Turtle Beach Burst II Air Review – Fantastic Featherweight Gaming Mouse
Turtle Beach got busy as spring quickly morphed into a sweltering summer, as they released a slate of headphones, a supreme analog keyboard, and even a very lightweight mouse. We have spent an extensive amount of time putting their mouse through the ringer, and have our Turtle Beach Burst II Air review ready right now.
Premium-Priced
At an MSRP of $99.99 USD, the Burst II Air definitely bills itself as a premium product, and also as the successor to the ROCCAT Burst Pro Air. What do you get for your hard-earned cash? The specs include a 26k DPI, 650 IPS sensor, three different connectivity options, an included charging/data cable, promises of at least a 40-hour proprietary wireless battery life which triples to 120 hours if you use Bluetooth instead, some included PTFE skates and grip tape you can choose to apply to the mouse (or not, if you’re after as light of a mouse as possible), and all within a pretty standard-looking mouse that weighs in at a miniscule 47 grams (about 1.66 ounces).
So, what’s in the box? You have the mouse itself, naturally, alongside its USB-A transmitter, a decent-length, premium-feeling, soft and flexible USB-A to USB-C charging/data cable, a USB-A to USB-C transmitter adapter in case your device has no full-sized USB ports available, extra skates to slap on the bottom, along with grip tape to then slap on the top buttons if you so choose, and a quick start guide. Everything you need to get started.
As Lightweight as It Gets
It really cannot be understated just how light this mouse feels. I have a HyperX gaming mouse, and the Burst II Air feels slightly lighter than even that. This is likely where a good chunk of the mouse’s price comes from, because it can’t be cheap to develop a mold that balances being thin and light with also being durable enough to last the promised 100 million clicks per switch. Those switches have been dubbed TITAN, and they are optical-powered, meaning click detection is literally performed at light-speed. Your graphics card is likely to kick the bucket well before this mouse wears out.
Extreme lightness aside, there is nothing particularly striking about the design of the Burst II Air. It’s an average-sized gaming mouse, with two main buttons, a scroll wheel between those buttons that also functions as a button, back/forward buttons on the left-hand side, and a smaller DPI switching button towards the front left side of the mouse. Having all of its extra buttons on the left indicates that the Burst II Air is intended as a right-handed mouse, though that won’t stop anyone determined to use it with a Southpaw grip. Speaking of grip, whichever one you use will probably work here, though claw grabbers may want something a little larger.
What You See Is What You Get
The scroll wheel is also simply standard. It features a notched scrolling mechanism, with no option to switch from a ratcheted scroll to smooth – that would mean including extra electronics and more hardware, which no doubt would add quite a bit to the mouse’s weight. Indeed, that really explains this mouse’s whole design motif – less is more lightweight. The result is a minimalistic mouse that toes the line when it comes to features.
If there’s one area where computer mice have headphones beat as a computer accessory, it’s in dongle storage. The underside of the Burst II Air sports a slot for the USB transceiver, which means you don’t have to keep up with it so long as you remember to insert it back into the slot when you move the mouse from device to device. Besides the single LED on the top, there are no fancy lighting effects to speak of. Sorry, no RGB lights to improve your accuracy here! This is no doubt done in the name of a lighter mouse, because more lights means more wires to connect those lights, all of which would add mass to the mouse, which is the opposite of what Turtle Beach is going for here. If you want a lightweight mouse with fancy lighting options, you’ll want to look elsewhere.
Connect It as You Wish
As mentioned, there are three different ways to connect the Burst II Air, each with its own set of pros and cons. Bluetooth is the most convenient, as most any device you own will have this feature, and mice use a standard Human Interface Device (HID) profile to ensure compatibility. Simply sliding the switch on the underside of the mouse will toggle this mode, and if you’ve yet to pair it with anything will trigger pairing mode automatically. If you have previous paired with a device, then the mouse will try to reconnect to the last-remembered device. Pressing and holding the forward and back buttons, along with the middle mouse button for around three seconds, will manually trigger pairing mode. The 2.4 GHz proprietary wireless mode would be the next most convenient option, though this requires a full-sized USB-A port and drops the battery life of the Burst II Air from 120 to 40 hours. This kind of battery life is still fine, but in reality it means you’ll have to recharge the mouse three times as often for the benefits of a stronger signal, higher polling rate, and likely quicker response time. The least convenient connectivity option, then, would be the old-fashioned USB wire. This obviously leaves you physically tethered to whatever device you have the mouse plugged into, but you immediately stop caring about things like latency and battery life because your inputs will be reflected on-screen just as soon as your connected device processes them from the wire. Though, the polling rate of 1000 Hz even on a wire is somewhat low for a gaming-centered mouse, it’s probably still fine for the vast majority of users.
Battery life appears to be excellent with the Burst II Air. While this is hardly scientific, we’ve definitely gone at least a month between charges, with extensive proprietary wireless usage. Unless you’re gaming or doing something that requires a lot of mouse movement, you should also expect recharges to last at least a couple of weeks on 2.4 GHz, and months on Bluetooth. Charging is quick, and can be done with most USB cords you probably have lying around, or the included 1.8-meter (5.91 foot) USB-A to USB-C cord, and takes around three hours to fully charge.
Compatible, With Caveats
Like with probably any mouse made within the last decade or more, the Burst II Air is ready to move devices when you are. It worked on Windows, Mac, and Android devices without issue or driver installation, which is par for the course these days. If you can somehow wire a USB-A dongle to it, that device is likely compatible.
Compatibility is one thing, full functionality is another. While you can toggle DPI levels with the small button on the front left side of the Burst II Air, in order to customize what each level looks (via single. Multicolor LED light) and feels like, you’ll need to install Turtle Beach’s Swarm II app, the company’s latest and greatest version of their hub where you can manage settings, update device firmware, and more in one location. Only problem is, the app is only available on Windows, Android, and iOS, and seemingly only the Windows version of the app is written with the mouse in mind, as even when paired via Bluetooth to my Samsung smartphone, the app could not find the mouse. This isn’t a dealbreaker by far – how often does a mouse firmware get updated, anyway? But it’s something to consider if you obsess over always installing the latest firmware, which, hey, understandable. The app is also the only way to pick a color and DPI setting for each press of the DPI button, which might actually be a dealbreaker for Mac gamers who don’t have access to a Windows computer that they can install software on. That’s probably a small niche of gamers, though, so Turtle Beach can probably be forgiven for not making that platform a priority.
Verdict
The Turtle Beach Burst II Air is a competitive gaming mouse in a space that is very competitive to begin with. With reliable performance, an extensive battery life, easy access to DPI switches without any software, all packed into a 47g-light package, if you’re in the market for a featherweight gaming mouse that pulls almost no punches (no RGB lights might not please everyone, and the design might be too minimal for some), then it would benefit you to add the Turtle Beach Burst II Air to your shortlist of mice to purchase.
Score: 8/10
Pros:
- Extremely lightweight at 47g
- Many connectivity options
- Long battery life
- Included extras let you customize a bit
Cons:
- Only Swarm II Windows software can access mouse settings
- Design might be too basic for some
Turtle Beach Burst II Air review unit was provided by the manufacturer. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
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