Essentially being a larger Razer Orochi V2, the Aria XD7 was among the more acclaimed releases of 2022. Two years later, Fantech presents the successor, split between two distinctly different SKUs: the regular Aria II, which is a USB full-speed device and therefore restricted to 1000 Hz, without any upgrade path, and the Aria II Pro, which shares most of the internals, but comes with a different set of MCUs and supports 8000 Hz polling for both wired and wireless operation. Compared to the Aria XD7, the shape of the Aria II Pro is virtually unchanged. The dimensions aren't an exact match, and aesthetically, minor adjustments to the main buttons, charge LED position, and sides have been made, but for all intents and purposes, the shape is the same. At 53 g, the Aria II Pro is 7 g lighter, even though battery capacity is unchanged at 300 mAh. This weight-cutting measure is particularly noteworthy in that the Aria II Pro still does not feature holes or an open-bottom design, and build quality hasn't suffered at all, either. On my sample, there is no rattle when shaking the mouse, no creaking or flexing of the shell when applying lateral pressure, and actuating the side buttons by pressing below them is impossible regardless of force used. Accordingly, the Aria II Pro measures up well to the Zaopin Z1 Pro, which is smaller and weighs 52 g.

After the TTC optical switches on the Helios II Pro were poorly received, Fantech has gone back to mechanical switches on the Aria II Pro, more specifically Huano switches of the blue transparent shell, pink plunger type. These are known for their snappy actuation, though on the Aria II Pro, they end up feeling less tactile due to moderate to high pre-travel. In addition, there is a moderate degree of lateral movement when trying to provoke it, though in practice, this never becomes noticeable. The side buttons too come from Huano, and while the forward button scores with low pre and moderate post-travel, the back button suffers from high pre-travel, resulting in rather mushy actuation, even though the pressure point is even. For the scroll wheel, Fantech has opted for an encoder from F-Switch, more specifically of the brown/green core variety. Noise levels are manageable on this one, and tactility is above average, as the individual steps are fairly well-defined. Resembling those of the Helios II Pro, the feet are made of non-dyed pure PTFE and glide well. Two sets of replacement feet are included, which is commendable.

Unlike the Aria II, the Aria II Pro comes with two MCUs. On the mouse PCBA, a WCH CH32V305 GBU6 provides a USB high-speed PHY to allow for polling rates of up to 8000 Hz in wired operation, coupled with a Nordic nRF52840 for wireless communication. As the dongle features yet another USB high-speed MCU, polling rates of up to 8000 Hz are available in wireless operation as well. The software and firmware package comes from CompX, though in this case, results are very mixed. CPI deviation at least is nonexistent, and general tracking fine, regardless of MotionSync being enabled or not. In wired operation, the Aria II Pro does very well. Polling is stable almost throughout, as only polling rates below 1000 Hz show instability, and at a motion delay advantage of 1.2 ms over the Logitech G403 (control subject) without MotionSync, the Aria II Pro is on par with the best wired-only mice such as the Endgame Gear OP1 8K. Click latency too is on a respectable, albeit worse level compared to most 8000 Hz wired mice, which typically average around 0.1 ms, and ends up anywhere between 0.5 and 0.6 ms depending on polling rate. This only applies when running the lowest debounce time setting, which is 0 ms, though given that slam-click prevention has been implemented, there is no reason not to run 0 ms, provided no double-clicking is encountered.

That said, as good as performance is in wired operation, most people will only be interested in wireless performance, and this is where the Aria II Pro falters. The main issue is polling stability. On the Aria II Pro, there is not a single polling rate not suffering from instability, and the degree of instability is severe to where motion delay fluctuates so much that I wasn't even able to determine motion delay. One of the perks of high polling rates is the lower variance, given how polling intervals are smaller, but on the Aria II Pro, variance is sky-high, resulting in poor consistency. In addition, there are large off-period polls at 8000 Hz, which often result in accordingly large gaps in tracking, by up to 11 ms. Click latency at least isn't affected by this instability, and the numbers are very good, although worse than on other mice using this CompX solution. Instead of the 0.4 ms typically averaged at 8000 Hz with 0 ms debounce time by other mice using the same solution, the Aria II Pro lands at 0.8 ms, though this of course still is on par with mice such as the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2.

Battery life at least is much better on the Aria II Pro compared to the Aria II. At 8000 Hz, around 15 hours may be expected, which is only a little less than what the Aria II musters at 1000 Hz. Charging is similarly speedy at just below 0.3 A, though due to the added shielding required for ensuring signal integrity at USB high-speed, the charging cable is stiff to where playing while charging is effectively prevented altogether. Accordingly, 8000 Hz wired polling offers little to no benefit in practice, as the cable drag renders the whole experience most unpleasant, leaving wireless with its unstable polling as the only option. As far as the software is concerned, I have no complaints at least—it has all the relevant options, low resource usage, and essentially no bugs.

Overall, the Aria II Pro sits in a rather peculiar spot. The stiff cable essentially renders wired 8000 Hz polling an on-paper feature, as it'll feel absolutely terrible to use due to cable drag, and cables that are flexible yet sufficiently shielded often cost around $20, bringing the total cost up quite a bit. Hence, the Aria II Pro doesn't provide much more than the Zaopin Z1 Pro with its 4K dongle, which can often be had for around $50, and which doesn't suffer from major polling instability in wireless operation like the Aria II Pro does. That said, for those who prefer the larger Aria shape, the Aria II Pro is the only option, and at $88.80, it still offers good value for money, polling instability notwithstanding. As such, the Aria II Pro earns our Budget award.