Razer isn’t known as a company that makes gaming monitors—mainly because it never has made one before. But if the company’s first model, the $699 Raptor 27, is any indication of what we can expect going forward, it won’t be long before it’s arm-wrestling with the top gaming-monitor manufacturers in the market. The Raptor 27 wows us with exceptional color results, ultra-low input lag, and a unique design that is wholly Razer, all of which are enough to earn the display our Editors’ Choice. It’s one of the best gaming monitors of 2019.
A Mostly Intelligent Design
On the design side of things, everything about this IPS-based, 2,560-by-1,440-pixel panel stands out from anything I’ve seen in the gaming monitor space before. (It also features a peak 144Hz refresh rate.)
First, there’s the stand, which is both wider and heavier than any other display I’ve tested in this category. That’s not a bad thing, however, and it only adds to the overall sturdiness and solid profile of this 25.4-pound monitor. As long as you have a stable enough desk, you won’t catch this panel wobbling during intense gaming sessions anytime soon.
The one catch? The rectangular base is set in lockstep with the horizontal plane of the monitor, which means any ergonomically fussy gamers like myself who need to keep their keyboards at an off-angle to play effectively, will be forced to scoot the monitor back on their desks a little to set themselves up for multiplayer domination.
Next, there’s the utterly unique back of this unit, where the stand also doubles as a cable manager. The rear portion of the stand enables you to thread the (admittedly very neon green) cables that Razer provides with the monitor from the bottom of the screen, down the stand through precut channels, and out to your PC. Also, the monitor’s rear panel is wrapped in fabric—another first in gaming displays—and although it takes some getting used to, I’m a big fan of the materials choice. There’s just an ineffable elegance to it, something that needs to be seen (and felt) to be understood.
Finally, though I’m normally not a fan of RGB lighting on gaming monitors due to its tendency to be too bright and wash out the images on screen, I’m impressed with the restraint that Razer has shown in this department. A single, subtle RGB LED strip wraps around the base of the stand, and it reflects softly off your desk. You can program it to any customizable pattern you want; it’s controlled through the Razer Synapse 3 software suite.
The monitor is vertically adjustable, up to a maximum distance of 5.25 inches from the bottom of the display to the desk, and the stand supports a huge tilt range: up to 90 degrees. Why so far? Well, this is where one of the best design aspects of the monitor comes in: simplified port access. (Every other monitor maker, please pay attention.)
Because of where monitors need to place their circuit boards internally, on most monitor chassis the majority of the video inputs and USB ports are positioned underneath the monitor, facing downward. This can make it mighty tricky to get cables plugged in, naturally. More often than not, you might find yourself manhandling a monitor or positioning it screen-down just to get everything slotted in its right spot.
Razer’s solution for this problem? Let the display tilt fully flat, perpendicular to your desk. That allows for all the ports to face directly outward and makes it easier than ever to plug in every port you need.
As for that port mix? The Raptor 27 supports just enough, with DisplayPort 1.4b and HDMI 2.0 inputs (one of each), one USB Type-C input (it supports DisplayPort 1.4 and USB upstream capabilities), and two USB 3.0 ports. No headphone-jack passthroughs here, which is a small disappointment but not enough to ding the Raptor 27 much.
Five-Way Is the Only Way
With so many solid choices made in the design of the Raptor 27 chassis, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see Razer opted for the best way of navigating through the onscreen display (OSD) menus: a five-way joystick.
Using this joystick, you can change the many settings on offer, including brightness and contrast adjustments; switching between different color modes; and turning on the overdrive response-time booster and the motion-blur reduction feature. The monitor also supports both picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture functionality, just in case you’re doubling the Raptor 27 as a business or productivity display and want to hook up multiple PCs or other video sources to it at the same time.
The one drawback here: Unlike on many other gaming monitors, you can’t control the OSD settings via the Razer Synapse 3 software. This might change in the future (again, this is Razer’s first gaming monitor), but for now if you want to change any settings you’ll have to do it through the OSD alone. At least you have the joystick.
