Razer Raptor 27
Is Razer’s refreshed Raptor good enough to justify its painfully premium pricing?
RAZER’S RAPTOR 27 was already one of the sleekest and most desirable gaming panels on the planet, certainly in the 27inch class. Now Razer has given it a nip and tuck to keep it relevant in the fast-moving monitor market. The new model is a dead ringer for Razer’s Raptor 27 monitor, with the same all-black minimalist design and lush forged aluminum stand, complete with novel cable management. Included are a set of bright green proprietary cables, one each for the Raptor’s interfaces including power, video inputs, and USB connectivity.
These flat cables are designed to slot into the channels on the rear of the tilt and height-adjustable stand, which are covered by removable slats. HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C are included, and the latter supports both device charging and the full 165Hz refresh.
Outstanding industrial design sets the Raptor 27 apart from more mainstream gaming screens. Along with the gorgeous build quality and unusual ergonomics, the Raptor 27 has a few neat features, such as the fabric covering on the rear and RGB lighting that’s far better integrated than the norm. Razer’s signature Chroma RGB feature is built into the bottom of the stand, giving the impression that the monitor is sitting on a slice of light. The sophisticated look is a trick many PC peripheral manufacturers fail to pull off.
As for those upgrades, the most obvious is a jump from 144Hz refresh for the 1440p IPS panel to 165Hz. The Raptor 27 is also party to THX certification (for image quality and precision) to go with the VESA DisplayHDR 400 accolade the previous iteration attained. There are few other changes, but the Raptor 27 already knocked out some decent numbers, such as 1ms responses, 420 nits of brightness, and 95 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 digital cinema color space.
So, how does the viewing experience stack up? No question, this is a punchy, vibrant panel. In SDR mode, it has plenty of fizz, with lovely saturated colors and decent contrast, though the IPS panel technology doesn’t allow for black levels as deep and inky as the best VA screens.
The Raptor’s HDR performance is a little less convincing. The good news is that SDR content looks good in
HDR mode, so you don’t have to jump between settings, but depending on the HDR content, it isn’t always successful. Cyberpunk2077 has more depth and visual clout in SDR mode. In HDR mode, general brightness levels are subdued.
As for pixel response, Razer has included two levels of overdrive. Even the fastest setting suffers little visible overshoot. Overall, the experience doesn’t feel quite as sharp and blurfree as the fastest IPS monitors. But, combined with the static image quality, the Raptor is up there with the best 1440p gaming panels by most measures.
Except, of course, at 165Hz even this updated Raptor is miles behind the fastest 240Hz 1440p panels. Returns arguably diminish pretty rapidly above 144Hz for most gamers. But this is a seriously pricey panel, so any perceived shortcomings take on added importance.
It’s the gap between what you can get at this price and what the Raptor delivers that’s the problem. For this money, you could have a 4K 144Hz monitor, and not far off a 120Hz OLED TV. It’s not a direct comparison, but a reminder of how much of a premium you’re paying for the slick design and quality build.