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00:00This is Corsair's first-ever gaming laptop, and there's really nothing quite like this on the market.
00:04So, Corsair is a company that's probably best known for their PC hardware.
00:08So they make cases, power supplies, keyboards, mice.
00:11But a few years back, they picked up a streaming peripheral company called Elgato.
00:15You might know them for making, like, capture cards and stream decks.
00:19And this product here feels like a combination of their efforts.
00:22This is the Corsair Voyager.
00:24It's a premium, thin and light, full AMD laptop that's designed for gaming and for streaming.
00:29Now, this video is sponsored by Origin PC.
00:32They are a company that customizes PCs and laptops.
00:36They're also owned by Corsair.
00:37But for this laptop, they can tweak it to have, like, a faster CPU, more RAM, more storage.
00:42And they can even do a custom paint job, like this one, if you want to.
00:47So if you're interested in something a little bit over the top, be sure to check them out.
00:51So that's Origin PC.
00:52Now, for this review, I'm gonna be focusing on the retail unit.
00:56Not, like, the upgraded version, but the basic Corsair versions.
01:00So, when I first heard that Corsair was gonna do something like this,
01:04the first thing that came to mind is, like, this is hard.
01:07Like, so many companies have tried recently to get into that gaming laptop space.
01:11Like, Samsung comes to mind, LG comes to mind.
01:13They've tried, and quite frankly, they've failed.
01:15Because it's difficult in this space.
01:18It's competitive.
01:19But right out of the box, they're off to a good start.
01:21Because the build quality on this laptop is excellent.
01:24It's on par with some of the best stuff out there.
01:26This has a very untraditional hinge design.
01:29Like, the hinge operates on arms that go on the outside of the device, instead of the inside.
01:34And in the past, there have been many companies that have built something like this,
01:37that have had terrible hinge issues.
01:40So when I saw press photos of this thing, like, before they launched, I was concerned.
01:44Haven't gotten it in.
01:45This is a very solid hinge.
01:46It feels sturdy.
01:48It's one-hand openable.
01:49And it opens smoothly.
01:50And it holds its angle or position really well.
01:52It opens back maybe 150, maybe 160 degrees.
01:56I think they did this hinge really well.
01:58Also, the paneling is quite good.
01:59Especially for a thin and light device like this.
02:01Like, there's no flex on the keyboard deck.
02:03Like, even in this grill area, where a lot of devices, you can just tell when you press down on it.
02:07It's not as sturdy.
02:08This is, like, rock solid the whole way across.
02:11It is a very fingerprint-prone finish.
02:13But that's just the nature of metal laptops with a black anodized finish.
02:17Now, at the top of the keyboard deck, you're gonna see this S-key macro bar.
02:21It's a series of capacitive touch buttons that you can customize extensively in the software.
02:25So, you can adjust the RGB lighting.
02:27You can make it run macros.
02:29You can run double macros.
02:30So, if you're streaming and you want to change the look of your room, if you've set it up, you can hit, like, the S3 button.
02:35And it'll go to, like, a blue mode.
02:37Like, a dark mode if you press S4.
02:39And then, I've set it to, like, a purple light for S5.
02:42But, like, you can adjust it to do whatever you want.
02:45And just to return to do not just lighting, but also audio or video settings.
02:51Like, if you want to switch to a different camera angle, or if you want to mute your mic because you're eating, it can all be done with just a single button press.
02:57It's very convenient for certain types of users.
03:00Now, it's not as good as a physical Elgato Stream Deck.
03:03Like, if you have the full console with buttons with, like, different changing icons and everything, that's gonna be more useful than this.
03:09But this is built into the system, and it's a tilted display, so you can easily see what's on the screen.
03:15And also, in the middle of this macro bar, there's a display.
03:18And you can have it show your battery percentage, the time, and it's also this CPU load monitor.
03:23It's kind of neat.
03:24I do wish that the whole thing was a screen where you could, like, adjust the icons and stuff on the actual macro bar itself.
03:30But it's just the middle that is a screen.
03:32Now, the keyboard is a mechanical keyboard.
03:34It uses the Cherry MX low-profile switches.
03:37And I don't know what they're doing differently in this implementation of it.
03:40But it sounds and types differently from other Cherry MX low-profile devices that I've used.
03:46So, the one that comes to mind is, like, one of the original companies that have done it was Alienware.
03:51So, they use the same kind of mechanical switch.
