If you know anything about me, you know I love a mouse with 19+ buttons. That's why I've been using Razer's Naga V2 Pro as my daily driver for the past three and a half years — and I have no regrets; it's on our list of best gaming mice for a reason. Thankfully, Razer must've heard my V2 Pro begging for its life, because there's a new multi-button MMO mouse in town with up to 23 programmable buttons: the Razer Naga V3 Pro.

The Naga V3 Pro is very similar to its predecessor at a glance — because Razer hasn't changed the mouse's form factor at all. It still comes with three swappable magnetic side plates (in 2-, 6- and 12-button layouts), but that's where the similarities end. The new Naga V3 Pro sports Razer's latest Focus Pro 50K gen-3 optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 50,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 930 IPS, and can handle up to 90 G's of force. It's not cheap, as the Naga lineup never has been, with an MSRP of $180 — pricier than most premium flagship gaming mice because it is, after all, all about versatility.

Design and Comfort

Like some of Razer's other new mice, the Naga V3 Pro has the exact same shape as its predecessor — it's a shorter, wider mouse than most flagship premium mice, measuring 4.7 x 2.97 x 1.72 inches (119.5 x 75.5 x 43.5mm). It's still a larger mouse overall, just a different shape. It has a right-handed ergonomic shape with a contoured thumb area, with interchangeable plates and a curved ring finger rest on the right side. It has a matte black plastic shell and features three RGB light zones in the scroll wheel, the logo on the palm rest, and on the side panel.

The mouse weighs slightly less than its predecessor: 3.9 ounces (112g) without the side plate or cable attached; the side plates weigh 20g (12-button), 17g (6-button), and 15g (2-button). The Naga V2 Pro weighed 134g regardless of the side plate. Its side plates — which are the same 12-button, 6-button, and 2-button layouts as the side plates from the Naga V2 Pro — now feature more durable double-shot molded keycaps, so they should last longer and the legends should remain crisp and readable throughout the mouse's lifetime (not that anyone is really looking at the legends on their mouse buttons).

The mouse has three buttons the Naga V2 Pro doesn't have — in addition to its primary left/right buttons, tilt wheel, two buttons above the tilt wheel, and profile switch on the bottom. There are now two edge buttons on the left side of the left mouse button (set by default to scroll up and down through DPI steps) and the ring finger rest has also been turned into a button (set by default to activate Razer's HyperShift for multi-layer inputs). I didn't have any problems with accidentally pressing the ring finger rest button, but there is a locking switch that lets you quickly disable it (it actually stops it from clicking at all, which is nice) if you do have issues.

The Naga V3 Pro has a multi-mode tilt wheel with three distinct modes: tactile, free-spin, and precision tactile. The scroll modes can be toggled off, but they aren't fully configurable like the customizable scroll feature in the Naga V2 Pro. This seems fine, though — the customizable scroll feature in the Naga V2 Pro seemed like overkill to implement with very minor benefits, and I prefer just a few distinct modes to something that you can fully customize.

That said, I kind of wish the distinct modes had been slightly better implemented, as I found the free scroll to be especially over-sensitive — even just resting my finger next to the scroll wheel often caused it to activate. There's a setting in Synapse 4 that automatically switches over to free scroll mode when you're scrolling fast enough, but I didn't like this because there's an audible click every time it switches. The button directly next to the wheel is set to move through scroll modes by default, while the button above that is set to open up Razer's AI Prompt Master.

On the bottom of the mouse, you'll find a power switch, a programmable profile switch button, and the ring finger rest lock, as well as PTFE mouse feet and a dummy mouse puck that can be swapped in with charging pucks from Razer accessories.

In the box, the Naga V3 Pro comes with a 6-foot (1.8m) braided USB-C to USB-A cable, three interchangeable side plates, a USB-A dongle, and a USB-A to USB-C adapter. The cable is braided but it's fairly stiff — it's definitely not flexible or drag-free, like Razer's HyperFlux cables it usually bundles with its mice. You can use it as a mouse cable, but you probably won't want to.

Specs

Performance

The Naga V3 Pro features Razer's latest Focus Pro 50K Gen-4 optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 50,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 930 IPS, and can handle up to 90 G's of force. These are kind of crazy specs for a mouse considering most people won't use a DPI above 3,200 or so — what you need to know is that it's a great sensor that tracks across a variety of surfaces with excellent accuracy. It's speedy, too, though this is not the kind of mouse most people will be moving around lightning fast and picking up, as it's more than twice the weight of ultra-lightweight mice such as Razer's DeathAdder V4 Pro.

The mouse also features Razer's Gen-4 optical mouse switches, which are rated for up to 100 million clicks and offer crisp, tactile feedback. The feedback does feel slightly crisper and more deliberate than the switches in the Naga V2 Pro, but it's not a very significant difference and you definitely can't tell unless you're using both side-by-side. Still, at 100 million clicks they should last as long as the mouse does.

These switches are only in the primary mouse buttons, not the side panel buttons — though the side panel buttons still felt fairly crisp and gave nice tactile feedback. The only buttons I didn't love on the Naga V3 Pro were the edge buttons on the left side of the left mouse button — they were a little too far to the left to be comfortable, and they had a very soft, mushy, lackluster click.

The Naga V3 Pro ships with a 1,000 Hz polling rate and a 1,000 Hz polling rate is the highest you're going to get unless you make a separate purchase. The mouse is capable of getting up to an 8,000 Hz polling rate, but you'll need to purchase either Razer's Mouse Dock Pro or its HyperPolling Wireless Dongle in order to achieve polling rates higher than 1,000 Hz.

Features and Software

The Naga V3 Pro is programmable via Razer Synapse 4, and you'll almost certainly want to do some customizing since the default settings have the side panel buttons programmed to numbers (except for the two-button side panel, which is MB4 / MB5). Luckily Synapse 4 didn't give me too much trouble with calibration or bringing my Naga V2 Pro settings over to the Naga V3 Pro.

Synapse 4 lets you remap buttons, customize the tilt wheel, and adjust settings such as DPI steps and polling rate. It features a built-in automatic mouse calibration tool that lets you match your current mouse's DPI (this worked flawlessly for me, but I was matching the Naga V3 Pro to the Naga V2 Pro), as well as some surface calibration settings you can play with. You can also customize the mouse's RGB lighting zones, of which there are three — tilt wheel, side panel, and palm rest logo.

Wireless Experience and Battery Life

The Naga V3 Pro has 3 forms of connectivity — 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and wired (via USB-C). Razer rates its battery life at up to 155 hours over its 2.4GHz wireless connection, which is pretty solid for a wireless mouse with so much going on — though this will of course vary depending on your polling rate and lighting settings. It's compatible with Razer's HyperFlux V2 Wireless charging mouse pad, however, which makes its battery life technically endless.

Bottom Line

The Naga V3 Pro is a solid update to the Naga V2 Pro, which I've been using for (literally) years. It looks and feels almost identical to the Naga V2 Pro, which I appreciate — the Naga V2 Pro is a very comfortable, if not particularly speed-optimized, gaming mouse — and it's got some nice upgrades in the sensor, switches, and buttons.

These days, the market is mostly dominated by stripped-down, ultra-lightweight eSports-oriented mice, and so it's nice to see that there's still a place for MMO-oriented mice with buttons in the double digits. The Naga V3 Pro isn't the only mouse with a 12-button side panel, but there isn't a ton of competition — we weren't wowed by SteelSeries' Aerox 9 Wireless, and Corsair's Scimitar Elite SE Wireless has an uncomfortably concave side panel (though it does move forward and backward, if that's something you're looking for). If you're looking for a mouse with a ton of buttons — not counting inputs that are duplicated via software — the Naga V3 Pro is now your best bet.

The Razer Blade 16 has long been leading contender among the best gaming laptops, thanks in part to its careful component selection and strong style. In this case, our review unit comes equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor and a flagship RTX 5090 GPU.

While the chassis remains the same as the Razer Blade 16 that we tested a little over a year ago, the 25W processor in our new review unit enabled some impressive runtimes that eclipse the competition. You’ll have to pay a considerable sum for the luxury, but the Blade 16 makes as strong a case as a compelling premium gaming laptop.

Design of the Razer Blade 16

We were impressed with the design of last year's Blade 16, and luckily, Razer hasn’t altered the formula for this year’s model. You get the same matte-black chassis that measures just 0.69 inches at its thickest point (0.59 inches towards the front). Build quality remains excellent in true Razer fashion.

The overall design is minimalist, with a minimal amount of RGBs and no obvious ventilation slats along the sides for heat management. Instead, the clean design would look at home sitting on your desk while you're gaming with an Xbox controller, or sitting on your desk in a cubicle at work. The only bit of flash that you’ll find is the RGB Razer logo on the lid.

You’ll find thin bezels around the glossy 16-inch OLED display, below which you’ll find the full-size keyboard and a large trackpad. There’s also a small status LED at the front right of the chassis (just below the Intel Core Ultra sticker on the deck). It pulses white when the laptop is in standby mode.

There’s a healthy assortment of ports on the laptop, including three legacy USB 3.3 Gen 2 Type-A ports. There’s also one Thunderbolt 4 port, one Thunderbolt 5, an SD card reader (UHS-II), a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack. There’s also a proprietary power port.

The Blade 16 measures 13.98 x 9.86 x 0.69 inches and weighs 4.71 pounds. For comparison, the MSI Raider 16 HX also packs an RTX 5090, but measures 14.29 x 10.62 x 1.14 inches and weighs over a pound more (5.73 pounds). The Alienware 16 Area-51 is heavier still at 7.49 pounds, with dimensions of 14.37 x 11.41 x 1.12 inches.

Razer Blade 16 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Razer Blade 16

Our Blade 16 review unit is equipped with a Core Ultra 9 386H processor, which has 16 total cores (4 performance, 8 efficient) and a maximum performance turbo frequency of 4.9 GHz for the performance cores. There’s also 32GB of LPDDR5x memory and a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU (1,597 MHz boost clock, 175W max TGP).

This combo generally performed well across our gaming benchmark suite, with a few exceptions. While playing Battlefield 6 at native resolution in Overkill detail mode, with DLSS Quality and Frame Generation enabled, I was comfortably getting between 110 and 120 FPS, even with a lot of action happening on the screen.

For this review, the competitive set consists of last year's Blade 16 (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 at 28W, RTX 5090 at 160W TGP), MSI Raider 16 Max HX (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5090 at 175W TGP), and the Alienware 16 Area-51 (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5080 at 175W TGP).

As usual, we start our gaming benchmarks with the Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest setting) benchmark, where the Blade 16 delivered 182 FPS at 1080p. Performance at 1600p scaled down to 133 FPS. The 2025 edition of the Blade 16 was 16 FPS behind at 1080, but at the resolution that most would play at, 1600p, the older model was nearly 30 FPS faster (162 FPS versus 133 FPS).

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra settings), the laptops were pretty evenly matched, with most running between 65 and 70 FPS at 1080p and at around 40 FPS at 1600p. For the Razer Blade 16 specifically, it achieved 65 FPS at 1080p and 42 FPS at 1600p.

Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) saw the Blade 16 running in third place ahead of its predecessor (106 FPS at 1080p, 108 FPS at 1600p). The Alienware 16 Area-51 and Raider 16 Max HX were a few FPS ahead at each resolution, but it was still a relatively close fight among the top three.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings) proved challenging for the Blade 16, as it lagged behind with 94 FPS at 1080p and just 71 FPS at 1600p. For comparison, last year's model eclipsed those numbers at 121 FPS and 94 FPS, respectively. The 25W CPU simply couldn’t keep up with the 28W Ryzen and 55W Intel HX chips

However, the Blade 16 was back to its fighting form in the Borderlands 3 (Badass settings) benchmark, easily slipping into second place behind the Raider 16 Max HX with 175 FPS at 1080p and 126 FPS at 1600p.

Metro Exodus is still our preferred benchmark for gaming laptop stress testing. Our review unit averaged 133.39 FPS at 1080p across 15 loops using the RTX benchmark preset. The CPU performance cores averaged 3.96 GHz, and the efficiency cores averaged 3.5 GHz. The RTX 5090 GPU also ran at 1.95 GHz.

One item of note is that the two system fans are incredibly loud while gaming, which may force you to use a pair of the best gaming headsets to block out the added noise.

Productivity Performance on the Razer Blade 16

The Razer Blade 16 uses a 16-core Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of memory, and a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. With some of the competition sporting upwards of 8 additional cores, the Blade 16 didn’t really break through in the multi-threaded benchmarks.

The synthetic CPU benchmark Geekbench saw the Blade 16 lag slightly behind its predecessor in single-core (2,895 versus 2,922), but pull ahead in multi-core performance (16,971 versus 16,025). However, neither Blade system was a match for the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processors in the Alienware 16 Area-51 and Raider 16 Max HX; the latter of which pulled numbers of 3,231 and 20,656, respectively.

In our 25GB file transfer test, the Blade 16 took second place by the slightest of margins, hitting 1,735.09 MBps. However, this result was still 1,000 MBps behind the first-place Alienware 16 Area-51.

The multi-threaded performance shortfall crept up again in our Handbrake test, where we transcode a 4K video file to 1080p. The Blade 16 pulled up the rear in this group, even falling behind the Blade 16 with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. It took 3 minutes and 17 seconds to complete the task compared to just 1 minute and 51 seconds for the Raider 16 Max HX.

Display on the Razer Blade 16

As Tom's Hardware's resident monitor editor, I’m absolutely smitten with OLED panels. Thankfully, the OLED display on the Blade 16 doesn’t disappoint: it’s a 16-inch panel with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and a native refresh rate of 240 Hz.

We found that color volume was 90 percent for DCI-P3 and 127 percent for sRGB. Brightness levels were also fairly impressive, earning second place behind the Raider 16 Max HX at 408.2 nits.

Although the instrumented tests show some regression compared to last year’s Blade 16 in the sRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces, the display looks amazing in a vacuum. The gritty visuals while playing Battlefield 6 in Overkill mode were a delight to my eyes, with sunlight glinting through windows and concussive bomb blasts kicking up debris all around me.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Razer Blade 16

The keyboard on the Blade 16 uses scissor switches with 1.5 mm of travel. The key presses are slightly clicky, and my fingers had no trouble getting used to typing on the keys.

I used my standard keyhero.com typing test and scored 89 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy, which is about par for the course for me.

The touchpad is absolutely massive, measuring 5.9 inches wide and 3.8 inches tall. It’s one of the largest trackpads you’ll find outside of Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pros. What isn’t Apple-like is the insistence on using a mechanical linkage for trackpad actuation instead of the steadier, more consistent presses made possible by a haptic touchpad. For a laptop with a sticker price of nearly $5,000, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for some haptics here.

However, if you’re using this laptop primarily for gaming, you’ll likely be using one of the best gaming mice for your competitive sessions.

Audio on the Razer Blade 16

The six-speaker audio system on the Blade 16 is THX-optimized, and the audio quality is good, if not quite price-appropriate. While playing Battlefield 6, in-game dialog, explosions, gunfire, and vehicle noise generally sounded good, but the effects were competing with the turbine whine of the dual system fans. Cranking the volume to near-max levels helped drown out the fan noise, but at that point, I was experiencing a bit of aural overload, so I opted to put on a pair of headphones.

When the CPU and GPU weren’t heavily taxed, I was able to better enjoy the speakers, such as by playing Dave Matthews Band’s album Before These Crowded Streets for the 300th time. I cruised through the album with the volume set to a comfortable 50%, savoring the acoustic and bass guitars on “Dreaming Tree,” which always results in a relaxing frisson for me.

Similarly, I watched the Mel Gibson-helmed The Patriot to get into the mood for the Fourth of July, and reveled in the heavy dialogue, flintlock musket blasts, and cannon bursts.

You can make adjustments to the audio using the Razer Synapse software,

Upgradeability of the Razer Blade 16

Accessing the interior of the Blade 16 involves removing 10 Torx screws. Once all screws are removed, the bottom panel lifts off with minimal force. You’ll find the large 90 WHr battery at the bottom front of the chassis, and above are two M.2 slots that accept full-length 2280 SSDs.

The right slot was populated with a 2TB Lexar NM790 PCIe 4.0 SSD, while the left slot was empty, allowing for future upgrades. Also accessible is the PCIe Wi-Fi 7 network adapter (Intel BE213).

Battery Life on the Razer Blade 16

One thing to keep in mind is that the Blade 16 maintained competitive gaming performance among its peers, while its multi-threaded performance took a back seat. However, those compromises were fully redeemed in terms of battery life.

The Blade 16 uses a 90 WHr battery, which delivered shockingly long endurance (for a gaming laptop) in our battery test, consisting of web browsing, video streaming over Wi-Fi, and OpenGL testing with the screen brightness set at 150 nits. The system lasted a staggering 12:46, besting the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370-equipped Blade 16 by over 5 hours and the Alienware 16 Area-51 by over 9 hours. Even the Raider 16 Max HX was no match, falling short by over 4 hours.

That is a fantastic result for such a thin and light 16-inch gaming laptop, and it is a testament to the miserly energy consumption of the Panther Lake processor.

Heat on the Razer Blade 16

While running the Metro Exodus stress test, we measured the temperature of Blade 16's aluminum-alloy chassis in various spots. The keyboard measured 102 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys, while the touchpad was 92 F.

The hottest part of the laptop was near the rear center of the bottom of the chassis, where we measured 130 F. So it’s best to keep the laptop firmly planted on your desk while gaming, lest you roast your legs.

During the Metro Exodus stress test, the CPU measured 75.3 degrees Celsius (C). Meanwhile, the RTX 5090 came in at 87 C.

Webcam on the Razer Blade 16

Razer continues to use a run-of-the-mill 1080p webcam with an IR sensor for Windows Hello support. It’s by no means a class-leading webcam, but it’s perfectly usable for Zoom or Teams meetings.

I found the colors to be mostly adequate, but there was a little lightness in the detail in my facial features.

Software and Warranty on the Razer Blade 16

One of my favorite things about Razer laptops is that they aren’t loaded down with too much added software. On our Blade 16 review unit, Razer Chroma and Synapse were preloaded.

Synapse is an all-in-one utility that lets you adjust performance profiles, keyboard macros, audio presets, and more. Chroma, on the other hand, gives you full control over system RGBs, including the per-key keyboard effects.

Otherwise, you’ll find requisite utilities, like the Nvidia app and the usual Windows app shortcuts (we’re looking at you, LinkedIn) on the Start menu.

The Blade 16 comes backed by a one-year warranty for the system itself and a two-year warranty for the 90 WHr battery.

Razer Blade 16 Configurations

Our Blade 16 review unit came configured with a Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 2TB SSD, RTX 5090 laptop GPU, and a 16-inch, 240 Hz. 1600p display. The price as-configured is a whopping $4,899.99.

There are cheaper configurations available — if you retain the Core Ultra 9 386H and opt for an RTX 5070 Ti, 1TB SSD, and 32GB of memory, the price drops to $3,499.99. Going with RTX 5080 bumps (all other hardware staying the same) takes the price to $3,999.99.

Bottom Line

Overall, the Razer Blade 16 was a strong performer in our gaming benchmarks, which is the primary reason why most people would be willing to spend nearly $5,000 for this system. More importantly, the Panther Lake-based system delivered nearly 13 hours of non-gaming battery life, outrunning its closest competitor by over 4 hours. Combine those results with the beautiful display, attractive chassis, and under-the-radar design, and you have a winning combination.

However, there are some detractions; the lack of a haptic trackpad at this price point is annoying, and multi-threaded performance significantly lagged the competition. Also, the $4,900 asking price is high, although not completely out of line for a system with these specs. You can save roughly $900 by going with an RTX 5080 instead of the RTX 5090 that was in our system.

But if price isn’t an issue for you, it’s hard to argue with this compelling combination of gaming performance and battery life.

I've reviewed several Razer gaming chairs over the years and have come to appreciate their style, adjustability, and overall comfort. Now, Razer is introducing a new line of gaming chairs that leans heavily into styling.

Meet the new Soma Chroma, a mid-range gaming chair with a racing-style design and integrated RGB lighting customizable via Razer Chroma software. The chair can be powered via a USB-C cable or a portable power bank, and it connects to your PC via an integrated Bluetooth connection or a 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle included in the box.

But is beauty more than skin deep? Let’s take a deep look at the Soma Chroma to see if there’s more to see other than its flashy design to make it a contender among the best gaming chairs.

Razer Soma Chroma Specifications

Assembling the Razer Soma Chroma

This is the fourth Razer gaming chair that I’ve reviewed, so I could pretty much put one together blindfolded. From the packaging to the tools/accessories included, not much has changed. Inside the box, you’ll find:

• Fabric gloves for assembly (glued to the inner flap)
• Backrest and seat base (left and right arms pre-attached)
• Metal, 5-arm base
• Casters 5x
• Gas lift, tilt mechanism
• Allen wrench, screws, and plastic covers for left/right side arms
• 2.4 GHz USB dongle (attached to assembly guide)

The chair arrived in a massive box, and the actual weight listed on the shipping label as 70 pounds. Upon opening the box, I was greeted by a familiar sight: a pair of black-and-green work gloves for assembling the chair. It’s a nice touch, but I always toss the gloves aside because I prefer to work with my bare hands for a relatively simple task like this.

A large green cardstock assembly guide sits atop the components, with a tiny box containing the 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle attached to it.

The seat base, seatback, and 5-arm base were all wrapped in clear plastic bags to protect the metal and fabric on the components during shipping. The first step was to insert the castors into the 5-arm base, and then to insert the gas lift cylinder into the base.

