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Turtle Beach Burst II Air: Ultralight rodent tested

Item: Turtle Beach Burst II Air
Rating: 4
Author: Kevin Hofer

Kevin Hofer

30.6.2024

Translation: machine translated

Turtle Beach uses the term "Air" to describe wireless devices. In the case of the Burst II Air, however, the suffix could also refer to its featherweight, which makes it appear to float above surfaces. The gaming mouse is also impressive in other respects.

Until now, I thought it was a cliché that something could be as light as a feather. The Burst II Air from Turtle Beach proves me wrong. At 47 grams, it's the lightest gaming mouse I've ever held in my hands. This makes it particularly suitable for playing first-person shooters. The mouse also proved to be extremely precise and well made when tested.

Design: Based on the tried and tested

The Burst II Air is the first gaming mouse from Turtle Beach that I have held in my hand. I have already tested its quasi-predecessor, the Burst Pro. At that time still under the Roccat brand. However, the parent company Turtle Beach recently discontinued this and now sells the products under its own name. Instead of the Roccat lettering, the Turtle Beach palm tree is now emblazoned on the mouse. What is also striking: The manufacturer has dispensed with RGB lighting. This is probably also to reduce the weight of the rodent to a minimum.

Looks like a mouse, it is a mouse.
Source: Kevin Hofer

The ultra-lightweight, wireless gaming mouse is similar to other mice in its category like the Logitech G Pro X Superlight. It is symmetrical, so could theoretically also be operated from the left. However, as the side buttons are only on the left, the Burst Air II is still more suitable for people who game on the right.

The size of the mouse suits me very well. For reference: I wear glove size L. Thanks to the comfortable shape, I can game longer with the Burst II Air than with other mice. For larger hands, however, I would only recommend it for the Claw or Fingertip Grip. If you have no idea what this means, the following illustration will help you:

Turtle Beach doesn't use grooves or indentations on the Burst II Air for a better grip. Nevertheless, my fingers don't slip. If the grip is not enough for you, the manufacturer includes grip tape.

Processing: only one weak point

Low weight is often equated with poor quality. I can't support this statement with the Burst II Air. The lightweight convinces me with its workmanship. If I exert a lot of pressure on the mouse, it doesn't creak anywhere and the plastic doesn't bend.

The two main buttons have minimal play to the left and right - but less than most mice. This is not an issue when gaming. However, fingerprints can be recognised relatively quickly on my black test sample. I couldn't find any information on the material used or the coating. But this is the only weak point in the workmanship.

The mouse is superbly crafted, so nothing stands in the way of intensive gaming sessions.
Source: Kevin Hofer

Good buttons

Turtle Beach relies on its own Titan optical switches for the two main buttons. The advantage of optical switches compared to mechanical switches is that they have no debounce delay. These are the milliseconds that a mechanical switch needs to return to its original position. Another advantage of this type of switch is that no accidental double-clicks should occur. The Titan switches are designed for 100 million clicks.

No matter where I press on the main buttons, the Burst II Air always triggers at the same time and the same amount of force is required throughout. There is a minimal button travel before and after triggering. For gaming mice, the shorter the stroke, the better. My test sample performs very well.

The side buttons are perfectly positioned. I can comfortably rest my thumb under them and reach them without much effort when needed. They release evenly and feel good.

The mouse wheel is well placed for the Claw and Fingertip Grip. In the Palm Grip it is placed a little far back. It is not rubberised, which is why it does not offer much grip. This is particularly annoying when scrolling. On the other hand, it engages clearly. When I press the wheel, there is hardly any noticeable stroke and the click is very quiet.

The buttons are well positioned and respond reliably.
Source: Kevin Hofer

The CPI or DPI switch is located on the left-hand side. CPI stands for counts per inch. This indicates how many pixels the cursor jumps when the mouse is moved by one inch. There is a switch on the underside to change the connections. The Burst II Air works either via Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi or cable. I don't recommend Bluetooth for gaming due to the latency.

Good battery, solid cable and ingenious gliding feet

According to Turtle Beach, the battery of the Burst II Air lasts up to 40 hours with a 2.4 GHz connection and 120 hours with Bluetooth. I mainly used the mouse with the 2.4 GHz connection. This is where the information comes in. Compared to other mice, the 40 hours are modest. However, the 120 hours with Bluetooth is an excellent value. The mouse is charged via USB-C, the supplied cable has a length of 1.8 metres. For a cable that is not permanently connected, it is very flexible and I can play games with it.

