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0 For those petrolheads out there, you might be mistaken in thinking this is a new car review. It isn’t. This is Razer’s new speaker cushion, the Razer Clio. Retailing on the Razer website at around £180, this speaker promises a lot. Does it live up to its Cushioned Immersion? Let’s find out.
Greater Immersion
Now I know that a lot of people will be thinking that this is all just a bit of a gimmick. At first, I would have agreed with you, but there are some great features inside the Razer Clio. It’s my job to try and help you discover them. So sit back, pop on your seatbelt, and let’s hit the road. Metaphorically.
Design Features
Let’s talk about the cushion side of things. Now, with any cushion, you are always going to want this to be as comfortable as can be. And for the most part, the Razer Clio does that job pretty well. However, you do need to find a perfect position for it. The speaker has a main cushioned area in the centre, which has a nice soft and bouncy piece of thick, plush padding. Either side of that on the ‘wings’, are the speakers. We’ll talk more about those later.
Setting up the speaker was a doddle, connecting to your device with either the included Razer Hyperspeed dongle or switching to Bluetooth mode to connect to a mobile device. Either way is straightforward and simplistic to achieve. What isn’t always as simplistic is the positioning side of things. With two relatively short straps that are used to fasten the speaker to your chair. You might find that you have trouble connecting it to your chair. Unfortunately, before you purchase the speaker, there is no way of checking if it will fit. For my ThunderX3 Flex Pro Mesh chair, I had to wrap the strap around one of the headrest supports. Not ideal, really, but it did the job. However, for Charlotte’s Boba Fett noblechairs, I simply couldn’t get the straps to go around the headrest at all.
Moving on to a little nitpicking subject now; the thickness of the speaker. Whilst the cushion is comfy enough when resting your head, the problem is that it isn’t exactly very deep. When the speaker is set up and you lean back, you almost have a big chunk of plastic digging into the rear of your neck. Whilst it’s not a massive deal breaker, it might be enough to make you think twice.
Speaker Quality
Let’s dive into the real meat of the Razer Clio, the speakers. Featuring two 43mm full-range drivers with aluminium cones. Razer has given a great soundscape for you to enjoy. These speakers are designed to push the sounds straight into your ears for incredible versatility as well as immersion. I carried out my usual speaker test when using headphones. Some classical music, as well as some epic orchestral film soundtracks. Think Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Interstellar, etc. These were insane. The quality of the sound attacking my senses was great.
The one neat feature that I really liked was the ability to combine your normal desktop speakers with the Razer Clio to create a surround sound system. Heading into the Synapse software, you can spend time tweaking the volume to get it perfect. Changing which speakers were the front speakers, as well as giving them a tweak when it comes to the sound levels.
Adding to the surround feature is the THX Spatial sound, bringing whatever you are doing to life with a widened soundstage and incredible immersion. It makes whatever you are listening to really release that audio related dopamine. Even playing something like Warzone was an incredible sound experience. Hearing all the gunfire going off all around me as well as people’s steps just added to the experience. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still full of sweaty gamers who will take you down at every corner though! Just now you can hear them even more.
Final Thoughts
Going down the route of a headset-style speaker is something new from Razer. Does it pay off, or should you wait for the inevitable Razer Clio V2? Personally, unless you enjoy films being sat at your computer, I might think twice if you are looking at purchasing this. It doesn’t offer anything more than my headset, other than not having to wear the headset.
With an incredible soundstage and a whole raft of features designed for you to get the most out of the speaker. You might think this is getting a Gold Award; however, with the potentially difficult positioning setup, unfortunately, it needs to be one lower.
The Razer Clio Speaker get the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A sample product was received in order to write this review.
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