Razer Cobra HyperSpeed review: Loud and lightweight little gaming mouse
The Razer Cobra HyperSpeed exists in a very familiar place. It’s a compact wireless gaming mouse that does exactly what it promises, comes with all the right buzzwords (even has an ‘AI button’) and fits somewhat neatly into Razer’s expansive lineup without making too much noise.
If you’re coming from an older mouse, or just want something that seems solid without jumping straight to Razer’s pricier flagships, this already sounds like a safe choice.
Which is why this review is a bit awkward to write.
All of that is basically me saying: the Razer Cobra HyperSpeed isn’t a bad mouse. In fact, for most people it’s actually pretty good.
However, it’s not you Razer, it’s me.
What’s in the box?
Before we go that far though, let’s first take a look at what we’re talking about. The Razer Cobra HyperSpeed sits just a tiny bit below their ‘Pro’ lineup—that is to say, these are still pretty high-end mice, just not their best offering.
The Cobra HyperSpeed itself boasts a Razer Focus X 26K Optical Sensor with a max DPI of 26,000, their Gen 4 optical mouse switches, an optical scroll wheel, a 1,000Hz polling rate and of course their Razer Chroma RGB offering 3 zone underglow as well as lighting on the Razer logo. That Focus X sensor may not be their top end—the DeathAdder V4 Pro we checked out last year has a 45,000 DPI Focus Pro 45K Optical Sensor Gen-2—but I mean, it’s still better than what most people have at home.
The box meanwhile comes with the Cobra HyperSpeed itself, a nice USB-A to USB-C cable, a USB dongle adapter and the HyperSpeed dongle itself. The mouse weighs in at 62g, making it a very light mouse for most mouse users. There’s a storage compartment beneath the puck on the underside of the Cobra HyperSpeed, which I greatly appreciate; the puck itself doesn’t do anything until you get one of the optional accessories which I’ll get to shortly. Speaking of the underside, the feet are 100% PTFE and they glide extremely well.
One thing I should note is that if you do get this mouse and want to ‘upgrade’ some stuff, you can actually do so thanks to its optional accessories. If you want wireless charging, you could totally get the Razer Wireless Charging Puck along with the Mouse Dock Pro, or the Razer HyperFlux V2 Wireless Charging System. Want to boost the polling rate up to 8,000Hz? You can do so with the Mouse Dock Pro, or with the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle.
It’s fantastic—for small handed gamers
Let me pre-face this section by saying: yes I know I’m large. As for my hands, they’re large too, which is why the Razer Cobra HyperSpeed felt just a touch awkward in my palms.
That might sound a bit weird considering my daily driver, the Keychron M6 isn’t that much longer than the Cobra HyperSpeed. However, the Keychron M6 has a rather high arch to it compared to the HyperSpeed, which has a more traditional symmetrical design. It’s also much smaller compared to mice I previously used, such as ROG Chakram Core or the Razer Deathadder Pro.
All of that combines to a mouse that’s a touch too compact, too mini for my liking. That being said, if you’re a fan of the old Razer Viper Mini, then this is probably the mouse for you. The Cobra HyperSpeed measures 119.6mm long, 38.1mm tall and 62.5mm wide, making it a rather narrow mouse with a slightly flared back. If you’re a gamer on the smaller side, in all likelihood you’ll really like the Cobra HyperSpeed, or maybe even the Cobra Pro if you want its similar looking flagship sibling.
The best part is probably how light it is. My Keychron M6 is already fairly lightweight at 78g, but the Cobra HyperSpeed goes next level at just 62g. Build quality is also pretty decent, with no rattling noises even when shaking it around. As for battery life, Razer rates it as good for up to 110 hours with the dongle at 1,000Hz, though for me I managed just under two weeks of regular usage before needing to charge it again.
As for how it plays, it does the job pretty well. Other than it taking me longer than expected to get used to its small profile, the Cobra HyperSpeed does exactly what it says on the tin, with its lightweight and slick feet making it easy to flick headshots around as Hawkeye in Marvel Rivals. Plus, thanks to its tri-mode connectivity, I can still hook it up via Bluetooth to my work laptop when I’m not gaming and leave my dongle in my PC at home, or just plug in a USB-C cable if I need to charge it at the same time.
Why does it need an AI button?
A minor nitpick I have though is how loud the switches are. I could hear my constant clicking sounds when in the office, and even with my headphones on while gaming the loud left and right clicks just about crept into my ear canal. It’s probably not even that much louder than a regular gaming mouse, but it’s just that the Cobra HyperSpeed’s clicks are a little bit tinny, which will get annoying after awhile. And if my colleagues are reading this, I’m so sorry about the noise.
Another minor nitpick I have with the Cobra HyperSpeed is that the DPI button now doubles as an ‘AI Prompt Master’ if you long press it. I have no idea why it would do that, nor would I ever need it to do that, and the worst part about it is that some users—though thankfully not myself—have even reported that this new feature means some macro capabilities using the DPI switch no longer work properly.
What I really didn’t like though isn’t even necessarily the fault of the mouse itself, but rather the software. I am not a fan of my mouse requiring an app in general, and I am especially not a fan of Razer Synapse requiring on average 400MB of precious computer memory. It will drop when you kill it, though there’s still remaining services left in Task Manager after that. That being said, if the default DPI settings out of the box match what you use and you don’t feel a need to customise your RGB lighting, then you can of course just never install Razer Synapse in the first place.
Still a decent compact gaming mouse
Priced at RM489 on the Razer Malaysia website and available with addons such as the Mouse Dock Pro, Wireless Charging Puck or HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, the Cobra HyperSpeed isn’t exactly a gaming mouse most people would consider ‘cheap’, nor is it the lightest of the ‘superlight’ alternatives such as the HitScan Hyperlight and Corsair Sabre V2 Pro.
But it is a pretty, well-built, all round solid gaming mouse from a brand that most people will know and love. It’s relatively compact size is probably the best thing it has going for it, and if you want a smaller sized gaming mouse, the Cobra HyperSpeed probably will tick all the boxes. It may not tick all of mine, but it might for you.
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