Razer Unveils AI Gaming Co-Pilot and Innovative Gaming Chair at CES 2025

Razer showcases two new concepts, including an AI co-pilot at CES

Razer also showcased its Project Arialle heating and cooling chair at CES. Razer sought to show it can still impress with "groundbreaking innovations and futuristic technologies," at CES this year. Thus, besides its predictably refined and upgraded Razer Blade 16 laptop, it also shared two interesting gamer-focused projects it is working on. These were the Razer Project Ava AI gaming co-pilot and the Project Arialle heating and cooling chair. We experienced both these concept technologies first-hand at the Las Vegas show. In Razer's words, Project Ava promises to be "the ultimate AI gaming copilot." It leverages AI in two main areas, eSports coaching and hardware tuning. Razer has subsequently eked four functions from its AI training, and these are: Razer calls its AI-powered assistant "your gaming co-pilot," and the one thing I felt throughout this demo was that, even in this early iteration, Ava feels much more like a co-pilot than anything Microsoft has attempted with Copilot+. In a live demo of a MOBA game with the server powering Ava in the same room, Ava regularly gave the player pointers and advice about how to handle the battle, what powerups to use when, and more. Some will of course consider this an unfair advantage at the very least, but Razer says its virtual coach doesn't break the rules of tournament play. It did feel very much like there was just an expert eSports player giving play-by-play advice. Ava also responded well to a few voiced questions from the player during the demo, though it took a few seconds and I could very distinctly hear the fans in the server spin up dramatically as it processed the speech and formulated an answer. This served as another reminder of just how power-hungry LLMs tend to be. I was shown a brief recorded video demo of Black Myth Wukong, where Ava provided tips during a boss battle. Some felt similar to the advice given in the previous MOBA game, but others, like pointing out the specific mechanics of a creature's attack, felt like the kind of thing you're kind of supposed to figure out on your own as a substantial part of experiencing the game. There's also the whole question of where Razer is getting its Ava training data. A company rep told me that for now, it's coming from online walkthroughs, gameplay from eSports players, and similar sources. The rep did express some concern about finding a way to at least credit the source of the data, a similar concern for many around services like Chat GPT and Google's Gemini. But he said they also hope to be able to work with game developers to get a lot of game-specific information directly before a game is even published. In a best-case scenario, that means the amount of data Ava would need to ingest, digest, and regurgitate would grow exponentially and become truly massive as support for new and old titles gets added. On the one hand, if it works as well as Razer's demo makes it seem like it could, it would make playing tough titles quite a bit easier and, to many at least, more fun. But at the same time, given the fact that we're already considering resurrecting nuclear power plants to meet the growing demands of AI, I have mixed feelings about the amount of power, water, and infrastructure it would take to build and maintain an AI to help us play hundreds or thousands of games. Razer claims that Project Arialle is the world's first Razer mesh gaming chair to feature integrated heating and cooling. The firm says the award-winning Razer Fujin Pro mesh gaming chair provides the foundations for the Arialle concept. Key features sprinkled atop that starting point include a bladeless fan system to aid both the heating and cooling functions and easily accessible touch controls. In the 10 minutes or so that I had to try out Razer's bladeless heating and cooling chair, I was mostly impressed. The chair itself was comfortable, and the cooling feature could be felt across most of my back, an improvement over the Elemax X-Chair accessory I tested a few years ago. I didn't really get a sense of how intuitive the controls are, but it didn't seem overly complicated. The heating aspect of the chair felt a little more subtle. It's not going to replace a space heater blasting at you on a chilly morning. But as I felt the chair's heat ramp up and radiate around my upper body, it was a pleasant feeling even though I was already a bit warm from rushing to meetings all day. The idea of having this kind of warmth around me while gaming or working on a sub-zero day is certainly appealing. And importantly, the frame of the chair got warm to the touch, but never uncomfortably so. The real downside of this concept is the fact that it requires the chair to be plugged into a power outlet. A Razer representative told me that they have heard lots of feedback that including a battery for untethered use would be more appealing, and they told me that's something they are considering. But I'm skeptical that, particularly the heating aspect of the chair can be powered by a battery. Anyone who's ever tripped a circuit or blown a fuse while running an electric heater and basically anything else in their home knows that electrically generated heat is a power hog. Then again, incorporating a removable rechargeable battery could at least let you keep cool while unplugged for hours at a time in the warmer months.

