The current trend among PC peripherals is one I can get behind: companies like Roccat, Corsair, and now Razer are all angling for the best way to make PC gaming from the couch a reality. Razer’s bid is the Turret – a sleek, but feature-light mouse and keyboard combo that’s aimed at letting you game comfortably with your butt firmly planted on the sofa. How does it perform? Read on for our full review.
In its physical design, the Turret is gorgeous bearing a thin, sleek, combat look with a flip-out mousepad that makes the unit nice and small for when you want to fold it up and use the included charging dock for the mouse and keyboard combo. But that sleek and small design is also one of the unit’s drawbacks, as the Turret often feels like it’s meant for light gaming or standard PC use, rather than the button-crazy and keystroke intensive play of MMOs and shooters. Still, unlike its competitors, the Turret is completely wireless, including the mouse, and it’s easy to rest on your lap without feeling like you’ve got a TV tray from the 80s weighing down on you.
)
But there are some definite missing features that most gamers won’t find attractive. There’s no backlighting on the keyboard, which is strange considering how just about every Razer product has this these days, and it’s a problem especially because the green printed letters on the keys don’t stand out well on the black keyboard. There’s no way to make dedicated macro keys, or media controls beyond the programmed shortcuts.
The whole thing seems like it’s more designed to be portable than to be a true controller replacement for couch gaming on the PC. The mouse is very small, and most MMO games who’ve switched to something like the Naga or the G600 won’t appreciate the lack of buttons. You can’t switch out to something else either, as the magnetic pad on the keyboard interferes with the optical or laser-based sensor on other peripherals.
These design flaws aside, the Turret is phenomenal when it comes to simple couch browsing or laid back gaming sessions. Its portability and light weight make it easily the most comfortable laptop device I’ve had the pleasure of testing, even without all the bells and whistles. The 2.4GHz wireless connection and alternative Bluetooth mode is strong enough that unless you’re 10 or so feet away from the PC you won’t really notice any lag or interference. It’s also sporting an impressions 40 hour charge on the mouse, and a month-long charge on the keyboard (so Razer claims), so while it’s easy to just dock it next to your TV, you don’t need to that often.
)
Razer is known for its gaming-themed peripherals, and while I expected the Turret to be more of a gaming couch device for PC users, instead it feels like the Turret is more suited to general couch browsing and simpler gaming. It’s really well constructed, and while it’s missing features and the mouse is smaller and less functional than I’d like, I’d consider keeping this little guy by my TV for when I hook my laptop up for big screen gaming. Hopefully future models can improve on the Turret 1.0’s oversights, and at $159.00 USD, it may be a little pricey to recommend to everyone. But for those looking for a sleek couch to PC control system it’s very attractive and blends well into your everyday setup.
One Razer Turret was provided to MMORPG.com for reviewing purposes by Razer’s PR department. We’ll be giving it away on the site at a future time to one lucky user.
