Review: Roccat Burst Pro Air Gaming Mouse
Have you ever had an experience, whether it be food, a concert, a new game just feel so average it just feels like a safe bet? That is what the Roccat Burst Pro Air feels like. It’s a mouse that feels so safe, like they were not willing to take any chances to make it a standout in the crowd, yet safe enough that it is still a very solid choice in 2022 for anyone looking for a wireless gaming mouse.
The Burst Pro Air is a rechargeable gaming mouse with four different RGB lighting zones. It can be used with the dongle for 1,000hz polling for games, or Bluetooth for when you need a mouse for more office-centric duties. The device comes packaged with a Bluetooth dongle, a Phantom Flex cable and quick start guide. In order to take full advantage of the Roccat Burst Pro Air’s features, downloading and installing Swarm software is a must.
Once I got to hold this mouse, I realized that this is a fairly average-sized mouse for the typical hand. It’s about the size of my Glorious Model O wired mouse and is a complete monster in comparison to my Razer Orochi V2. The plastics are matte, translucent and soft to the touch, feeling smooth in the hand, but not slippery. When the RGB is lit, it lends to a hexagon underframe that looks pretty cool. The translucency reminds me of the plastics of the early 2000s. The mouse wheel has a grippier rubber to it with decent grooves in the wheel to provide good grip when scrolling or say, switching a weapon in a first person shooter. Where your thumb and pinky would rest, however, is this raised hexagon grid of a shinier plastic, to add a little grip to the side. It’s a subtle touch that feels good in the hand. The Burst Pro Air doesn’t creak when I apply pressure to the sides or top, overall a solid construction.
Using this mouse in game, it’s very snappy. It registered every flick and snapshot in Aimlab I could give it. The PMW3370 sensor that is in the mouse is very standard and can go up to 19,000 DPI, but you’ll rarely, if ever, use that. The PTFE feet are also very slick and work great when pulling off 180 flicks. It’s heavier than both mice I use as my daily drivers, coming in at 81g. This may seem heavy to some very competitive players, but the mouse feels very average for a wireless mouse. My Orochi V2 with an alkaline battery in it will come in at a hefty 79g and it’s a chunky boy in comparison to my Model O’s 67g weight. The mouse clicks are easy to actuate because of the optical switches and are very quiet in comparison to the micro switches.
It is rated for 100 hours of battery life, but I could only get the mouse down to 60% in all of my testing (15-20hrs). Keep in mind that I also had the RGB turned off for this duration and only used its 1,000hz polling with a dongle. I think that 100 hours is solely for Bluetooth without RGB. Given what the battery life is at now, I would wager 45-50 hours at 1,000hz polling without RGB and 25-30 running full brightness. One of the big benefits of a mouse that has a re-chargeable battery is that you can plug it in and keep using it. The cable that they provided is USB-A to USB-C and is loosely fabric wrapped. This lends to the lightness of the cable and also prevents it from catching on things like the edge of a mouse mat or other things on your desk. The Model O I have is wired and uses a similar cable.
The Swarm provide the device with various lighting functions, DPI, macros and the occasional firmware updates. One part of the software that I really enjoy is that once I set the setting, it’s hard-coded into the mouse, so I do not need the software to run unless I want to make changes.
Overall, this mouse is a solid choice. It feels good in the hand, is accurate in games and provides enough of that “gamer feel” when using it. The area of opportunity, however is that at an MSRP of $100, it kind of gets lost in the mix with other mice at a similar price point with more standout features. For instance, the wireless Model O is $80 and has all of the features listed plus is a lighter mouse. This mouse is great when it’s paired with multiple machines, like a gaming rig and a laptop for example, and you really only want one mouse to do it all.
The Roccat Burst Pro Air is a great choice for anyone looking to get a wireless gaming mouse. The market is quite saturated with offerings from Razer, Corsair, Logitech, etc. The latest offering from Roccat is not a standout in the pack, but its build quality, great sensor and responsiveness makes it a solid mid-tier contender.
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