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

Best Prices Today: Razer Cobra Pro

The Razer Cobra Pro is a compact, pro-grade gaming mouse that’s completely fitted to all the main grip sorts. It additionally boasts a top-line, exceptionally easy Razer Focus Pro 30,000 DPI optical sensor that proves a pressure to be reckoned with in the precise participant’s hand.

While the Cobra Pro’s stablemate, the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro, is close to 16 grams lighter than the Cobra Pro, the Cobra Pro 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 Pro is the eminently higher choice for avid gamers who like to alter their DPI settings on the fly.

How a lot does the Razer Cobra Pro price?

The Cobra Pro is likely one of the extra inexpensive professional grade gaming mice. Right 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 Pro. It at the moment prices $40 greater than the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Wireless, a rival that additionally options 2.4GHz wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity and RGB. However, 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 Pro makes it the higher worth for cash choice.

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

Razer Cobra Pro: Design and construct

Narrow, low profile gaming mice aren’t trending proper now, so the Razer Cobra Pro is de facto 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 Pro (5.0 x 2.7 x 1.7 inches), Logitech G Pro X Superlight (4.9 x 2.5 x 1.6 inches), and the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Wireless (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 simple due to the additional area 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 Pro’s modest physique, particularly on the most important clicks the place they’re prone to expertise some overhang. Of course, when you’re a claw gripper, that’s probably not going to use to you as a lot, so the Cobra is particularly suited to you.

Comparing the mouse’s weight to a vanguard of ultra-light gaming mice and at 77 grams, it’s not less than 16 grams heavier than two of our most not too long ago reviewed mice, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight and the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro.

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. In reality, when you’re not taking part in esports, it’s unlikely you’ll discover. Still, the additional weight does make the Cobra Pro somewhat unconventional for a mid-2023 pro-grade launch.

The button configuration can also be somewhat unconventional, however in a great way. Instead 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 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.

An glorious dollop of RGB is one other issue that actually separates the Cobra Pro from the remainder of the pack. While it looks as if gaming mice producers sould be clambering over one another to incorporate extra RGB, to date in 2023 we’ve scarcely seen a lot in any respect. But the Cobra Pro’s 19 programmable RGB lighting zones actually make taking part in in the dead of night an entire lot extra memorable.

The Cobra Pro can also 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 Pro’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. In the field you get a USB dongle adapter and a USB-A to USB-C Speedflex cable. The cable feels robust 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 Pro gaming efficiency

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

I imply, you may 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 a tremendous sensor just like the Cobra Pro’s? Well, as any aggressive gamer is aware of, DPI isn’t every little thing.

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

Launching a recreation of Insurgency to trial it proved the sensor might monitor movement fantastically. Although you’d be laborious pressed to see a distinction in pace and motion between the Cobra Pro and say a 26K sensor from a rival mouse, to me the Cobra Pro’s motion simply appeared 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 Pro’s added weight was additionally a boon to my efficiency. Certainly, 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 stated, this mouse is good for right-to-left sniping or spraying in FPS video games. Indeed, if you recognize of a selected map the place you’ll have numerous right-to-left motion –- a secret spot beneath the bushes on the far proper of your subject of play, or one thing — you might need to unleash the Cobra from its cage only for that.

But if I might select my favourite factor about Razer’s Cobra Pro it could be the DPI up and down buttons. I don’t have an excessive amount of time to actually examine character courses in FPS video games and calibrate the perfect 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. After all, the saying goes “A jack of all trades is a master of none.”

That stated, 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’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.

As nicely as making programming in instructions an easy affair, Synapse enables you to accomplish that way more. Some of the issues that I acquired 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 price and switching on Smart Dimming of the RGB to preserve battery energy when the mouse is in Wireless Mode. By the best way, the battery life is kind of first rate. 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 Pro is you get 5 onboard reminiscence profiles. Once programmed in Synapse, altering profiles in your video games is so simple as urgent the Cobra Pro’s profile change on its underside, so when you get pleasure from utilizing macros, you’re in luck.

Should you purchase the Razer Cobra Pro?

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

The Razer Cobra Pro is a wonderful all-rounder gaming mouse with a top-line sensor that takes no prisoners within the quick aggressive video games. It additionally appears extremely trendy, with an distinctive quantity of dazzling RBG, so to get pleasure from infinite gentle reveals. Plus, because you get each DPI down in addition to up clicks, this mouse enables you to change DPI settings right away, permitting you get the drop on opponents when the motion will get livid.