tactile mouse to operate.

Roccat has also promised improved performance time thanks to faster signal processing, although we noted that the improvement was imperceptible in terms of our experience. If you're the kind of gamer looking for gear that gives you every edge, it's a claim worth exploring, but to more casual souls it's a nice feature but not an essential one.

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And so, to sum up, the Roccat Kain 120 AIMO is a robust, well-designed gaming mouse that offers a high-quality user experience. We loved the sense of style and the overall simplicity that it offers, but for many, the lack of features could well be a negative against. It might be missing a couple of buttons, but the price is right considering what comes in the box, and if you're looking for a comfortable, capable gaming mouse that won't break the bank, you could do a lot worse than this.

08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
overall score
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