Roccat KAIN 120 AIMO Gaming Mouse Review

A Closer Look & Performance

The Roccat Kain 120 AIMO comes hard-wired with a nice USB cable. In fact, it’s a really nice USB cable! It’s pretty lightweight but feels very durable.

The sleeving is nicer than most too, it’s got a glossy and silky finish that should stop it from dragging and snagging on your desk.

Aesthetics

The mouse is quite humble looking, but it has a certain “premium” look and feel to it that isn’t quite captured in the pictures. The materials feel really nice in your hand. There’s a smooth and luxurious finish to the matte black plastic body. The left side buttons are huge too, with a top lip allowing you to click them in or slide your thumb up to trigger them.

Down the back of the mouse, the classic Roccat logo provides a nice contrast. Of course, this is the AIMO range, which means it has loads of RGB lighting behind that logo too. We’ll fire that up in a moment though.

Control

This is by far the best-looking part of the mouse. Roccat may have invested time and money into the “click” but they’ve trimmed and refined just about everything on this mouse. There’s obviously the LMB and RMB here. However, it also features their improved Titan wheel, as well as the DPI button behind it. As with all Roccat mice though, it’s fully programmable, giving you plenty of flexibility.

Comfort

The ergonomics of the mouse are seriously on point too. Obviously, it’s set up for right-handed users. the RMB is much lower down than the LMB. The whole mouse is slanted that way so your wrist is left in a more natural position.

Again, those larger side buttons are very easy to control. In fact, every button is easy to control. The “click” on this mouse is pretty tight. It’s light, fast and snappy. However, it’s got a slightly quieter click than most, but still, it has a satisfyingly tactile and audible response to it too. I should hope it’s nice since that’s what Roccat have been banging on about improving the most; fortunately, it’s paid off.

The Devil is in the Details

Right down the middle of the mouse, you have this brushed metal strip. There’s no purpose to it other than aesthetic, but damn does it make a striking visual impact. However, it’s the lines on this mouse that you could easily miss. Some edges are cut at strong angles, some are softened edges, some are rolled. It just looks like they’ve put time into every little corner, most obviously because they have; it doesn’t look or feel stamped out en-masse.

The mouse buttons are enormous too, spanning back quite far on the mouse body. They’re obviously mounted completely separate to each other, whereas many other mice form the buttons from the shell of the mouse, using the naturally springy quality of the plastic for their response.

Owleye

Roccat may have dabbled with their clicks and ergonomics. However, they haven’t skimped when it comes to the raw performance of their sensor. The Kain 120 AIMO features their flagship 16,000 DPI Owl-Eye sensor. It’ll deliver up to 50G acceleration with 400 IPS. There’s zero acceleration, and its precision is phenomenal.

You can toggle angle snapping and adjust the lift-off. However, from the minimum DPI to the max, it’s accuracy is pixel perfect, which is obviously what anyone wants from a mouse; gamers or not.

AIMO

The RGB lighting tech comes from their AIMO engine. It’s fully addressable and customisable. By default, it’ll do the old rainbow cycle, which is fine. However, using the software you can set colours for each profile, DPI level, etc. You can turn it all off too, or just adjust the brightness, effect pattern etc. Plus, it’ll sync up with other Roccat devices for other effects. The software is pretty decent but rarely required. Setup the mouse, save your settings to the mouse, close the software and I doubt you’ll need to load it again for a long time.

One thing that did surprise me is just how damn bright the lights are though. They’re actually too bright I think. However, that’s subjective, and as I said, you can adjust this. What’s nice is how vivid the colours are, even if the brightness does throw off the ISO of my camera and wash them out in the pictures; they’re honestly very pretty in real life.

There are two lighting zones. One in the wheel, one in the logo at the back. It’s just enough, and if you want more lights, Roccat does have more RGB-riddled mice in their range.

Gaming

This mouse is an absolute blast to use. It feels comfortable and natural in the hand. Plus, like many Roccat mice, it even feels comfortable in my hands. I have a wide palm and long fingers, so many mice just feel too small for me. This mouse isn’t even oversized, it’s just got a good shape to it. For FPS gaming it’s light and fast, but it’s got the long-term comfort and flexibility for any type of gaming really; a solid all-rounder rather than a master of one.

Where to Click?

Some mice have their balance point quite far forward. You have to press on the front of the mouse button to get a good click. What’s interesting about the Kain 120 AIMO is that I can click comfortably in the middle and “click” it works great.

I can press at the absolute back of the button and “click” is works perfectly.

Even right at the nose of the mouse. The switch is fantastically balanced and responsive. From a tight claw-grip to a palm-rest grip, you’ll have zero issues here. Plus, the click on the Titan Wheel and side buttons compliments everything just as well.

The fantastic sensor, the “new click” and the quality of the construction make me want to game for longer. I will still be going back to my Roccat Tyon as I love my macro monster. However, I don’t think the new mouse will be leaving my office, it’s another welcome addition to the eTeknix family and one of the many computers we have set up here.