The next step was to remove the four screws that are preinstalled from the factory from the bottom of the seat base with the included Allen wrench tool. Once removed, I attached the tilt mechanism, reinserted the same four screws, and placed it on the 5-arm base. The seatback has two screws on each side that must be removed before you attach it to the seat base.

Once the seatback was attached, I reinserted the four screws and slipped on the plastic cover to hide the screws and attachment mechanism. I'll note that on Razer Iskur chairs, the plastic cover is secured with a single screw on either side, and the screw is covered with a tiny plastic plug. The cover on the Soma Chroma simply slides and locks into place.

Once the chair is fully assembled, you’re not quite done yet. You still need to get power to the chair for the RGB lighting to work. The chair includes a relatively short USB-C cord that hangs out the back. Razer also supplied me with a 10-foot USB-C-to-USB-C extension cable, which I used to connect to my desktop PC. However, this setup is rather cumbersome and requires continually fighting the cable as you move around your workspace.

My solution was to plug the USB-C cable from the back of the chair into a portable power bank, and then tuck it into the zippered pouch at the bottom of the seatback. This worked well, and is clearly how the chair is intended to be used — however, it does not ship with a battery pack, nor does it ship with an extra-long cable (Razer sent that separately). So you'll need to invest in a battery pack or an extension cable to use the RGB on this chair.

Razer Soma Chroma Design

The Soma Chroma introduces an entirely new design language for Razer gaming chairs. Whereas the Iskur line has a more organic design, with softer curves and radiused edges, the Soma Chroma is more angular—especially on the seatback.

The seat back and the base have recessed channels, which I assume would help to improve airflow under your buttocks and around your back. It's an interesting design choice, though I imagine the recessed channels in the seat base will also quickly fill with dirt, dust, and food crumbs. The same design is mirrored on the back of the chair. While previous Iskur chairs have used the same material on both the front and back, the back of the Soma Chroma is constructed of hard plastic.

You'll find a zippered pouch at the back of the seat base, which runs the full width. It's large enough to accommodate a portable power bank, so you don't have to be tethered to a long extension cord to power the RGB lights.

Speaking of the RGB lights, they are controlled using Razer’s Synapse software. I installed the Synapse app on my desktop computer and then plugged in the 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle (the chair also has integrated Bluetooth LE, if you prefer to go that route). The Soma Chroma then showed up in the app, allowing me to configure it.

There’s a brightness slider and an option to dim the lights after a period of inactivity on the right panel. In the right panel, there are options to change the default effects pattern. You can configure more advanced effects using the Chroma Studio. As you might expect, you can sync the RGBs with your games, although the effect is not evenly remotely noticeable unless you’re in a dark room.

During the daytime, you’re not going to notice the lights at all, and the only people who will notice are your coworkers on Google Meet/Zoom/Teams calls.

Although you can control the RGB effects in software, there are also physical controls at the top of the headrest.

Razer Soma Chroma Adjustments and Comfort

The Soma Chroma features dual-density cold-cured foam for the seat cushion. It did a good job of conforming to my buttocks, as it's specifically designed to relieve pressure points. There's good thigh support for my 5-foot-10-inch and 161-ish-pound frame.

What you gain in RGB goodness, you lose in adjustability. There's no adjustable lumbar support — what you see is what you get. Razer said that the lumbar curve is designed to encourage a neutral position and reduce fatigue after long-term use. That may be true in theory, but my lower back begged to differ after sitting in the chair for 6 hours straight in an upright and "ergonomically-correct" position. This was never an issue for me with the Iskur V2, with its 360-degree lumbar support — or even with the Iskur V2 X, which has no lumbar controls.

The backrest is adjustable from its default 90-degree upright position all the way back to 155 degrees. I spent the majority of my time either fully upright or slightly reclined at about 100 degrees. Anything more than 100 degrees just doesn't feel natural to me in any gaming chair.

The Soma Chroma features 2D armrests, which are adjustable for swivel and height. The armrests have an up/down travel of 4 inches and can swivel in or out by up to 25 degrees. They're densely padded and were a comfortable home for my elbows during extended sessions.

The chair has a height adjustment mechanism via a handle located on the right side of the seat base. I preferred to leave the seat at its maximum height of 20.1 inches.

Bottom Line

The Razer Soma Chroma is an interesting chair for gamers who are already fully entrenched in the Chroma ecosystem. The Soma Chroma has full access to Razer’s software suite, so you can sync all your devices to suit your gaming (or other media) needs. The chair also features built-in Bluetooth LE and includes a 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle.

The RGB integration is also well-done, with support for portable power banks and a zippered pouch on the back to discreetly hide it. You can also use a USB-C extension cord to connect the Soma Chroma to your PC, but it is a nightmare for ergonomics. Of course, the chair ships with neither a portable battery pack or an extension cord, so you'll need to purchase these separately.

On the flip side, the Soma Chroma isn’t as adjustable as some of Razer’s other chairs, as it lacks 3D armrests and lumbar controls. I also found that I had some minor lower back pain when using the chair for hours in my preferred seating position. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I haven't experienced this with previous Razer chairs.

And the other matter to consider is the $499 price. If you don’t need RGB wizardry, the Razer Iskur V2 X is $200 cheaper and just as good on chair fundamentals.

A PC gamer might think that a keyboard is the weapon of choice for their gameplay needs, but a good gamepad can make all the difference. Most modern PC games now give you the choice to switch between inputs, so if you're lacking in controller options, you'll want to take advantage of this offer on the Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition game controller, down to $64.99 right now.

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That's a new record low price for this controller on Amazon, according to the data crunching at Camelcamelcamel, although we have spotted it a touch cheaper on Woot on occasion. That said, this deal makes it $40 cheaper than it was just a few weeks ago.

You're getting everything you'd want and expect in a top-spec modern controller in the Razer Wolverine V3. It has stick drift-resistant next-gen TMR thumbsticks, ultra-precise triggers with customizable actuation points, four mouse-click back buttons, two claw grip bumpers, and an eight-way floating D-pad. This is a wired controller, although a wireless version is available, with an 8,000Hz polling rate. For gaming, that means ultra-fast input speeds that help to almost completely eliminate input lag.

Razer have iterated on this design with improvements over the original and V2 models. The USB-C cable is detachable, and there are some other quality-of-life improvements, including extra paddles on the underside, as well as a change from rubber grip to textured plastic to make it easier to clean. The Wolverine V3 is fully customizable, with Razer's software allowing you to set up your own custom presets and layouts, as well as set your preferred sensitivity levels.

If you've seen an Xbox controller, you won't be blown away by the Razer Wolverine's layout or design, but don't be fooled. It looks a lot like Microsoft's own, but that's about it. The tech under the hood of this controller is supercharged compared to the OG Xbox gamepad, with the TMR thumbsticks being one area to note.

TMR, or Tunneling Magnetoresistance thumbsticks, help you to eliminate stick drift, a common problem on controllers. The sticks used here rely on magnetics to help determine directional input and are a step up in design compared to the (now common) Hall Effect options used in rivals, including earlier Wolverine models. There are no contacts getting dirty or breaking down, ensuring better longevity for your sticks compared to a standard controller.

The $64.99 sale price for this Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition controller is a steal right now from a brand that gamers trust. Take advantage of this record low price while you can, because this is a deal that has the potential to sell out quickly.

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Dr. James Ries, the founder of Twenty Mile Medical, proudly proclaims that he’s a Razer Naga V2 Pro user. The most surprising thing about this tidbit is that he uses it while seeing patients remotely. Before you get your pitchforks out, no, the doctor isn’t playing World of Warcraft while evaluating a patient — instead, he uses it to simplify his and the rest of his team’s workflow. Dr. Ries mentioned this interesting piece of trivia during TextExpander’s interview with the healthcare provider, where he showed how he used the service to standardize patient care, reduce the cognitive burden on medical professionals, and quickly write more accurate clinical notes.

Doctor fatigue is one of the biggest issues that telehealth faces today. “Discharge instructions going out at 8 am from a fresh provider look nothing like the ones going out at 4 pm from the same provider after eight hours of visits,” TextExpander said. Dr. Ries said that he addressed this by using master Snippets (a snippet is a short text command, like “;sig” that would run a programmable command, like inserting your signature).

Instead of typing out a fixed phrase, sentence, or paragraph, which is what TextExpander is usually used for, the shortcuts he created bring up the relevant clinical scenario and give options to select appropriate responses as needed. He’d have snippets for general patient communication, sinus infections, psych refills, and more, and then there are check boxes that he can click in each master snippet to ask questions, add instructions, write prescriptions, and more.

Each master Snippet has its specific command, and this is where Dr. Riesa’s Razer Naga V2 Pro comes in. Instead of having to memorize the commands needed to launch the workflow, he assigned them to the customizable buttons that sit on his right thumb. He also assigned other buttons to insert his most commonly used typed paragraphs, like his intro paragraph and signature. You might think that this is excessive — after all, you’re only saving a few seconds by typing four characters instead of pressing one button. But even if that is true, you’ll save a lot of time if you use the shortcut often enough.

More than saving time, it also reduces the cognitive load on doctors. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon across industries and professions, where people make bad calls not because they’re poorly trained or careless, but simply because they’re tired. Combining the text shortcut with the macro keypad on the mouse helps reduce this, as you don’t even have to lift your hand off the mouse to launch the master Snippet.

Dr. Ries says that the functionality isn’t limited to gaming mice — you can also use a macro pad like the Stream Deck Neo to assign commands and shortcuts, too. Nevertheless, he still prefers the Razer Naga V2 Pro because he doesn’t have to lift his hand off the peripheral to insert what he needs.

Watch the video below to see how the doctor uses his gaming mouse for productivity.

You don't need a 4K webcam. Well, almost nobody needs a 4K webcam, but you probably don't even want one — or couldn't use one, even if you wanted to. If you're not a professional streamer or some other type of camera-based content creator, a 4K webcam is not going to do you much good: even in 2026, most video conferencing apps, such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom cap your outgoing stream at 1080p or lower. There's no reason to spend hundreds on one of the best webcams around if nobody is even going to see you in all your ultra-high-res glory.

Maybe you don't need a 4K webcam, but is a 2K webcam a good compromise? There aren't too many 2K webcams, but a little extra resolution might be just what you need to get a slightly clearer picture without going overboard.

Razer's Kiyo V2 X is a 2K webcam that records video at 1440p / 60 fps (also at 1080p / 60/30/24 fps and at 720p / 60/30 fps). It also features speedy (and somewhat trigger-happy) auto-focus, an 80-degree field of view, built-in microphones, and an integrated physical privacy shutter, and is available now in black, white, and "quartz" (Razer's signature pastel pink color) for $99.99.

Design of the Kiyo V2 X

The Kiyo V2 X is the budget-friendly product in Razer's Kiyo lineup, and you can tell immediately by the lack of removable USB cable. The Kiyo V2 X looks very similar to its pricier sibling, the Kiyo V2 — it has the same general design: a slim circle lens attached to a long, rectangular body, atop a fixed L-shaped monitor mount. In fact, it looks almost identical to the Kiyo V2 at first glance, but the differences become clear once you take a closer look.

The Kiyo V2 X is slightly smaller than the Kiyo V2, measuring approximately 4.3 inches (109mm) wide by 2.64 inches (67mm) deep, and is 2.7 inches (67.8mm) high. The Kiyo V2, by comparison, measures 4.7 x 2.57 x 2.9 inches (116 x 65.3 x 74mm) — so it's not gigantic compared to the Kiyo V2 X, but it's enough to be noticeable. The difference in weight is what's really significant, however, while the Kiyo V2 X weighs a mere 5.64 ounces (160g) with its cable and mount included (as they are, after all, non-detachable), the Kiyo V2 is a hefty 8.99 ounces (255g) without its cable.

There are other signs the Kiyo V2 X is built cheaper — not only does it have a non-detachable USB-A cable, which is arguably the hallmark of any budget webcam, it also has a smaller glass lens area and a cheaper, lighter-weight textured ring around the lens for opening and closing the privacy shutter.

Speaking of which, the Kiyo V2 X does have the same built-in physical privacy shutter as the Kiyo V2 and the Kiyo Pro Ultra, which is a fantastic feature to see in a "budget" model. The privacy shutter is very elegantly implemented — a quick, easy twist of the ring around the camera lens, and the shutter closes (it twists over the camera, under the glass lens, like a camera aperture). I especially like that it's easy to open and close without disturbing the webcam's position too much — you don't have to worry about turning your webcam around or knocking it off your monitor.

The Kiyo V2 X comes with its accessories permanently attached: a 5-foot (1.5m) rubber USB-A cable with a built-in cable tie, and an L-shaped monitor mount. The cable is fine, if a little stiff — but that's pretty typical of built-in webcam cables. It's a USB-A cable and it supports USB 2.0, which is a relief, as we've seen a couple of webcams recently that require USB 3.0 to even function (including the Kiyo V2, which needs a USB-C port).

The built-in monitor mount is a standard Razer-style L-shaped mount. It has a small lip at the front to secure the mount to your monitor, along with a rubber-coated "foot" that presses against the back of your monitor to keep the webcam in place. The mount allows you to swivel the camera (360 degrees) and tilt (slightly past 90 degrees), and has a 1/4-inch threaded tripod attachment point on the bottom, in case you want to put the Kiyo V2 X on a tripod.

Well-lit Performance

I take all my webcam test photos in my home office, which is a very well-controlled setting that gets zero natural light. For my well-lit test scenario, I have a ring light, a key light, and four desktop monitors (three 27-inch and one 34-inch) in front of me, an arching floor lamp above me, and two desktop lamps behind me, as well as some ambient lighting from my desk and peripherals. For consistency, I take all of my final photos in Windows 11's built-in photo app at 1080p resolution. These individual photos are used as visual references, but my observations come from my overall testing experience with each webcam.

The Kiyo V2 X performed fairly well in our well-lit test scenario. I wasn't blown away by the picture quality, detail-wise, even with the camera set to shoot in 1440p / 60 fps, but the webcam did a good job of balancing exposure quickly and auto-white-balancing to produce a realistic-looking and vibrant palette. I'd be pretty happy with this image for a plug-n-play product if I was meeting with my colleagues or friends over video chat. I think the lack of detail was mostly a function of the Kiyo V2 X's default software features/settings, as I found that turning off the 2D / 3D noise reduction in Synapse 4 and disabling auto-focus gave me much crisper pictures — at least while I was in the Synapse 4 software, anyway.

Low-Light Performance

To test the low light performance of this webcam, I turned off all of the lights in my home office except for my primary 34-inch monitor. I took this picture with the Windows 11 camera app taking up half the screen and the default Google homepage taking up the other half.

Razer's Kiyo line of webcams has always been pretty impressive when it comes to low-light scenarios, but the Kiyo V2 X didn't perform nearly as well as I hoped it would. It seemed to have trouble balancing exposure, oscillating between way too much and way too little several times until it landed on what was definitely way too little. It was very trigger-happy when it came to both the auto-focus and the auto-exposure — it couldn't seem to keep me in focus at all, even when there was a decent amount of light on my face. Also, any movement — or even no movement — seemed to kick the auto-focus into re-focusing, which resulted in me just... never being in focus.

The lack of detail in the well-lit scenario was definitely exacerbated by less-than-ideal lighting, so I went into Synapse 4 to see if there was something I was missing. Turning off 2D and 3D noise reduction did bring back some detail (it was smoothing over a lot of poorly-lit areas), but, naturally, introduced a lot of noise. But it was really the webcam's inability to stick to focusing on one area that made everything kind of fuzzy.

Overexposed Performance

To test the webcam's performance in an over-exposed setting, I turned off the lighting in front of me, save for my primary 34" monitor. I left the overhead light and the lights behind me turned on. An overexposed lighting scenario is any lighting scenario in which there's a lot of light coming from behind you (e.g., with your back against a window), but I use this particular scenario as I think it's pretty realistic — how often are you really taking on-camera conference calls while sitting up against a window?

The Kiyo V2 X performed pretty poorly in this scenario, too. Not only was it unable to calibrate the light balance properly (resulting in a lot of blown out areas in the background), it also couldn't focus on me basically... at all. It did keep trying, however, which was frustrating, to say the least, especially as even the tiniest movement from me seemed to trigger it.

After many, many minutes of this constant auto-focus battle, it seemed to just give up, and stuck me with an extra-blurry image that focused on nothing. I tried to switch over to manual focus, which worked in Razer's Synapse 4 app... and only in Razer's Synapse 4 app. Switching to the Windows 11 camera app or Google Meet or Discord video chat caused the camera to switch back to auto-focus (or at least, that's what I think it did — either that, or manual focus isn't actually all that manual). I'm sure this could be fixed with a firmware update, but, well, Razer needs to make that firmware update.

Specs

Features and Software

The Kiyo V2 X works about as well as you can expect right out of the box — though you will need to use Razer's universal peripheral software, Synapse 4, to update the webcam's firmware. You can also use it to adjust the camera's settings, though there's honestly not a ton that I'd recommend you change for the Kiyo V2 X (every setting I tried to tweak only made things worse, somehow).

You can set up cropped "scenes" in Synapse 4 using the Kiyo V2 X's 4x digital zoom; this is handy for people who want to crop out the mess around them and/or set up multiple angles to switch between so they can look like newscasters in their work meetings. You can also turn off the Kiyo V2 X's trigger-happy auto-focus and manually focus the lens, but this didn't seem to work outside of Synapse 4 in my testing. Whenever I switched to a different app, even after saving the settings to the webcam multiple times, it was back to non-stop auto-focus.

There are also a handful of other standard settings in Synapse 4, such as auto/manual exposure, low light boost, 2D/3D noise reduction, and the standard picture adjustments (brightness, contrast, saturation, white balance, etc) — but I found the webcam's default settings ended up giving me the best overall picture. The Kiyo V2 X does not support HDR; you'll need to upgrade to the Kiyo V2 for that.

Bottom Line

The Kiyo V2 X is... sort of mediocre. It certainly looks good — like the Kiyo V2, anyway — and it works decently well out of the box in ideal lighting setups. I am a big fan of the built-in privacy shutter, and I think it's one of the best-implemented on the market (it's not creative at all, and other companies — such as Logitech — also do it, but that doesn't mean it's not still really good). But as soon as you're in any lighting situation that's not basically perfect, it goes a little crazy trying to compensate, to the point where it never actually manages to compensate. The auto-focus worked well in my well-lit scenario — it was quick and accurate, that is — but it was still easily triggered by tiny movements. This resulted in me being out of focus about half as often as I was in focus, because it was constantly recalibrating.

At $100, the Kiyo V2 X is the budget option in Razer's webcam lineup, but that doesn't necessarily make it budget-friendly. The Logitech Brio 500 retails for $30 more and only records at 1080p / 30 fps, but it'll make you look better, faster, and it also has a cleverly-implemented physical privacy shutter (plus, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding it on sale for around $100, if you're patient). The Elgato Facecam MK.2 records at 1080p / 60 fps and doesn't have a sexy privacy shutter (it does have one, just not a sexy one), but it's currently on sale for $100 at Elgato's website. And if you're looking for something that's actually budget-friendly, Elgato's Facecam Neo offers comparably solid performance for just $60.

Even when you game on a portable device, some people want the biggest screen they can find. The Razer Blade 18 looks at some of the best gaming laptops — largely 16-inchers — and calls them tiny.

This system, at $5,399.99 as tested (and starting at $3,999.99) has a huge price tag, but that comes with strong build quality, top-end specs, and a dual-mode display that lets you switch between higher resolution and higher frame rates depending on what you're doing.

The Blade 18 and its aluminum chassis do have some drawbacks. The machine runs quite warm, with loud fans, and at this price, I wish Razer had taken advantage of the PCIe Gen 5 slot with an appropriate drive.

Design of the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

Razer's industrial design hasn't seen a change in a while, so the Blade 18 appears identical to the way it did last year. It's a CNC aluminum block with a Spartan, rectangular design. There is a bit of flex right behind the green, three-headed snake logo at the center of the lid, which I wish didn't exist in a design this premium.

Otherwise, though, the Blade feels rock solid. It's also tremendous, at 15.74 x 10.84 x 1.1 inches and 7.06 pounds before the 400W power brick. It just fits in my backpack, which definitely isn't designed for a system this large. The all-black affair is interrupted only by the 18-inch screen and the per-key RGB on the keyboard.

There are a ton of ports on this system. The left is lined with a proprietary power port, Ethernet, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. On the right, you'll find the Thunderbolt 5 port, HDMI 2.1, another USB-A port, the SD card slot, and a Kensington lock slot.

The two different Thunderbolt ports aren't labeled. I wish Razer had made it clear which is which without looking it up or plugging a device in.

Razer Blade 18 (2026) Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

Between the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, the Blade 18 can tackle just about anything you throw at it.

In Resident Evil Requiem, with the resolution set to 3840 x 2400 and settings topped out, including path tracing and hair strands, the game typically ran between 30 and 37 frames per second, though it dropped to 28 FPS during a scene in which Leon was chased by a giant spider. Upscaling was forced on, so I opted for quality, but left frame gen off. By dropping to 2560 x 1440, I had a more consistent 49-57 FPS, including during a boss fight with that spider.

Soon after, I realized that the 3840 x 2400 display mode had forced me into a 60 Hz refresh rate while gaming. Switching to 1920 x 1200 mode, the same boss fight at a lower resolution ran around 90 FPS.

On our benchmarks, we found that the Blade 18 didn't deliver a meaningful performance bump over last year's model, which utilized a Core Ultra 9 275HX with the RTX 5090 (our review model from last year also had 64GB of RAM). The Blade 18 beat out the MSI Raider 16 HX and Alienware 16 Area-51 at 1920 x 1200 in our tests, though in some cases the leads were small. In most cases, the Blade 18 at 3840 x 2400 ran very similarly to last year's system at the higher resolution. The Alienware and Raider top out at 2560 x 1600, a much more common resolution on gaming laptops these days.

