Last month I reviewed the Razer Blade Stealth, a 12.5-inch ultrabook from the gaming-focused manufacturer. You can read the full review here, but in short Razer’s attitude of maximizing hardware specifications in the now-traditional form factor has delivered a laptop that is easy to recommend.
While the high specifications do allow some solid gaming to be played, it still falls short of a pro gaming rig - I hinted that there was a solution to this in Razer’s peripheral catalogue, and today I’m going to look at the answer. The extra hardware offers better sound, better digital and analogue inputs, better graphics, more speed, and a better user experience.
Some gamers may prefer to have a monster of a portable machine to take with them, but if you are looking to travel lightly, this katamari-like solution allows you to leave all the extra gaming tools at home and just carry around the lightweight Blade Stealth. Don’t think this is a cheaper option though, Much like Blade’s larger gaming laptops (such as the Razer Blade Pro, reviewed here on Forbes) you are going to be paying a premium for high-end hardware… the difference is that everything will sit outside of the laptop chassis.
Along with the Razer Blade Stealth, the gaming company’s European office has outfitted me with the Man O’War headset, the Mamba wireless mouse, the Ornata keyboard, and the Razer Core.
The Razer Core is an impressively brutal black box that sits on your desk. It has a number of purposes, but the main one is that it holds an external graphics card enclosure. Release the handle and you can slide out a caddy that allows a desktop graphics card to be attached. Wiring a card is straightforward and only needs to be done once. After that, slide the caddy back in, plug in the Razer Core to mains power, and your Razer Blade Stealth through its Thunderbolt 3 port to the Core, and switch on the Stealth.
The Stealth draws AC power over the cable, and automatically switches on the Core (which has no power button of its own). The first time you connect you’ll be prompted to run a software update on the Razer laptop, and then you have the bizarre experience of a ridiculously thin laptop running the latest titles at 1080p and over 30 frames per second.
You can’t get a Radeon RX 480 GFX card inside the Blade Stealth, but thanks to the Core you can use the graphics card with your laptop and see the results on the screen. The downside is the size of the Core, but that’s where physics kicks in - there needs to be a hefty power supply, space for the card, airflow around the card, a heatsink… it all adds up and it will stay on show.
There’s a lot of data going through the cable, and it needs to be quite short to ensure the bandwidth remains high. It’s awkward, and demands a lot of space on a desk. But the cable also carries enough data to allow the Core to house four USB3 ports and an ethernet port so you can leave your gaming peripherals connected through the Core, and you can hook an external monitor into the Core to leave that desk bound while you lift the Blade Stealth away to go out and about.
No doubt Razer would recommend using an external monitor connected directly to the graphics card, as this means you don’t need to send visual data back to the Blade Stealth. I was restricted to using the Stealth screen and while there is a slight loss of frame rate it wasn’t enough to spoil my enjoyment.
Be aware of the cost. The Razer Core is priced at $499 and you’ll need to add your own graphics card so factor that into your budget. It does mean in two years time you should be able to get away with just upgrading the graphics card but there is a significant upfront cost. That said, anyone who wants an ultrabook and the option to play top-end games needs to look seriously at this combination package.
Next page: Razer's keyboard and mouse...
Razer’s Ornata Chroma external keyboard faces down the ‘Two Tribes’ of keyboard crews - those who look for a mechanically switched keyboard that offer precision (and the satisfying click-clack as the keys are pressed), and those who believe that modern membrane technology offers the same accuracy but at a lower cost. Ornata offers a membrane under the keyboard for longer life and lowering the distance the keys have to be pressed, while each still ha mechanical circuitry that offers great feedback in use.
It’s a good compromise, and I found it to be responsive and was able to type at speed with ease. Of course if much of your time is spent on low profile laptop keyboards then the sculpted shapes and physical movement are going to come as a bit of a surprise
The Ornata Chroma keyboard comes with Razer’s Chroma technology. This allows each key to be individually lit with an optional colour. Much like the keyboards on the Razer laptops, these can be set up as riots of colour and animation, or to be configured for individual games so different controls can be given different colours providing the gamer with a quick visual reference
While the Chroma lighting configuration can sometimes feel a bit of a marketing gimmick (such as ‘choose the glowing colour inside the Razer Core), it is a worthwhile addition on a keyboard. A version without this extra lighting is an option - touch typists and office-style users may not need the extra references (although its use in editing and multimedia software is something I would recommend) but looking at the Ornata as part of our ‘Home and Away’ gaming rig, you want the extra colour.
And Razer gets bonus points from me for the inclusion of a wrist support that magnetically attaches to the edge of the Ornata keyboard.
