- I cannot believe they sell something like this.
Like what are you even supposed to do with it?
Finger condoms.
Heyyyy.
If you're into PC gaming,
then you were almost certainly aware of Razer.
Now they actually have a longer history
than you might expect.
Back in 1999, they released their first product,
a game most known as the "Boomslang 1000."
As you might imagine with
an interesting name like that,
Razer didn't exactly light the gaming world on fire.
And in 2005,
the company was actually relaunched as the Razer
that we know today.
In 2021, Razer's now become one of the biggest players
in the gaming industry.
Mainstream companies, such as ASUS and GIGABYTE,
now have sub brands known as ROG, or AORUS.
And they're entirely designed
to reach that hardcore gaming audience.
Meanwhile, Razer has played the Uno reverse card.
They've decided to be the game brand
determined to break into the mainstream.
And they've done that in some,
let's say, interesting ways.
Do you remember "Project Breadwinner?"
Because I sure don't.
I mean, I know that they've added April Fools to this,
but like, "BREAD TO WIN,"
"TIS THE SEASON TO BE OP,"
man, the marketing team that Razer's employing
for the puns is getting paid too much.
Razer gold and silver coins,
is that a NFT?
Wait.
Did you guys know that Razer
is trying to muscle dbrand out of the market?
They sell Razer skins.
60 bucks for, if I want the mercury skin.
Razer also sell smart glasses.
Now, this was actually an item from Mystery Tech
that I have experienced first face-on.
It wasn't hands-on, it was, a face-on.
I'm gonna admit,
I'm usually a fairly decent fan of Razer stuff.
Like most of the stuff is pretty good.
These were not good.
Here we go.
This is the one that I think a lot of people know,
that mask, the Razer Zephyr.
Now, I'm not gonna lie.
I want to try one of these things, but like,
(sighs) God, look at this, look at this,
I literally, look, look at all the things.
Chairs, wearables, apparels, bags,
gear, masks, Sneki Snek,
RESPAWN, collabs, Book, Mac.
I feel like I can make an entire video
just reacting to Razer stuff.
Like what is this?
"The Reusable Straw, #STRAWSSUCK, but this one doesn't."
Oh, this is interesting.
So it's like a boom mic, but it's on a in-ear headset?
Well, that's kind of cool.
How much is this?
A hundred bucks.
Or, you know what?
That's a product I can kind of get behind.
The thing is Razer sell tons of other stuff.
Like they sell tons of PC components too.
Like they just announced that they're doing power supplies.
They've been selling cases for awhile.
Like the size, the breadth
of the different amount of products that Razer sells,
it's huge.
Like, it's probably too much, right?
Like I, not exactly expert running a hardware company,
but I feel it's probably very expensive
to support this many SKUs, this many actual products.
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So look, Razer products might be weird,
but does that necessarily make them bad?
That is a complicated question.
If you're thinking about a gaming laptop,
sure, yeah, it's probably pretty good.
But how about a Razer chair, or Razer plushies
or clothes or straws?
I mean, with Razer, they really want to expand the brand,
which makes sense.
When you see Apple, you know what you're getting.
When you see the Supreme logo,
you know what you're getting.
When you see the three point star from Mercedes,
you know what you're getting.
But when you think about gaming,
Razer wants you to think, Razer.
Just like how watching this video
should make you think about subscribing
and ringling the dingaling button.
Bell, sorry.
I consider Razer to be a lot like high-end car brands.
Ask someone who owns a luxury car what they drive
and they probably won't tell you it's a
"GLE 53 4MATIC+."
No, they're gonna tell you, they drive a Mercedes.
Razer wants, and has mostly achieved,
being seen in the same way.
Odds are, if you ask a gamer what accessories they use,
they'll simply respond, "Razer,"
not the "Huntsman Elite TKL 9,000."
Although if you use a TKL board,
you're probably thrilled that someone finally
asked you about it.
"Finally, I can tell you about
my tenkeyless custom lubed switches.
Yay."
Then this doesn't mean that Razer
doesn't also share some other luxury car DNA,
(coughing) being under reliable.
Oh, sorry.
I need some Cometeer coffee that could wash that down.
But to some people, that's the price they'll pay
to have what they consider to be "the best."
But the question is, can Razer make things
the way that luxury car brands do?
Now, if you're a Mercedes, you make everything yourself;
the engine, the transmission,
the interior, the infotainment system.
I mean, you name it.
These are bespoke, incredibly expensive components
to develop.
A clean sheet modern engine can cost upwards of
a billion dollars to develop, test and produce.
Now, while Razer certainly has a history of developing
a lot of innovative tech, it is on a far smaller scale,
which means that the differentiation is a lot harder.
There's no AMD or Intel for engines, right?
Car companies have to make these things themselves,
but in the PC side of things,
pretty much everyone pulls from that same pool of parts.
Now, some differentiations,
such as when Razer was the first to market
with that one 120 hertz display on the Razer phone.
That's cool.
But the thing is, Sharp had that exact same display
in a phone the same year.
And a couple of years later,
ROG one upped them with a much better
AMOLED 120 hertz display.
I mean, in this space,
unless you have absolute piles of money,
there just simply isn't the room for true differentiation.
Speaking of piles of money, Apple.
They really are the only tech company in the space
that can truly make different products.
That's because Timmy Cook's got that bank.
They developed a huge swath of their own tech
in a way that Razer just simply can't match.
Think about it like this, right,
Apple develops all of their own software.
They design the chips that go inside their laptops.
And they have the scale
that if they want some weird specialty screen with a notch,
they don't have to go and ask for a purchase order.
They can buy the whole factory and it's completely fine.
Meanwhile, Razer is just not on that same level.
I mean, they rely on Microsoft
for the software, being Windows.
They need AMD or Intel or Nvidia to make the chips.
And while yes, a lot of times
they do share some of the same manufacturing companies
like Quantas or Foxconn that Apple might use,
it is on a completely different scale.
And the simple truth is,
Razer, as well as pretty much everyone else
who's not Apple in the PC industry,
have basically the exact same resources to work with.
When Intel has that new chip,
everyone's gonna get it at the same time.
When Nvidia has a new embargo, guess what?
Everyone's gonna launch it exactly at that embargo
because they just don't have the control
over the entire ecosystem that a company like Apple does.
It's simply because Razer's nowhere near the same size.
But, when you're trying to compete
and you want your name to be synonymous with gaming
the same way that the creative life is all about being,
you know, Apple this and Apple that,
it's like bringing a knife to a gunfight,
or a knife to a nuke fight, probably.
- [Ken] Or a Razer...
- Oh God.
(both laughing)
This is really why I come back to the real value
in Razer being the brand.
With that same parts bin as everyone else,
Razer really has invested in some of the things
that they can differentiate themselves in,
which is really in the processes
and the actual touch and feel of the products.
I mean, think about something like
the incredibly expensive and time-consuming
aluminum CNC milling and anodization,
which is really what delivers
one of the signature features of Razer laptops;
the smooth, thin and sturdy chassis.
While most competitors
are probably spending a few dollars per laptop
on like some multi-piece plastic and metal components.
Instead, I know for a fact that Apple spends
many, many times that for every Blade laptop
that runs off the assembly line.
Look, when you touch and hold a Razer laptop,
it feels nice.
Just the same way that when you touch and hold a MacBook
it feels great.
And nothing against the Zephyrus G14,
which I think is an excellent laptop,
one of the best gaming laptops out there,
it doesn't quite have that same sort of feel in the hand.
- [Ken] It feels quality.
- Yeah.
- [Ken] Whether or not
you think it performs that well, is another story.
- And look, we've had problems in the past, right?
Like Razer's always,
even though their devices have always felt good.
We've had Razer laptops die on us.
We've had batteries die.
We've had like straight boards
just stop working and stuff.
If you're at the store and you look at the,
sort of the look and feel of a product,
it is hugely important
to that perceived quality of the product.
Razer also doesn't dirty up their designs with like,
tons of extra stickers and like,
full HD, 144 hertz or whatever that you see
on most other brands.
And yeah, this is a gaming laptop, but outside of the logo,
it's just a black, plain,
very thin and simple looking device.
- [Ken] I mean, people want a MacBook on the Windows side,
let's be real.
- So, is Razer worth it?
I mean... yeah?
Razer's like the upper middle-class of gaming hardware.
If you were looking for the best bang for your buck,
you should probably look elsewhere.
And likewise, if you want the absolute best keyboard
or gaming PC around,
you're gonna want to build that yourself anyway.
It's easy to forget as enthusiasts
that most people don't care about the extremes, right?
They just want something that's nice and that just works
and that gives them some style
and gives them some performance
and for that market, Razer, I do believe,
delivers pretty solid, slightly expensive products
that are well-designed and they work well together.
Brands like Apple and Gucci are built on this idea
that when you buy their products,
you're buying into the brand as well.
And I think Razer's well on the way to getting there,
but it's not as easy, I think,
because they have so much competition out there.
So, I'm very curious.
Let me know in the comments below,
is your next laptop going to be sporting
three green snakes on the lid?
Or your next chair,
or straw,
or mask,
or mouse pad,
or headset,
or toaster,
or tablet,
or phone case,
or phone skin
or monitor,
- [Ken] Speakers.
- speakers?
- [Ken] Did we get 'em all?
- We, no we went through like one of the categories.
There's like seven more,
- [Ken] Ohhhh. - So.
(everyone laughing)