Corsair Voyager a1600 review: a kitchen sink gaming laptop

Corsair Voyager a1600

MSRP $2,500.00

“The Corsair Voyager a1600 throws warning to the wind with its options — and makes me recognize that different laptop computer distributors do not.”

Execs

• Stable gaming efficiency
• Stream Deck is helpful and extremely customizable
• Shade-accurate 240Hz 16:10 show
• Nice processor efficiency

Cons

• Costly
• Middling content material creation efficiency
• Full of complicated configuration apps

The Corsair Voyager a1600 is a kitchen sink gaming laptop computer. Built-in Elgato Stream Deck? It’s the defining characteristic of the a1600. A mechanical laptop computer keyboard developed with Cherry? It’s right here. The Voyager a1600 even features a dual-zone trackpad that means that you can flip off half or all of it when you’re gaming. It’s every little thing you didn’t know you wished in a laptop computer, no less than on paper.

Corsair’s first gaming laptop computer is an instance of what you may do, however there’s a purpose the very best laptops give attention to what you ought to do. Though the Voyager a1600 is a gaming powerhouse with some helpful goodies, it falls behind in different classes, all whereas its eclectic characteristic set bloats the value in comparison with related laptops.

Corsair Voyager a1600 specs

Nice construct meets shoddy software program

The Voyager a1600 appears to be like good, becoming in with the extra minimalist method Corsair has taken with its merchandise over the previous few years. Regardless of being a 16-inch laptop computer, the a1600 is just below 0.8 inches thick, even thinner than Alienware’s Alienware x17 R2. Nevertheless, the thinness isn’t paired with the intelligent thermal resolution of a machine like Asus’ ROG Zephyrus M16, inflicting the followers to get uncomfortably loud in video games and even sometimes ramp up whereas the laptop computer is closed.

You may have three choices for fan pace, so you possibly can tune the noise to a extra comfy stage. None of them make the machine too scorching just like the aluminum-encased Razer Blade 15, both. Nonetheless, Corsair has the a1600 tuned to offer most efficiency out of the field in any respect prices. That features the facility settings along with fan pace, inflicting it to drop battery 25% sooner than the Ryzen 7 6800HX-equipped Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 (and the Lenovo laptop computer has a smaller battery).

AMD’s SmartShift Eco, which switches to built-in graphics to protect battery life, is turned off by default. You’ll need to flip it on if you happen to plan to maintain the Voyager a1600 away from a charger for too lengthy.

This wouldn’t usually be such a hurdle, however Corsair splits the settings for the a1600 throughout a variety of software program. Fan and a few common system settings are inside Corsair iCue, however options just like the Eco mode are in Radeon software program. Equally, your Stream Deck shade and middle show settings are in iCue, however the precise assignments are in a separate Stream Deck app (the webcam additionally has its personal devoted app).

These apps all come collectively within the Voyager Hub, which solely serves to hyperlink out to the opposite apps put in in your system. At any given time with the Voyager a1600, you’ll have three or 4 of Corsair’s apps working within the background.

To its credit score, Corsair is coping with a whole lot of disparate options which might be exhausting to unify beneath one piece of software program. You may have the built-in Stream Deck, after all, but additionally an built-in Corsair Slipstream Wi-fi module to attach peripherals like Corsair’s Sabre Professional Wi-fi mouse with no dongle, which is a superb characteristic to unlock USB ports.

Nonetheless, you’ll often should dig via a number of apps or get across the sophisticated (however very highly effective) iCue to seek out settings that ought to be a few clicks away.

The Novelty of a Stream Deck

The Cherry-designed keyboard doesn’t stay as much as the hype, sadly. I’ve by no means met a Cherry laptop computer keyboard I’ve appreciated (learn my MSI GT77 Titan evaluate for an additional instance), and the Voyager a1600 is not any totally different. The journey feels unnecessarily lengthy and Cherry’s mechanism is vulnerable to hang-ups. I’d take a top quality membrane keyboard any day.

The trackpad is a distinct story. It’s massive at 3.9 inches tall and 6.1 inches broad and cozy to make use of. It contains two capacitive areas that allow you to flip off the trackpad, which is the characteristic that primarily stands out. Double-tapping the left turns off the entire trackpad whereas double-tapping the proper turns off simply the proper facet (there are even indicator lights to let you know). It’s nice to keep away from slipups when you’re typing or gaming, however I’m puzzled by the actual fact you possibly can’t flip off the left facet the place your wrist rests whereas utilizing the WASD keys.