While consoles still rely on the 'controller with buttons and sticks’ approach, the majority of PC gamers know that the accuracy that you need to win can only be found in a mouse. Step forward the wireless Razer Mamba. This ergonomic mouse (which is sculpted for right-handed use) features nine different buttons (all of which can be reprogrammed in software) as well as a substantial scroll wheel.
This might feel like overkill until you realise that this places everything you need for a first-person shooter in one hand. That leaves the left hand free for secondary controls on your keyboard. Some gamers will prefer a more button heavy mouse depending on the game they play, but for the vast majority of gamers the Mamba balances buttons and design.
It’s also worthwhile mentioning that you can configure the pressure required to activate your two main mouse buttons thanks to a screw on the base.
The Mamba’s real strength lies in the accuracy it offers - right down to being able to cope with a 1600 dots per inch move. I’m sorry I can’t move my hand slowly or fractionally enough to need that DPI, so the Mamba outperforms my body. That should be good enough for pretty much any game. That accuracy can be configured on the fly, and my default set-up configures the two buttons on top of the mouse to change sensitivity.
The Mamba is not particularly suitable to mobile gaming. You cannot pair the mouse on its own, you need to have the dock connected to your computer, and while it does use microUSB to connect, the awkward housing on the dock means you need to use Razer’s supplied cable or a well-chosen replacement that fits in the narrow gap.
Here the Chroma color configuration does feel unnecessary. The majority of mouse work is done without looking at the mouse, so having the colors change around the edge of the Mamba is a cool effect, but I’m struggling to see what practical difference it makes. The dock also gets a ring of color around it, and while that can be used for charging status this is one peripheral where the light show really just a light show.
Once more, the price is eye-watering. At $149 you are paying a lot for the accuracy and low latency offered by the mouse. For gamers looking for an edge that’s not a crazy price, but it does raise the bar for a casual gamer.
Next page: Razer's headset and my conclusions...
And so to the audio. Laptop speakers, especially when your focus is on thin and lightweight, tend to lack punch. Getting good sound, and being able to communicate in real time is key, and Razer’s Man O’War headset offers just that.
Curiously the Man O’War headset does not connect over bluetooth, instead using a 2.4 GHz wireless channel. Considering the buffering and limited bandwidth that BlueTooth audio uses, this is another smart choice. The headset offers virtual 7.1 surround sound alongside a boom mic to carry your own voice (plus you can feed your own voice back as a monitor signal). There’s a lot of audio data being passed around here and bluetooth does not cut it. A custom wireless solution is just what the gamer ordered.
The dongle to connect the headset is cunningly stored inside the headset, so you need to remember to pop this out of the USB socket to use the headset on another computer. Unfortunately there’s no wired option - you are going wire-free or nowhere . Charge wise you’re looking at twenty hours of use if you keep the Chroma lighting app turned off, or fourteen hours if you want the glowing logos on each ear to be on show to anyone watching you… yes, I turned it off.
7.1 surround sound is incredibly useful in modern gaming. It places the sound in an exact place, so it;s possible on hearing a shot being fired at you to know exactly where it’s coming form and start to ‘aim’ by aural sense before the target swings into view on your screen. Audio quality I’m very happy with the reproduction on offer. My pop standards and my classical favourites came through with both delicacy and power.
Comfort-wise the closed back headphones did not cause me any problems after an hour of use. There’s enough tension to keep them in place while the padding around my ears mean there was no inching. I’m a little less confident about the headband - the flex to get the headphones is flexing plastic, and the central section looks like it could pop out like an Arfix-kit Spitfire wing. It just looks and feels… a bit cheap.
Price wise again we’re looking at the high-end of peripherals. $169 might be comparable to audiophile headphones, but there’s no way to connect these to your mobile phone - these are dedicated PC gaming headphones. They do deliver, but of all the peripherals in this gaming set-up it’s the Man O’War that would be lowest down on my priority list.
It’s clear that you can outfit yourself with one of the best Windows 10 ultraportables on the market and have a gaming system at home that is almost the equal of a custom desk-bound machine. It’s also clear that this is not a cheap set-up, but if you prize the portability of a small ultrabook and still want to play top-end games, the Blade Stealth with all the extras is one of the few options you have.
Of course you don’t need to purchase all of the elements to improve the Razer Blade Stealth - the Razer Core on its own delivers the lions share of the benefits although it is the priciest part of the peripheral package. The decision is yours. The Razer Blade Stealth on its own is a great ultrabook and is solid enough gaming machine for titles that are a generation or two older, but when you add the extras, you have the perfect business machine when in public and a beast of a gaming rig waiting for you at home.
Razer Europe supplied a Blade Stealth, Core, Ornata, Mamba and Man O’ War for review purposes.
