The Razer Raptor 27: A Monitor that Defies Convention

I like to think of the Razer Raptor 27 as the "mullet" of gaming monitors. By this, I mean that it's all elegant design and businesslike upfront, but with an aggressive party in the back. If I had one word to describe it, I would go with "over-designed." It's innovative, but kind of impractical. The 27-inch panel is really nice, which I would expect for $700. It's an IPS display that's designed for 1440p gaming, and it automatically detects Pricipio or G-Sync.

The Raptor 27 is relatively bright at 400 nits, with an almost p3 gamut, making it better than a lot of other monitors on the market. It supports HDR, but 400s really isn't quite HDR. However, it does have a novel option in one of its game modes for streaming that actually bumps up the brightness and makes the white point cooler, so it will look better on camera. One of the specs is that it has a one millisecond pixel response time, but this is only really in motion blur reduction mode where it makes the screen really, really dim.

The doubling thing is also annoying, as all of these features take a backseat to the design which is an interesting translation of Razer's black slab aesthetic that they have for their laptops. Another nice touch is the grey fabric on the back of the monitor rather than flashing colors, which makes it a little more businesslike. There are many things I like about this monitor, such as the use of under glow, which I love and can't rave about enough. It's also very convenient to tilt the display back 90 degrees, which is so nice if you have to plug and unplug cables a lot or if you're on a crowded desktop where you can't really get to the back.

The stand is also easy to move left and right on the desk top, but you just can't push it horizontally or vertically, which is actually nice. However, there are some things I don't like about this monitor. The cabling is kind of nuts, using flat bright green cables with right angle connectors that feed through individual channels down the back of the base. This is really impractical, as what happens if something goes wrong with one of the cables? You either have to buy a matching one from Razer or you have to get a third-party cable, which they do make but it will be a different color and won't match the rest of them.

This defeats the purpose of having all that matching green, so if you're lazy like me, you'll just leave them sticking out. As you can tell, this isn't very pretty in the box. You get display port HDMI USB C and USB A extender cables, but there's no DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort, which means that if you want juicing compatibility, you can't connect it to a Razer laptop which requires the mini DisplayPort or they don't match. Frankly, I wish they looked like they should glow in the dark but they don't.

Another thing that might be an issue for some people is that the base has to be really big, which means it takes up a lot of space on your desk. This comes at a time when most manufacturers are decreasing the size of the base for that very reason. I've already noticed a dinghy in the base, which I can't unsee.