03:53And this device has this, like, ring when you type on it.
04:02And every iteration I've seen of this keyboard in other laptops has had this ring.
04:07It's not, like, the most annoying thing in the world, but if you type really fast, that ring is there.
04:12This device, no ring.
04:15It's like...
04:17Right? It sounds like a regular keyboard.
04:19But it is the same switch.
04:21My guess is they use some kind of, like, padding or some kind of material to dampen that sound.
04:30But it does feel different to type on the Corsair keyboard.
04:33It doesn't feel as snappy to me as the Alienware.
04:36It still has that clicky mechanical feel with a distinct bump,
04:39but it doesn't feel as snappy of a keyboard as the Alienware iteration of it.
04:44At least not to me.
04:45One thing to note, the function keys up top, like the smaller keys,
04:48as well as the arrow keys, like both the side keys and the up-down, are not mechanical switches.
04:54They're just regular membrane switches, I think.
04:56They just... you can tell.
04:57They just feel different than the regular keys.
05:00The trackpad's nice and big.
05:02It's got a nice glass surface, but the click mechanic isn't perfect to me.
05:05It could be a little bit tighter.
05:07There's also a fingerprint sensor at the top right,
05:10and because it's Corsair, you get full control of the RGBs in their software,
05:13and you get very bright and vibrant colors on this keyboard.
05:16Now, there is a very interesting feature that is on this device
05:20that has never existed on any other gaming laptop before.
05:22So when you have a wireless accessory, like a wireless mouse or headset or keyboards,
05:27you normally have these receivers, these USB receivers.
05:29They need to stick into the USB port of your laptop to be able to get these devices to work.
05:34This device has a built-in wireless receiver for Corsair accessories,
05:40built into the motherboard itself.
05:42And so I have a Corsair mouse that is...
05:45Is it working? Yeah.
05:46It's connected to this device, not through Bluetooth, but through the wireless receiver,
05:51but there is no receiver plugged up to this device because it's built-in.
05:55So, this Slipstream technology, is what Corsair is calling it,
05:59is only compatible with other Corsair accessories that have this Slipstream tech,
06:04and it allows you to connect multiple peripherals to this device without a single dongle.
06:08There are a couple things to keep in mind, though.
06:10Number one, it, again, only works with Corsair devices,
06:12so it kind of locks you into that ecosystem if you want to utilize it.
06:16But secondly, on that initial setup, all of these peripherals need to be connected to the laptop at once,
06:21and the included cables for these devices do not connect to this device properly.
06:25You're gonna have to supply your own cables, and I'll explain why in a second,
06:28because this device, the port selection on it, is very limited.
06:33So, there's three USB-C ports, one SD slot, but only one USB-A port,
06:38and on a gaming laptop of this caliber, it is really limiting to only have a single USB-A port,
06:45because you just have peripherals that you connect to a device,
06:49especially a streaming-capable device, that are USB-A, including Corsair's own peripherals.
06:54So, if you're gonna use this, I think you're gonna have to set up dongles,
06:56or get separate cables that will connect up to the USB-C ports.
06:59Okay, so the display. This is a very nice display.
07:03It's 16x10 aspect ratio, it's a 16-inch QHD panel, it's fast, it's bright,
07:08it's got AMD FreeSync Premium, it's got great colors,
07:11but Corsair is claiming that you can hit up to 625 nits of brightness on this panel.
07:15But from my measurements, I'm only getting like 500 and change.
07:18So, I'm not sure where that extra brightness is supposed to be coming from, but I can't seem to hit it.
07:23But 500 is still very bright for a gaming laptop.
07:26Now, the webcam. So, at the top of this display is a 1080p webcam with a sliding privacy cover on it.
07:32So, you can close it off when you want to, but the image quality is not good.
07:36Now, there's software built into this that allows you to tweak the image,
07:39so you can adjust like color and brightness and a few other settings,
07:41but no matter what I did, the image was just way worse than what I would expect it to be.
07:46Now, I normally don't go ham on like the webcam of a gaming laptop, right?
07:51I just normally skip over it.
07:53But on this device, like this is a streaming capable device, more than streaming capable.
07:57It's like a streaming focused device.
08:01It should be a good webcam, because even if most people use an external,
08:05the one that's built into this streaming gaming laptop should look better than most other gaming laptops.
08:11But it doesn't, and I hope that it's something they can fix with software or some kind of firmware update in the future.
