Razer conceptualizes next-gen gaming chair at CES 2021 with Project Brooklyn

This story is part of CES, where our editors will bring you the latest news and the hottest gadgets of the entirely virtual CES 2021.

A pull-down, 180-degree transparent OLED screen. Left and right pull-out trays that can be set at different heights. Haptic vibration via Razer HyperSense modules on the carbon-fiber and leather bucket seat. And Chroma RGB illumination, of course. That’s Project Brooklyn, Razer’s vision of what its Thronos-like PC gaming experience of the future looks like, though sadly lacking the back massager.

Razer always has some oddball concepts to show at CES 2021, but if the company could manage this one — at a reasonable price — it would certainly check a lot of boxes on a list of PC-gaming-in-a-tiny-space requirements. It uses a completely different chair design than the Iskur it delivered just a few months ago. Which is fine, because that one was not well liked on our work grapevine. This one looks like it has a seat suited to larger… seats and eschews the snakelike lumbar support and DayGlo green stitching.

Though this design doesn’t lack for mockery either. I don’t mind it so much, but one colleague pointed out that it looks like a kid’s high chair, and I admit my mind initially flew to “dentist chair.”

The company doesn’t envision audio as part of the chair like we’ve seen with some similar ideas, instead assuming you’d like to BYOH. (I’d like a pull-around headset on the chair.) It also uses the same flat cables as the Raptor monitor, which look lovely (I guess) when they’re positioned just so, but not so pretty when they start to tangle and bend like regular cables — especially since they route on the floor.

And maybe it’s just me, but there are also some types of haptic rumbles I just don’t want that full-body feel for.