However, there are some things I do like about this monitor, such as the fact that you can lower it pretty far down close to the desk. This is something that you don't see on other monitors except for maybe the Samsung Space Monitor. However, you can't raise it very high, with the middle of the monitor only coming to about 13 inches and that's where you're looking. If you have a long torso, this might be an issue for you.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is razors first gaming monitor the Razer Raptor 27 I like to think of it as the mullet of gaming so what do I mean by mullet it's all elegant design businesslike upfront and an aggressive party in the back if I had one word to describe it I'd go with over-designed it's innovative but kind of impractical the 27-inch panel is really nice which I would expect for $700 it's an IPS display 144 Hertz designed for 1440p gaming automatically detects precinct or g-sync it's relatively bright at 400 nits with an almost p3 gamut so it's better than a lot of the monitors on the market it supports HDR but 400s really isn't quite HDR and it has a novel option in one of its game modes for streaming which actually bumps up the brightness and makes the white point cooler so it will look better on camera one of the specs is it's got a one millisecond pixel response time but that's really in motion blur reduction mode where it makes the screen really really dim and it also does the doubling thing which is really annoying but all of that really takes a backseat to the design which is an interesting translation of razor's black slab aesthetic that it has for its laptops another nice touch is the grey fabric on the back of the monitor rather than flashing colors which make it a little more businesslike as well there are a lot of things I really like about it for instance it uses the under glow which I love I can't rave about under glow enough and I will until I get bored with it and then suddenly it'll be old stand lets you tilt the display back 90 degrees which is so convenient if you have to plug and unplug cables a lot or if you're on a crowded desktop where you can't really get to the back that's a touch that a lot of manufacturers just don't think of and the other thing is even though the monitor can't swivel back and forth the stand easily moves left and right on the desk top you just can't push it horizontally or vertically which is actually nice so what don't I like I find the cabling kind of nuts it uses flat bright green cables with right angle connectors that feeds through individual channels down the back of the base that's really impractical what happens if something goes wrong with one of the cables you either have to buy a matching one from Razer or you have to get a third-party cable cuz they do make those but it'll be a different color and it won't match the rest of them which kind of defeats the purpose of having all of that matching green also the cables don't glide easily through those channels which means it's kind of hard to get them all pretty and nice the way Razer has them so if you're lazy like me you leave them sticking out which as you can tell isn't very pretty in the box you get a display port HDMI USB C and USB a extender cables but there's no DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort which means that if you want juicing compatibility you can't connect it to a razor laptop which requires the mini DisplayPort or they don't match and frankly they look like they should glow in the dark but they don't and I really want them to the other thing is all of those individual channels mean that the base has to be really big that means it takes up a lot of space on your desk and it comes at a time when most manufacturers are decreasing the size of the base for that very reason and I've already noticed a dinghy in the base which I can't unsee I like that you can lower the monitor pretty far down close to the desk which is something that you don't see on other monitors except for maybe the Samsung space monitor however you can't raise it very high the middle of the monitor only comes to about 13 inches and that's where you're looking whereas the other two monitors on my desk can make it up to 17 inches so if you have a long torso that may be an issue for you so it's a great monitor and I don't really want to discourage people from buying it but if you're set it and forget it tight purse where you just plug everything in and you like to look in it and you're not gonna touch it and you work in an empty workspace etc it's a great monitor for 1440p gaming if you're like me and you futz with things and you have to change cables and you're working on a crowded desktop or if you're tall it may not be for youthis is razors first gaming monitor the Razer Raptor 27 I like to think of it as the mullet of gaming so what do I mean by mullet it's all elegant design businesslike upfront and an aggressive party in the back if I had one word to describe it I'd go with over-designed it's innovative but kind of impractical the 27-inch panel is really nice which I would expect for $700 it's an IPS display 144 Hertz designed for 1440p gaming automatically detects precinct or g-sync it's relatively bright at 400 nits with an almost p3 gamut so it's better than a lot of the monitors on the market it supports HDR but 400s really isn't quite HDR and it has a novel option in one of its game modes for streaming which actually bumps up the brightness and makes the white point cooler so it will look better on camera one of the specs is it's got a one millisecond pixel response time but that's really in motion blur reduction mode where it makes the screen really really dim and it also does the doubling thing which is really annoying but all of that really takes a backseat to the design which is an interesting translation of razor's black slab aesthetic that it has for its laptops another nice touch is the grey fabric on the back of the monitor rather than flashing colors which make it a little more businesslike as well there are a lot of things I really like about it for instance it uses the under glow which I love I can't rave about under glow enough and I will until I get bored with it and then suddenly it'll be old stand lets you tilt the display back 90 degrees which is so convenient if you have to plug and unplug cables a lot or if you're on a crowded desktop where you can't really get to the back that's a touch that a lot of manufacturers just don't think of and the other thing is even though the monitor can't swivel back and forth the stand easily moves left and right on the desk top you just can't push it horizontally or vertically which is actually nice so what don't I like I find the cabling kind of nuts it uses flat bright green cables with right angle connectors that feeds through individual channels down the back of the base that's really impractical what happens if something goes wrong with one of the cables you either have to buy a matching one from Razer or you have to get a third-party cable cuz they do make those but it'll be a different color and it won't match the rest of them which kind of defeats the purpose of having all of that matching green also the cables don't glide easily through those channels which means it's kind of hard to get them all pretty and nice the way Razer has them so if you're lazy like me you leave them sticking out which as you can tell isn't very pretty in the box you get a display port HDMI USB C and USB a extender cables but there's no DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort which means that if you want juicing compatibility you can't connect it to a razor laptop which requires the mini DisplayPort or they don't match and frankly they look like they should glow in the dark but they don't and I really want them to the other thing is all of those individual channels mean that the base has to be really big that means it takes up a lot of space on your desk and it comes at a time when most manufacturers are decreasing the size of the base for that very reason and I've already noticed a dinghy in the base which I can't unsee I like that you can lower the monitor pretty far down close to the desk which is something that you don't see on other monitors except for maybe the Samsung space monitor however you can't raise it very high the middle of the monitor only comes to about 13 inches and that's where you're looking whereas the other two monitors on my desk can make it up to 17 inches so if you have a long torso that may be an issue for you so it's a great monitor and I don't really want to discourage people from buying it but if you're set it and forget it tight purse where you just plug everything in and you like to look in it and you're not gonna touch it and you work in an empty workspace etc it's a great monitor for 1440p gaming if you're like me and you futz with things and you have to change cables and you're working on a crowded desktop or if you're tall it may not be for you\n"