Review: Turtle Beach Burst Air II Mouse (PC)
What’s in the box?
Like my Turtle Beach Vulkan TKL Pro II keyboard review, you may also be asking yourself, Turtle Beach makes mice? Indeed, they do and it’s a great mouse for gaming and day-to-day tasks!
First Impressions:
The Burst Air II is light, coming in at just 47 grams. It’s also quite compact—my initial concern was that it would be uncomfortable after prolonged use but, that was not the case! It is surprisingly comfortable for long work and gaming sessions. The light weight makes the mouse feel almost nonexistent in my hand and simply becomes an extension of my arm. Don’t let the lightweight think that the mouse isn’t sturdy—it feels very robust and doesn’t have any noticeable flex or bending during use.
Mouse:
The Burst Air II has all the features you would expect for a premium gaming mouse. DPI selection/adjustment, multiple connection modes (2.4 Ghz wireless, Bluetooth, wired). It comes with two different options for skate pads (4 small or two large). I found these pads to glide extremely well on multiple surfaces but for optimal performance, a large desktop pad was ideal.
I also like how the grip tape is optional—for my review, I left the grip tape off and stuck with the 4 small skate pads. I found this setup to be perfect for me but the fact that as a consumer you get options to customize your mouse from the company is a nice touch.
One small but not insignificant detail is the position of the DPI adjustment button. On many mice, that button is located on the top near the scroll wheel or palm area. I cannot tell you how many times I have accidentally switched my DPI mode when gaming on other mice. On the Burst Air II, the button is located on the left side of the mouse, towards the front. This still allows for one-handed operation BUT is extremely unlikely to be pressed by accident. The mouse features a 26k DPI with 650 IPS—in my testing I found it to be responsive and smooth.
The mouse has a great click and travel on the switches—they have a great amount of tension without being difficult to actuate. The satisfying click feeling and sound are also great without being too loud. I never had any guesses as to whether I had clicked or not and for me at least, I found that I had fewer or less noticeable miss-clicks. The Burst Air II has Titan optical switches rated at 100 million cycles—so go ahead and click away!
Gaming
I tested the Burst Air II with some FPS games and one RTS; Halo Infinite, Call of Duty, XDefeiant, and StarCraft II. For the gaming performance, I was very happy. The lightweight mouse disappeared in my hand, and I was able to adjust the mouse settings to my liking for each game. Overall, I think that the Burst Air II would be a great companion for most gamers.
Battery
The Burst Air II has a rating of 120 hours per charge. The caveat here is that the 120-hour rating is for Bluetooth mode, not the high-speed 2.4Ghz mode. For the 2.4 GHz mode, you can expect 40 hours of battery life. However, there are two things to note here. The first is that popping the mouse into Bluetooth mode was as easy as sliding the button allowing for me to switch between modes depending on what I was doing—everyday tasks were done in Bluetooth mode and gaming was done in 2.4Ghz mode.
Final Thoughts
Priced at an MSRP of $99, the Burst Air II comes in comes in at a competitive price for the premium quality and features. I started using it for this review and it has found a home in my gaming setup and even my work setup. It’s comfortable, lightweight, and satisfying to use.
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