In addition to the dongle, which is required for the 2.4 GHz wireless connection, Turtle Beach also supplies an extender. This allows you to place the receiver further away from your PC. This is necessary if the signal is disturbed by USB 3.0 connections. The connection is excellent with the extender. If you want to take the dongle with you to the next LAN party, you can park it on the underside of the mouse.

The gliding feet are well positioned.
Source: Kevin Hofer

Five gliding feet made of PTFE, better known as Teflon, ensure that the Burst II Air glides almost smoothly over my Deskmat. There are two feet with rounded corners and edges at the front and two at the back. There is another glide around the sensor. Additional, larger glides are included in the scope of delivery. I could use these to replace the front and rear ones.

The sensor is great

The sensor of the Burst II Air seems to react very reliably. But I have this impression with (almost) all newer gaming mice. That's why I always measure the sensor.

The mouse contains the Owl-Eye sensor. It has over 26,000 CPI. Such a high CPI is usually not really necessary. Personally, I never play with more than 1600 CPI. Turtle Beach specifies 650 inches per second (IPS). IPS indicates how fast you can move the mouse so that the sensor can still perceive the movements accurately. 650 is a good value.

I use MouseTester v1.5 to test how accurate the sensor is. The programme carries out various tests and helps me to determine small differences in precision.

CPI precision

When testing, I measure three times and calculate an average value. To do this, I move the mouse ten centimetres along a ruler and the programme records the CPI. The closer the recorded CPI is to the set CPI, the better.

The built-in sensor is impressive. As a rule, I classify anything under five per cent deviation as good. Here it is a maximum of three per cent.

Polling rate consistency

The polling rate indicates the interval at which the mouse sends information to the PC. The more frequently it does this, the faster button presses and movements can be processed. At a polling rate of 1000 Hz, the update time is one millisecond. Or the other way round: the mouse sends information to the PC thousands of times per second. The dots on the following graphic show you how long it takes for the signal to be updated. The closer to the set polling rate, the better.

Occasionally there are outliers in the polling rate. Overall, however, the deviations are not too large and they correspond to the results of other current gaming mice.

Tracking speed

The mouse must correctly reproduce fast movements. During the test, I move the mouse quickly at different CPI settings. MouseTester registers these movements and displays a diagram. The dots on the diagram are the registered characters. The closer the dots are to the line, the more accurately the mouse registers my movements. These should be as close as possible to the curve. Movements on the Y-axis are red, those on the X-axis are blue.

Deviations are almost non-existent with the Burst II Air. They are in a maximum range of 0.5 metres per second. These are good values.

Acceleration

If I move the mouse quickly in one direction and then slowly back to its original position in the same way, the same CPI should be registered by the sensor. To test this, I move the mouse quickly diagonally from a point A at the bottom left to a point B at the top right. Then I slowly drag it the exact same way back to the original point A. MouseTester registers the movement. Ideally, all registered characters lie on a line.

The sensor also solves this task well. Only at the lower end are the two lines not congruent.

Many of the features are also available without software

I configure the Burst II Air in the "Swarm II" software. Among other things, it lets me remap the buttons. I can also use Easy Shift to assign secondary functions to them. I also adjust the CPI and the polling rate. I can also configure the debounce delay and make power saving settings. I can't see the battery status on the mouse itself, but I can check it in Swarm II.

You can change various settings in Swarm II.
Source: Kevin Hofer

The software is OK, but seems a bit cluttered. It occasionally lost the connection to the mouse, but this was restored after a few moments. In contrast to the review of the Atlas Air headset, I didn't experience any crashes with Swarm II and the settings were also applied in each case.

In a nutshell

A precise touch of nothingness

The Burst II Air sits very comfortably in my hand. I can hardly feel it due to its low weight, which is why my hand hardly gets tired. It offers enough features and is well made. The main buttons and the sensor can keep up with the top products from other manufacturers such as Razer or Logitech.

The biggest criticism is the battery life in wireless operation with a 2.4 GHz dongle. Other manufacturers offer double the stated 40 hours. The grip of the mouse wheel could also be better. I often slip on it. Turtle Beach could also improve the surface treatment. It attracts fingerprints almost magically, which is why I would go for the white version.

The price of the Burst II Air is in the range of comparable mice. I therefore think the value for money is fine.

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