Hands-on: Razer's air conditioned chair and AI gaming coach are way better than you think

Right before the opening of CES 2025, Razer announced an absolute onslaught of new products, most of them with its ubiquitous Chroma RGB, and, to be honest, a few that I was really uncertain about going into the show. Namely, its concept gaming chair with built-in heating and cooling titled Project Arielle, and their AI esports coach dubbed Project Ava. After experiencing them both firsthand, I'm now a convert. Related Razer's new Blade 16 is its thinnest gaming laptop ever Thinner than ever, powerful as always Posts Project Arielle Gamer chair, or the solution to office temperature issues? A mesh gaming chair with built-in heating and cooling powered by a bladeless fan, Dyson-style, that glows with red and blue RGB to indicate temperature modes, and an as-yet-undisclosed power method. Sounds a bit gimmicky, right? At first glance, I wasn't sure how effective that would be or who would buy it, until I sat in it myself. One of my first concerns was noise, but the chair was virtually silent. Perhaps it was because of the low buzz of voices in the room, but seeing as this was a private room, it wasn't really that crowded or loud. Sitting in the chair on cooling mode, I could feel the gentle breeze of cool air at the base of my neck and around my torso. The air vents are placed only on the back of the chair, not the headrest or the seat. The vents themselves are extremely subtle, thin slits embedded in the back of the chair's frame. The touch controls on the side of the seat were unobtrusive in their design and simple to use. So far, I was impressed by the design and functionality, but I was still a little skeptical if wide-enough interest could be achieved to make this chair a reality. It wasn't until I tried the heating setting that Project Arielle's future clicked in my mind. I would have given anything to have this chair in the freezing corporate offices where I've worked before, and everyone I know who works in one would too. It seems a safe bet that, should this chair live to see an actual product launch, it would be an expensive product, particularly in its first iterations. I wasn't seeing the commercial viability until the Razer representative and I discussed putting one of these behind every executive and mid-level desk in the country. Perhaps a split into two models, one that removes the RGB for cost to achieve a better value proposition for office use, and a hero model with RGB for gamers looking to splurge on their comfort, particularly when your 50-series GPU starts heating up your room like a space-heater. Related Nvidia's GeForce RTX 50 series promises RTX 4090 performance for $549 It's like an RTX 4090 only much more powerful and with considerably more RAM. Posts 6 Project Ava This is no gimmick, and Razer is investing heavily to prove it I was led into a small, dimly lit room, and the first thing I noticed was it must have been 85 degrees in there. A huge server rack sat in the corner, and a Razer engineer was playing a MOBA that won't be named here, on which Project Ava, Razer's concept AI gaming coach, is being trained. My first question, "Is this just a Large Language Model (LLM) that has been fed a ton of game guides?" was dispelled immediately. Project Ava is, in fact, a real investment that Razer hopes to turn into a deliverable product, built on a combination of proprietary tech and open-source APIs. I watched as the Razer engineer worked his way through a lane, and Project Ava provided real-time feedback on how best to push, what items to buy, when to focus on farming, and more. While playing, he used push-to-talk to ask Ava, "What items should I buy?" and, without missing a beat, Ava responded, "You are short on gold, focus on farming and optimizing your inventory," keeping him on task before he spends what little he has. Razer wouldn't disclose what exactly was inside the server rack, but from the heat in the room and the whirring of fans, one could gather that it must be a boatload of powerful GPUs crunching some serious math. Obviously, most of us can't afford a server rack with who knows how many GPUs inside, so Razer told me they are aiming for a hybrid solution where some of the work is done locally on the machine and some on a cloud server. Release dates or pricing are yet to be announced. Related Samsung's new Odyssey gaming monitors require a monster PC build Samsung unveiled some ultra powerful gaming monitors at CES 2025 Posts Pushing the envelope I appreciate that Razer is consistently trying to push the boundaries of gaming technology, and projects like Ava and Arielle show a lot of imagination and determination to stand out as a company that does more than just release an endless number of RGB Chroma accessories and peripherals. Time will tell if either project comes to market, but I personally hope they both go the distance.

Hands-On With Razer's CES 2025 Lineup: RTX 5090 Laptops, AI Game Coach, Icy-Hot Chairs, and Handheld Dock - IGN

