Razer Turret Review: Building a Sentry

PC gamers have been slowly making their way from their desk to their living room over the past few years, although there haven’t been many options to bring the mouse & keyboard to your lap so you can play your favorite first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, and other genres that’d require this kind of setup.

Thankfully, Razer has offered a solution to this ongoing dilemma in a PC gamer’s life with its Razer Turret. But is it as mobile as it looks, and most importantly, how does it compare to a standard desktop experience? Read on to find out in our review.

Turret Deployed

The Razer Turret is comprised of two important “gaming-grade” peripherals: the keyboard with an attached mouse mat and its mouse. The mouse itself is capable of performing at 3500 DPI, which I found to be comfortable for most experiences, although it wasn’t as precise when playing first-person shooters, like Doom and Overwatch. I noticed I had a bit of trouble pulling off headshots while using the Turret, although at least I was able to hit the enemy within the general vicinity and I was able to pull off a few headshots with a bit of practice with the device.

If you’ve played on a gaming laptop, then you’re going to know what to expect from the Turret’s keyboard and mouse. The chiclet keys don’t really give any sort of feedback when they’re pressed, and I consider the mouse to be a hybrid of the size and weight of mice bundled with a laptop, but it has better DPI and more buttons. There are buttons located at either side of the mouse, with the buttons on the right side allowing me to tweak its DPI range. While I was able to control it during play, I had moments where I would accidentally hit them when picking up the mouse due to its small size.

The Turret can easily find a spot on my lap thanks to its rubberized bottom. The keyboard never slipped from my lap during use, allowing me to continue playing even during the most stressful situations. The mouse was also able to stay put when I felt the urge to fist pump due to the Turret’s magnetic mouse mat. The magnet is strong enough to keep the mouse in place, although I didn’t notice any pull when I lifted the mouse from the mat. Speaking of the mat, because of the size of the keyboard, the surface area is a bit small as I found myself running out of surface whenever I would move the mouse up or down.

Both the mouse and keyboard are able to connect to my PC wirelessly either via Bluetooth or by using its 2.4GHz USB dongle. When I first used the USB dongle, I noticed many of my inputs would lag, which didn’t make for a good playing experience. I then switched to Bluetooth, and while the experience was less laggy, it was nowhere near as precise as I’d expect it to be. When I realized there was a USB extender, I installed it and placed it in a spot on top of my home entertainment console that was clear of any obstructions. After doing so, I noticed a major improvement in how the Turret performs, so keep that in mind if you’re considering picking one up.

No Hard Feelings

While I enjoyed my experience with the Razer Turret, it still needs a few minor tweaks in order to offer as good an experience as a desktop mouse and keyboard. Both the mouse and the keyboard’s keys need to offer a more contoured feel to them as they’re pretty bland at the moment. The mouse also needs to be slightly larger, especially on its top and bottom portions as it’s really wide in its current state. The mouse DPI also needs to be bumped up.

With all of those issues, I still found myself gravitating towards the Turret when playing PC games, especially when playing games that offer a better experience with a keyboard & mouse than a gamepad. When it comes to playing casual games, such as Hearthstone, Minecraft, or even point-and-click adventure games, it’s a great option to have. In fact, I've used it a handful of times to write some stories and do some light Internet browsing, which is more comfortable to do with the Turret than with a gamepad. But if you consider yourself a competitive gamer, you might want to either grab your gamepad or head back to your desk if you want to have a better chance of competing against your opponents.

Here's a sample of me playing Overwatch and Doom while using the Razer Turret. Hopefully you'll see what I mean about its mouse not being as precise as I would have liked:

And here I am playing on my desktop setup: