Software

The Cobra Pro is fully compatible with Razer's modular software, Synapse 3. Synapse is embedded into an overarching software suite called Razer Central. From there, it is possible to install additional optional modules, such as Chroma Connect, Chroma Studio, or the highly sophisticated macro editor.

All settings are accessible through five tabs. "Customize" houses button remapping, which also includes a HyperShift function to enable a second set of button maps that can be accessed upon pressing a dedicated shift button. "Performance" is used to adjust CPI for up to five levels, ranging from 100 to 30,000 CPI and in increments of 50. Polling rate can be set to 125, 500, or 1000 Hz. "Lighting" is detailed below. "Calibration" allows one to adjust the lift-off distance between three presets (low, medium, high), along with the option of setting up asymmetric cut-off. The fifth tab, called "Power," enables one to set the idle time (in minutes) after which the mouse enters sleep mode, as well as the battery status percentage at which Low Power mode is enabled. Low Power mode lowers the maximum tracking speed from 750 IPS (19.05 m/s) to 550 IPS (13.97 m/s) and maximum acceleration from 70G to 40G. Lastly, profile management is available, too.

All setting changes are applied immediately and saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, Synapse had a RAM footprint of 423 MB on average when running in the foreground, which doesn't change when minimized, be it to the taskbar or system tray. Upon exiting the application, several processes with an overall RAM footprint of 208 MB keep running. Remarkably, these processes continue to load if Synapse is set to not auto-start with Windows. The most convenient way of terminating these processes is to run any recent Razer mouse firmware updater.

Lighting

The Cobra Pro has three physical lighting zones, which are the logo at the back, scroll wheel, and underside of the mouse. Eight pre-defined lighting effects are available: Audio Meter (lighting reacts to audio playback), Breathing, Fire, Reactive (lighting reacts to button inputs), Spectrum Cycling, Starlight, Static, and Wave. Brightness can be adjusted, and for most effects, the colors are adjustable as well. By using Chroma Studio, creating more advanced effects is also possible. Additionally, the lighting can be configured to switch off in idle or when the display is turned off. Lastly, a new feature called "Smart Dimming" is present as well, which lowers brightness to the set percentage when moving the mouse, and restores the original brightness after not moving the mouse for three seconds. Flipping the switch above the brightness slider disables illumination altogether.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are excellent throughout. Here's a short demonstration video in which I go through the Breathing, Spectrum Cycling, and Wave lighting effects:

Battery Life

Razer states a maximum battery life of up to 100 hours using 2.4 GHz wireless and up to 170 hours using Bluetooth. This refers to continuous usage at the maximum applicable polling rate (i.e., 1000 Hz for 2.4 GHz and 133 Hz for Bluetooth) without illumination. The software includes a percentage-based battery life indicator with single-digit accuracy, which is in fact reliable and accurate. When using 2.4 GHz wireless, a polling rate of 1000 Hz, and full RGB lighting at 33% brightness with Smart Dimming enabled, for each four hours of use, the battery indicator went down by 8%. Hence, we can assume that expected battery life with RGB enabled is around 50 hours.

After not moving the mouse for a period of time set in Synapse, the Cobra Pro enters a sleep mode from which it can be woken up by moving the mouse, but not by clicking a button.

Using the included USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable, I measured the charging speed during the constant current stage, which sits at around 0.183 A when not lifted and 0.193 A when lifted. The battery has a capacity of 420 mAh and utilizes a 3-pin JST connector.