On our stress test, which consists of running Metro Exodus 15 times in a loop, the Blade 18 averaged 146.03 FPS. The system actually did best after three runs, when it warmed up, and never dipped back down. During this test, the CPU's performance cores averaged 5.14 GHz while the E-cores averaged 2 GHz. The GPU ran at an average of 1,986.32 MHZ.

Productivity Performance on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

We tested the Blade 18 with a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. Unsurprisingly, it's a strong competitor.

On Geekbench 6, the Blade 18's single-core score of 3,170 and multi-core score of 20,166 are admirable, but not terribly different from last year. In fact, the multi-core score was down a few points. Both the Alienware 16 Area-51 and MSI Raider 16 Max HX, each with the same CPU as this Blade 18, were slightly faster on both the single and multi-core tests.

The new Blade copied 25GB of files at a rate of 1,670.53 MBps, beating the MSI Raider 16 Max HX, but falling far behind the Alienware's PCIe Gen 5 SSD, which Razer supports but didn't include, even in a laptop over $5,000.

The Blade 18 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 2 minutes and 1 second, effectively the same as last year. That's faster than the Alienware, but the Raider did the job in 1:51.

Display on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

The big (sorry) selling point on the Blade 18 is its massive, 18-inch display. The dual-mode display can switch between 3840 x 2400 at 240 Hz for productivity work or 1920 x 1200 at 440 Hz for gaming, though this does require a reboot in some instances. While trying to game at 4K, I was limited to just 60 Hz even when plugged in.

The Dual-mode is a unique advantage, though some people might prefer OLED for gaming at this price. That being said, I haven't seen 18-inch OLED panels, so Razer may have opted for dual-mode as advantageous over Mini LED. There aren't too many gaming laptops that offer 4K resolution these days.

In Resident Evil Requiem, I found myself wishing for the black levels on OLED screens in dark environments. Still, when Leon shot a gas can that exploded into an orange fireball during the game's infamous spider boss fight, it was quite vivid.

The biggest change Razer is promising outside of performance over last year's model is a brighter screen. At 538 nits, it was brighter than last year's model (467.6 nits) and both the Alienware and MSI Raider.

The color volume coverage didn't change, however, at 80.8% DCI-P3 and 114.1% sRGB. The Raider was slightly higher, while the Alienware led the pack with its OLED screen.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Razer Blade 18

Razer outfitted the Blade 18 with a full keyboard, including a number pad. Razer claims 1.5 mm key travel and 63 grams of actuation, along with a 1,000 Hz polling rate and N-Key rollover for gaming.

Using MonkeyType, I hit 115 words per minute with 97% accuracy, which is fairly standard for me. The keys are comfortable enough, though I've seen competitors like MSI and Alienware use mechanical switches in their most expensive halo products. That would be a nice addition here.

The layout is fine, but in its quest for a totally symmetrical layout, Razer used half-size up and down arrow keys and full-size left and right keys. I prefer an "inverted T", no matter which size is used, but this comes down to preference.

The touchpad is massive. At this price, I'd really like to see haptics, but Razer has opted for a standard mechanical touchpad. You can use it relatively high up, but clicks get stuck above the halfway point, leaving some of that space just for moving the cursor. There's plenty of room for gestures, though.

Razer put the touchpad in the center of the palm rest. That looks great aesthetically, but it means that when you're not using the number pad, you're likely to hit it with your hand while typing. Most gamers will use a separate gaming mouse, but if you're the type of AI developer Razer is aiming this machine at, and you're working on the go, you might accidentally move the mouse while using the keyboard. (You can disable the touchpad with a press of the decimal key on the number pad.)

Audio on the Razer Blade 18

The Razer Blade 18 has a six-speaker sound system, with four firing upward and two down-firing speakers. They support THX Spatial Audio (THX is owned by Razer), and can be customized in Razer Synapse.

These speakers are very loud. They could fill my apartment at just above 50% volume. "Raise Him Up," the immensely catchy satirical gospel tune off the soundtrack to Season 5 of The Boys, filled my home with actor Daveed Digg's voice, along with horns, a choir, and drums. I've heard better audio, particularly when it comes to pure clarity and bass, but this is pretty solid, especially if you like your music and games loud. Playing with the well-labeled ranges in Synapse THX did help me draw out the vocals and low-end from the busy track.

In Resident Evil Requiem, the speakers showed off. When Leon stepped on a skull in Racoon City, the crunch was sharp. In a boss battle with a giant spider, the shrieks were terrifying, and the gunshots were booming. Someone from my office politely came over and asked me to turn it down. I couldn't blame them.

Upgradeability on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

Twelve Torx 4 screws hold the Blade 18's bottom to the chassis. Once I removed them, the base popped off with just my hands, and no worrying plastic clips. That's about as easy as it gets unless you have a dedicated door to components.

There are two SSD slots. On our review unit, the PCIe 4 slot was already filled, but you can add a second SSD to a slot that supports PCIe 5. The Wi-Fi card is removable, as is the slotted RAM, which is under shielding.

The battery is replaceable as well, though there is a fan integrated in the middle of the battery, so you'll need to be sure to disconnect the fan connector from the motherboard before removing the screws. This is a fascinating battery, and it might be harder to get than more standard shapes.

Battery Life on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

When it comes to 18-inch gaming laptops, portable really is a turn of phrase. You'll largely want this thing plugged in for performance, if for no other reason than that it's huge.

That being said, it can run off the battery for a decent amount of time. On our test, which browses the web, streams videos, and runs light OpenGL tasks with the screen set to 150 nits of brightness, the Blade lasted for 5 hours and 31 minutes. That's slightly longer than last year, and a big improvement over the Alienware (3:33). But the MSI Raider lasted the longest of the bunch at 8:34 — a full workday.

Heat on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

The Blade's vapor chamber and tri-fan cooling have their work cut out for them. The system still gets hot under use.

After 15 runs of the Metro Exodus benchmark, the keyboard was hot to the touch at 109 degrees Fahrenheit. The touchpad was cooler at 100 F (though that's still toasty for a touchpad), while the bottom of the system was 116 F at the hottest point.

The CPU measured 88.90 degrees Celsius during the test, while the GPU averaged 69.62 C.

Webcam on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

The Blade 18 comes equipped with a 5-megapixel webcam. Its biggest strength may be in color accuracy. In our well-lit office, it caught the exact shade of red-orange in my shirt, and some tired bags under my eyes after a long weekend. It did, however, have some graininess.

The camera system includes infrared for Windows Hello login duties, as well as a physical privacy shutter.

Software and Warranty on the Razer Blade 18 (2026)

The only software on the Razer Blade 18 is the company's Synapse app. It does a ton, including managing macros, letting you set custom profiles for games, adjusting lighting and audio, and setting performance modes. There's a lot here. Unfortunately, there are a few ads for Razer's hardware, but they're not too intrusive.

Razer sells the Blade 18 with a 1-year warranty on the laptop and a 2-year warranty on the battery.

The company has two RazerCare plans, Essential ($729.99) and Elite ($999.99), which extend your warranty to 3 years and add 24-hour claim support and coverage for mechanical failures and surge protection. Only the Elite plan covers accidental damage.

Razer Blade 18 (2026) Configurations

The Razer Blade 18 is supremely expensive. We tested it with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage, which adds up to $5,399.99.

The cheapest version is $3,999.99, with the same processor, an RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of memory, and 1TB of storage. A maxed-out version is $6,999.99 and is identical to what we reviewed, except with 128GB of RAM, which is pointed more at AI developers.

As of this writing, last year's models with a Core Ultra 9 275HX are still available, and they're all $500 less than this year's version. Given the CPU upgrades aren't huge, that's a discount worth considerling.

Bottom Line

If you want one of the biggest gaming rigs with top-end components, a bright, dual-mode screen, and tons of ports, the Blade 18 will absolutely fit the bill. But that bill will be expensive, with the system starting at $4,000 and getting more expensive from there (our review unit goes for $5,399).

For those who want an 18-inch gaming rig with few compromises, this is the one to get if you can afford it. Last year's model is $500 cheaper with a Core Ultra 9 275HX, but you'll also lose the brighter screen. I'm not sure how many people dropping $4,000-$6,000 care about that extra $500, but it's worth noting.

Who doesn't have a dual-connectivity podcaster-focused microphone these days? It seems like every company vying for a spot on our list of best gaming mics is trying to woo us with dual-connectivity when the entire point of a USB gaming mic is that it can connect to your PC without an audio interface (unlike XLR). Anyway, it looks like we can add one more to the pile with Razer's Seiren V3 Pro, which launched today.

The Razer Seiren V3 Pro is an end-address cardioid microphone with a sleek-if-boring design, a built-in swing mount, and one of my favorite features on any peripheral — a capacitive-touch tap-to-mute button that works flawlessly. It supports both USB-C and XLR connectivity, and it has a headphone jack for zero-latency monitoring, plus an on-mic gain control wheel. It records audio at 32-bit / 96 kHz resolution, and supports 32-bit float — though, only through its Synapse app on Windows.

It's not the first time we've seen a mic like this, but they usually don't support 32-bit float (even though, to be fair, very few people need 32-bit float support). The Seiren V3 Pro isn't unique, but it's certainly rare. It's also on the pricier side, at $249.99 (available now).

Design and Comfort

The Seiren V3 Pro is a fairly standard cylinder-shaped mic housed in a relatively solid matte black zinc unibody. It comes mounted on its own built-in swing arm, which can be attached to the included desktop stand or to a boom arm via a 5/8-27 threaded mount (it also fits 3/8-16 threaded mounts). It has a removable pop filter, which slides off easily (perhaps too easily) to reveal a black grille surrounding the capsule, which has an integrated shock absorber.

Razer's text logo is subtly printed on the left side of the mic in shiny black; otherwise the design is fairly understated (though there is, of course, a thin, customizable RGB light ring around the center. There's also an oval tap-to-mute button on the front (or top, depending on how you end up mounting it). It's a decent-looking mic, but it doesn't do much to stand out aside from looking like it's trying to emulate the Shure MV7+ (and every other mic that's also trying to emulate said mic). The all-black finish is sleek enough as long as you don't touch it; as soon as you do, you'll find it's very susceptible to fingerprints.

You'll find the ports on the bottom / back of the mic: USB-C, XLR, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for direct, zero-latency monitoring. There's also a small wheel that controls the mic's adjustable gain by default — though this can also be set (in Synapse) to control headphone volume instead.

The Seiren V3 Pro is larger than similar cylinder-shaped end-address microphones — the mic itself is 8.39 inches (213mm) long, not including the built-in swing arm. The mic and swing arm together have a maximum length of just under 10 inches (254mm). The mic alone measures about 2.25 inches (57.15mm) in diameter, but is approximately 3.55 inches (90mm) wide with the swing arm.

The microphone is fairly sturdy, weighing just under 1.5 pounds (670g). This makes it about half a pound lighter than the Rode PodMic USB (1.9lbs / 900g) and a quarter of a pound heavier than the HyperX FlipCast (1.26lbs / 571.5g).

In the box, the Seiren V3 Pro comes with a flat, round desktop stand and a 10-foot (3m) braided USB-C to USB-A cable with a USB-A to USB-C adapter attached.

The stand measures approximately 4.75 inches (120mm) in diameter and weighs just over 7 ounces (200.5g). It's also made of metal, with a matte black finish and a 5/8"-threaded mount in the center. The bottom is covered in soft non-slip rubber with five small rounded, raised "feet" (for better shock absorption, I assume). The stand is sturdy and stable and attaches securely to the mic; the only caveat is that it does end up sitting quite low on your desk. This isn't too much of an issue, as the mic is fairly tall, but since it's also pretty quiet — even with the gain turned all the way up — mounting it on a boom arm is probably the best option.

Specs

Performance

The Seiren V3 Pro is an end-address dynamic capsule microphone with a cardioid polar pattern and both USB-C and XLR connectivity. It features a large 30mm capsule with an integrated shock absorber and a built-in advanced audio DSP. It records audio in 32-bit / 96 kHz resolution and it also supports 32-bit float through Razer's Synapse software. It has a frequency response rate of 50 - 16,000 Hz and an adjustable gain of 40dB.

My voice sounded pretty good over the Seiren V3 Pro with its out-of-the-box settings: Full, warm, and clear, though there was definitely some sibilance. The foam pop filter did a decent job of keeping plosives at bay, though it had some trouble as I moved closer to the mic (as you might expect). People I talked to over voice chat thought I sounded about the same as usual — like I had a solid, studio-quality end-address mic, but they didn't think it stood out against the other studio-quality end-address mics they normally hear my voice over.

The on-mic controls were decent — the tap-to-mute button worked flawlessly, muting and unmuting with just a light brush of my finger. Both the button and the light ring turn red when the mic is muted, so you have a decent visual cue when your audience can't hear you. The gain control wheel, which has a textured metal surface, is smooth and easy to roll even if it's a bit awkwardly placed on the back / bottom of the mic.

I did find that this mic was relatively quiet, even with the gain turned up all the way — it wasn't too quiet, but I found myself needing to speak louder than I did with other mics. This seemed to be due, in part, to the mic's off-axis rejection — which Razer boasts is "enhanced" to better suppress ambient noise and room reflections without relying on processing. The off-axis rejection definitely did seem to be enhanced, as very little of the ambient noise in my room was picked up (even when I had the AI noise suppression turned off). But it also meant that if I moved out of line with the mic, it was much harder to hear me. This is definitely expected behavior from an end-address mic, but the Seiren V3 Pro was a little less flexible than, say, the HyperX FlipCast. Just a little, though.

Features and Software

The Seiren V3 Pro is configurable via Razer's Synapse peripheral software. The mic has an on-mic gain control wheel that can be configured in Synapse to control headset volume instead, but that's the only on-mic control aside from the tap-to-mute button. For everything else, you'll need Synapse.

While Razer says the Seiren V3 Pro is designed to work without needing software, there's actually a lot in Synapse that you'll probably want to take advantage of with this mic. There's a parametric EQ with a handful of presets ("Podcast," "Arena," "FPS - Callout," and "Studio"), as well as EQ effects such as a De-Esser, Vocal Bass, Vocal Exciter, and a High Pass Filter.

There are also several other effects you can play around with, including the AI noise suppression and a noise gate (plus a compressor, a limiter, and reverb control). The AI noise suppression did a good job of suppressing some noise without too much processing or losing my voice, but it also didn't suppress that much noise. The noise gate worked a little better at suppressing noise, but it also ended up suppressing my voice, even on low settings.

Razer also includes a Stream Mixer, which is essentially a virtual mixing device for mixing various audio channels on your PC — stream, playback, headphone, and mic. I didn't have much time to play around with this, but it seems about as user-friendly as a virtual mixer can be (that is... not very, but what can you do).

You can also customize the Seiren V3 Pro's light ring with Synapse — you can either use one of Razer's preset "quick effects" or you can set up advanced effects in Razer's Chroma app (which is part of Synapse... sort of?). The light ring has 12 independent RGB zones.

Bottom Line

The Seiren V3 Pro is a sturdy, sleek-looking end-address mic aimed at creators of all kinds — whether you're just starting streaming or you've got millions of people tuning in each day. Its dual-connectivity means that you'll be able to use it with both your PC and a dedicated audio interface, and the 32-bit float support is a nice touch if almost certainly not necessary for the majority of the audience.

However, this mic isn't exactly revolutionary, especially at its $250 price point. The HyperX FlipCast is very similar — it even has a light ring and a Shure-inspired chassis — but it has much better on-mic controls. The Rode PodMic USB has no on-mic controls, but you can't beat the quality of the PodMic's proximity effect. I was impressed with the extra features this mic has in Synapse, but software-based enhancements (especially when the software is Synapse) are just a bonus, not the foundation.

We've taken the top six Thunderbolt 5 docks we could get our hands on and put them into a six-way battle for supremacy. We’ve previously taken a look at a couple of popular Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market, including the Ivanky FusionDock Max 1 and the Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock. However, with Thunderbolt 5 now on the market and proliferating on desktop motherboards and laptops, we’ve decided to take a look at what’s available in the Thunderbolt 5 dock market.

This time around, we’ve assembled the CalDigit TS5 and the brawnier TS5 Plus, along with the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock, the Ivanky FusionDock Ultra, Hyper HyperDrive Next, and WAVLINK WL-UTD58. As an added data point, we also have an Orico Thunderbolt 5 SSD enclosure for testing external storage speeds over Thunderbolt 5.

Let's take a look at the contenders, then get to the benchmarks, and finally crown the winner.

CalDigit TS5 Plus

CalDigit TS5 Plus

The TS5 is already impressive in its own right, but the $499 TS5 Plus dials up the specs a notch or two. While the TS5 includes 15 ports, the TS5 Plus bumps that to 20.

The design of the TS5 Plus closely resembles the TS5, but it is slightly taller and features a space grey finish instead of natural aluminum. As for the port arrangement, this is what you’ll find on the TS5 Plus:

Front

• 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 4x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x 10 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x 240W power port

As you can see, the TS5 Plus is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to ports. While it loses one downstream Thunderbolt 5 port, it gains a DisplayPort 2.1 port. You’ll also find three additional USB-C ports and a total of four USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the back. CalDigit also managed to squeeze an extra USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port on the front of the unit.

You’ll also appreciate that the onboard LAN port has been upgraded to 10 GbE (up from 2.5 GbE). In addition, external monitor support remains unchanged from the TS5, allowing you to connect up to four monitors to a M5 Max-equipped Mac.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

If the CalDigit docks are all-business with a Mac-infused aluminum unibody style, the $399 Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma definitely shows its PC gaming roots. The dock features an anodized black aluminum chassis with an etched Razer logo on top. However, Razer plays up the gamer angle with a Chroma RGB light ring at the base of the unit, visible along the front and sides of the chassis. If this motif is a bit much for your aesthetic tastes, Razer also offers a “Mercury” version of the dock that features a more subdued natural aluminum finish (it’s also $10 cheaper).

Thunderbolt docks are known for their propensity to generate a lot of heat, and Razer’s offering is no exception. However, Razer tackles this challenge with a built-in cooling fan that helps to dissipate heat.

But active cooling isn’t the only trick up Razer’s sleeve; it also has a built-in PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 slot on the bottom of the unit. This is a toolless addition: the bottom cover is easily removed using a clip retention system, and the SSD is held in place by a rotating retention clip. Thermal pads are also included that touch the top and bottom of the SSD to help dissipate heat and avoid throttling.

Razer’s solution is ingenious since your SSD is hidden away from view with access to the internal cooling fan, and you don’t have to give up an external port to connect a USB-C/Thunderbolt SSD enclosure.

Speaking of ports, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock isn’t as well-stocked as the two CalDigit docks. You’ll find:

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo port (7.1 Surround)
• 1x 1 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x 250W power port
• 1x Internal M.2 Slot (PCIe Gen4x4)

Razer has made a few decisions with its Thunderbolt 5 dock that I question. The UHS-II SD slot is mounted on the right side of the unit, which is easy enough to access, but there are no front-mounted ports. All of the remaining ports are on the back of the unit. It would have been nice to have at least one USB-C port and one USB-A port on the front of the unit to quickly connect a thumb drive or other frequently used accessories.

The other curious choice is the 1 GbE port on the back of the dock. This is a Thunderbolt 5 dock – I’d expect at least a 2.5 GbE port, and ideally a 10 GbE port, at this price point ($399). The CalDigit TS5 gives you a 2.5 GbE port, while the TS5 Plus offers a 10 GbE port.

With that said, the dock supports up to 120 Gbps (80 Gbps for data and 40 Gbps for video) and delivers up to 140W to a laptop. It also supports up to three 4K monitors simultaneously operating at up to 144 Hz.

WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M

WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M

The WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M is another solidly built Thunderbolt 5 dock, and its chassis is made entirely of high-quality aluminum. The chassis is relatively long and flat, and can only be used in a landscape orientation (unlike the two CalDigit offerings). There are plenty of ventilation slots along the sides and top of the WL-UTD58-M to help keep the internals cool.

Design-wise, I have one issue with the WL-UTD58-M. Power plugs into the back of the dock, while the Thunderbolt cable coming from the host computer plugs into the front of the dock. It makes for a cluttered appearance, and I would have preferred the upstream Thunderbolt 5 port to be on the back, like it is with other docks we have here in this comparison.

With that said, you get a decent allotment of ports, including:

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

There are handy SD and microSD slots on the front of the unit, along with two USB-A and one user-accessible Thunderbolt 5 port (the other is for the host computer). On the back, you’ll find two more Thunderbolt 5, two more USB-A, and a 2.5 GbE port.

Like the Razer and Hyper docks, the WL-UTD58-M includes an M.2 PCIe Gen 4x4 on the bottom of the device. The bottom panel is held in place by a single screw and can accommodate a 2280-form-factor SSD. There are no provisions included for securing shorter SSDs.

Ivanky FusionDock Ultra

Ivanky FusionDock Ultra

The Ivanky FusionDock Ultra is an ambitious product targeted at a limited set of users. While the other Thunderbolt 5 docks assembled here are compatible with Macs and Windows PCs, the FusionDock Ultra is only compatible with Macs. And limiting its reach even further, it's only compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. And yet another limitation is that, because the dock uses two Thunderbolt 5 chips, you must give up two Thunderbolt ports on your Mac.

However, if you have an Apple Silicon Mac, the number of ports available to you is unmatched by the FusionDock Ultra. If you thought the TS5 Plus was impressive with 20 ports, the FusionDock Ultra ups the stakes with 26 ports, made possible by the dual Thunderbolt 5 chips. To keep the internal circuits cool, Ivanky uses twin cooling fans to expel hot air from the enclosure. The fans are dynamic, spinning up only when necessary, depending on the load.

