Thank you Turtle Beach for sending us this mouse to review!

My very first ROCCAT mouse to review was the Kone Pro Air, a mouse I really enjoyed. If the scroll wheel hadn't failed, I might still be using it. The Kone line has been around for many years, and while Turtle Beach retired the ROCCAT brand, the Kone line is here to stay. My very good friend Alan reviewed the Kone Air a couple of years ago, a mouse he loves and still uses to this day. I reviewed the Kone XP Air then also, and that mouse has remained on my desk ever since, with the super-convenient charging dock. This new Kone II follows in the legacy of past Kone mice, but they are not a clear upgrade from the past ones, either.

This mouse is seriously large, and ideal for men with a large hand grip. I have fairly large hands, and they fit well, but everyone else I have asked to check them out has said the same thing - they are big. While the marketing material says they work with claw, palm, or fingertip grips, I call shenanigans - these are best for palm grip for sure. They are wider and longer than any other mice I've reviewed to date, including MMO mice like the Corsair Scimitar Elite, which has far more buttons and a textured side panel, making gripping easier. Thankfully, the Kone II does include optional grip tape, which is really necessary in my opinion.

Speaking of grip tape, I installed grip tape on both sides as included in the box, because I feel like extra grip makes mice feel better. And I'm grateful it's included, but the white mouse model includes white grip tape. This white tape quickly attracts all kinds of things to quickly discolor it. If that bothers you, the black color might be a better option for you.

In the Turtle Beach Burst II Air review, I theorized that they used this soft-touch, not very grippy plastic because of the very low weight they were targeting with that mouse. While not bad, especially for that purpose, some thought it felt lower-quality because of the plastic used. Though likely thicker, they used the same type of plastic for the Kone II mice, and compared to the feel of the Kone XP, I've been getting mixed reviews on the plastic between the two mice. Some of my family like the feel of the Kone II better, while others prefer how the Kone XP feels. The Kone II is definitely made well, and does not flex at all even when I squeeze the mouse with considerable pressure. But not everyone likes how it feels, so keep that in mind.

While typing this review, I grabbed my older Vulcan II Mini Air keyboard, since I wanted to type this on something better than what comes with my laptop, and I just realized as I've been typing these paragraphs that the material and coating as used on the Vulcan II keycaps seems to be of the same material or at least coating as that used on this Kone II mouse. This realization actually explains everything for me, and so if you have used a recent Vulcan II keyboard, then the mice perfectly match that finish. Especially the white one, since that is currently what I have on hand. (I gave away my black Vulcan II keyboard so I can't directly compare that finish.) I also was able to compare my son's older black Vulcan keyboard that has a shinier finish, and that also matches the shinier finish of that era's Kone XP. Well look at that, I just figured out a little secret of product design philosophy.

Back to the mouse itself. Outside of size and finish, it has a pretty good feature set. While Turtle Beach's Swarm II certainly has room for improvement, it works decently well and saves pretty much everything directly to the mouse, so you can easily configure it to your liking and take it with you to any other computer without issue. This includes RGB lighting, DPI settings, and pretty much anything else you can program is saved onboard.

The Kone II has twelve programmable buttons, five of which are from the 4D scroll wheel that lets you scroll up, down, left, and right, and of course middle click. There are large left and right click buttons. There are two DPI buttons, with one being up and the other down, behind the scroll wheel. The left side of the mouse where your thumb goes has three buttons. Two are above the resting place of your thumb, while the one of the bottom is the Easy-Shift button.

The Easy-Shift feature is really neat, and there are definitely some good uses I can think of for it. Out of the box it helps you switch profiles and use media key functions, like Play/Pause, Volume Up/Down, and Next/Previous track. All really useful and easy to use. However, the two buttons on the side, which default to forward and back, can also be used with Easy-Shift. It's possible to reach, but requires a bit too much contortion in my book to be reliable. It's certainly better here than with the Kone XP and its four side buttons, though. Having four side buttons was great, but reaching them individually while holding Easy-Shift was truly impossible.

The mouse is large and in charge, though also somehwat heavy. The Kone II is listed as 90 grams in the specification sheet, though I measured 96 grams. Either way, that is on the heavy side for a wired mouse, but by no means the heaviest. It's worth pointing out that this weight is certainly in line with how heavy mice have been historically, but I have been spoiled by the more recent trend of lighter mice. The Kone XP is a lot heavier though, and at least within the family, that weight difference is quite noticeable.

My overall feelings on the Kone II are mixed. It's a nice mouse, with a really good sensor and a strong build quality that can likely take some licks. The texture and polish is a mixed bag among my family, with some liking it and others not. It has really pretty RGB stripes around the scroll wheel and main body that will likely appeal to many who like their mice tastefully showy. They are a bit on the large and heavy side, which I would say is counter to modern trends, but not altogether bad. I do wish Turtle Beach would take the plunge past 1000Hz for polling rates, as their mice are close enough to state of the art outside of this area that it's a noticeable weak point for their higher-end stuff like this mouse.

If you have large hands and want a mouse that fits the biggest mitted among us well, then I recommend a serious look at the Kone II. I also like that the Kone II is lighter than the older Kone XP, and less expensive. If you are a lady or have normal-sized hands, then I would say it comes down to what your preferences are. If you like a large and solidly-planted mouse, the Kone II does that well. If you want something light and nimble, then look elsewhere. For the quality and feature set, the value is really good. Recommended!