Razer Cobra Pro review

Finest Costs Right this moment: Razer Cobra Professional

The Razer Cobra Professional is a compact, pro-grade gaming mouse that’s completely suited to all the main grip varieties. It additionally boasts a top-line, exceptionally clean Razer Focus Professional 30,000 DPI optical sensor that proves a drive to be reckoned with in the correct participant’s hand.

Whereas the Cobra Professional’s stablemate, the Razer DeathAdder V3 Professional, is close to 16 grams lighter than the Cobra Professional, the Cobra Professional is undoubtedly the extra versatile of the 2 choices, including 11 dazzling RGB lighting zones and twin wi-fi connectivity to its function set. What’s extra, with each devoted DPI up and down buttons the Cobra Professional is the eminently higher possibility for avid gamers who like to vary their DPI settings on the fly.

How a lot does the Razer Cobra Professional price?

The Cobra Professional is among the extra reasonably priced professional grade gaming mice. Proper now, the bottom mannequin (our overview unit) ships for $129.99 on Razer’s web site, which is $20 cheaper than the Razer DeathAdder V3 Professional. It presently prices $40 greater than the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Wi-fi, a rival that additionally options 2.4GHz wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity and RGB. Nevertheless, evaluating the 2, you may argue the addition of a better decision sensor, DPI down and up buttons, and an additional 10 RGB lighting zones within the Cobra Professional makes it the higher worth for cash possibility.

Razer additionally ships the Cobra Professional bundled with equipment. For instance, you should purchase the Cobra Professional with an upgraded 4000 Hz hyper polling dongle for $144.99 on Razer’s web site. It’s also possible to purchase the Razer Cobra Professional bundled with a Razer Mouse Dock Professional (a wi-fi dock for charging) for $169.99, or alternatively with a wi-fi charging puck for $139.99.

Razer Cobra Professional: Design and construct

Slender, low profile gaming mice aren’t trending proper now, so the Razer Cobra Professional is admittedly one thing completely different. Measuring simply 4.71 x 2.46 x 1.50 inches, it’s rather a lot thinner than the Razer DeathAdder V3 Professional (5.0 x 2.7 x 1.7 inches), Logitech G Professional X Superlight (4.9 x 2.5 x 1.6 inches), and the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Wi-fi (4.9 x 2.6 x 1.5 inches).

That makes it a compact mouse that’s finest suited to medium or small fingers. Its low top additionally means it doesn’t stick up in opposition to your palm as some mice are inclined to do; you get somewhat further room to breathe. Suffice to say, that is actually a mouse you may change your playstyle with on a whim — switching from claw grip, to fingertip, to palm, or any mixture, feeling straightforward due to the additional house beneath your hand. That’s the upside to the Razer Cobra’s design.

The draw back is massive fingers are going to really feel somewhat cramped on the Razer Cobra Professional’s modest physique, particularly on the foremost clicks the place they’re more likely to expertise some overhang. After all, if you happen to’re a claw gripper, that’s probably not going to use to you as a lot, so the Cobra is very suited to you.

Evaluating the mouse’s weight to a vanguard of ultra-light gaming mice and at 77 grams, it’s at the least 16 grams heavier than two of our most just lately reviewed mice, the Logitech G Professional X Superlight and the Razer DeathAdder V3 Professional.

That’s no drama, although – 16 grams distinction actually doesn’t really feel like a lot, nor did it have an effect on the mouse’s velocity or efficiency in my playtesting. In reality, if you happen to’re not taking part in esports, it’s unlikely you’ll discover. Nonetheless, the additional weight does make the Cobra Professional somewhat unconventional for a mid-2023 pro-grade launch.

The button configuration can be somewhat unconventional, however in a great way. As a substitute of the six-button FPS configuration you generally see, you get 7 buttons all up, if you happen to depend the DPI up and down switches behind the mouse wheel. I’ll talk about how the advantages of that performed out within the efficiency part, however evidently the additional down change button was most appreciated, and never one thing you at all times see.

A superb dollop of RGB is one other issue that basically separates the Cobra Professional from the remainder of the pack. Whereas it looks like gaming mice producers sould be clambering over one another to incorporate extra RGB, up to now in 2023 we’ve scarcely seen a lot in any respect. However the Cobra Professional’s 19 programmable RGB lighting zones actually make taking part in at midnight a complete lot extra memorable.

The Cobra Professional can be exceptionally properly made. It options tactile grips on each its left and proper flanks and a agency matte black plastic within the centre back and front. The Cobra Professional’s mouse wheel is small however safe with out the slightest trace of any wobble.

Razer must also be complemented for the equipment you get. Within the field you get a USB dongle adapter and a USB-A to USB-C Speedflex cable. The cable feels sturdy and versatile, and each the ends have caps to maintain them protected. The tiny 2.4GHz wi-fi dongle is unobtrusive and unlikely to get in the best way of your mouse strokes.

