The best part of CES is walking over to the Razer booth to see what outlandish concept the gaming hardware brand is showcasing.
Previous years gave us a three-screen laptop (Project Valerie), an RGB-illuminated smart face mask (Project Hazler, or Zephyr); one time Razer just placed a gigantic working keyboard in front of its booth. This year, the company is unveiling what might be its most ambitious venture yet.
Project Sophia is a modular gaming desk concept containing 13 separate modules that allow you to install and swap out components based on your needs. Some of the hardware Razer envisions being compatible with the desk include secondary screens, system monitoring tools, touch-screen hotkey panels, pen tablets, and external capture cards.
For example, a DJ could add an audio mixer, maybe a tablet, and a surround sound system, while a digital artist might slot in a touchscreen digitizer and some macros for photo editing. And when you’re ready to stream, you could mount cameras, mics, and controllers to the desk.
“Project Sophia is our futuristic vision of a multi-purpose gaming and workstation set-up which meets the very different needs of a variety of PC uses, negating the need to move between workspaces,” said Richard Hashim, vice president of growth at Razer. “The hot-swappable modular system allows users to quickly reconfigure their desk with near-infinite flexibility, adapting Project Sophia not just for the task at hand, but also to the user’s particular preference.”
If you’re wondering what powers everything, the desk comes outfitted with a circuit board containing “the latest Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs,” which apparently fits in a slim chassis magnetically attached to the underside of the glass tabletop. When your components are getting old, you can swap them out by easily removing the chassis. You also get a monitor of sorts: a 65-inch OLED panel connected to the backside of the desk. I don’t know who the hell would sit so close to such a massive screen, but hey, this is a Razer Concept, remember?
And since it’s a Razer Concept, it glows in a rainbow of colours. Lining the edges of the desk is an RGB light strip, and each of the modules is outlined in the hue of your choice.
It’s an interesting idea, but it assumes your preferred hardware will neatly fit into these components and doesn’t need to be angled toward you to use. The table also looks so massive that you’d need to stretch to reach some of the pods. Still, deep down, a part of me wishes I could have attended CES to see this ridiculous thing in person (assuming it was going to be there).
Razer Enki Pro Hypersense
Revealed alongside Project Sophia is the Enki Pro HyperSense, a new gaming chair concept with built-in haptics. While not as ambitious as Project Brooklyn, the Enki Pro HyperSense was similarly designed to make you feel more immersed in whatever you’re playing or watching.
It essentially takes the Enki Pro gaming chair and adds a haptic feedback unit made by D-BOX, a brand that makes these things for theatre seats. Though still a concept, the chair is apparently supported by 2,200 games, movies, and TV shows, including Forza Horizon 5, F1 2021, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, along with shows on Netflix, Disney+, Prime, and others.
Razer says games not supported directly through software can still gain haptic feedback using Direct Input Haptics, or when a controller, keyboard, and mouse inputs provide the feedback. So you can still feel each gunshot even when playing an older first-person shooter.
Other features in the synthetic leather-covered chair include Razer’s obligatory RGB lighting on the headrest, a cushioned backrest, and lumbar support.
Razer didn’t say anything about pricing or availability — remember, these are just concepts — so there’s a good chance we don’t see them again after the lights in Vegas are turned off.