Build Quality

Overall build quality is very solid. There is no rattle when shaking the mouse. When applying lateral pressure, no creaking or flexing of the shell can be observed. Activating the side buttons by squeezing the sides is impossible. Lastly, no accidental clicks occur when slamming the mouse down.

Buttons

Main buttons on the Burst Core are very good. Compared to regular mechanical switches, the click feel is rather dull and muted, but pre and post-travel are low, resulting in a snappy click response. While the buttons are visually (not mechanically) separated from the shell, lateral button movement is as low as physically possible. Compared to the Burst Pro, I noticed that the buttons aren't as uniform, as the left main button is considerably stiffer than the right one. I don't think this is inherent to the Burst Core, but rather due to generally higher variance from this switch type. Button stiffness is light (right click) to medium (left click). ROCCAT-branded optical switches are used here.


Side buttons are excellent. Both pre and post-travel are very low, and the pressure point is even across the entirety of these. Button placement is great as actuation is possible very easily by rolling one's thumb across. They might be a tad too big, however, as I did accidentally hit them during play several times. TTC switches (red plunger) are used for these.

At the top of the mouse is a single button for cycling through the set CPI levels. Its click feel is good. Another TTC switch (white plunger) is used for this one.

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is very good. Scrolling up or down is somewhat noisy, but the individual steps are quite nicely separated, resulting in above average tactility. Having said that, I do think the scroll wheel on the Burst Core isn't as nice as on the Kone Pure Ultra or Kain series. The encoder comes from Alps. Actuating the middle (scroll wheel) click requires medium force, and a tactile switch from TTC is used here.

Coating

The Burst Core has a smooth matte surface. It doesn't attract fingerprints, dirt, or the likes too much. It's easy to clean, and there are no signs of wear left after doing so. All in all, excellent materials.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the Burst Core is easy. Remove the two big skates and unscrew the four screws—top and bottom shells are now easily separated. The internal design is equally simple. Nearly everything sits on a single PCB. The side and CPI button PCB is screwed to the top shell and connected to the main PCB through a 4-pin JST connector. An auxiliary PCB next to the scroll wheel provides scroll illumination, and the main PCB is affixed to the bottom shell with four screws. All PCBs are very thin in order to save as much weight as possible. The MCU is a Holtek HT32F52352, whose datasheet can be found here. The production date for all PCBs is the 30th week of 2020.


As for the soldering and general quality of the PCBs, I'm unable to find any noteworthy flaws.