Price When Reviewed

79.99

Best Prices Today: ROCCAT Burst Pro Air

$75.99

$79.99

The Roccat Burst Pro Air occupies a snug area of interest in Roccat’s line-up, being arguably probably the most aesthetically pleasing and a very good performer in video games. More exactly it packs 4 stellar RGB lighting zones in addition to a exact 19,000 DPI sensor and twin wi-fi and wired connectivity.

That stated, there are a couple of downsides: It’s each heavier and pricier than rivals just like the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless and the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro. But as I came upon, these compromises are value weighing for a gaming mouse that performs so effectively and affords as a lot versatility because the Burst Air Pro does.

This assessment is a part of our ongoing roundup of the best gaming mice. Go there to study competing merchandise, what to search for in a gaming mouse, and shopping for suggestions.

Roccat Burst Pro Air: Design and construct

Unboxing the Burst Pro Air revealed what seemed like an easy symmetrical, six-button, FPS-style gaming mouse. However, its “special something” quickly burst into view—actually—within the type of its beautiful RGB lighting.

Roccat buried a honeycomb grid slightly below the floor of the mouse’s semi-transparent plastic outer layer—a design that creates a stunning RGB glow that’s mesmerizing from each angle. But as soon as you turn off the RGB, it’s all black once more—the Pro Air will slot in simply as simply subsequent to your workplace PC as it is going to your gaming rig.

The 4 unbiased Roccat AIMO RGB lighting zones include two on the again and one beneath every of the principle clicks. Consequently, you may gentle up the entire thing spectacularly or have enjoyable altering up which zones are illuminated and the way. There are 16.8 million programmable RGB colours to play with too, in addition to some neat visible results accessible within the Swarm software program app.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

While the style amongst gaming mice tends to be flared essential buttons, in contrast the Pro Air’s two essential clicks are tight rectangles. They stretch from the entrance all the way in which to its midsection. This makes it very straightforward to make use of when you’re a claw griper, since you may grip way back to the middle and your clicks will nonetheless register. Apart from the principle clicks, you additionally get two left facet buttons, a DPI button, and a mouse wheel in entrance of it—all of which appear ideally positioned.

Palm gripping is tremendous straightforward to do too because the Pro Air is properly proportioned to relaxation in opposition to the highest of your palm. Its 4.7 x 1.5 x 2.6-inch physique matches snugly into your hand’s contours, feeling neither too small nor too huge. The left-hand facet buttons deserve a particular point out, too, for being simply the appropriate measurement and form to your thumb.

Two massive, heat-treated PTFE glide skates make any actions throughout your mouse pad very easy and easy, and there are hexagonal grids flanking all sides that function helpful grips to forestall your fingers slipping—a bonus when your hand will get sweaty.

That stated, the Pro Air’s design isn’t excellent. While it scores marks for measurement, it loses a couple of factors for its 81-gram weight. Just final yr 81 grams would have been thought of fairly gentle for an FPS gaming mouse, however releases just like the 62-gram Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro and the 63-gram Logitech G Pro X Superlight have set a brand new benchmark for what constitutes light-weight.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

In normal, this advance has been mirrored in costs, with mice that exceed the 70-gram mark being among the extra inexpensive now. This makes the Pro Air’s $79.95 shelf value look just a little excessive. That level actually hits residence if you evaluate it to the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless, a superb FPS gaming mouse that weighs simply 61 grams and prices solely $50 USD.

Despite this, most rivals lack no less than one of many Pro Air’s options: The V3 Pro, as an example, has no RGB lighting, whereas the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless doesn’t provide as many connectivity choices. So whereas the Pro Air won’t be the most affordable or lightest gaming mouse you should purchase, it definitely is an all-rounder that goes the additional mile.

Roccat Burst Pro Air: Connectivity

The Burst Pro Air differentiates itself from its close to sibling, the Roccat Burst Pro, by sporting wi-fi in addition to wired connectivity, which implies it’s a go-anywhere mouse which you can simply as simply use plugged into your house gaming rig as you may unplugged on a laptop computer you are taking to your good friend’s home.

Additionally, you get not one, however two wi-fi choices—Bluetooth 5.2 in addition to low-latency 2.4GHz Wi-Fi—which provides to its versatility as a mouse that you should use for work in addition to play. By comparability, the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless affords solely a low-latency 2.4GHz Wi-Fi choice in addition to wired connectivity.