Surprises All Around
As a gaming monitor first and foremost, I didn’t set any heavy expectations in the color-reproduction department for the Raptor 27. So you can imagine my shock when the display started posting top marks left and right.
First there’s the sRGB results, which nailed the top of the curve with a perfect 100 percent score. sRGB mainly determines how well a display will handle internet-based content, and on this test, the Raptor 27 needed no help getting to the top of the list.
Next, there’s the Adobe RGB measurement, which generally tells you how well (or poorly) a monitor will do when handling content-creation tasks such as video or photo editing, or 3D modeling. Here, the monitor did falter ever so slightly, coming in at 89.2 percent overall coverage of the gamut. Still, that’s top-end for a gaming monitor, if a little on the low side for professional panels in this space.
Next was the DCI-P3 test, which measures how accurately a monitor will display movies and TV-show content. Razer rates the monitor to hit 95 percent DCI-P3 coverage, and it came up just short in our evaluation, at 94 percent. Not a major miss, by any means, and again still far above the grade set by any other gaming monitors we’ve tested this year.
Then there’s the luminance and contrast testing, where, again, the Raptor 27 continued to exceed expectations. Though it’s rated only as an HDR400 monitor (with a peak brightness of 420 nits, according to the company), the display jumped over that line to deliver 453 nits in HDR mode, while SDR results came in at a more reasonable reading of 358 nits. Compared against its black level of 0.27, the Razer once again leapfrogged its own contrast-ratio rating (1,000:1) to deliver a contrast ratio of 1,678:1.
Finally, using our HDFury 4K Diva for input-lag testing, we recorded a near-record-low input-lag time of just 1.7ms, which puts the Raptor 27 neck-and-neck with the HP Omen X 25f, and just short of our record holder to date, the MSI Optix MPG341CQR, with its result of 1.4ms.
Anecdotal Testing
As I do for every gaming monitor, I put the Razer Raptor 27 through its paces in a few rounds of Counter Strike: Global Offensive to test how well the overdrive features, adaptive sync, and motion-blur reduction features add to my multiplayer experience. Here, I found no issues with screen tearing or lag, and the monitor is well-equipped to do exactly what it says it will: help you game at 144Hz as fast as your fingers and twitch response will let you.
We tested both AMD’s FreeSync Nvidia’s G-Sync adaptive sync technologies on the Razer Raptor 27 using both an AMD Radeon 5700 XT and Nvidia GeForce 2080Ti, and in each instance the display showed no signs of tearing or slowing down the action.
HDR video testing was also great, and although 27 inches is a little on the small side for a monitor that I’d recommend you do the majority of your movie watching on, it could still sub in temporarily for a larger HDR TV in between gaming matches, if it really needs to.
Razer? Really, Razer!
Razer has a bit of a reputation in the gaming community—”polarizing,” would be the word. Depending on which side of the Razer fence you land on, the company’s products tend to be all hits, or mostly misses.
Though I’m an avid PC gamer, I haven’t personally purchased a Razer product in well over a decade. (Not for special reasons, mind you.) But if the Raptor 27 is the kind of kit I’ve been missing out on, then it’s a big regret on my part. Given that this is the first gaming monitor Razer has produced, I wasn’t expecting the world out of this display, which is why I’m that much more blown away to see a first-timer perform so far above the grade. Razer has burst out of the gate with a spectacular gaming monitor here, showing that the company listens to gamers. On most accounts, it delivers on what that segment of the market looks for in its next big purchase.
At $699, the monitor is right around the top end of what you should spend on a display with similar specs at its 27-inch screen size. But for me, it’s worth it. With a gorgeously functional design, eye-wateringly good color results, and smooth gaming performance, the Raptor 27 goes above and beyond to earn our Editors’ Choice badge. It may be Razer’s first (and only) gaming monitor to date, but if the company keeps up this level of quality and innovation with future panels, this will be just the first in a series of award wins.