The dock itself is quite attractive, with a Space Grey finish, gold trimming, and a "floating midframe design" in which the main unit is surrounded by an outer heatsink.

Front

• 6x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (45W PD)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 2x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 4x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x 10 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x S/PDIF
• 1x 240W power port

It’s hard to be disappointed with the sheer number and variety of ports available on the FusionDock Ultra. It’s absolutely bonkers to see 7 USB-C ports on the front of the unit, although having access to four fully-fledged Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back is great. It’s also nice to see dedicated HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 ports, along with an S/PDIF jack. And as you would expect with such a high-end dock, there’s a 10 GbE port onboard as well.

About the only thing missing from the FusionDock Ultra is an internal M.2 SSD slot, but given the number of ports available, we won’t hold a grudge over the omission.

Hyper HyperDrive Next

Hyper HyperDrive Next

Hyper's $399 HyperDrive Next Thunderbolt 5 dock features a dark grey aluminum chassis, but it's not a full aluminum shell like the other docks assembled here. Instead, both the front and rear fascias are mae of plastic, which doesn't impart the same feeling of quality.

The top of the enclosure is smooth to the touch, while both sides feature a ribbed design to better disperse heat.

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

The $399 dock features a dedicated power button on the front (something that you won't find on the other docks) and includes a 2.5 GbE network port on the back. Interestingly, Hyper doesn't equip the dock with an SD or microSD slot. You do get a good assortment of ports up front, including one Thunderbolt 5 and two USB-A, along with two additional Thunderbolt 5 downstream ports on the back.

The HyperDrive Next includes an integrated SSD slot (PCIe Gen 4x4) for storage expansion. The dock includes mounting points for 2230, 2242, 2260, or 2280 SSDs, providing plenty of flexibility. There are also thermal pads included for both sides of the SSD to aid in cooling (which is important given that Thunderbolt docks, in general, tend to get rather toasty).

The HyperDrive Next supports up to 80 Gbps for data and 40 Gbps for video, and is compatible with up to 140-watt charging to a connected laptop. When connected to a PC, the dock supports up to one 8K/144 Hz display or up to two 8K displays running at 120 Hz. If you're using a Mac, a single display to 6K resolution and 60 Hz is supported, or dual 6K displays at up to 60 Hz. Windows machines can also support triple 4K monitors at 60 Hz, while Macs can only support this configuration if equipped with an M5 Pro (or higher) SoC.

CalDigit TS5 Dock

CalDigit TS5 Dock

CalDigit's "TS" line comprises its high-end Thunderbolt docks (with the "Element" line being a step below). The $399 TS5 is the entry point for CalDigit's high-end Thunderbolt 5 docks.

CalDigit hasn't broken any new ground with the TS5's design, as it looks similar to the TS3 and TS4 that came before it. That means you get a passively cooled dock that can sit either horizontally or vertically, depending on your needs. The chassis is machined from aluminum, which matches almost perfectly with the natural aluminum found on Apple's silver MacBooks. There's also a collection of cooling fins on the sides to help dissipate heat.

Despite being the entry-level model, the TS5 packs a wealth of ports:

Front

• 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 2.0
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x 240W power port

The TS5 supports up to 120 Gbps (80 Gbps data, 40 Gbps video) and external SSDs at up to 6,200 Mbps (twice as fast as previous-generation Thunderbolt 4 docks). In addition, it supplies up to 140W power delivery to a connected laptop.

When it comes to monitor support, the TS5 can support up to four external monitors simultaneously. Properly spec'd Macs and PCs can support up to three external monitors. Only Macs with an M5 Max processor can support four monitors at once (up to four 6K at 60 Hz or four 4K at 144 Hz).

Orico Thunderbolt80G Enclosure

Orico Thunderbolt80G Enclosure

To test SSD speeds with the assembled Thunderbolt 5 docks, we used an Orico Thunderbolt80G enclosure. This is an aluminum-alloy Thunderbolt 5 enclosure that supports up to M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4) SSDs. The Thunderbolt80G enclosure retails for $165 on Amazon.

A single screw is removed to lift off the ribbed bottom panel, which reveals the internal M.2 slot. Orico provides a thermal pad for affixing to your SSD, which is then secured with a screw. A single 80 Gbps Thunderbolt 5 cable is also included in the box.

Thunderbolt 5 Dock Specs Comparison

Thunderbolt 5 Dock Specs Comparison

Thunderbolt 5 Dock SSD Performance

Thunderbolt 5 Dock SSD Performance

For storage testing, we used a PNY CS2150 PCIe 5.0 SSD. We first tested the SSD in our test system, which features an Asus Z890 Creator WiFi motherboard with an onboard PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and two Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Next, we tested the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock with the CS2150 installed into the internal M.2 slot. Finally, we tested the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus connected to the CS2150 within the Orico SSD enclosure via a Thunderbolt 5 port.

We ran a quick test with CrystalDiskMark, which is a free benchmarking tool, to see how each dock handled the PNY CS2150 SSD.

For baseline numbers, we saw 10,381.26 MBps reads and 8,645.4 MBps writes using the CS2150 on an Asus Z890 Creator WiFi motherboard. Switching to the Razer Chroma 5 Dock, the sequential reads and writes dropped to 5,627.29 MBps and 5,620.6 MBps, respectively. Not surprisingly, the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus posted nearly identical performance, at just over 5,300 MBps sequential reads and 5,520 MBps sequential writes. It should be noted that all three docks cite a theoretical maximum of 6,200 Mbps transfers (64Gb/s PCIe 4.0 interface).

Given that the FusionDock Ultra is only supported on Apple Silicon Macs, I couldn’t run our CrystalDiskMark benchmarks on the CS2150. However, when using the CS2150 with an Orico SSD enclosure connected to a free Thunderbolt 5 port on the back, I recorded read speeds of just over 3,000 MBps and write speeds of over 2,500 MBps using BlackMagic Disk Speed Test. Keep in mind, however, that the FusionDock Ultra was limited to Thunderbolt 4 speeds on the MacBook Air (M4) that I used for testing.

I had no trouble using any of the docks to run two monitors simultaneously, including a 49-inch, 240 Hz DQHD monitor. Each dock worked impeccably with my Windows 11 Home desktop system (except the FusionDock Ultra, which is incompatible), an M5 MacBook Air, and an M4 Mac Mini. The latter two systems only support Thunderbolt 4, but the docks are backward compatible with the older, slower interface.

There were also no issues using the onboard LAN ports, as I was able to reach the theoretical maximum on each port using iPerf3 testing across all three docks (including the 10 GbE port on the TS5 Plus and FusionDock Ultra).

As for thermals, all remained warm to the touch, even when the host computer was idle. At no time did any become too hot to handle. The Razer Thunderbolt 5 and FusionDock Ultra docks were slightly cooler to the touch thanks to their internal fans (which are only audible if you stick your ear to the unit).

Bottom Line

Although Thunderbolt docks don’t really make much sense for most desktop systems, they are an incredible lifeline for laptops, which have a more limited port selection. You can take one Thunderbolt 5 port from your MacBook Pro and, in return, get 20 ports with a CalDigit TS5. Not only do they offer a “one cable” solution for data and power, but you also get a wide range of connectivity options across Thunderbolt, USB-C, USB-A, and SD/microSD. And in the case of the TS5, DisplayPort 2.1 and 10 GbE ports are part of the equation.

The Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a sleek solution that provides an internal M.2 slot for storage expansion and Chroma RGB effects that can sync with your Razer laptop. However, I’m not thrilled with the lack of front-mounted ports or the lackluster GbE network port provided, given its $399 price tag.

The CalDigit TS5 Plus is the overachiever of the bunch, offering a total of 20 ports and support for up to four external monitors (when connected to an M5 Max system). You get five legacy USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, four USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports, a 10 GbE port, and more. However, that abundance of connectivity options results in a hefty price of $499.

The CalDigit TS5 is not as port-packed as its “Plus” sibling, but it still offers three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports along with a wealth of USB-A and USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports. Like the TS5 Plus, the TS5 also includes multiple front-mounted ports for USB-C, audio, and SD cards. The TS5 also one-ups the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock by including an integrated 2.5 GbE port instead of the old hat GbE. At a street price of $399, the CalDigit TS5 is the best option for most people.

The Hyper HyerDrive Next and WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M are both good options if you're looking to spend $400 or less. In addition, they both include an M.2 slot for expanding storage with an SSD.

That leaves us with the Ivanky FusionDrive Ultra. This dock is an exercise in excess, from its elaborate design to its use of two Thunderbolt 5 chips to its requirement of two free Thunderbolt 4 ports. But in return, you get an insane 26 total ports, including seven USB-C ports up front and four Thunderbolt 5 on the back, along with HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and 10 GbE ports. However, compatibility is extremely limited, working only on Apple Silicon Macs. In addition, with a street price of $650, it’s by far the most expensive dock we tested.

However, if it were money being spent on a Thunderbolt 5 docking station, I’d have to give the crown to the WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M. With an integrated M.2 slot and a well-balanced assortment of ports, it’s hard to ignore its value proposition.

Additional Thunderbolt 5 Docks to Consider

Although we plan to keep this guide updated as we test additional Thunderbolt 5 docks, here are some additional units to consider:

• UGREEN Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $299.99
• Ivanky FusionDock Pro 3 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $224.99
• Ivanky FusionDock Max 2 – $339.99
• Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $399.99
• Kensington SD50000T5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $239.99
• CalDigit E5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $249.99

Are you looking for a shiny new gaming mouse and want something a little larger, but still ergonomic and comfortable for long gaming sessions? Then check out today's deal on this fantastic Razer peripheral. Woot is offering a 15% discount on a brand new Razer Basilisk V3 Pro wireless gaming mouse, now costing only $84.99. Not to be confused with the original Razer Basilisk, Basilisk V3 X HyperSpeed, Basilisk V3 35K, Basilisk V3 Pro 35K (yes, there are that many variations), the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro in this deal is still available directly from Razer for $159.99 and Amazon for $99, making this deal a real winner.

● Grab this deal at Woot

The Razer Basilisk V3 pro comes with 11 programmable buttons, a dual-mode tilt wheel that can switch between tactile and free-spin scrolling, and a right-handed ergonomic design that’s pretty comfortable despite being relatively large. Inside the mouse is Razer's Focus Pro 30K optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 30,000 DPI, a maximum speed of 750 IPS, and can handle up to 70 G’s of acceleration.

For the main left and right mouse buttons, the Basilisk uses Razer's Gen 3 optical switches. On the left side of the mouse, there are two thumb buttons and a raised sniper button - useful for those twitchy FPS titles like CS:GO, and Battlefield 6.

On the underside of the Basilisk V3 Pro are moderately-sized pure PTFE skates and a round, removable puck that can be swapped out for Razer’s Wireless Charging Puck (sold separately) or for storing the mouse’s 2.4GHz wireless dongle.

The battery life on the Basilisk V3 Pro wireless is pretty good, with 150 hours on Bluetooth and up to 110 hours using the 2.4GHz wireless dongle with 1000Hz polling. You can also purchase a separate magnetic Razer Mouse Dock Pro with wireless puck later on down the line, if you don't want to charge the Basilisk V3 Pro via the included cable. Also, the Mouse Dock Pro lets you reach wireless polling rates of up to 4,000 Hz if you connect through it. But that's, of course, separate to this deal as it only includes the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro mouse, a USB-A to USB-C braided cable, a USB extender, and a 2.4GHz wireless dongle.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Are you looking out for a little set of desktop PC speakers on a tight budget? If so, you may be interested in this latest Woot offer that brings the price of a set of Razer Nommo 2.0 speakers to a bargain $69.99. This saves you a substantial $40 off the original $109.99 price tag. Razer is well known for making PC peripherals, which include speakers, keyboards, headsets, and, of course, mice. Razer products often command high prices, especially direct from Razer, but there are some deals to be found from other retailers that stock Razer products.

● Grab this deal at Woot

The Razer Nommo speakers are a simple 2.0 configuration, with no added subwoofer, so don't expect a tsunami of bass. But this can be a good thing, especially if you're going to be using these speakers in an environment that doesn't need to hear thumping sub-bass rumbling through the property. Making a small set of speakers like this is ideal for some PC or console gaming in the bedroom, or even a dorm room at college, where you want to limit disturbances.

The speakers themselves are attractive little cans hoisted on small stands with 3" woven glass fiber drivers mounted in the front and a bass port at the rear, to add a little kick to the bass frequencies. Volume and bass controls are mounted on the right speaker's stand and let you pump the bass (as much as you can on a 2.0 set of speakers) with its automatic gain control. These are older Razer speakers and have been replaced by newer models on the Razer store, which is one of the reasons these speakers are much cheaper now.

A downside to these speakers for PC use is a lack of USB connectivity. You need to connect these Razer Nommo speakers to your PC via a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to an appropriate audio port on either the rear IO of your motherboard or the headphone jack of your PC's case. Yes, there are newer variants of these speakers, including the Razer Nommo V2 2.1, which comes with a subwoofer and is our pick for the best 2.1 gaming speakers. But for just $69.99, these speakers are a great little deal, while stocks last, or time runs out on this limited Woot offer.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Too many of today's best webcams are 4K webcams these days, but at least that means they're starting to get more affordable. At $150, Razer's new Kiyo V2 isn't necessarily a steal, but it's half the price of the $300 Kiyo Ultra Pro. And, since you (probably) don't actually need a 4K webcam in the first place, this might just be the perfect price point for the average person seeking 4K image quality.

The Kiyo V2 captures video at 4K / 30fps, 1440p / 30 fps, and at 1080p 60/30/24 fps. It features an 8.3MP Sony STARVIS sensor with a 93-degree field of view, auto and manual focus, and a focal length of 3.0mm. It also has HDR (at 30 fps), 4x zoom, built-in omnidirectional stereo microphones, and a built-in monitor mount with a tripod attachment point on the bottom. At $149.99, it's cheaper than a lot of 4K webcams, and it comes in three colors: black, white, and quartz (pink).

Design of the Kiyo V2

The Kiyo V2 is a 4K webcam with a detachable USB-C cable and a built-in L-shaped monitor mount. It also features a built-in physical privacy shutter similar to the one in the Kiyo Pro Ultra, though it doesn't come with a lens cap, like the Pro Ultra does (the shutter is under the glass here).

The Kiyo V2 is no longer the single giant circle lens we're used to seeing in the Kiyo line — it's now a slim circular lens attached to an elongated body — it looks a bit like the Logitech MX Brio 4K, just... exaggerated. The bad news is that this definitely doesn't look as cool as the pure circle lens did (in my opinion, anyway). The good news is that being lower and wider over taller and more aesthetic probably makes it more convenient.

Well, probably. It's still pretty large: With the stand, it measures approximately 4.6 inches (116mm) wide by 2.6 inches (65.3mm) deep, and is 2.9 inches (74mm) high. The MX Brio 4K is quite a bit smaller, by comparison, at 3.84 x 1.73 x 1.42 inches (98 x 44 x 36mm). The Kiyo V2 is also pretty hefty, weighing 8.99 ounces (255g), versus the MX Brio 4K's 4.83 ounces (137g). The size and weight of the Kiyo V2 wasn't too much of an issue for me with my crazy 4-monitor setup, but it seems like it could be a bit of a liability on a laptop.

I'm a big fan of the Kiyo V2's built-in privacy shutter, which works exactly like the privacy shutter in the Kiyo Pro Ultra (and in the MX Brio 4K). All you need to do is twist the textured ring around the lens, and the shutter snaps into place, covering the lens and preventing any webcam-related mishaps. I do wish that it came with some sort of lens cap, however, just because the glass lens area is still pretty large (about 1.75 inches / 44.45mm in diameter), but that shouldn’t be an issue unless you regularly travel with your high-res webcam.

The Kiyo V2 comes with a permanently-attached L-shaped monitor mount that allows for both tilting and 360-degree swiveling. The monitor mount is sturdy, with a rubber-coated "foot" that helps keep it from moving around too much on your monitor. It also has a 1/4-inch universal tripod attachment point on the bottom, so you can attach it to a tripod or other stand if you prefer.

In the box, the Kiyo V2 comes with just one accessory — a detachable 6.5-foot (2m) rubber-coated USB-C to USB-C cable. The webcam must be plugged into a USB-C port with this specific cable to get the full 4K quality picture, however, which is a little inconvenient — both because the cable is a bit stiff, and because some of us don't have an abundance (or any) free USB-C ports on our PCs.

Specs

Well-lit Performance

I take all my webcam test photos in my home office, which is a very controlled setting that gets almost no natural light (I also take most of them at night, so there's zero natural light). For my well-lit test scenario, I have a ring light, a key light, four desktop monitors (three 27" and one 34") in front of me, and two desktop lamps and an arching floor lamp behind me. There's also some ambient lighting from my desk and other peripherals. For consistency, I take all my photos using Windows 11's built-in camera app, at 1080p resolution. (Note that my observations come from my overall testing experience with the webcam, not just these single photos.)

The Kiyo V2 performed very well in the well-lit testing scenario, especially when it came to white balance and auto-exposure. The white balance was almost perfect right out of the box: It gave my skin enough color that I looked alive, but not so much that it was obviously oversaturated. The webcam also did a very good job with auto-exposure, though I still found that I preferred the picture I got by tweaking the exposure manually in Razer's Synapse software.

I wasn't a big fan of the webcam's extra-wide 93° field of view, as it ended up showing too much of my space. Luckily this can be configured in Synapse (with zoom/crop). But the picture still looked good at a wide angle, with less distortion and warping than I expected. Razer's webcams tend to be tuned for a slightly more dramatic, cinematic picture than most webcams, which I particularly like — I don't think most people are looking for a webcam that's just pure, undiluted image quality; most people want a webcam that makes them look good.

Low-Light Performance

To test the webcam's low-light performance, I turn off all of my lights and three of my monitors, leaving just one 34-inch monitor as my sole source of illumination. I take my photos with the Windows 11 camera app occupying about half of that screen, and my desktop wallpaper takes up the other half.

The Kiyo V2 performed decently well in this scenario, though it tended to overexpose the subject (me) at the expense of the background. Still, I didn't look too washed out most of the time, and the overall image quality was good: There wasn't too much artifacting, and it was a little noisy in darker areas (as expected).

Overexposed Performance

To test the webcam's performance in over-exposed settings, I turn off all of the lights in front of me, except for my single 34" monitor, and keep the lights behind/over me turned on. If you're not sitting in a pitch-black room, the most common lighting scenario most people are going to end up with is (at least slightly) over-exposed — unless you're streaming professionally, you probably don't have a ton of lights behind your monitor.

The Kiyo V2 also performed fairly well in this scenario — or, well, it lit everything pretty evenly. It did a good job of balancing the exposure of the subject with the exposure of the background, and it also managed to get plenty of detail from the background without too much notable blowout. The result wasn't necessarily the most aesthetically-pleasing, but it worked well enough.

Features and Software

The Kiyo V2 works pretty well out of the box, especially if you already have decent lighting set up. It does an excellent job with auto-exposure and white balancing, but the ultra-wide 93-degree field of view is probably too much exposure (the other kind) for most people. Most of us don't want people to see everything we have in the background. To configure this and other settings, you'll need Razer's universal peripheral software, Synapse.

Synapse is far from my favorite piece of software, but at least for webcams, its clunkiness makes sense. Synapse lets you adjust the webcam's field of view (by zooming — up to 4x), auto focus, auto exposure, and color balance, manually. It has some streamer-friendly features, such as the ability to save different zoom presets and assign shortcuts, so you can quickly switch between angles while you're streaming.

You can also toggle on some software-based features, such as HDR, dynamic noise reduction, and low-light compensation. There are a couple of microphone settings as well, but let's face it — you're not using the webcam's built-in mics unless you're absolutely desperate (or your computer automatically switched to them when you plugged the camera in, and you didn't realize it). Like most webcam mics, they're just average; you'd be better off using the built-in mic on your laptop or anything else, first.

Bottom Line

The Kiyo V2 is a nice follow-up to the wildly expensive Kiyo Pro Ultra — it's got great image quality and 4K resolution, though the Kiyo Pro Ultra still looks better overall, if you're looking for the best picture (both in quality and aesthetics). If you have a free USB-C port, this webcam is definitely worth a look. If you don't have a consistently free USB-C port, however, this might be frustrating — nobody wants to keep plugging in a chunky USB-C cable every time they want to get on cam, and there are other things vying for that port (in my case, an external hard drive that could probably be plugged in elsewhere, but still). While I get that the Kiyo V2 probably requires a lot of power, other webcams that strongly advise you use their specific cable/port combo usually still work pretty well if you don't — but the Kiyo V2 doesn't even try.

Gamers have been treated to some superb games recently, on both console and PC. Titles like the latest Resident Evil: Requiem have been streamed constantly since release, with many choosing a trusty controller as the peripheral of choice for navigating through the game. But whether it's a survival horror, first-person shooter, or a sports game, having a good gamepad peripheral is a must-have item. Many use their console controller, and Windows will automatically recognise them on the whole, but if you want something a little more dedicated to you, with better customizability, then check out this superb deal on the excellent wired Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition game controller for just $54.99, a whopping 45% saving of $45 from the $99.99 list price.

You can also ditch the cable completely and go wireless; however, the privilege will set you back a fair bit more cash. The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro Wireless controller is on sale for $119.99, which is still a $40% saving on the $199.99 list price, but quite a jump on the price of the wired version of this controller.

