Razor’s first gaming monitor is struggling to convince

Newer markets include desktop cases, laptops for creatives and mobile workers, and … screens for gamers. The Raptor 27 is the brand’s first monitor and, as the name suggests, it chooses a 27-inch panel.

Connected not only to PCs but also to the new generation Xbox series and PlayStation 5 consoles, we have plenty of time to test it out. The only chance to see if this screen with the carnivorous name is going to do that. Bite of a competition moving in the same water: 800 euros. However, it can be found on the internet for around 700 euros. But even at this price, it is hard to recommend.

For the first screen test, the Razor tried to meet very strict specifications, meet the time and meet all the standards that gamers expect from a device of this price.

The brand starts with a 27-inch, matte panel whose refresh rate reaches a maximum of 144 Hz. This is cool. The resolution of the image is 2560 x 1440 pixels, which is also good. It’s perfect for powering your RTX 3060 Ti, your 3070 or the newly acquired RX 6800 (s).

The brand took special care to cut three of the four sides of the plastic frame around the panel so that the display surface takes up as much space as possible. Again, it went well. We appreciate it and the razor meets the standards of the moment.

From the back, he was rather … handsome

On the back, to avoid giving off the unsightly plastic coating, the razor rests on the fabric as seen below. It’s original and depending on each other’s installations, it is possible to make one side of the device less ugly, which is usually … a lot.

We continue to admire the back of the raptor and we can see two trenches that allow us to adjust the screen height. That’s one Must have In terms of ergonomics, but some manufacturers – still popular in screen design (like Samsung) – sometimes forget about it.

In addition to adjusting the height of the frame, you can also adjust its angle of inclination. Slightly down … but very up as shown in the scenario below. And in this condition it is advisable to cut all the cables through the first hole in the foot and intended for this purpose.

The foot, moreover, is heavy to say the least. It is made of very thick and heavy black metal, so you are not likely to accidentally tilt the screen back or forth.

On paper, cable storage should be revolutionary …

By placing the screen parallel to the ceiling, you have two video inputs, 1 x HDMI (2.0) and 1 x displayport (1.4), respectively, and two traditional USB connectors (screen use outlet concentration).
It is also where the USB Type-C socket is hidden, which can easily transmit data, power the device and serve as a video output (displayport). You will finally come to connect the external power supply of the screen.

After passing all the cables you need through the opening, you can set them to the foot. But …. including them in the usual designed ways is a real ordeal. Also the Tour de Force. Flat cables are good because they prevent knots. But slipping fine, narrow grooves is torture.

Therefore it is necessary to lubricate the sides of the walls so that the flat cable can find its location. Bring first? Very easy! It uses all the strength of your phalanges, only one after the other. Another advice, do not stretch them on all sides, allow yourself one or two centimeters more, because once they are in their homes, they will not move. If you pull on it, you will damage the coating. And do not be afraid, when you iron the frame horizontally, by itself, the cables will bend up and disappear.

And since we are on the razor team, it is impossible to ignore some LEDs. The foot provides the diode strip at its base. It is possible to deactivate it in the menu or adjust the color changes using the internal synapse software.

Clear and complete OSD menu

The menu of Raptor 27 is this kind of model. It is clear, simple and no function is hidden behind the weird name. The same cannot be said of Acer, Philips or AOC.

Behind the screen, you navigate through the menus using the small joystick at the bottom right. To select an entry or option, you tap it on the head and you tilt it to the left to go back.

All classic settings, from pre-recorded profiles to picture-in-picture activation (two images from different sources projected in the panel, cut in half) with G-Sync compatibility on AMD cards with Freesink and Nvidia GeForce compatible when crossing the activation of Adaptive Sync technology Allows.

In the small software gadgets to activate in the menu, there is an indicator of the screen refresh rate in real time. It is very easy to see the behavior of the screen and your graphics card when you enable the above mentioned techniques.

Its panel is fast and gives an illusion at first glance

The Razr Raptor 27 has a very responsive IPS panel because, in addition to providing a proven frequency of 144 Hz, its response time is 13 ms (white to black). It is good for all types of games, especially FPS (first person shooter) and fighting games. We did however notice some afterglow in HDMI.
To maximize the definition and high-speed refresh rate, the best thing is to switch to DisplayPort‌ and there, the effects will be minimal in the afterglow. Strange.

With the eye, the panel is filled with eyes. This is a fact. In the red face, the greens are green and blues, deep. But … Grace is already less confident. If we turn it off, we can say that the razor meets the demands of most gamers: a fast-paced movie and you can stare at it for hours. As the panel’s electronics meet VESA HDR 400 and HDR10 standards, it is possible to activate these modes on compatible games and on previous generation consoles (PS4 Pro / Xbox One X) and newcomers. , To admire the color bursts on the screen.

Our first impression is adequate, but we suspect that there is a wolf. We did not disassociate our investigation. And there, things are really bad.

Raptor splits colors from pixels to finishes

After doing our classic tests on the surface of the slab, the first observation: there was a huge light leak in the left upper part of the slab. The dark image is displayed and is the type we perceive with the naked eye without problem.

Also, the brightness is not that great. On average, in By default, Which topped at 254 cd / m² With a maximum at 286 cd / m² In the middle. But, at the top of the screen, whites … are grayer than white. The contrast ratio averages 774: 1 (just above 1000: 1 in the middle): the error of the light leak we mentioned above. Homogeneity is therefore doomed, the differences between light and dark shades are so great that it is impossible to give it a score of 0.

In terms of colorimetry, this is not great. In default mode, we get the Delta E (2000 standard) average of 3.63. The red is distorted, even the greens. Grace is sometimes pink, sometimes white. This is only true for blues. However, we found that the sRGB color space was consistent with what Razor declared: 125%.

If you change pre-recorded profiles, Delta e panic: values ​​oscillate between 3.78 (FPS) and 5.81 (streaming). However, most false colors are the same, first red, others later and the blues they hold as best they can. Try to compose your own profile in custom mode, which is always better than the ones created by the razor.

Finally, let’s talk about HDR processing. It is of affordable quality. During our testing with the next gen consoles, it brought good, less good in some video game creations. This is an accident. But, what is even more disturbing is that for others the colors become so violent that sometimes it does not happen smoothly. Finally, we noticed that frames appear on the screen vertically in the frequently frozen interfaces of the OS of consoles.

Clearly, if you want to play captions where camera movements are fast, abrupt, and uninterrupted: cut the HDR in the screen menu at the source. Conversely, if you are entertaining yourself with calm and thoughtful games, activate it.