Turtle Beach Burst II Air

Virtually every key competitor in the market has embarked on a relatively futile competition to see who can produce the lightest mouse. Of course, it's not always at the expense of features, and there are some pretty big developments in terms of DPI rates among the sharpest sensors, and also a general improvement in switches. But weight seems to be paramount.

But sometimes this insistent, singular focus seems to result in an overall inferior product, as has happened with several Razer mice recently. Turtle Beach is now trying to do the same, but without sacrificing... well, anything. The Burst II Air is featherweight, but with virtually all features intact.

First of all, the Burst II Air weighs just 47 grams, which is actually quite a bit less than Razer's Viper V3 Pro and even Asus' ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition, which both sit at 54 grams. The lower weight is partly due to Turtle Beach also shortening the length of the mouse, but even though this should have a big impact on comfort, they have magically designed their way out of that problem. The fit is small, yes, but not "uncomfortable claw grip small".

But despite this extremely competitive fighting weight, there's pretty much everything you'd expect here. The mouse works via 2.4GHz with an accompanying USB dongle, and there's a small cavity under the mouse for storage. There's even Bluetooth. They've even found room for a nice little DPI switch that's placed quite naturally for the thumb.

These are the same Titan Optical Switches we've praised several times before, and the same with the Owl-Eye sensor, which is "only" 26,000 DPI instead of Razer's 35,000, but which will still be plenty for most people.

What you could argue is missing is a higher polling rate. Razer's secret weapon is the ability to use an 8000Hz polling rate, but Burst II Air only has 1000Hz. If that's a dealbreaker, you're among the dwindling few, but it's still worth having. What's also abundantly clear is that, especially compared to Razer, Turtle Beach's offering is quite competitively priced. You can get this for just around £100, which is in stark contrast to the approximately £160 a Viper 3 Pro often costs.

The aforementioned Asus ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition is a problem, however, as it has previously been on offer for around £110, and it's hard to beat. However, Turtle Beach has definitely pulled an ace out of its sleeve here, and deserves to be up there with the absolute most competitve guys.