• Grab this wired deal at Woot
• Grab this wireless deal at Woot

The Razer Wolverine V3 comes with everything you'd want in a top-spec modern controller. Stick-drift-resistant Hall-Effect thumbsticks, mechano-membrane buttons, precise triggers with customizable actuation points, four mouse-click back buttons, and an eight-way floating D-pad. Enjoy a 1000Hz polling rate over the wired connection. If you opt for the wireless version of the controller, you can enjoy an ultra-low latency 2.4 GHz connection via its USB Type A dongle.

There have been some improvements to the Wolverine V3 over the older V2 controller, including the USB-C cable now being detachable, extra paddles on the underside of the controller, and the ditching of the rubber grip surface for an easier-to-clean textured plastic.

The Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition comes highly recommended by our News Editor, Stephen, who keeps buying the Razer Wolverine controller when there's a worthy upgrade or the previous controller starts to degrade. There's a reason he sticks with the same controller brand, with the features that matter, and reliability being a major factor.

Razer's Wolverine controller looks very similar to a standard Xbox controller with its offset thumbsticks and buttons, but that's where the similarities end. The tech under the hood takes the Wolverine to the next level. You can choose to go for a cabled or wireless connection.

The thumbsticks use Hall-Effect technology, which helps to eliminate your controller developing the dreaded stick-drift fault. Hall-Effect thumbsticks rely on magnetic fields to determine directional input. The lack of contact parts means the sticks don't have a severely limited life, resulting in many a frustrating gameplay moment.

Both of the controller deals offer hefty discounts of 40-45%, but the extra money required to go wireless is quite substantial. The better deal is certainly on the wired Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition controller, but the wireless option is available to you if you just can't be doing with a cable restricting your movement.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

It was 30 years ago when we were first introduced to the fictional world of adorable (and sometimes terrifying) Pokémon with the release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green on the Nintendo Game Boy. What began as a simple RPG has since grown into one of the largest entertainment franchises in the world. Today, the Pokémon IP is a global pop-culture phenomenon that spans games, anime, movies, trading cards, merchandise, toys, and mobile apps.

To mark the milestone anniversary, brands across the tech and gaming space have joined in on the celebration. With Secretlab launching three Pokémon-themed Titan Evo chairs, Razer also offers a slew of officially licensed Pokémon-themed peripherals and accessories aimed at fans who want their gaming setup to reflect their love for the franchise.

• Check out the Pokémon collection from Razer here

Its latest lineup includes the BlackWidow V4 X gaming keyboard, the Razer Cobra gaming mouse, and the Razer Kraken V4 X gaming headset. All feature a yellow-and-black finish along with a splash of artwork based on the classic starter Pokémon, including Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.

These starter Pokémon-themed peripherals are available through Razer’s official online store, with the BlackWidow V4 X priced at $169.99, the Razer Cobra at $59.99, and the Razer Kraken V4 X at $99.99.

In addition to the starter Pokémon lineup, Razer also offers limited-edition Gengar versions of the Razer Kraken Kitty V2 USB gaming headset, the Razer Cobra gaming mouse, and the Razer Gigantus V2 - XXL deskpad.

Each product comes with a blend of purple and black finishes, highlighting the ghost Pokémon’s personality. The Kraken Kitty V2 USB headset is particularly interesting as Razer has replaced its Kitty Ears attachment with Gangar spikes. You can purchase these starting at $49.99 for the deskpad, $59.99 for the gaming mouse, and $139.99 for the gaming headset.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Razer today announced a new, unexpected entry into its lineup — a laptop sleeve meant for up to 16-inch devices. It comes in two flavors, starting at $80 and topping out at $130.

The cheaper variant is basic; it's just a well-designed, seemingly high-quality laptop sleeve that can carry most laptops. The insides are lined with a padded microfiber interior that will keep your device safe, while the exterior is made from "tactical" polyester. The edges are reinforced with stitching, similar to a mousepad. The overall design of the sleeve is kept sleek and minimal with no branding.

The flap is where things get interesting. . On the more expensive $130 variant, this flap actually features two wireless charging pads. But in the $80 base variant, it's just that — a magnetic flap that keeps the sleeve shut. From what we could tell, it might be made out of metal, or at least hard plastic underneath the fabric coating, so it's definitely sturdy

The top pad can charge at up to 15W while the bottom one is limited to 5W. There's a USB-C cable included to connect the flap to a laptop to provide power. There's no battery inside the sleeve itself; it's just a built-in wireless charger so you don't have to travel with one separately. Just put your laptop on top of the sleeve, whip out the flap, and plop your doomscroll machines on the side.

There's surprisingly no RGB onboard which feels like a missed opportunity for such a luxurious product. There are two little green accent dots on the top, near the flap, that look like tiny LEDs at first glance, but it's just fabric. Both the standard and wireless-charging enabled sleeves are available to buy now from Razer's website.

I reviewed the Razer Iskur V2 gaming chair and its cheaper sibling — the Iskur V2 X — last year. Today, Razer is expanding the range with the Iskur V2 NewGen, which is just a minor update to the Iskur V, despite “NewGen” being tacked on to the end of the product’s name.

At first glance, there's not much of a difference between the Iskur V2 and the Iskur V2 NewGen. However, Razer says that the latter includes a second-generation EPU leather with so-called “CoolTouch” technology and a new inner foam design. Both upgrades should go a long way towards fixing one of the main issues I had with the original Iskur V2.

Razer Iskur V2 NewGen Specifications

Razer Iskur V2 NewGen Design

As I mentioned in the intro, the Iskur V2 NewGen looks nearly identical to its predecessor. But there are some slight differences if you look closely. The first is that the Iskur V2 NewGen has a carbon-fiber-style pattern on the EPU leather that runs along the outer edges of the seatback and seat base. Basically, this is the area between the two green stitching lines on the chairs. On the Iskur V2, the EPU has the same grain as the rest of the seating surfaces. It’s a minor change, and one that doesn’t really affect performance – it’s also something that you won’t notice while sitting in the chair.

Rubbing my hand over the seating surfaces, the materials felt identical to the touch, but there are unseen changes — according to Razer. The company says the Gen-2 EPU leather has higher thermal effusivity, which is a fancy way of saying it stays cooler to the touch during extended gaming sessions. Razer also says that its PU leather is 13x more durable than traditional PU leather. Additionally, there are so-called “CoolTouch” fibers embedded into the seating surfaces to help regulate temperatures. There are still no perforations in the seating surfaces.

Sadly, when I tested the Iskur V2, daytime temperatures were in the 90s, and I was wearing shorts daily. It was in these conditions that the seat base would stick to my legs, putting a damper on comfort. But now, in the middle of winter here in North Carolina, daytime temperatures are in the 30s, and I’m wearing pants inside the house to stay comfortable. So it’s not exactly the right environment to test how clammy my skin gets while sitting on the Iskur V2 NewGen.

Finally, Razer introduces dual-density cold-cured foam, which it says provides excellent comfort while maintaining a firm base to support proper posture. It also resists trapping heat from your body, which, in turn, improves cooling performance.

With that said, everything else is reminiscent of the Iskur V2. That means the trick lumbar pad, controlled by left and right dials while tracking your body movement, remains. You also get the same dual-density foam seat cushion, 4D armrests, height and recline controls, a heavy steel frame, and an aluminum alloy base with five PU casters. The same memory foam headrest pillow is also included and can be placed on top of the backrest.

The Iskur V2 NewGen is available in black, black with green stitching, light gray, or quartz (pink).

Assembling the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen

Like the Iskur V2 before it, the Iskur V2 NewGen arrived in a massive box that took some finagling to transport to my upstairs office. The large and awkward shape of the shipping box, combined with its 80-pound weight, was quite daunting. Once I had the box upstairs where I wanted it, my brain realized I could have just opened it downstairs and carried the pieces up one by one instead. However, a couple of minutes of frustration was worth it to me than running up and down the stairs like an errand boy to fetch components one by one.

The Razer Iskur V2 NewGen parts list includes:

• Backrest and seat base (left and right arms pre-attached)
• Headrest pillow
• Left and right armrest
• PU Casters 5x
• Gas lift, tilt mechanism
• Allen wrench, screws, plastic covers, and a pair of gloves

The seat base, backrest, and headrest pillow were wrapped in plastic to protect them during shipping, while the wheelbase was wrapped in thin, flexible foam. The other components (wheels, bolts, tools, plastic covers, gas lift, etc.) were tucked into a smaller box. Something that I’ve come to expect from Razer chairs is a pair of work gloves inside a plastic bag taped to the inner flap. Although I don’t need gloves for chair assembly, I appreciate that Razer takes the effort to include a pair for people who might prefer that luxury.

Given that I’ve previously assembled both the Iskur V2 and the Iskur V2 X, I blazed through the process in about five minutes without even looking at the Iskur V2 NewGen instructions. Razer includes a multitool for assembling the Iskur V2, and the whole process took no more than ten minutes. I first inserted the wheels into the aluminum-allow base, and then used my fist to bang them into place. Next, I inserted the gas lift, attached the bottom cushion to the seat base, and then attached the seatback using Allen screws. The assembly process was aided by an Allen tool that Razer included in the box. The final touches were to add plastic covers to hide the screws used to attach the seat back and attach the headrest pillow.

One thing I noticed after assembling the Iskur V2 NewGen was a strong chemical smell that still lingers. I didn’t experience this odor with the Iskur V2, so perhaps it's due to the new Gen-2 EPU. While the odor is not as strong now — 5 days after I first removed the chair from the box — I can still smell it when I sit in it.

Razer Iskur V2 NewGen Comfort and Adjustments

As I mentioned, the Iskur V2 NewGen builds on the firm foundation of the Iskur V2. That means the chair offers plenty of adjustability to conform to your body and posture. My favorite part of the chair is what Razer dubs the HyperFlex Lumbar Support System.

In practice, it features a 360-degree swivel that allows the back lumbar to move with you. If you move your body left, right, back, or forward, the lumbar support stays anchored to your back and moves with you. It feels great on my back, especially as I'm getting up there in age and sometimes have lower back aches.

To that point, you can use the right rotary dial to adjust the lumbar inward (turn the dial downward) or outward (turn the dial upward). You can also adjust the contact point up or down using the left dial. Using a delicate combination of these two controls, you should be able to find the optimal setting to comfort your weary bones.

Adding to the comfort factor is the dual-density cold-cure foam. Now, to be fair, the Iskur V2 was already an extremely comfortable chair with good ergonomics and great long-term comfort. After sitting my butt in both chairs and hopping between them frequently, I couldn’t detect a significant improvement with the Iskur V2 NewGen. Razer has only made minor tweaks here, with the primary impetus being to improve cooling performance.

Like the Iskur V2, the updated model supports a maximum 152-degree recline, which can be beneficial if you just want to lie back and game or enjoy a movie on your widescreen monitor. The extreme recline isn’t for me, but I can appreciate that it's probably beneficial for more daring gamers.

The chair supports height adjustment (floor-to-seat height ranges from 435 to 535 mm), which is controlled using the right stalk that juts out from the seat base. As is common in today's gaming chairs, the Iskur V2 features 4D armrests, which are highly adjustable. I found the perfect height and horizontal position to accommodate my arms while seated at my desk. The armrests can also pivot up to 25 degrees in or out, but I found they were most comfortable pointed straight ahead.

The 4D armrests can adjust up and down, in and out, and can pivot up to 25 degrees inward or outward.

Given that the chair's dimensions haven’t changed, I’m still not completely sold on the seat base, which, at 17.72 inches (45cm) is a tad shorter than I prefer. I'm 5’10” (with long legs), and this means I don’t have the thigh support that other chairs with longer seat bases provide — but my body has learned to adjust.

Bottom Line

Despite the “NewGen” in the name, the Razer Iskur V2 NewGen is a relatively minor update to an already good chair. The Iskur V2 NewGen has minor design changes and updates to materials (internal and external) that should help keep your body cooler during gaming sessions. This was one of my nitpicks with the prior model, so it’s good to see that it’s being addressed.

The main problem, however, is that it’s the middle of winter in my neck of the woods, so the ambient temperature is not hot enough to have issues with my legs sticking to the chair or my back sweating from the EPU surface materials on the chair. So, back-to-back testing between the Iskur V2 and Iskur V2 NewGen has not shown any real-world improvements to cooling performance… yet. However, we will revisit the chair when summer comes around to see whether the new materials have improved on this significantly.

That said, if you’re in the market for a new chair at the moment, the Iskur V2 NewGen is replacing the Iskur V2. It retails for the same price — $649 — so if you already have the Iskur V2, it’s probably not wise to spend another $649 for a minor materials upgrade. However, if you don’t already have a gaming chair or you're looking to upgrade from an older, worn-out one, the Iskur V2 NewGen should definitely be on your radar. Just be prepared for at least a week of an odd chemical odor once you take it out of the box.

Razer has just refreshed its iconic Huntsman lineup with a new addition, the Huntsman Signature Edition. The company's latest flagship keyboard is $499.99 directly from Razer's website. The highlight feature here is the updated design, featuring a CNC-machined aluminum chassis with a PVD mirror finish on the back. It includes all the customary high-end gaming features you'd expect.

• Check out the Razer Huntsman Signature Edition at Razer

This keyboard still uses the Huntsman V3 Pro platform and just builds upon it with some luxury refinements; most of the upcharge is associated with its construction. We gave the V3 Pro a very positive score, so this should be even better.

You get the same internals —Razer's custom 'Gen 2' optical switches, which enable an insane 8,000 Hz polling rate, but the board is wired-only to enable it.

Since these are analog switches, the board also supports Snap Tap, aka SOCD, which allows you to quickly actuate different keys without ever fully depressing one. It's a borderline cheat code for strafing that's banned in most esports. You get all the other analog goodies like customizable actuation points, rapid trigger, and analog input for emulating dynamic controls on racing games and such.

As you can see in the pictures above, the back is where most of the upgrade lies. The standard V3 Pro wasn't exactly a looker, but this one is fully deserving of the bespoke label. Gone are the cheap-feeling feet and the gaudy text; instead, you get a clean and minimal design that looks more like a custom keyboard's weight. There's a tasteful Razer logo in the middle, but you do lose the dual-stage height adjustment.

The chassis is milled out of 6063 aluminum, both the anodized top and the PVD bottom, which should make the keyboard weigh a lot more. Lastly, the keycaps seem to be the same shinethrough doubleshot PBT that came with the standard V3 Pro. Even though the press material is very monochrome, the board, of course, fully supports RGB, and it's available to buy from February 22, only at Razer.com.

The Razer name has been around for a long time, having established itself as one of the first gaming-oriented brands in the PC space. The company is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the iconic Razer Boomslang mouse. The gaming gear firm is launching a special transparent edition of the Boomslang with a display case, as a highly limited run of 1,337 units, all priced at $1,337.

The special edition comes with mostly transparent innards and polyurethane leather buttons. Following the original design, the mouse is ambidextrous, except this time around it's fitted with the latest-and-greatest from the Razer camp: optical switches, a Razer Focus Pro sensor, low-latency wireless communication, and magnetic wireless charging. The charging dock is made of glass, and both mouse and dock have copious RGB LED lighting.

Buyers will get an additional glass display frame with LED lighting, containing each part of the mouse displayed in full glory. Razer also throws in a set of glass feet if the original ones end up on the wrong side of a Counter-Strike loss.

The wording of "20th anniversary" might strike some as odd, seeing as the Boomslang is nearly 27 years old now, with the initial launch in 1999. Razer calls it the world's first gaming mouse, something that's a bit of a stretch but also not untrue. Technically, that title goes to Logitech's Wingman Gaming Mouse, although the Boomslang is arguably more deserving of it, having introduced many features we take as granted nowadays like high-DPI movement and macros.

In that timeframe, the Boomslang was effectively discontinued between 2000 and 2007. The brand was belonged to Kärna LLC, a company that went bankrupt in 2005. It was around 2005 that the Razer was bought and the Razer Inc company started existing as an individual entity. As far as we can ascertain, the Boomslang was actually properly re-released in 2007. Seems that Razer is celebrating its own 20th anniversary, rather than the famous rodent's.

If you're wondering what's the deal with all the references to the number 1,337, it's because it looks like "l33t", or "elite", which was the early 2000s way of describing someone or something as top-notch or high-tech. Amusingly, it quickly became used as a pejorative term. Interested buyers can get in line using the preorder form at the bottom of the Boomslang's page.

Razer just joined the list of peripheral manufacturers that offer browser-based customization of their devices with the beta release of the Razer Synapse Web utility. The company says that its lightweight web app will work directly on Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, allowing users to customize their Razer Huntsman V3 keyboards online.

This new web app will not replace the traditional Synapse 4 utility and its full menu of customization options. Instead, Razer envisions it as a complement to that app to let Razer customers who only need a quick settings change or are using a locked-down system to tweak their keyboards.

“As the newest layer of Razer’s Synapse ecosystem, Synapse Web brings pro-level control into a modern, web‑native format,” Razer said in its press release. “The Razer Huntsman V3 line of keyboards is the first device line supported at launch, with more to follow as the platform expands. Compatible devices include: Razer Huntsman V3 Pro 8KHz, Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL 8KHz, [and the] Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Mini.”

The company said that the web app was developed with input from its own Team Razer athletes and other esports players that rely on custom tuning to stay at the top of their game. A web-based tool ensures that the most important settings are easily and quickly accessible from a browser, which could be handy in tournament or practice situations where installing apps isn't possible.

Synapse Web also allows users to “view, edit, and save profiles directly to device memory for consistent settings everywhere," which means that not only can one modify their personal Razer hardware to taste, but also that potentially any Razer peripheral could be customized anywhere a browser is available, even if someone's personal device has to remain at home.

Nevertheless, you’d still need to install the Synapse 4 app if you want more advanced customization, like game-specific profiles, using macros, or changing performance settings, and integrating the RGB Chroma effects on multiple Razer products. We’re unsure if Synapse Web will fix the several issues noted in Tom’s Hardware’s worst-to-worst ranking of gaming peripheral apps, but this might even be a welcome move for gamers who have grown tired of Synapse 4’s shenanigans on their PCs.

Spotted on sale at Amazon for its lowest-ever price (according to the Amazon price-tracking website CamelCamelCamel), Razer's Viper V3 Pro wireless gaming mouse is now down to just $109.99, a cool $50 or 31% off the $159.99 list price. So, if you're on the hunt for a new or replacement gaming mouse for intensive FPS gaming, then this deal may be of interest to you. With its high-speed polling rate, wireless connectivity, and high-DPI sensor, you can configure this mouse accurately to your taste. The Razer Viper V3 Pro wireless on sale is the black model, although you can purchase the same mouse in either white or a choice of colors, including gold, red, and dark red, but those are special edition versions and also cost a little more.

• Grab this deal at Amazon

The Viper V3 Pro features six programmable buttons, if you include the clickable scroll wheel (left click, right click, two thumb buttons, scroll wheel click, and the Power/DPI switch underneath the mouse), and weighs just 54g (1.9oz). This wireless mouse is also rechargeable and incorporates Razer's Focus Pro 35K optical sensor (gen-2), which has a maximum sensitivity of 35,000 DPI, a maximum speed of 750 IPS, and can handle up to 70G's of acceleration. It also comes packaged with Razer's HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, which allows for wireless polling rates of up to 8,000 Hz. If you'd like to see more details about the Viper V3 Pro, then please check out our review.

Razer's Viper V3 Pro offers two forms of connectivity: 2.4GHz wireless with 8K polling via Razer's HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, and wired via USB-C. One massive thing to take into consideration, though, is that while the mouse can get wireless polling rates of up to 8,000 Hz, the maximum polling speed over a wired connection is still just 1,000 Hz. The 8K polling rate will also affect the battery life of the mouse, so you might want to turn it down to extend wireless play sessions.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

An electronics technician stars in a video showing an intricate repair of a Razer gaming laptop motherboard by hand. This is one of the most challenging PCB repair tasks we have seen come to a successful conclusion. The repair fixes damage that appears to be the result of the same underlying issue outlined by another repair tech, who asserts that Razer’s Blade 14 mobo has “a fatal design flaw.”

It is definitely worth spending two minutes and 48 seconds watching this, even if you watch it at 2x speed, but you then need to remember to pick up your jaw from the floor.

Being adept at electronics repair is an enviable skill. Moreover, as components are continuously miniaturized, such highly skilled work pushes the bounds of human-level ability. In the above video, we see an unnamed technician work on a severely damaged Razer laptop motherboard.

The video begins with a close-up of the laptop motherboard, showing a chunk of its structure around a screw hole that is obviously missing. We'll discuss the potential causes of this damage later...

As a first step, the technician uses a grinding pen and takes away material at an angle. This work provides improved access to the multiple conductive layers of the PCB, enabling them to be addressed separately during upcoming soldering repairs. Think of this task a little like how ancient rice farmers would terrace the side of a mountain to provide workable paddy fields.

Pausing the video, we can see the deft grinding pen work makes more than 10 PCB layers distinguishable. Once they are happy with the layer exposure, the technician moves to the intricate cleaning of circuit traces at the chosen level to prepare them for reconnecting using hair-thin enameled wiring.

The technician deftly solders the first target PCB layer with their iron and ultra-thin connecting wires. With the first of several layers now considered fixed, solder mask is applied to insulate and add structure where it is currently missing. This meticulous work was repeated across several layers, restoring the damaged PCB both electrically and structurally.

Finally, the job is complete: the laptop cooling assembly is reattached, and the machine is reassembled. As ‘proof’ of a successful job, the video ends with a brief clip of the purported same laptop running FurMark – the (in)famously punishing benchmark and PC stress test. At this stage, we see Simplified Chinese text in the Windows UI, hinting that this repair was done in China.

Is this Razer laptop design prone to cooler screw-induced damage?

