RazerCon 2021 is upon us, and we’re pretty surprised to see these announcements coming out as soon as they are currently. With everyone in the PC gaming space scrambling to put out streaming devices, Razer has fully entered the space with this slate of new announcements in the form of the Razer Ripsaw X capture card and an update to the tried-and-true Razer Kiyo, named the Razer Kiyo X. The main benefits of seeing a company like Razer enter this market is that it’s become somewhat of a monopoly over the past few years, but that’s starting to change with companies like Razer and even Cooler Master joining the fray in an attempt to topple the streaming giant from their titanic walled-garden of Hardware and Software.
Razer Ripsaw X capture card release date, price & specs
Razer has stated that the Ripsaw X will be available from September 30, 2021, and retails for $139.99 USD on Razer’s official website. However, global launches are always a little bit messy, so it might take some time to see your local retailers start to sell the Ripsaw X itself. Calling the Razer Ripsaw X a capture card in itself is a little bit disingenuous, as its form and function more resemble something akin to an Elgato Camlink more than anything else. With no basic features like an HDMI input loop on the Ripsaw X, this looks a little bit underwhelming, especially as the Razer Ripsaw X has been priced at the princely sum of $139.99 USD.
The Razer Ripsaw X has some conflicting information with regards to its maximum capture resolution. Razer’s website states that it will be able to capture up to 4K at 60fps, but all other literature related to the Ripsaw X mentions 4K at 30FPS, which is also mentioned on Razer’s page. It’s ultimately something we may have to verify ourselves, as the connection inputs on the Ripsaw X are also limited to HDMI 2.0, though the device itself boasts USB 3.0 in addition to extremely low latency, though the frame delay has not been specified on any of Razer’s documentation.
Razer Kiyo X release date, price, specifications
The Razer Kiyo X launched worldwide on September 30, 2021, and retails for $79.99 USD on Razer’s official website. The Kiyo X sports a couple of new features, including a “virtual ring light” which just sounds like fancy marketing talk for artificially brightening the output of the webcam, though we have yet to test this purported feature, as it will be coming sometime in October 2021.
The rest of the webcam isn’t too radically different from the standard Razer Kiyo, but it has had a respectable spec bump, as it can now capture 1080p at 60fps, whereas the older Kiyo was restricted to 30FPS at 1080p, with 60fps only attainable if you captured at 720p. Given the relatively reasonable price point, it’s easy to see that given the Kiyo X’s compatibility with Razer Synapse, this looks to be potentially one of the best gaming or streaming webcams to come out. However, we have yet to have our hands on it.