08:16Okay, now performance on this device is very good.
08:19It's an AMD 6900HS on this unit with the Radeon 6800M GPU.
08:24Very strong performance, solid frame rates in games, all the perks of AMD Advantage shine here.
08:28So Smart Shift, Smart Access Memory, Smart Access Graphics, which is their MUX switch.
08:32It's a solid performer.
08:34The GPU that's in here, the 6800M, is similar in performance to like an RTX 3070 Ti.
08:39So in some cases, it's better, in some cases, it's worse, but it's in that region.
08:43But I also tested this system out when it comes to streaming.
08:46So the idea is that you're playing a game, but you're also capturing that image and feeding it out onto a stream.
08:51And it handles it pretty well considering it's a, you know, an 8-core CPU and it's all done in one unit.
08:57But it pushes the system hard and the fans will kick in quite audibly.
09:00So if you're doing a live stream and you're miked up,
09:02you're gonna need some kind of noise suppression to deal with that fan noise
09:04because you're like inches away from the fans of this device.
09:08That's just the nature of streaming on a laptop.
09:10The fan noise is actually very low in the quiet and balanced modes.
09:13I think they've done a good job tuning this device for light to moderate use.
09:16It's just that in extreme fan mode for like the best performance, it's like any other gaming laptop.
09:21It's loud, but not like crazy loud or anything.
09:23Now inside, you can see the fans along with the vapor chamber.
09:26And you also have access to the Wi-Fi card, two RAM sticks and storage.
09:30It's all very fast stuff.
09:31The speakers are quite average.
09:33They're not great, but the battery is big.
09:35It's 99.9 watt hours.
09:37It's a solid 8 hours and a bit of light use.
09:39But that's with the screen at 250 nits and with all of the RGB turned off.
09:43If you want to have bright lights while you're doing this stuff,
09:45it's going to significantly reduce your battery life on this system.
09:49Okay, I'm going to wrap up this conversation with the topic of price
09:52because when it comes to tech, the overall evaluation that I have on our device
09:56heavily hinges on its price.
09:58And this device is extremely expensive.
10:03It starts at $2,700.
10:05That's for the 6800HS model with the 6800M GPU.
10:10I mean, it's a powerful system at the base, but it's just shockingly expensive.
10:15See, the thing is in this day and age,
10:17there are really good gaming laptops that offer comparable performance
10:22for significantly less.
10:24Like if you look at some of the established players out there,
10:26Asus has like the M16.
10:27It's like $500, $600 cheaper than this.
10:30They even have devices that are like half the price of this
10:33that are very similar in performance, okay?
10:37But all of those devices, like the good ones out there,
10:40they don't have metal builds.
10:41They don't have the stream bar.
10:43They don't have the mechanical keyboard.
10:46They don't have that slipstream like the wireless receiving thing
10:48that's built into the device.
10:49There's so much stuff that's unique to this system that nobody else has.
10:53And the thing, I've said this before in other videos,
10:55if you have a product that is truly unique,
10:58technically, you can charge whatever you want.
10:59Whether or not people buy it is something else,
11:01but you can charge whatever you want
11:02because no one else has something like this.
11:06But at $2,700, this sits on the shelf with the most expensive gaming laptops
11:11like the Razer Blades, the Alienware X15s,
11:14like the Lenovo Legion 7s,
11:15like literally top-tier stuff,
11:17the most expensive gaming laptops you can think of,
11:20this is in that price point.
11:22Does it sit alongside them in terms of like overall product quality?
11:27I want to say yes, but this is new.
11:30Like this is the first laptop they've made.
11:32Like I feel like in order to get to that point
11:34where you're charging that kind of money,
11:35you got to earn it.
11:36You got to have years of kind of reputation
11:40of building up this rapport that,
11:41yeah, you can make good laptops with good support that don't bust,
11:44like all of that stuff
11:45because you need that history to be able to charge that kind of money.
11:47At least that's my take on it.
11:49But one thing to keep in mind,
11:50this is the launch price.
11:52It could go on sale.
11:53They could come with cheaper configurations.
11:55It's a really good system.
11:56And if you can get it for a cheap enough price,
11:58it's a great pickup.
11:59But until then, it's a very expensive system.
12:03It does come with this cloth case though.
12:07And it's got a zipper.
12:10It, whoa.
12:12It is a waterproof zipper.
12:14I think it's like taped.
12:16That alone is worth like 700 bucks, right?