Razer Cobra Professional evaluation: A tiny, spectacular all-around gaming mouse

Greatest Costs Right this moment: Razer Cobra Professional

$129.99

The Razer Cobra Professional is a compact, pro-grade gaming mouse that’s completely suited to all the foremost grip varieties. It additionally boasts a top-line, exceptionally easy Razer Focus Professional 30,000 DPI optical sensor that proves a power 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 characteristic set. What’s extra, with each devoted DPI up and down buttons the Cobra Professional is the eminently higher choice for players who like to vary their DPI settings on the fly.

How a lot does the Razer Cobra Professional price?

The Cobra Professional is without doubt one of the extra inexpensive professional grade gaming mice. Proper now, the bottom mannequin (our evaluation 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 can 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 choice.

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. You too can 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 basically one thing totally different. Measuring simply 4.71 x 2.46 x 1.50 inches, it’s quite a bit 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 palms. Its low top additionally means it doesn’t stick up in opposition to your palm as some mice are inclined to do; you get slightly additional room to breathe. Suffice to say, that is actually a mouse you possibly can change your playstyle with on a whim — switching from claw grip, to fingertip, to palm, or any mixture, feeling simple due to the additional area beneath your hand. That’s the upside to the Razer Cobra’s design.

The draw back is massive palms are going to really feel slightly cramped on the Razer Cobra Professional’s modest physique, particularly on the major clicks the place they’re prone to expertise some overhang. After all, when you’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 very least 16 grams heavier than two of our most lately reviewed mice, the Logitech G Professional X Superlight and the Razer DeathAdder V3 Professional.

That’s no drama, although — 16 grams distinction definitely doesn’t really feel like a lot, nor did it have an effect on the mouse’s pace or efficiency in my playtesting. Actually, when you’re not taking part in esports, it’s unlikely you’ll discover. Nonetheless, the additional weight does make the Cobra Professional slightly unconventional for a mid-2023 pro-grade launch.

The button configuration can be slightly unconventional, however in a great way. As an alternative of the six-button FPS configuration you generally see, you get 7 buttons all up, when you rely the DPI up and down switches behind the mouse wheel. I’ll focus on 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 wonderful dollop of RGB is one other issue that actually separates the Cobra Professional from the remainder of the pack. Whereas it looks as if gaming mice producers sould be clambering over one another to incorporate extra RGB, to this point 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 the hours of darkness a complete lot extra memorable.

The Cobra Professional can be exceptionally nicely 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 their 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 possibly can fairly simply get by utilizing a lowly 8,000 DPI sensor, even within the quickest FPS matches, and nonetheless high the scoreboard. What’s the purpose, then, of getting such an incredible sensor just like the Cobra Professional’s? Nicely, as any aggressive gamer is aware of, DPI isn’t every thing.

For instance, in addition to its elegant decision and insane monitoring pace of 750 inches per second, the Cobra Professional’s Razer Focus Professional 30K sensor allows you to modify your liftoff distance to one in all 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 enticing proposition over 8K, 12K, and even 26K rival sensors, for my part.

Launching a sport of Insurgency to trial it proved the sensor may monitor movement fantastically. Though you’d be onerous pressed to see a distinction in pace 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. Actually, 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 already know of a selected map the place you’ll have plenty of right-to-left motion –- a secret spot beneath the bushes on the far proper of your subject of play, or one thing — chances are you’ll need to unleash the Cobra from its cage only for that.

But when I may select my favourite factor about Razer’s Cobra Professional it will be the DPI up and down buttons. I don’t have a substantial amount of time to actually examine character courses in FPS video games and calibrate one of the best 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 any case, the saying goes “A jack of all trades is a master of none.”

That mentioned, having the ability to change between my 800 DPI setting for sniping and 1600 DPI setting for the rifle in a break 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 characteristic too.

Razer Synapse software program

A mouse that provides options like 26 granular ranges of asymmetrical raise off and determination 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 a simple affair, Synapse allows you to achieve this way more. A few of the issues that I received as much as in Synapse included assigning additional features to my mouse buttons to make a complete of 10 with Razer Hyper Shift, in addition to altering the polling fee 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 sort 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 massive 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 when you take pleasure in utilizing macros, you’re in luck.

Must you purchase the Razer Cobra Professional?

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

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 extremely trendy, with an distinctive quantity of dazzling RBG, so to take pleasure in limitless gentle exhibits. Plus, because you get each DPI down in addition to up clicks, this mouse allows you to change DPI settings straight away, permitting you get the drop on rivals when the motion will get livid.