The fearsome new trio. Glowy green flying disc sold separately.
Razer
Razer bought THX a little under two years ago and the technology is finally making its way into the company’s products; first with its Nommo Chroma speakers, and now it’s bringing THX positional audio capability into its Kraken Tournament Edition headset. Because there’s never a good time to be surprised from behind, especially when there’s money and fame on the line.
The Razer Tournament Edition in eye-melting green.
Razer
THX Spatial Surround tracks which way you’re facing in a game and adjusts the directional audio to match, among other things. The Kraken TE builds on the existing Kraken 7.1 V2 headset with the THX, which also lets you customize the audio balance between gaming and chat, as well as bass. And its inline USB audio control box is big enough to prevent fumbling when you’re in the zone. It ships standard with the cooling-gel cushions that are optional on the Kraken 7.1 V2.
It’s slated to ship in September for $100; that’s the same price as the Kraken 7.1 V2, so it will likely cost £100 and AU$170.
The media keys on the BlackWidow Elite.
Razer
The BlackWidow Elite mechanical keyboard inherits wobble-reducing, crumb-resisting dual-wall mechanical switches (green, yellow or orange) from last year’s BlackWidow Ultimate, as well as Razer Hypershift (which lets you bind any key as a function shift so you can map Razer Synapse 3 macros to any key on the keyboard), the Digital Dial and media keys from its Huntsman optomechanical keyboard and onboard/cloud memory to store up to five profiles.
It’s available now for $170; that’s the same as the BlackWidow Chroma V2, so it likely costs £170 and AU$340.
Mamba!
Razer
Finally, Razer potentially confuses us with the Mamba Wireless — confusing, because its original Mamba was born wireless. The new model has vastly improved battery life — it’s now rated for 50 hours on a charge, up from 20. It also gets grippier side grips a la the Tournament Edition, the same hybrid onboard memory/cloud storage for profiles and the Adaptive Frequency Technology from the Lancehead to optimize connection stability.
You can buy it now for $100, which is likely £100 or AU$170.
IFA 2018: The key announcements from summer’s biggest tech show
And check out our exhaustive coverage of the best wireless gaming headsets.