Corsair’s Stream Deck integration is a excessive level, too, proving way more helpful than the Contact Bar on the MacBook Professional (relaxation in items). It could actually do every little thing a traditional Stream Deck can do; taking part in audio clips, launching apps, beginning a voice mod — the checklist is infinite. The Stream Deck is so spectacular due to its strong plugin ecosystem, although, which is out there with the Voyager a1600.

You may set devoted buttons for settings in OBS, on Twitch, in Discord, and with way more apps via the built-in plugin browser. The Stream Deck isn’t only for streamers. It’s a helpful and sometimes novel characteristic to have.

There’s some room to develop, although. In contrast to an exterior Stream Deck, you possibly can’t see your key assignments in {hardware}. Corsair’s resolution is a Stream Deck bar that occupies the underside of the display screen, which you’ll be able to activate and off with a key project. It really works, nevertheless it’s not the second-nature marriage of {hardware} and software program that you simply discover on an exterior Stream Deck.

Nice for players, unhealthy for creators

Regardless of exhibiting middling gaming efficiency in artificial benchmarks, the Voyager a1600 can cling with RTX 3070 Ti-equipped laptops just like the Lenovo Legion 5i Professional in actual video games. On the native 1600p decision with max settings, you possibly can obtain above 60 frames per second (fps) in video games like Murderer’s Creed Valhalla. Extra demanding titles like Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 name for a decision drop. At 1200p, the Voyager a1600 averaged 63 within the sport.

Oddly, Cyberpunk 2077 confirmed an enormous enhance happening to 1200p, with the Voyager a1600 providing a 73 fps common over its disappointing efficiency at 1600p.

The RX 6800M is a formidable GPU, nevertheless it misses out on options like Nvidia’s Deep Studying Tremendous Sampling (DLSS) which might be obtainable in most different gaming laptops (most gaming laptops carry Nvidia playing cards). The AMD Benefit, which is branding that notes an AMD CPU and GPU in a laptop computer, solely exhibits up in some video games like Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, and it’s not compelling sufficient to need an all-AMD rig over the far more widespread Intel/Nvidia configurations.

The Voyager a1600 trades blows nicely with its all-AMD configuration in video games total, because it does typically processor efficiency. Intel’s processors nonetheless maintain a single-core lead, however the eight full, fats cores on the Ryzen 7 6800HS assist speed up multi-core duties like video encoding.

The Voyager a1600 loses out within the graphics division exterior of video games, although. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 3 is proof that AMD’s cellular processors are very near Intel. It’s additionally proof that AMD’s graphics playing cards are far behind in artistic apps like Premiere Professional the place the GPU performs an important position. Even the RTX 3060 in Lenovo’s laptop computer, which is in a far decrease class than the RX 6800M, places up almost double the end result when paired with a barely extra highly effective processor.

It’s a disgrace, too, as a result of the Corsair Voyager has a display screen worthy of apps like Premiere Professional. It’s a 16:10 240Hz display screen with assist for FreeSync Premium, so it’s as much as the duty of gaming. To my shock, the show is as much as the duty of content material creation, too. It lined greater than 100% of the sRGB spectrum and registered a shade error of lower than 1. You might do shade work on this show with out issues. The one draw back is the brightness, with the panel topping out at 339 nits on my SpyderX.

Is the Corsair Voyager a1600 value it?

Though I recognize Corsair daring to do one thing totally different in a market of stale laptops, the mix of options doesn’t add as much as justify the Voyager a1600’s value. It has come down from its launch value of $2,700 to $2,500, however that’s nonetheless $500 costlier than a Lenovo Legion 5i Professional with an RTX 3070 Ti.

It’s cheaper than alternate options just like the Razer Blade 17 and Alienware x17 R2, and the Voyager even carries some premium options of those machines like a 240Hz show and mechanical keyboard. Even these extras don’t bridge the hole in comparison with cheaper machines like Lenovo Legion 5i Professional and Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 that all the time match and infrequently exceed the efficiency of the Voyager a1600.

Extras just like the Stream Deck and built-in Slipstream circuit are good to have, however I by no means discovered them important throughout my few weeks utilizing the Voyager a1600. You are able to do with out them, although the Voyager did tempt me to spend $100 on an exterior Stream Deck.

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