This particular issue with the Razer Blade seems to be more common than it should be. There is a screw hole in the PCB near one of the cooling fans. Our research indicates that this particular hole is a little bit too close to a high-power voltage trace. Thus, maintenance, where this screw is removed/inserted, can cause electrical arcing and result in difficult-to-repair damage. This video covers what seems to be the same underlying issue, and asserts that Razer’s Blade 14 mobo has “a fatal design flaw.”

Razer's BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) is one of my favorite gaming headsets ever. It's comfortable, sounds great, and it has a fantastic microphone. But it was still missing a couple of features that I wanted — namely, simultaneous 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, so pesky things like phone calls or the sudden impulse to scroll through TikTok don't disrupt my gaming flow. When I asked PR at Razer if the company would ever consider implementing this feature, they said "no promises," and cited battery concerns as the reason. But it appears Razer's gotten over that concern, as its latest flagship headset, the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro, features simultaneous 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as active noise cancellation — and still gets up to 70 hours of battery life.

The BlackShark V3 Pro is a circumaural wireless gaming headset that's really aimed at premium gamers. Like its predecessors, it doesn't pretend to be a lifestyle headset at all: Its earcups don't swivel flat, and it features a sleek but very "headset" design with wire steel yokes, a prominent volume knob, and a large, detachable boom microphone. Design-wise, it's pretty similar to the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) — sleek, black, and surprisingly comfortable. And it's much more versatile, with four forms of connectivity (2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, USB-C, and analog), plus ANC, and the ability to mix audio from more than one input. These features don't come cheap, however; the $250 BlackShark V3 Pro is on the pricier end — and it might be moving too far away from the line's "elite gamers only" philosophy.

Design and Comfort of the BlackShark V3 Pro

The BlackShark V3 Pro is an over-ear (circumaural) wireless gaming headset with a detachable boom microphone. It looks very similar to the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023), with plastic earcups, thin, steel wire yokes, and a leatherette headband with fabric-covered foam padding. It features an all-black colorway, which makes it look sleek and premium despite being made mostly of plastic and some sort of stretchy, sporty sweat-wicking (I assume) fabric. The headset also comes in a white colorway, which still has black fabric on the headband and earcups, as well as black wires and a black boom mic.

The headset is heavier than its predecessor, weighing 12.96 ounces (367g). This isn't too much of an issue, as it's still very comfortable, but I can definitely feel the difference between the BlackShark V3 Pro and the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023), whic weighs 320g . The earcups swivel, tilt, and are height-adjustable; unlike most headsets, the earcups themselves slide down the yokes (instead of the yokes moving). Because the earcups slide on the yokes, they are not locked in place in any way — this isn't an issue when the headset is on your head, but they can sometimes slide out of place when you're taking it off, and I found that minorly frustrating. Also, while the earcups swivel (the earcups on the V2 Pro didn't really swivel at all), they still don't swivel flat, so this is not really a headset that's easy to travel with.

The headset has replaceable magnetic speaker plates — similar to the higher-end of SteelSeries' Arctis Nova series, such as the Arctis Nova Pro and the Arctis Nova 7 — but at the moment Razer doesn't sell any replacement plates separately. The company did, however, send me some custom speaker plates with the LA Thieves' logo. I naturally wondered if this was some sort of Triple-A team I hadn't heard of; turns out it's a Call of Duty eSports team. (Sorry, guys, I'm a real-life sports person.) Razer's site says other designs are "coming soon," but it looks like you'll only be able to buy the full headset with custom plates — not the custom plates themselves (at least, not yet). This definitely has the potential to be a cool feature, but we'll have to see what the eventual options are.

The earcups have several ports and controls, which is sort of expected when you have so many features. The left earcup features the signature BlackShark volume dial, which is perpendicular instead of sleekly hidden along the side of the earcup. This makes the headset more of a dedicated gaming headset in general, but I don't mind it — it's a sleek machined-black volume dial, and it looks and feels very premium.

Along the side of the left earcup, from front to back, you'll find a 3.5mm microphone jack, a USB-C charging port, a power button (textured to distinguish it from other buttons), and a physical mic mute switch. I do not love this mute switch — while it is nice to have a switch, rather than a button, so you can tell what position it's in... I always forget what position is muted. Perhaps that's because the pressed-in position is muted, and it just feels like that should be the un-muted position. I don't know, but I've spent weeks with this headset and it hasn't gotten any more intuitive.

Along the side of the right earcup, from front to back, there's an ANC button, a configurable roller (by default, this adjusts the balance between your two wireless inputs), and a multi-function button that switches between EQ presets and acts as a pairing button for Bluetooth.

In the box, the BlackShark V3 Pro comes with a removable boom mic, a 2.4GHz wireless dongle (which plugs into your PC via a USB-C cable), a 5-foot (1.5m) USB-C to USB-A cable, and a 5-foot USB-C to 3.5mm (analog) jack.

Specs

Audio Performance of the BlackShark V3 Pro

The BlackShark V3 Pro features Razer's 50mm Triforce Bio-Cellulose dynamic drivers, which have a frequency response range of 12 - 28,000 Hz. That's a little wider than the typical gaming headset frequency response range of 20 - 20,000 Hz, though it's not uncommon to see gaming headsets with wider frequency response ranges (especially premium flagship headsets). It's the same frequency range as the 50mm titanium drivers in the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023), however.

Listening to music on the BlackShark V3 Pro sounds okay — lows are decently powerful and mids are nicely present, especially in my favorite mid-heavy song, K-391's Lonely World. I wasn't particularly impressed with the detail in the low end — I did not get anywhere near the full run of the drums in the beginning of Lorde's Royals, but at least nothing sounded too muddied in Kaskade's POW POW POW. The high end, unfortunately, was less good: The strings in Britney Spears' Toxic were so distorted they were painful to listen to. Needless to say, this would not be my go-to headset for music.

Luckily, just because a headset isn't great for music doesn't mean it can't still be pretty decent for gaming — and the BlackShark V3 Pro performed well as a gaming headset. The headset does an excellent job with directional audio — I had no problem telling which direction footsteps or gunshots were coming from in Counter-Strike 2, even without THX Spatial Audio turned on. The headset does come with built-in THX Spatial Audio (Razer owns THX), which gives you access to THX's preset game profiles — both competitive and immersive.

The BlackShark V3 Pro also features active noise cancellation, which is a somewhat rare feature to see in gaming headsets — especially gaming headsets that aren't designed to double as lifestyle headsets. However, since the V3 Pro doesn't really double as a lifestyle headset, I'm not sure how valuable this feature will be for most gamers; it might be useful if you've got roommates or loud PC fans, but the headset's seal is fairly tight (especially now that the earcups swivel), and I found the passive noise cancellation to be more than enough.

Microphone of the BlackShark V3 Pro

I had high hopes for the BlackShark V3 Pro's detachable boom mic, as the boom mic on the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) is the best boom mic I've ever seen (or heard) on a gaming headset. The mic on the BlackShark V3 Pro should be better, as it's a full-band 12mm "HyperClear" microphone (versus the V2 Pro's 9mm). It comes with a removable foam pop filter and sits on the end of a 4-inch flexible gooseneck arm, and plugs into the headset via a 3.5mm jack.

Unfortunately, the BlackShark V3 Pro's mic did not live up to my expectations. It definitely didn't impress anyone the way the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023)'s mic did, and it actually sounded a little worse than your average gaming headset boom mic. I thought this might be due to the software, but it sounded the same even with all software "enhancements" turned off — my voice was full enough, but I sounded a little muffled and fuzzy over various video conferencing platforms, including Discord and Google Meet. Razer did push out a firmware update designed to improve the mic's out-of-the-box performance, but it didn't do much to improve the fuzziness issue.

Features and Software of the BlackShark V3 Pro

The BlackShark V3 Pro can be configured using Razer's universal peripheral software, Synapse 4. The software features a 10-band equalizer for tweaking the audio presets, as well as the ability to set up game profiles for each of your games, which is a nice touch (you can set this up so each game points to one of your custom EQs or THX's existing game profiles). The headset comes with five stored EQ presets out of the box: default, game, movie, music, and eSports (Valorant). You can store up to nine EQ presets on the headset, including up to five eSports presets, and you can switch through these presets using the multifunction/EQ button.

Synapse also lets you tweak some audio enhancements (some of which can also be tweaked on the headset itself), including ANC and in-call audio mixing, which lets you set how you want simultaneous dual wireless connectivity to work (if you want it to work at all). You can also adjust some power settings, such as how long the headset stays on while idle, and pick what you want the light on the dongle to indicate (connection status, battery status, or low battery warning).

You can also tweak the microphone in Synapse, though it's not great out of the box, and I couldn't find any settings that improved it particularly well. You can adjust the microphone's input (gain) and play with the 10-band equalizer (there are a handful of presets to get you started), and you can turn on "mic enhancement," which has several features that do various things (though none of them worked particularly well for me), including normalizing volume, upping vocal clarity, and turning on noise cancellation. There's also mic monitoring, which allows you to hear your voice back as you speak, but I didn't love the way Razer implemented this — my voice sounded fuzzy and distorted, which was distracting.

Battery Life of the BlackShark V3 Pro

Razer rates the BlackShark V3 Pro's battery life at 70 hours of a 2.4GHz wireless connection, which is solid — not the highest we've seen, but in line with other premium, flagship gaming headsets from mainstream gaming companies. Of course, the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) is also rated at 70 hours, so this isn't an improvement over the previous generation.

Bottom Line

Razer's BlackShark V3 Pro is sort of a toss-up. While Razer has added all of the connectivity I wanted in the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) — simultaneous dual 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as wired via analog and USB — I don't necessarily need multiple forms of connectivity in a gaming headset. Or, well, I certainly don't want it as much as I want other features, such as well-tuned audio and an excellent boom mic. I was impressed with how well the BlackShark V3 Pro's simultaneous dual audio mixing worked. Not only did it manage to stay connected to both of my devices (even when I was switching things around, as I often do), the volume mixing wheel on the right ear cup worked perfectly for balancing audio between two devices.

But I'd give up simultaneous dual wireless audio mixing for great all-around audio and an impressive mic — and a cheaper price tag. At this point, the BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) may not be quite as convenient or as feature-rich as the BlackShark V3 Pro, but it's $50 cheaper (and likely on further discount) and it sounds better — and makes you sound better.

If you like the design of the Razer Iskur V2, but don't want to shell out over $600 for a new gaming chair, you're in luck. The company also offers the Iskur V2 X, which has much of the same style as its more expensive sibling — but with a sub-$300 price tag.

The Iskur V2 X sacrifices many of the extras that make the Iskur V2 so special, but its more accessible price point makes it a good fit for those who prioritize value when searching for the best gaming chairs.

Razer Iskur V2 X Specifications

Assembling the Razer Iskur V2

Like the Iskur V2, the Iskur V2 X review unit arrived in a massive black box weighing 41 pounds. With that said, I managed to carry the cumbersome box, intact, up to the second floor of my house and to my office (my back be damned). With the back opened, I found the following parts carefully protected and arranged in the box:

• Fabric gloves for assembly (glued to the inner flap)
• Backrest and seat base (left and right arms pre-attached)
• Metal, 5-arm base
• Casters 5x
• Gas lift, tilt mechanism
• Allen wrench, screws, and plastic covers for left/right side arms

Each primary component for the chair was wrapped in a clear plastic bag to protect the metal finish or fabric during shipping. The assembly instructions are printed on the back of a large piece of green cardstock. The instructions are easy to understand with pictograms to guide you through the building process. I started by affixing the castors to the base, and then banging each into place on the floor (which startled my Mini Schnauzer puppy). The next step was to insert the gas lift cylinder into the base.

I then had to remove four screws from the seat base, using the included Allen wrench tool, attach the tilt mechanism, and then reinsert the previously removed screws. I then slipped the seatback onto the seat base using the metal guides and screwed each side with two screws. The final steps were to attach the plastic covers (to hide the attachment points for the seatback to the seat base). There are also two small round covers to conceal the single screw that secures the larger plastic covers in place.

Razer Iskur V2 X Design

The design of the Iskur V2 X closely resembles that of the Iskur V2. There is significant bolstering on the chair's backrest and seat base, which helps to envelop your posterior and back. My review unit featured a light grey fabric with black contrast stitching (also available in black). It's a more subdued look than the Iskur V2 that I reviewed earlier this year, which was finished in black with green contrast stitching.

The cloth seating surfaces of the chair were pleasing to the touch and comfortable during extended use. One of my niggles with the Iskur V2 was that I found the synthetic leather to be uncomfortable, sticking to my skin in warmer temperatures or when my body temperature increased from prolonged gaming sessions. The cloth on the Iskur V2 breathes better, and I had no issues with the chair sticking to my legs or making my back sweat.

If there's a downside to fabric, it's that it can become a magnet for odors and stains — gaming chairs finished in synthetic leather are easier to clean. With a fabric chair, you'll need to be a little more careful about where you place your greasy hands if you're grabbing for potato chips, Cheetos, or any other kind of food that you may partake in while gaming (or just doing your usual daily workload).

Since this is the cost-optimized version of the Iskur V2, several features have been omitted to deliver a chair that's less than half the Iskur V2's MSRP. The comfy and removable memory foam pillow isn't included (although you can purchase one separately from Razer). You also don't get the two knobs to adjust the back lumbar support. One other change comes with the armrests: the Iskur V2 features 4D armrests, while the Iskur V2X has 2D armrests (adjustable for height and rotatable inward/outward).

One thing that hasn't changed is the ability to adjust the backrest from 90 degrees to a lounge-friendly 152 degrees. While I can recline and use the chair at a 152-degree angle, my anxiety won't allow me to maintain that position for more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time (I have the illogical fear that I'm going to topple backwards and crack my cranium).

Razer Iskur V2 X Comfort and Adjustments

Razer tackles comfort head-on by using a high-density foam for the cushion. That's just a fancy way of saying that the cushion is relatively thick, it molds to your buttocks, and helps to relieve pressure points. During my time testing the chair, my bottom was well-supported, and I didn't experience any fatigue or pain after using it for hours.

Unlike the Iskur V2, the Iskur V2 X doesn't have the adjustable lumbar support for the backrest. On the Iskur V2, you can move the lumbar support that swivels 360 degrees and can move up/down, or in/out. As a result, you might have a hard time finding (or may never find) the optimal "sweet spot" with the chair. It wasn't a problem for me, as my 5-foot-10-inch and 161-pound frame had no trouble adjusting to the backrest, which was set at an angle of about 100 to 110 degrees using the handle on the right side of the seat base. As I mentioned earlier, the chair has a maximum recline of 152 degrees, which is something I was reluctant to test for longer than a few minutes.

You also lose the 4D armrests of the Iskur V2, with the Iskur V2 X featuring 2D armrests instead. You can adjust each armrest independently for height and swivel inwards or outwards. I adjusted the height of the armrests to accommodate my seating position comfortably, but I left them in their original position — pointing straight ahead. (I've never really felt the need to swivel my armrests inward or outward, but to each their own.)

The seat features a height adjustment mechanism, accessible via a handle located on the right side of the seat base. My most comfortable position was to have the seat raised to its maximum setting.

The five castors aren’t PU-coated, like the ones on the Iskur V2, but I still had no trouble effortlessly gliding across the laminate wood flooring in my office.

Bottom Line

The Razer Iskur V2 X is a no-frills gaming chair that I still find to be comfortable to use daily. For gaming to more mundane tasks — such as typing up this review or entering data in Microsoft Excel — I rolled around my office and swiveled from left to right with ease, and even thrust my back into the seat like a maniac when I lost a race in Forza Horizon 5.

You do miss out on several features from the Iskur V2, including the memory foam headrest, 4D armrests, and 6D lumbar support. But if those aren’t features that tickle your fancy for a gaming chair, you can save well over $300 by opting for the Iskur V2 X. The Iskur V2 has an MSRP of $649 versus just $299 for the Iskur V2 X, which makes the latter a prime score for bargain shoppers. However, if you want a bit more adjustability to fit the specific needs of your body, you may also want to consider the Bouiles Master Chair, which offers more adjustability and costs just $70 more than the Iskur V2 X.

Razer's DeathAdder V3 Pro has been near the top of our list of best gaming mice since it debuted in 2022, and for good reason: It's one of the best (if not the best) feeling mice I've used. Of course, it's also speedy, accurate, and ultra-light, so it's practically a no-brainer if you're looking for a top-of-the-line gaming mouse and you don't need any extra features, such as Bluetooth, RGB lighting, or 19 buttons.

The DeathAdder V4 Pro is identical on the outside, but it's been redesigned on the inside: It has a brand-new sensor, new optical switches and scroll wheel, and it's more efficient (it weighs less and offers more battery life). It also comes with a wireless 8K polling dongle in the box — unlike the V3 Pro, which comes with a standard dongle. The 8K dongle is sold separately on the older model. The DeathAdder V4 Pro features Razer's Focus Pro 45K Optical Sensor Gen-2, which has a maximum sensitivity of 45,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 900 IPS, and can handle up to 85 G's of force — it's Razer's latest, fastest, and most accurate sensor yet.

All of this doesn't come cheap, of course, and the DeathAdder V4 Pro will set you back $170, which is on the high end, even for a premium flagship gaming mouse. Like the DeathAdder V3 Pro, it's an excellent mouse — but it doesn't make sense for everyone to upgrade.

Design and Comfort

The design of the DeathAdder V3 Pro was perfect — the ergonomic, contoured right-handed shape fit perfectly in my hand to the point where I forgot I was even using a mouse. The mouse felt so good that I found my hand moving toward it whenever it was on my desk (even while I was trying to test other mice). Razer went all-in on perfecting the DeathAdder V3 Pro's shape, and I don't think there's much (if anything) that could be done to improve it.

Luckily, Razer and I are on the same page, which is why the new DeathAdder V4 Pro is basically identical to its predecessor. The DeathAdder V4 Pro features the exact same size and shape as the V3 Pro: ergonomic and contoured to fit your right hand, with a left-shifted center hump and lightly curved sides to keep the mouse grippable. It has large, separated primary mouse buttons with subtle channeling to help keep your fingers in place, two large, flat thumb buttons on the left side, and a notched, textured rubber scroll wheel.

The DeathAdder V4 Pro is a relatively large mouse overall, measuring 5 inches (128mm) long by 2.67 inches (68mm) wide, and 1.73 inches (44mm) high at its highest point. This is slightly smaller than most general-purpose gaming mice, such as the Logitech G502 X Plus (5.17 x 3.12 x 1.62 inches / 131.32 x 79.25 x 41.15mm) and the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K (5.11 x 2.96 x 1.67 inches / 130 x 75.4 x 42.5mm), but it's still on the larger side in general. It's almost the same size as the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 Dex (4.95 x 2.67 x 1.73 inches / 125.8 x 67.7 x 43.9mm), which is Logitech's answer to the DeathAdder lineup.

The DeathAdder V4 Pro may be the same size and shape as its predecessor, but it's not the same mouse. It features a smooth, matte finish (unlike its predecessor's lightly textured finish) and is about 10% lighter: The V4 Pro weighs 56g (57g in white), while the V3 Pro weighs 63g (64g in white). Six grams might not seem like much, but it's a noticeable difference, side-by-side. The mouse also feels a bit sturdier than its predecessor — it doesn't seem to have any of the minor side creaking issues I eventually noticed on the V3 Pro (but I've also only been using it for a month or so).

The bottom of the mouse is expectedly simple, with two large PTFE mouse feet at either end (along with a PTFE strip around the sensor) for smooth gliding, and a power button that doubles as a DPI switch. The mouse has no RGB lighting, but it does have a small, colorful LED indicator light next to the scroll wheel that changes color to indicate your current DPI preset. The mouse comes with five preset DPI steps: 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and 6400.

The DeathAdder V4 Pro also comes with a new wireless dongle — instead of the typical USB-A dongle that plugs directly into your PC, the V4 Pro comes with a small, weighted wireless dongle that connects to your PC via a USB-C to USB-A cable. The dongle measures approximately 1.8 inches (45.6mm) in diameter by 1 inch (25.5mm) high and weighs around 1.6 ounces (45g) and features a grippy rubber base to keep it from moving around on your desk. It has a USB-C port on one side and three small, colorful LED dots on the other, which change color to indicate connection quality, battery level, and polling rate.

In the box, the DeathAdder V4 Pro comes with a 6-foot (1.8m) braided USB-C to USB-A cable, a wireless 8K dongle, and a set of pre-cut grip tape. The USB-C to USB-A cable feels durable and fairly stiff — it's not one of Razer's "SpeedFlex" cables, so it's not an ideal cable for using the mouse in wired mode.

Specs

Performance

The DeathAdder V4 Pro features Razer's Focus Pro 45K optical sensor (gen-2), which has a maximum resolution of 45,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 900 IPS, and can handle up to 85 G's of force. This is Razer's latest, fastest, and most accurate sensor (and this is the first mouse in the brand's lineup to feature this sensor), and it delivers exactly as well as you'd expect, with smooth, accurate, ultra-precise movements on just about any surface. We tested it on a variety of hard, soft, hybrid, and glass mouse pads, as well as on plain surfaces (wood, laminate, polished concrete, and frosted glass), and it had no issues tracking on any of them.

The mouse also features Razer's new gen-4 optical mouse switches and an optical scroll wheel. The switches are rated for 100 million clicks and definitely feel and sound different from the switches in the DeathAdder V3 Pro — they're ever-so-slightly lighter and have a higher, somewhat hollow-sounding click, but they feel great: firm, clicky, and accurate. The notched scroll wheel is also fairly lightweight — it's not as stiff as the DeathAdder V3 Pro's scroll wheel, and it felt even more accurate and precise despite having freer movement.