Razer Cobra Professional gaming efficiency

About half of Razer’s gaming mice — the top-line ones — have sensors rated at 30, 000 DPI decision, so the Cobra Professional sits up there with Razer’s most interesting. After all, a 30,000 DPI sensor does sound like overkill for best gaming, and it completely is.

I imply, you may fairly simply get through the use of a lowly 8,000 DPI sensor, even within the quickest FPS matches, and nonetheless prime the scoreboard. What’s the purpose, then, of getting such a tremendous sensor just like the Cobra Professional’s? Effectively, as any aggressive gamer is aware of, DPI isn’t every little thing.

For instance, in addition to its chic decision and insane monitoring velocity of 750 inches per second, the Cobra Professional’s Razer Focus Professional 30K sensor allows you to modify your liftoff distance to one among 26 granular ranges — that’s 23 greater than mice which have Razer’s beforehand finest sensor know-how, the Focus+ Optical Sensor. The Razer Focus Professional 30K additionally bestows floor compatibility advantages too, like seamless operation on glass tabletops 4mm thick. These advantages actually do make the Cobra Professional a extra engaging proposition over 8K, 12K, and even 26K rival sensors, in my opinion.

Launching a recreation of Insurgency to trial it proved the sensor might monitor movement beautifully. Though you’d be laborious pressed to see a distinction in velocity and motion between the Cobra Professional and say a 26K sensor from a rival mouse, to me the Cobra Professional’s motion simply gave the impression to be eminently smoother and extra correct — and that held true in opposition to the vast majority of mice in my assortment.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The buttons additionally felt lightning quick and satisfyingly loud. Razer has loaded them with Razer Gen 3 Optical Switches, that are rated for 90 million clicks.

It appears odd to say too, however the Cobra Professional’s added weight was additionally a boon to my efficiency. Definitely, it made swiping from left to proper really feel faster than mice that weigh simply 60 grams. And whereas it’s true that the redraw wasn’t fairly as quick, I nonetheless felt the additional weight gave me a greater sense of when to cease on targets.

That mentioned, this mouse is good for right-to-left sniping or spraying in FPS video games. Certainly, if you understand of a selected map the place you’ll have a variety of right-to-left motion –- a secret spot beneath the bushes on the far proper of your area of play, or one thing — it’s possible you’ll wish to unleash the Cobra from its cage only for that.

But when I might select my favourite factor about Razer’s Cobra Professional it could be the DPI up and down buttons. I don’t have a substantial amount of time to actually examine character lessons in FPS video games and calibrate the most effective settings for all of them, so I largely are inclined to flip between two favorites. In Insurgency, for instance, that’s the Sniper and Rifleman. In spite of everything, the saying goes “A jack of all trades is a grasp of none.”

That mentioned, with the ability to change between my 800 DPI setting for sniping and 1600 DPI setting for the rifle in a cut up second with the DPI switcher actually saved my bacon on a couple of event. If you happen to’re a switcher like me, you’ll undoubtedly dig this function too.

Razer Synapse software program

A mouse that provides options like 26 granular ranges of asymmetrical elevate off and backbone as much as 30, 000 DPI actually wants a well-supported software program app, and fortunately Razer’s Synapse app is simply that.

In addition to making programming in instructions an easy affair, Synapse allows you to achieve this far more. A few of the issues that I obtained as much as in Synapse included assigning further capabilities to my mouse buttons to make a complete of 10 with Razer Hyper Shift, in addition to altering the polling charge and switching on Good Dimming of the RGB to preserve battery energy when the mouse is in Wi-fi Mode. By the best way, the battery life is kind of respectable. It’s rated for as much as 100 hours in Wi-Fi Mode or 170 hours in Bluetooth Mode.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

One large profit with the Razer Cobra Professional is you get 5 onboard reminiscence profiles. As soon as programmed in Synapse, altering profiles in your video games is so simple as urgent the Cobra Professional’s profile change on its underside, so if you happen to take pleasure in utilizing macros, you’re in luck.

I solely assigned capabilities to three of my Cobra Professional’s 5 on-board profiles nevertheless it was good to know I had 2 extra to compile, when the subsequent must-have recreation is just too good for me to withstand shopping for.

Do you have to purchase the Razer Cobra Professional?

The Razer Cobra Professional is a wonderful all-rounder gaming mouse with a top-line sensor that takes no prisoners within the quick aggressive video games. It additionally seems to be extremely trendy, with an distinctive quantity of dazzling RBG, as a way to take pleasure in countless gentle exhibits. Plus, because you get each DPI down in addition to up clicks, this mouse allows you to change DPI settings immediately, permitting you get the drop on opponents when the motion will get livid.

This text initially appeared on PC World.