ROCCAT (pronounced “rocket”) is an established eSports name in Europe and Asia, and will be making its debut in the US this February. That initial lineup is comprised of five products:
The Alumic mouse pad is a double-sided mouse pad with different materials on each side to cater to different gaming needs. Likewise, each side has a different design. Non-slip rubber feet make sure the mouse pad stays right where you want it to.
The Apuri is an accessory that looks like a high-tech scorpion. In reality it is a four port USB hub which can provide up to two amps of power to connected devices. In addition the flexible “tail” helps to keep your mouse cord out of the way.
The Kave 5.1 headphones are a true 5.1 surround headset—no virtual anything here. A pair of 40mm speakers and a 30mm vibration unit are built into each ear cup. A boom microphone attaches to the left side and can be rotated to any position and a small ring around the tip glows blue when the mic is not muted. The leather earpads provide good noise isolation, and the headphones fold up for easy packing. An in-line control provides a set of sliders to control individual speakers as well as total volume. In a bit of an odd design decision, four 3.5mm stereo jacks plus one USB port are required for full functionality.
The Kone+ mouse features a 6000DPI laser sensor, tilting scroll wheel, DPI adjustment buttons, weight adjustments, and 576KB storage to store five profiles. In what appears to be a nod to FPS snipers, the Easy-Aim button lowers the DPI to a pre-configured setting when held down and resumes normal settings when released. The EasyShift button nearly doubles the number of buttons on the mouse by acting as an input modifier, allowing up to 22 possible button inputs.
The Isku keyboard is an illuminated, rubber dome gaming keyboard. Five programmable macro keys sit to the left and like the Kone+, the Isku has an EasyShift button, allowing modification of both the five macro keys as well as the entire key columns for 1-5 and three programmable buttons beneath the space bar.
Perhaps the most impressive thing, though, is the attention paid to one of the most overlooked components of any input experience: drivers. ROCCAT’s drivers for the mouse and keyboard are second to none. Every customizable aspect of the keyboard and mouse can be accessed through the panel, right down to the color and blink pattern of individual LEDs on the Kone+ mouse. What’s more, the drivers contain the ROCCAT Talk protocol, which allows communication between the ISKU keyboard and Kone+ mouse. For example, the Easy-Aim function on the mouse can be activated via the programmable keys on the keyboard, leaving your mouse hand in its most comfortable sniping position. It’s really quite impressive.
We came away from the ROCCAT booth at CES 2012 impressed by the impending lineup. Icrontic’s team of hardware reviewers should have hands-on experience with some of these products soon.
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