Switching between connectivity modes is easy, requiring simply the flick of a change on the underside. In these unplugged modes, the Pro Air is rated for 100 hours battery life, which is greater than sufficient to get you thru a handful of gaming periods, or perhaps a midweek work journey.

For a wired connection, Roccat gives you with an extended 1.8-meter, versatile USB-C to USB-A cable that ought to service even the toughest to achieve PCs. This cable additionally doubles as a fast-charging cable if you’re out of battery, and it comes with a neat plastic protector to maintain the USB-A facet freed from water or mud.

A discrete dongle storage port on the underside of the mouse can be a nifty inclusion that makes dropping your USB-A receiver just a little tougher to do.

ROCCAT Burst Pro Air: Software

The Burst Pro Air makes use of ROCCAT’s Swarm app, which is the place you’ll must go to assign instructions, create the 5 on-board profiles and customise the RGB lighting colours or results. ROCCAT have made this pretty straightforward to do with submenus which you can simply navigate by means of, and due to a latest replace the app appears trendy and extra visually interesting than earlier than.

In Swarm I used to be delighted to see which you can alter the Pro Air’s debounce time, which is a characteristic you received’t see in all gaming mice. This makes the Pro Air a very good choice for Sandbox-style video games the place debounce charges are notably helpful. Or when you’re into spreadsheeting, you might even discover a use for this characteristic for rote productiveness duties like filling out columns in half the time.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

ROCCAT Burst Pro Air: Performance

The Pro Air packs a Roccat Owl-Eye optical sensor which tracks motion at 19,000 DPI and at 400 IPS (inches per second). It’s primarily based on the PixArt PAW3370 sensor, which to your reference, is taken into account a superb choice for FPS players.

To check it out, I fired up the PC and sunk an honest period of time into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. No matter what sort of motion I confronted, the Pro Air saved me aggressive. Thankfully, I didn’t discover any lag, even whereas pulling off massive sweeping actions or spinning to face foes, and it simply as simply dealt with the brief, sharp flicks I wanted to drag off to exactly goal foes from distant.

The Pro Air’s symmetrical form gave it a really predictable really feel and made it tremendous straightforward to evaluate how far to maneuver my crosshairs. The mouse wheel was additionally a pleasure to make use of, proving wobble free and extremely responsive. It provides you three instructions—a forwards and backwards scroll operate, and a downwards click on, which had been supreme for altering weapons or tossing grenades and flashbangs.

I did at instances discover myself wishing it additionally had left and proper tilt performance which might have been extremely helpful in video games like Rainbow Six Siege, the place peeking round corners is simpler to do with a 4 directional wheel. Still, it was straightforward sufficient to assign additional instructions to my keyboard, and players who want the left and proper lateral wheel inputs, or in any other case extra instructions, can at all times go for the Roccat Kone XP as an alternative, a mouse which does each of this stuff extraordinarily effectively.

The buttons additionally deserve strong reward. They felt smooth and lightweight to press, and their low-latency optical switches, that are rated for 100 million clicks, actuated my clicks immediately. I additionally attribute the Pro Air’s low latency response, to a point, to its help for the Nvidia Reflex know-how, which can have carried out rather a lot to optimize my click-to-display latency additionally.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

My solely nit-pick in regards to the Pro Air, if I needed to title one, is that it may very hardly ever overshoot the mark when finishing up tremendous exact maneuvers. This doesn’t occur rather a lot, however the one time in a single thousand when it does, could be a little off-putting.

This might have been because of the inertia of its 81-gram weight or the truth that I had grow to be accustomed to the a lot lighter HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless, so I’ll have been pushing it just a little over-enthusiastically to compensate. Regardless, it’s value noting, nonetheless.

Should you purchase the Roccat Burst Pro Air?

If you’re in search of the lightest FPS gaming mouse on the least expensive value attainable, then the Pro Air received’t match the likes of the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless, or another rival FPS gaming mouse which will beat it on each of these fronts.

On the opposite hand, for only a bit extra pocket change and some additional grams weight, the Pro Air provide you with a mouse that has extra dazzling RGB, extra connectivity choices, and performs equally as effectively in fast-paced video games. Plus, it’ll move as a lovely work companion if you need it to, one thing that many FPS mice merely can’t do—but another excuse this mouse ought to win tons of followers.