If you're looking for a simple, ultra-light gaming mouse, the DeathAdder V4 Pro is probably the mouse for you. You don't have to be a competitive player to appreciate how good the mouse feels in hand, or to recognize how precise and accurate its sensor and switches are — and if you are a competitive player, the DeathAdder V4 Pro's all-optical setup and 8K-ready polling dongle are about as cutting-edge as you can get on a gaming mouse right now.

Features and Software

The DeathAdder V4 Pro is a fairly straightforward mouse, but it does have six programmable buttons (eight programmable inputs, including scroll up/down). You can customize the mouse and its dongle using Razer's universal peripheral software, Synapse. You can remap the mouse's buttons and set up a second layer of inputs using Razer's HyperShift, and you can also customize the dongle's LED lighting indicators.

Synapse is also where you can adjust the mouse's preset DPI steps and change the polling rate — the default is 1,000 Hz, but you can permanently move it up to 8,000 Hz or you can turn on the "Smart Polling Rate Switcher," so the mouse will automatically switch to an 8K polling rate when you're running a game in full screen mode.

Synapse also has some calibration features, including a sensitivity matcher that lets you match the DeathAdder V4 Pro's sensitivity to that of your old mouse. You can also set up smart tracking, asymmetric cut-off, dynamic sensitivity, and mouse rotation to customize the mouse to perfectly fit your gaming style.

Wireless Experience and Battery Life

Like its predecessor, the DeathAdder V4 Pro only features two forms of connectivity — low-latency 2.4GHz wireless and wired (USB-C). This is pretty standard for ultra-light stripped-down gaming mice — gamers aren't going to use Bluetooth, anyway, so including it is really just a lifestyle convenience. The polling dongle does keep track of how strong your mouse's connection is, which is a nice feature if you're concerned about how many wireless peripherals you're trying to run simultaneously and/or you're trying to use your mouse from across the room.

Razer rated the DeathAdder V4 Pro's battery life at 120 hours when it launched, but has since issued a firmware update that brings that number up to 150 hours (with a 1,000 Hz polling rate). This is significantly better than the DeathAdder V3 Pro, which topped out at 90 hours, and is higher than most similarly lightweight, stripped-down mice. The Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 Dex, for example, gets up to 95 hours of battery life. Razer's Naga V2 Pro also gets 150 hours of battery life, but it also weighs more than twice as much at 4.72oz (134g).

Bottom Line

The DeathAdder V4 Pro is everything we loved about the DeathAdder V3 Pro, but better — it has a better sensor, better switches, and a better scroll wheel, and it weighs less and lasts longer on a charge. It also comes with the 8K wireless dongle in the box — though the V3 Pro launched with a $150 price tag, so the dongle is now just baked into the V4 Pro's price. If you're looking for a new ultra-lightweight premium gaming mouse, and you don't need extra buttons, RGB lighting, or Bluetooth connectivity, you won't be disappointed with the DeathAdder V4 Pro.

That said, it's still $170 for what is, ultimately, a pretty simple mouse. While it does improve upon the DeathAdder V3 Pro in many ways, most of those ways are fairly minor when you consider that the V3 Pro is still a fantastic mouse. I'm not saying the V4 Pro isn't worth it, because it is, but if you can find the DeathAdder V3 Pro on sale now that the V4 Pro has launched, you may not need to splurge on Razer’s latest, greatest cursor controller.

Razer just launched a new semi-transparent colorway for its accessories in a "Phantom White" collection. According to the company, this new style offers an all-translucent design and will have full Razer Chroma RGB integration, allowing you to customize its look to your taste. This option comes a few months after Razer’s Phantom Green design arrived in June, and it seems that these became popular, leading to the release of this white version.

The devices that received the Phantom White treatment include the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K gaming mouse, the Razer BlackWidow V4 75% gaming keyboard, the Razer Barracuda X Chroma wireless gaming headset, the Razer Firefly V2 Pro RGB mouse mat, and, for the first time, the Razer Kishi V3 mobile phone controller. These are among some of the best gaming mice, keyboards, and other peripherals you can get for your battlestation, so you’ll get both performance and eye candy with these products.

The translucent effect is most striking with the BlackWidow V4 75%, as the fully transparent case allows you to enjoy the bright RGB colors on your keyboard. So, aside from the RGB effects you get on each key, your lighting preference clearly shines through the rest of the device. The mouse, headset, and hard mouse mat also show off a ton of RGB lighting to respond to every in-game sound.

You have to pay a $10 premium for the privilege of seeing the internals of your gaming accessories, with Razer charging an extra $20 for the gaming keyboard. This might not sound much, but if you get all five items, you’re paying an extra $60 for the aesthetics.

But if you have a little extra and want to bring back the translucent design of the ‘80s and ‘90s, now’s your chance to upgrade your gaming PC and make it feel like the Atomic Purple Nintendo Game Boy Color and the various translucent controllers and memory cards for the PlayStation of old.

Even among top-tier gaming laptops, the Razer Blade 18 stands out with a winning combination of luxury design and raw power. Starting at $3,499 and reaching $5,199 in our fully loaded test unit, it’s clearly not for anyone on a budget. But for those willing to spend a lot, it does a lot to earn its premium, with desktop-like performance, superior build quality, and high-end features like Thunderbolt 5. Its dual-mode display (4K at 240 Hz or FHD at 440 Hz) is an especially unique touch. So while you could spend less and still get one of the best gaming laptops, no other portable blends luxury and capability quite like Blade 18.

Design of the Razer Blade 18

Razer’s laptops have stayed true to their signature design over the years, and for good reason. While no longer groundbreaking, the look remains distinctive, striking a confident balance of high-performance aesthetics without being garish. Familiar hallmarks include the illuminated lid logo, sharp keyboard backlighting that glows from the shadows, and an oversized touchpad.

The Blade 18’s chassis is CNC-milled from a solid block of aluminum, resulting in a build that looks and feels exceptional. It exhibits almost no flex, even in the large lid, and the anodized coating helps preserve its color over time.

At 15.74 x 10.84 x 1.1 inches, the Blade 18 is roughly the size of a cafeteria tray. That’s still slimmer and lighter than the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, which measures 15.9 x 12.08 x 1.26 inches and weighs 7.93 pounds, versus the Blade 18’s 7.06 pounds. Still, comparing these two is a bit like debating which elephant is smaller – both are massive machines, clearly built for stationary power rather than true portability.

Razer’s Synapse app allows lighting customization for both the keyboard and lid logo. Flip the laptop over, and you’ll find a first for Razer – a transparent window showcasing the vapor chamber that cools the CPU and GPU, accented by LED lighting. Alienware has done something quite similar with its latest Area 51 laptops. Synapse also allows different lighting settings while on battery. Note that Synapse prevents the lighting from being seen by the Windows Dynamic Lighting app, but this can be overridden.

The Blade 18’s versatile connections start on the left edge, with two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports, a Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) port, a 3.5 mm audio jack, a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet jack, and Razer’s proprietary power connector. On the right, you’ll find a Thunderbolt 4 port, an additional USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 output, and an SD card reader. A Kensington lock slot is tucked into the rear corner for added security. Internally, the laptop offers an Intel BE202 card that supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless.

Razer Blade 18 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Razer Blade 18

We tested the Blade 18 equipped with a Core Ultra 275HX processor, GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, and 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM. With this loadout, it’s hardly surprising the Blade 18 made short work of our benchmark suite.

To test the Blade 18, I played Crysis Remastered at 3840 x 2400 with all visual quality settings maximized, seeing 95 to over 100 frames per second (FPS) in open areas and low-to-mid-80s in forests and more complex scenes. The game was exceptionally smooth and looked outstanding on the Blade’s display.

Now for our formal testing. The Blade 18’s main competitor is the MSI Titan 18 HX AI ($6,379 as tested), which offers the same GPU but a slightly upclocked Core Ultra 9 285HX. We also included two 16-inch laptops: the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (Core Ultra 9 275HX, RTX 5080 175 W, $3,299 as tested) and Razer’s own Blade 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, RTX 5090 160 W, $4,499 as tested). Uniquely, the Blade 16 pairs a lower-wattage Ryzen chip with an RTX 5090.

All laptops are tested at 1920 x 1080, but we also included test runs at the native resolution for each laptop: 3840 x 2400 for our Blade 18 and the Titan 18, and 2560 x 1600 for the Asus and Blade 16.

Beginning with Shadow of the Tomb Raider on the Highest detail preset, the Blade 18 led the pack at 1080p with an impressive 213 FPS, while the Titan 18 followed closely with 196 FPS. The Asus (177 FPS) and the Blade 16 (166 FPS) weren’t in contention. At the 4K resolution, performance significantly dropped, with the Blade 18 managing a still-playable 75 FPS and the Titan 18 reaching 68 FPS.

In our most demanding test, Cyberpunk 2077 on the Ray Tracing Ultra preset, the Blade 18 once again secured the pole position at 1080p, delivering 74 FPS, while the Titan 18 followed closely with 71 FPS. The Asus and Blade 16 trailed with respective finishes of 61 FPS and 66 FPS. At 4K, the performance was nearly identical, with the Blade 18 reaching 22 FPS and the Titan 18 hitting 21 FPS.

In Far Cry 6 on the Ultra preset, the Blade 18 continued to top the 1080p charts, delivering 122 FPS, with the MSI close behind at 115 FPS. The Asus followed with 112 FPS, and the Blade 16 trailed at 97 FPS. At 4K, the performance drop was less pronounced in this game, with the Blade 18 at 81 FPS and the MSI at 75 FPS.

In Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium preset), the Blade 18 produced 132 FPS at 1080p, easily outpacing the only other laptop to complete that resolution, the Blade 16 (94 FPS). It also took top honors at 4K, with 53 FPS versus the MSI’s 50 FPS at 4K.

Last, in Borderlands 3 at the game’s “badass” detail preset, we see the Blade 18 again finished on top at 1080p, producing 189 FPS versus the MSI’s 183 FPS, and outgunning the Asus’ 156 FPS. (Note that we don’t have numbers for the Blade 16 on this test.) It also went on to lead the MSI at 4K, with 76 versus 73 FPS.

We use Metro Exodus as our gaming laptop stress test. We achieved an average of 143.06 frames per second (FPS) at 1080p across 15 loops using the RTX benchmark preset, with almost no variance between runs, suggesting stable thermal performance.

Summing it up, the Blade 18 demonstrated the highest level of gaming performance we’ve yet seen in a gaming laptop, edging out the massive Titan 18 in every test. While the performance difference likely wouldn’t be noticeable in real-world gaming, the Razer is over $1,000 less expensive than the MSI as tested (though it’s still not remotely affordable for most of us).

The Razer’s other hidden card is its dual-mode display. If a game happens to be too demanding at 4K, or you simply want the smoothest possible experience, it natively supports 1920 x 1200 via a toggle in the Razer Synapse app, which unlocks a near-liquid 440 Hz refresh rate. (See the display section for more.)

Productivity Performance on the Razer Blade 18

We tested the Blade 18 with a Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM (2x 32GB SO-DIMM modules), and two 2TB SSDs. The SSDs are separate drives in Windows (non-RAID) and are identical (Lexar NM790 in our test unit).

The Geekbench 6 synthetic CPU benchmark saw the Blade 18 topping the single-core scores with 3,127 points, leading the Asus’ 3,071 points and the MSI’s 3,046 points. It took second place in multi-core, producing 20,220 versus the MSI’s commanding 22,082 points. The Core Ultra 9 HX chips in those laptops are clearly faster than the Blade 16’s AMD chip, which finished last with 16,025 multi-core points.

The Blade 18 completed our 4K-to-1080p Handbrake video transcoding test in 2 minutes and 7 seconds, slightly behind MSI’s leading time of 1 minute and 55 seconds, but ahead of Asus at 2 minutes and 24 seconds, and notably faster than the Blade 16, which took 3 minutes and 5 seconds.

In our 25GB file transfer test, the Blade 18’s primary storage drive averaged 1,890.68 MBps, comparable to the Asus at 1,841.41 MBps, and clearly ahead of the Blade 16’s 1,729.51 MBps. MSI remained in a league of its own, thanks to its PCIe 5.0 SSD, which delivered an unmatched average of 2,635.57 MBps. Notably, the Blade 18 does not offer a PCIe 5.0 SSD out of the box, though you won’t notice the difference when loading and playing games. (If you want PCIe 5.0, you'll have to bring your own drive. See the upgradeability section, below.)

Display on the Razer Blade 18

The Blade 18’s 16:10 display offers dual native modes: 3840 x 2400 at 240 Hz or 1920 x 1200 at a blistering 440 Hz. You can toggle between them in Razer Synapse, though a restart is required to apply the change. Although it’s possible to switch the display resolution in Windows, that doesn’t change the display’s operating mode, which is done at a deeper hardware or driver level.

Unlike typical LCDs, which tend to blur when running at non-native resolutions, Razer’s panel retains sharpness and clarity regardless of the selected mode. FHD on an 18-inch panel doesn’t look as crisp as 4K since you can almost make out the individual pixels, but that’s expected. The only usability issue I encountered when switching modes was that the Windows zoom level stays the same when between resolutions. For instance, I had it at 175% while in 4K, but it stayed this way when I switched to FHD, where I reduced it to 100%. It’s an extra step in the process.

Picture quality is excellent in either mode. While I found the mini-LED display on the MSI Titan HX AI to be much brighter, the Blade 18’s display isn’t lacking for luminance or visual fidelity. Watching Stranger Things, the strong contrast revealed eerie details in shadowy lab scenes, while vibrant colors popped, especially on Dustin’s hat and the Scoops Ahoy uniforms. In Crysis Remastered, the rich color and contrast heightened immersion in lush jungles and shimmering oceans. Switching to FHD at 440 Hz, I fired up Star Wars: Squadrons to get a taste of what a few hundred FPS feels like. The fluid, stutter-free image felt almost like liquid in motion.

The Blade 18 uses Nvidia Advanced Optimus to shift between the Intel CPU’s integrated graphics and the dedicated RTX GPU to save energy. Gamers seeking minimal input lag can force exclusive use of the Nvidia GPU in the Nvidia Control Panel. On the color front, the Syanpse app offers many profile options, including native, DCI-P3, sRGB, REC.709, Adobe RGB, and custom. Notably, Razer factory calibrates the display and includes the calibration report in Syanpse.

Among these laptops, only the Blade 18 and the Asus feature IPS panels, both delivering similar performance with near-complete DCI-P3 color coverage and brightness levels approaching 500 nits. The Blade 16’s OLED panel stands out for its vibrant color reproduction, though it falls slightly short in brightness. In contrast, the MSI’s mini-LED display operates on a different level, reaching a peak brightness of 729.3 nits while matching the Blade 18’s color fidelity. So while the Blade 18 may not lead in any single metric, it still delivers outstanding overall image quality, and offers the dual mode feature described above.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Razer Blade 18

Previous Razer laptops I reviewed had modern-looking but stiff, shallow keyboards. The Blade 18 maintains the modern look but significantly improves the feel, thanks to a satisfying 1.5 mm of key travel. Although the switches aren’t mechanical, they provide crisp and accurate action – I could easily tell when the keys registered, and sufficient cushioning at the bottom of the keystroke prevents fatigue during long typing sessions. I nearly matched my personal best in MonkeyType, achieving 118 words per minute.

In terms of layout, I appreciated the full-size top row, although the mismatched arrow key sizes can lead to hitting the wrong key. The three-column number pad isn’t intuitive, but it’s more of a bonus on this laptop, anyway. Disabling number lock provides convenient shortcuts, such as game mode (5) and disabling the touchpad (0), which can also be done with Fn + T. The M1 through M4 keys embedded in the symbols at the top are customizable for macros in the Hypershift section of the Razer Synapse app.

The macro editor allows for repurposing almost any key. It also offers easy customization of game mode, allowing you to toggle the availability of the Windows and CoPilot keys, as well as the Alt + Tab and Alt + F4 shortcuts. Additionally, there's a toggle to automatically enable game mode while gaming.

The keyboard's backlighting and customization options through the Razer Chroma app remain the best in the business. You can adjust layered effects, brightness, and colors, and save them in unlimited profiles. Additionally, you can download user-submitted profiles from Razer. Chroma also supports numerous games for in-game effects.

Razer’s touchpad is massive, as it should be on an 18-inch laptop, covering nearly the entire vertical space between the keyboard and the front edge. Its anti-glare surface provides excellent tracking, even when my fingers are slightly damp, and the tactile feedback from physical clicks is both direct and quiet. Razer centered the pad in the palm rest area rather than below the keyboard, which prevents your left palm from touching it with your fingers on the WASD cluster.

Audio on the Razer Blade 18

The Blade 18 packs a six-speaker array – two tweeters, four woofers, and three amps – which results in robust sound. The laptop’s sheer size helps deliver convincing stereo separation, especially while gaming. Volume level is around what you’d expect from an entry-level Bluetooth speaker. It’s perfectly adequate for a laptop, though I noticed volume levels north of 75% didn’t sound noticeably louder than full volume.

The Blade 18 handled a vinyl rip of Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” with finesse, with the airy drum hits and guitar coming through cleanly, with excellent instrument separation and no vocal distortion. For something bass-heavy, I turned to William Black’s “Bleed 4 U”; while the Blade 18 didn’t thump, it delivered a satisfying low-end grunt. The upward-firing speakers helped with clarity across the board.

That said, with this many speakers, this setup is geared for gaming. In Crysis Remastered, I could easily pinpoint bullets whizzing past as I charged enemy emplacements or enemy chatter as I snuck around unsuspecting soldiers. The full sound added enough punch to explosions and gunfire for a decent sense of immersion. Watching The Marvels gave me a similar vibe, with sharp impacts and abrupt sounds adding a cinematic edge.

Razer’s Synapse app includes meaningful equalizer presets. Switching to Movie mode noticeably widened the sound versus music mode, and I liked that each preset displayed its EQ curve. There’s no auto-switching between modes, but you can create custom bands and save them to a profile.

Upgradeability of the Razer Blade 18

All upgradeability is through the Blade 18’s bottom panel, which is secured by 12 identically sized Torx T4 screws. It took me about two minutes to undo them all, at which point the panel can be hinged off from the rear — no prying needed.

The Blade 18 offers two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots under a peel-off heatsink, next to the rightmost fan, supporting 96GB of memory via two 48GB modules. There are also two M.2 2280 slots for solid-state drives and an M.2 2230 wireless card slot. The battery at the bottom of the unit can also be swapped.

Battery Life on the Razer Blade 18

Although battery life isn't the primary reason to purchase an 18-inch gaming laptop, it's convenient to have enough unplugged stamina to watch a movie or two. In our battery test, which includes web browsing, video streaming over Wi-Fi, and OpenGL tests at 150 nits of brightness, the Blade 18 lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes. While it doesn't match the Asus (6:30) or the Blade 16 (7:21), its real achievement is more than doubling the Titan 18's runtime of just 2:16. For such a large gaming laptop, this is a very respectable result.

Heat on the Razer Blade 18

The Blade 18 employs a dual-fan cooling system that vents heat through the rear edge, complemented by an auxiliary fan beneath the touchpad. Razer claims it dissipates up to 280 W of power, 175 W from the GPU and 105 W from the CPU. To maximize heat transfer, it uses a vapor chamber on the CPU and GPU, plus an unspecified thermal interface gel.

While the fans are unobtrusive at idle, they ramp up noticeably during gameplay. The built-in speakers can overpower the fans, but gamers who need subtle audio cues, like footsteps, will want to wear closed-back headphones. Overall, I found the noise level on par with other high-end gaming laptops.

Under the Metro Exodus stress test, the Blade 18 grew noticeably warm but remained comfortable to use. Surface temperatures peaked at 100 Fahrenheit between the G and H keys, 96 F on the touchpad, and 106 F along the underside near the rear edge. Internally, the Core Ultra 9 CPU maintained average temperatures of 84 degrees C on its performance cores and 76 C on its efficiency cores, while the RTX 5090 GPU averaged 67 C.

Webcam on the Razer Blade 18

Razer’s webcam stands out from typical gaming laptop fare, offering a sharp 1440p resolution. In my office, with two windows behind me, the image appeared slightly grainy, likely due to the camera’s aggressive detail enhancement. Nonetheless, it handled highlights well and preserved decent color accuracy. The camera also features an infrared sensor for facial recognition via Windows Hello as well as a sliding privacy shutter.

Software and Warranty on the Razer Blade 18

Razer’s familiar Synapse app serves as a control console for any connected Razer devices and a hub to launch any installed game. The Blade 18 shows as its own tab and offers an impressive number of configuration options. As mentioned earlier, it offers a keyboard macro editor, lighting customization for the lid logo, and per-key keyboard backlighting via Razer Chroma, plus display toggles for the dual-display mode and different color space presets. It also offers a battery health optimizer that limits battery charge.

Synapse also offers various performance profiles, including balanced, silent, performance, turbo, and custom. The default balanced mode automatically distributes power between the CPU and GPU, while performance mode optimizes CPU power and turbo mode prioritizes GPU power. Turbo mode can be conveniently enabled using the Fn+P keyboard shortcut. The custom mode allows you to select low, medium, high, or max power levels for either component and enables CPU and GPU overclocking. Additionally, fan curves can be customized.

You can create multiple overclocking profiles for both the CPU and GPU. CPU overclocking includes short max and long max turbo power levels, as well as the turbo boost power time window. CPU voltage offset is available if you disable voltage protection in the BIOS. Meanwhile, GPU overclocking controls include memory and core offsets.

Besides a smattering of Windows 11 default apps, Razer doesn’t install any other software. The laptop has a one-year warranty, though the battery is warrantied for two years.