At CES 2025, we had the chance to see everything new Razer was showing off which ran the gamut from practical to extravagant. Some new products are refreshes like the updated Razer Blade 16 laptops outfitted with the upcoming Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile GPUs, and some are proofs of concept that are in the far future like the in-game AI coach called Project Ava. Here's a rundown of our hands-on experience with With the announcement of Nvidia's new RTX 5000 series GPUs, Razer also revealed the updated models of its Razer Blade gaming laptops. We were able to see the Blade 16, specifically, in action and got a breakdown of all the notable changes. One big shift is that this lineup is moving from Intel to AMD for the CPU; top-of-the-line models will be using the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This is said to help power efficiency without losing performance, which makes room for the slight increase in power draw of the new RTX 5000-series GPUs. At just 0.59 inches in thickness, this refresh is also 32% thinner than the previous model. However, the keyboard has upped the travel distance to 1.5mm to feel closer to a low-profile desktop keyboard. As for memory, the RAM will be soldered to help keep the form factor slim; you'll be able to get the new Blade with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of memory. The Blade 16 still rocks the OLED display with a 2560x1600 resolution (QHD+) and 0.2ms response time. The new Razer Blade laptops will be available sometime in Q1 2025 and prices will vary depending on the model and configuration of specs. Razer has been showing the Laptop Cooling Pad for a while now, but now we got to see the final design. It's akin to an elevated laptop stand with a large high-velocity 140mm fan underneath it. There are three different frames that magnetically snap into place on top of the Laptop Cooling Pad to properly handle the airflow and internal cooling solution of various laptops. Razer also showed off HyperBoost, which is preset in the Razer software that will keep Blade laptops (2023 models and on) running at peak performance as the Laptop Cooling Pad works at max capacity to prevent overheating. There is also an input hub that includes three USB-A ports and separate buttons that control fan speed and Chroma RGB lighting manually. The Laptop Cooling Pad launches on January 30 for $149.99 and is available to pre-order on the Razer Store. With so many handheld gaming PCs hitting the market beyond the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, accessories such as a dock (akin to what the Nintendo Switch has) are increasingly useful. Razer is coming out with a universal dock for PC handhelds that is able to prop-up your device of choice, charge it with its 100W passthrough, and output to an external display. The stand is adjustable and able to angle your handheld regardless of the device's size. It connects to handhelds via USB-C and acts as a hub with multiple ports: gigabit ethernet port, four USB ports, and HDMI out. What's arguably the most interesting thing Razer showcased was Project Ava, a voiced in-game AI assistant and coach. We saw it in action alongside a MOBA and it's able to analyze in-game situations in real time and provide insights on the spot. It's also able to look at your performance afterward and breakdown the things you did well and the ways you can improve with post-match analysis; you can think of it as an esports coach via AI. We asked Razer about the ethical boundaries when it comes to the possibility of providing an unfair advantage, and a Razer representative stated that Project Ava has built-in boundaries so it's not able to pull data that players aren't privy to or tell the player what to do based on probability analysis. Razer said it's conscious of abiding by terms of service agreements to make sure Project Ava is compliant across different games. Project Ava isn't just for competitive multiplayer games; it's also built for single-player games to act like a real-time game guide. We saw it working with Black Myth: Wukong and Project Ava guided the player through a boss battle by mentioning the visual cues for enemy attacks, phase changes in the fight, and advising on the best windows to attack. Those are early examples of what Project Ava can do, and it'll evolve as it's applied to more games. A beta for Project Ava is planned for sometime this year. Another early concept Razer was showing off was Project Arielle, which is a mesh gaming chair with heating and cooling fans built into it. Project Arielle works off the Razer Fujin Pro chair for its mesh design and uses bladeless fans around the frame of the chair to create airflow of up to 30°C for heat, or cool things down by 2°C to 5°C according to Razer. There's a control panel on the right side along the seat to control the chair's settings. We were able to experience Project Arielle with the model that was at CES 2025, and the difference in temperature settings were noticeable and the mesh upholstery with the lumbar support was comfortable for the short period we used it. Razer had a live demo of its PC Remote Play, which is exactly what you think it is. Through the Razer Nexus app, you can set a home PC to be the host machine and access your entire library on any Android or iOS device with the Razer app. While there are other programs that have similar capabilities like Parsec, Razer said it's focusing on wider compatibility and seamlessness with your game library while also providing full resolution and fidelity with minimal latency. In one of the more extravagant demos, we were able to play Dune: Awakening in an entire room outfitted with Chroma Reactive Lighting, including the new Aether Standing Light Bars. The room featured Razer's Aether lighting products with light strips around the walls and reacted to the color palette that was on-screen in real-time. There was also THX spatial audio and Razer Sensa haptics on the Freyja chair and Wolverine controller to round out the experience. It was an impressive display of what Razer products are capable of when all working in unison, although I would say it's impractical for most people. Aether lights are powered through USB-C and connect to devices via Wi-Fi for customization on Razer's apps. Lastly, we saw the Chroma Monitor Stand, which is one of the more straightforward accessories Razer had on display. Aside from Chroma lighting for a bit of aesthetic flair, it can also act as an input hub (connecting to your PC via USB-C) featuring two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and an HDMI 2.0 to connect to another external display. The stand itself can hold up to 44 pounds (20kg) and has rubber pads on the bottom for stability. At 19.7 inches long, it's able to house a full-size keyboard underneath it in case you want to save desktop space when it's not in use.