Razer Blade 18 Configurations

Razer currently offers three Blade 18 configurations, all equipped with the dual-mode 18-inch display and a Core Ultra 9 275HX processor. The base model, priced at $3,499.99, features a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Stepping up to an RTX 5080 raises the price to $4,099.99, keeping the rest of the specifications unchanged.

Models with the RTX 5090 start at $4,899.99, with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. Our $5,199.99 review unit upgrades to 64GB of RAM and adds a second 2TB SSD, doubling total storage to 4TB.

While the Blade 18 remains one of the most expensive laptops on the market, it’s within the price bracket for a laptop with its components, particularly with the RTX 5080 or 5090. Best Buy had the MSI Titan 18 HX AI for $5,999 with similar specifications as our Blade 18, though with 96GB of RAM and a 6TB SSD.

Bottom Line

The Razer Blade 18 sets the benchmark for high-end gaming laptops, excelling in more areas than it doesn’t. Its performance headlines the show, delivering the best in-game numbers we’ve seen from any gaming laptop. Its dual-mode display is another standout, letting gamers choose between a cinematic 4K picture or a lightning-fast 440 Hz refresh rate at FHD without any loss of clarity. Razer’s excellent build quality, surprisingly tactile keyboard, and unique see-through bottom window make it feel every bit the premium machine.

Its closest rival is the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, which offers similar performance but demands even more cash. While MSI’s display is more visually impressive, Razer’s dual-mode versatility wins out in real-world use, and it also offers better speakers and far longer battery life. If you can afford it, the Blade 18 is a world-class, chart-topping gaming laptop.

Right now is a great time to get your hands on the Razer BlackShark V2 X Xbox gaming headset. This wired gaming headset usually goes for around $49 new, but right now it's available with a $20 discount. As of writing, you can pick it up for just $30 which is — according to data from Camel Camel Camel, at least — one of the lowest prices ever for this particular headset, going all the way back to when it was first launched.

• Check out this deal on Amazon

Unfortunately, we haven't had the opportunity yet to review the Xbox version of this headset. We did, however, get a chance to check out the regular Razer BlackShark V2 X gaming headset a few years back and liked our experience. It's important to note, however, that this version is design specifically with gaming in mind on the Xbox.

Despite being designed specifically for the latest Xbox Series X and Series X consoles, you'll find it works just as well on other systems including the PS5, Nintendo Switch and especially PCs. It connects via the ancient but redoubtable 3.5mm audio jack.

This edition of the Razer BlackShark V2 X gaming headset send sound waves down your ear canals propelled by 50mm Triforce titanium drivers. Audio input is handled by an adjustable cardioid mic, supported by passive noise-canceling technology to help audio quality when in use. The speakers are surrounded by noise-cancelling cushions which help isolate sound, reduce noise pollution from the room and provide a degree of comfort.

The Razer BlackShark V2 series has made its way to our list of best gaming headsets before so we're excited to see another edition from this line on sale. It should be plenty suitable for a lot of users, but if you're looking for something wireless, check out our list of the best wireless headsets to see what else is available.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

After years of silence in the eGPU space, Razer is back, but not quite with a bang. The company has unveiled the Core X V2, its first Thunderbolt 5 external GPU enclosure, alongside a separate Thunderbolt 5 Dock. On paper, both look like futuristic upgrades to their respective categories. Razer's last enclosure was the Core X Chroma, released six years ago, and it only had Thunderbolt 3 capabilities, so this upgrade was long overdue.

The Razer Core X V2 is a steel eGPU chassis with support for full-size PCIe Gen 4 GPUs, including quad-slot cards from the current RTX 50 and Radeon RX 9000 series. There's a 120mm fan inside to keep things cool. It’s marketed as a plug-and-play solution that brings desktop-class graphics performance to Thunderbolt-enabled laptops and handhelds, but its practicality is more nuanced.

While Thunderbolt 5 promises up to 120Gbps in one direction and 80Gbps bidirectionally, eGPU applications are bottlenecked by the Thunderbolt specification to just PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds, equivalent to 64Gbps. That’s identical to OCuLink—a non-proprietary connector that’s seeing growing traction in the DIY eGPU space for its lower latency and simplicity.

The V2 enclosure itself drops legacy features—there are no USB ports, no Ethernet, and no built-in power supply. Users now have to provide their own ATX PSU, a major shift from previous Core X models that included 650W units out of the box. And while support for 140W of USB PD through the Thunderbolt 5 cable is useful, it doesn't fully offset the inconvenience for users seeking an all-in-one dock-like solution.

Now that Apple Silicon Macs no longer support eGPUs, support for macOS has also been dropped. For now, the Core X V2 is strictly for Windows and handheld PCs that support USB 4, Thunderbolt 4 or 5, though the latter remains rare outside high-end devices.

At $350, it also costs more than the Core X did at launch ($299) while including less—no lighting, no integrated power, and no I/O expansion. Enthusiasts and professionals might question the value, especially when Thunderbolt 5-capable laptops are still a niche, and most already include discrete GPUs.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

If the Core X V2 seems kind of barebones, it's because Razer wants you to buy the dock separately. Released alongside the eGPU enclosure, the new Thunderbolt 5 Dock aims to consolidate display, data, and storage expansion into a single hub. Razer touts up to 120Gbps burst bandwidth, with the dock delivering up to 140W of system charging via a single Thunderbolt 5 cable.

It supports 3x 4K 120Hz displays, a UHS-II SD card slot, 10Gbps USB-C and USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5mm combo jack, and most notably, an M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD slot—a rare inclusion on docks that can serve as a boon for creators and video editors. It also integrates Thunderbolt Share, a KVM-like feature allowing file transfers and peripheral control across two connected PCs.

However, the dock’s pricing is aggressive: the base Mercury White version starts at $389.99, while a Chroma RGB edition will cost $399.99. For a full Thunderbolt 5 setup—dock plus Core X V2, along with a PSU —you're getting scarily close to four digits, and that's without a graphics card or requisite power supply.

Together, the Core X V2 and Thunderbolt 5 Dock split what used to be one product into two... and priced them higher. The Core X Chroma, for instance, offered RGB, 700W power, USB, Ethernet, and GPU support for just $100 more than the V2 alone.

To Razer’s credit, the Thunderbolt 5 spec offers clear technical benefits over TB4, including better multi-display performance, daisy-chaining, and device charging. But that assumes you own or plan to buy a laptop with Thunderbolt 5, a port still largely confined to premium gaming notebooks and mobile workstations.

And therein lies the rub: the very users who’d benefit most from an eGPU box—entry-level laptops, compact PCs, or MacBooks — either lack Thunderbolt 5 or no longer have software support. Meanwhile, high-end laptop users might already have dedicated graphics powerful enough to negate the need for external acceleration.

Razer’s latest gear is sleek, technically sound, and forward-looking. However, in trying to lean fully into Thunderbolt 5, it has forgotten what made earlier Core enclosures appealing—simplicity, self-containment, and practical expansion. In today’s fragmented laptop ecosystem, that might be a gamble too far.

Correction, July 16, 4:40 p.m. ET: The headline originally misstated the price for the Razer Core X v2 eGPU. It starts at $349.99. We regret the error.

At Computex 2025, Razer has taken the covers off its brand new Razer Blade 14, the company's thinnest-ever 14-inch laptop. Available in different configurations, the new Blade 14 includes Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5060 or 5070 laptop GPUs, paired with AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 processor.

Razer says it has fully redesigned the Blade 14, creating the company's thinnest-ever laptop, measuring just 15.7mm at its slimmest points. The Blade 14 weighs in at just 1.63 kg, too, and is milled from a single block of T6-grade aluminum.

Despite the small form factor, Razer has employed new "Thermal Hood" design, paired with a large vapor chamber. The company claims that this will provide "ample ventilation and additional thermal headroom for maximum operating performance," thanks to better heat management and airflow.

The new Blade 14's battery life is rated for up to 11 hours of on-screen time, thanks to a 72 Whr battery. The thin-and-light also offers ample connectivity options, like two USB 4 (Type-C) connectors, HDMI 2.1, Bluetooth 5.4, and Wi-Fi 7.

Under the hood, the new Blade 14 comes with Nvidia's latest 50 series mobile chips, with RTX 5060 and RTX 5070 flavors. Both mobile GPUs possess a TGP of 100W, with an additional 15W "Dynamic boost"

That means any prospective buyers will get all the benefits of the Nvidia Blackwell architecture, as well as DLSS 4's multi-frame generation.

That's paired with AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, which sports 10 cores and 20 threads, and possesses a 2 GHZ base clock, which can be boosted up to 5 GHz in optimal conditions. RAM is not user-upgradable, and can be configured between 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of LPDDR5X at 8000 MHz.

That all powers a 14-inch, three layer OLED display running at 2880 x 1800. The panel supports Nvidia G-Sync and has a refresh rate of 120Hz, as well as a 0.2ms response time. The display also offers a 1M:1 contrast ratio and wide 100% DCI-P3 color coverage.

Whether all that will be enough to knock the Asus TUF Gaming A14 off its perch as the top 14-inch model in our best gaming laptop rundown remains to be seen.

As mentioned, Razer is also adding an RTX 5060 option to its Razer Blade 16, paired with the same processor and RAM options as the Blade 14. However, the display differs, instead sporting a QHD+ 240 Hz OLED display.

If you were wondering where to buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, it launched yesterday along with the long-awaited driver, which has precluded reviews and testing ahead of release. While carefully controlled previews of the 5060 point to performance gains of up to 25% over the 4060, real-world performance is yet to be established.

Prices for the Blade 14 start at $2,299.99 for the RTX 5060 model. The 5070 version is $2,699, and you can also spec up to 2TB of SSD storage.

Mouse pads are an often overlooked peripheral when it comes to your gaming setup. They can add comfort, styling, and color to your desk, from the material the pad uses, the print or design, and even lighting. Today's deal features a mouse pad from Razer that features the RGB-laden Chroma lighting tech, on top of a Halo Infinite-inspired design. This is the extended size, so it can easily accommodate both your keyboard and mouse.

With a massive discount, plus a money-off coupon code, you can pick up this excellent deal from Newegg, where the Razer Goliathus Extended Chroma mouse pad is just $24, reduced from the original list price of $79. This is the Halo Infinite version, and has been reduced firstly to $49, and if you enter the code LEESA855 at the checkout, the price lowers to just $24, thanks to the $25 coupon code.

The Razer Goliathus Extended mouse pad measures 920mm wide by 294mm tall (36.22x11.57-inches), meaning you can quite comfortably fit both your mouse and your keyboard on the thing without worry. A smooth surface means your mouse sensor will be more accurate when tracking headshots, and the rubber bottom will stop any slipping as it grips your desktop. Plastic tubing stitched around the edge of the mat contains the RGB lighting and difuses the light for a more delicate hue.

Razer has stopped laptop sales to the United States from its own website as of April 2, 2025, the same day unprecedented new U.S. tariffs went into effect. All links formerly directing to purchase links of laptops and some laptop accessories on Razer's US site now read "Notify Me", directing users to sign up for email updates on the status of products.

We reached out to Razer for comment, as the company has not yet issued any statements on halting sales, but the company has not responded at the time of publication. Razer PR issued no comment to other publications on tariffs before the discovery of its website freeze, though the timing makes it incredibly likely that Razer is acting in self-preservation in response to the heavy tariffs.

We could not find any Razer laptops currently available for sale on the U.S. website, with some links leading to 404 errors, others leading to eventual sold out signs, and others replaced by "Notify Me." Razer's newest Adjustable Laptop Stand, announced today, also cannot be bought from Razer's site, along with a seemingly random grouping of accessories.

Razer joins Framework, a niche laptop manufacturer, which publicly announced its pause on US sales of its cheaper products, including the recently announced Framework Laptop 13. The 10% tariff on Taiwanese imports would make Framework's lowest-end machines unprofitable, leading to the cancellation. Framework's X account also claims that other companies have made similar calculations and will likely "take the same actions" soon.

Framework's prediction seems prophetic now as Razer has seemingly joined it in pausing some (or all) of its U.S. business. Much of the rest of the PC market is expected to take similar actions soon. PC prices will rise up to 20% once pre-tariff U.S. inventory runs dry across the country; high-end system integrator Puget Systems announced its intention to maintain pricing until its inventory runs dry.

Razer, a long-time fixture in the gaming laptop and RGB accessories scene, still sells some other desk and gaming accessories through its website and third-party sellers. Razer's Canadian site still offers all previously available machines as well as Razer's laptop customizer tool, and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine offers a glimpse at the April 1 state of affairs on the Razer U.S. site.

It's unclear when Razer's products will be available again for U.S. purchase, but the combination of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs has caused a great deal of uncertainty. Some companies may simply elect to press pause until things settle down.

Happy Valentine's Day! Today, we have some great gift ideas for couples that come with unique Valentine's Day discounts from some of your favorite PC peripheral manufacturers. Although you should treat your significant other every day, today is a lovely commercial excuse to do so. We've found a nice mix of peripherals that include a mouse, headset, and keyboard and a chance to save money on an upgrade.

From Razer, you can grab a powerful pink gaming headset - the Razer BlackShark V2 X for just $39 -- reduced from $59 in Razer's Valentine's Day promotion. This wired headset comes in a Quartz pink with Razer Triforce 50mm drivers for listening to your favorite music and playing the latest PC games. Communicate with your partner when playing co-op games with the clear cardioid microphone packed in a lightweight 240g package for less strain in long gaming sessions.

Or how about a nice shiny new keyboard from Glorious? You can choose a prebuilt keeb or configure your own. The GMMK 3 Pro Prebuilt Wireless Keyboard is $299, and you could even add some GPBT Potion Pink Basics Keycaps for $29, whatever you choose, you can save 15% off of the total if you use the Valentine's Day code LOVE15 at the checkout.

If you play games together, or maybe even meet whilst playing games like the MMO World of Warcraft, then this deal from SteelSeries lets you buy one - get one half-price, so both of you win. How about a 12-side-button wireless MMO mouse like the SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless MMO Mouse? When you buy two of them, the price works out to be $164 for both or $82 each.

Razer has settled the suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (PDF) against it for the "deceptive advertising" of the Razer Zephyr mask the company launched in late 2021. As reported by Ars Technica Razer has paid a $100,000 fine and turned over $1,071,254.33 now due to consumers, to the agency. The FTC says that it will send “checks and PayPal payments to 6,764 consumers who purchased the deceptively marketed products. Recipients will get a full refund.”

It means that all 6,764 people who bought these Zephyr masks will receive the $99.99 they paid for a mask and a set of three filters. Those who bought the Starter Pack, which came with 33 sets of filters, will receive $150. In line with this, the FTC is warning people against scams, especially those that pose as representatives of the agency and ask for payment or information in exchange for the refund. If you’re one of the few buyers, you should cash your refund check within 90 days, as indicated on it, or redeem your PayPal payment within 30 days, says the agency.

For questions and clarifications, you can reach out to Simpluris, the refund administrator the FTC has tapped for the Razer Zephyr case at 1-833-285-3003. Alternatively, you can visit FTC’s Refund Program FAQ page to get some answers.

The Razer Zephyr saga began when the company marketed the mask as having “replaceable N95 grade filters for maximum protection” and that it was “FDA-registered and lab-tested for 99 percent BFE (Bacteria Filtration Efficiency).” It also claimed that the mask “offers greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you.”

These claims were found to be misleading to the consumer who might equate a mask having “replaceable N95 grade filters” as having the same efficacy as an N95 mask. Even a Razer executive was concerned about this marketing push after tech reviewer Naomi Wu criticized the Zephyr for its deceptive marketing. According to the company’s Director of Global Public Relations, “the ‘N95 grade filter’ wording that we’re using […] suggests that Zephyr is on par with officially certified masks. Do we have any certifications to back the N95-grade claim?” He said that Razer needed to boil down how the Zephyr mask provides N95 grade protection in two to three sentences. He also added, “And if we can’t do that, I’d recommend to stop using any ‘N95 grade’ claims in our marketing immediately.”

Furthermore, third-party tests hired by Razer showed that even though the Zephyr used N95 filters, it failed to perform at the required standard for the entire mask to be granted that certification. Its best results only had an 86.3% effectiveness with the fans on, and 83.2% with them off—and these were the best results. Other tests would often show lower numbers, meaning buyers who bought the Razer mask because of its supposed N95-level of protection had a false sense of security.

Tom’s Hardware tested the Razer Zephyr and our very own Andrew Freedman found that it had poor fitment around his and his wife’s face. This is a major requirement to ensure that all the air you take in goes through the filter, but the company’s one-size-fits-all approach for this mask meant that it almost certainly didn’t fit perfectly.

Even though the company removed all mention of N95 protection from the Zephyr page as of January 10, 2022, the damage has already been done, and some have already bought the pretty expensive mask. Furthermore, Razer said that it implemented a refund policy the day before for those who bought the Zephyr for its supposed N95 protection. But the FTC says that it did not promote this policy in its emails to consumers, instead just telling that that the mask “is not a medical device nor certified as an N95 mask.” Those who asked for refunds often ran into issues, meaning just 6% of those who purchased the mask, about 400 people, were given one.

Razer sought to show it can still impress with "groundbreaking innovations and futuristic technologies," at CES this year. Thus, besides its predictably refined and upgraded Razer Blade 16 laptop, it also shared two interesting gamer-focused projects it is working on. These were the Razer Project Ava AI gaming co-pilot and the Project Arielle heating and cooling chair. We experienced both these concept technologies first-hand at the Las Vegas show.

Project Ava

In Razer's words, Project Ava promises to be "the ultimate AI gaming copilot." It leverages AI in two main areas, eSports coaching and hardware tuning. Razer has subsequently eked four functions from its AI training, and these are:

• Real-time eSports coaching is driven by data from Team Razer’s top coaches and players
• The AI game guide, which draws on AI advice to help the player tackle the toughest puzzles, bosses, and quests
• Single-click PC setup optimization, claimed to help boost frames, shorten load times, and maximize graphics performance/quality
• A UI that makes it quick and intuitive to summon Ava whenever they need it. Razer has also enabled Ava to provide help via either a chatbox or spoken responses.

Razer calls its AI-powered assistant “your gaming co-pilot,” and the one thing I felt throughout this demo was that, even in this early iteration, Ava feels much more like a co-pilot than anything Microsoft has attempted with Copilot+. In a live demo of a MOBA game with the server powering Ava in the same room, Ava regularly gave the player pointers and advice about how to handle the battle, what powerups to use when, and more.

Some will of course consider this an unfair advantage at the very least, but Razer says its virtual coach doesn’t break the rules of tournament play. It did feel very much like there was just an expert eSports player giving play-by-play advice. Ava also responded well to a few voiced questions from the player during the demo, though it took a few seconds and I could very distinctly hear the fans in the server spin up dramatically as it processed the speech and formulated an answer. This served as another reminder of just how power-hungry LLMs tend to be.

I was shown a brief recorded video demo of Black Myth Wukong, where Ava provided tips during a boss battle. Some felt similar to the advice given in the previous MOBA game, but others, like pointing out the specific mechanics of a creature's attack, felt like the kind of thing you’re kind of supposed to figure out on your own as a substantial part of experiencing the game.

There’s also the whole question of where Razer is getting its Ava training data. A company rep told me that for now, it’s coming from online walkthroughs, gameplay from eSports players, and similar sources. The rep did express some concern about finding a way to at least credit the source of the data, a similar concern for many around services like Chat GPT and Google’s Gemini. But he said they also hope to be able to work with game developers to get a lot of game-specific information directly before a game is even published.

In a best-case scenario, that means the amount of data Ava would need to ingest, digest, and regurgitate would grow exponentially and become truly massive as support for new and old titles gets added. On the one hand, if it works as well as Razer’s demo makes it seem like it could, it would make playing tough titles quite a bit easier and, to many at least, more fun. But at the same time, given the fact that we’re already considering resurrecting nuclear power plants to meet the growing demands of AI, I have mixed feelings about the amount of power, water, and infrastructure it would take to build and maintain an AI to help us play hundreds or thousands of games.

Project Arielle

Razer claims that Project Arielle is the world’s first Razer mesh gaming chair to feature integrated heating and cooling. The firm says the award-winning Razer Fujin Pro mesh gaming chair provides the foundations for the Arielle concept. Key features sprinkled atop that starting point include a bladeless fan system to aid both the heating and cooling functions and easily accessible touch controls.

In the 10 minutes or so that I had to try out Razer’s bladeless heating and cooling chair, I was mostly impressed. The chair itself was comfortable, and the cooling feature could be felt across most of my back, an improvement over the Elemax X-Chair accessory I tested a few years ago. I didn’t really get a sense of how intuitive the controls are, but it didn’t seem overly complicated.

The heating aspect of the chair felt a little more subtle. It’s not going to replace a space heater blasting at you on a chilly morning. But as I felt the chair’s heat ramp up and radiate around my upper body, it was a pleasant feeling even though I was already a bit warm from rushing to meetings all day. The idea of having this kind of warmth around me while gaming or working on a sub-zero day is certainly appealing. And importantly, the frame of the chair got warm to the touch, but never uncomfortably so.

The real downside of this concept is the fact that it requires the chair to be plugged into a power outlet. A Razer representative told me that they have heard lots of feedback that including a battery for untethered use would be more appealing, and they told me that’s something they are considering. But I’m skeptical that, particularly the heating aspect of the chair can be powered by a battery. Anyone who’s ever tripped a circuit or blown a fuse while running an electric heater and basically anything else in their home knows that electrically generated heat is a power hog. Then again, incorporating a removable rechargeable battery could at least let you keep cool while unplugged for hours at a time in the warmer months.