Corsair’s first-ever gaming laptop has a touch bar

Corsair, a leader in the desktop space for decades, is releasing its first-ever gaming laptop. The new Voyager a1600 is powered by both the Ryzen 6000-series processors and the Radeon RX 6000 series. The device is Corsair's first venture into mobile hardware.

We don't know what this device will look like, we only got a glimpse of it during the keynote of the Computex event, and we don't know what it will look like. There is a touch bar, and it will likely jump out at you.

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The row of shortcut buttons above the keyboard deck is not a touch bar. The row of 10 easy-access S-key shortcut buttons adds extra keys to the keyboard, which is a good thing.

The S-keys are powered by Elgato Stream Deck software, which means you would likely be using them for various live streaming controls. We wouldn't necessarily expect a laptop to be the device of choice for many streamers, but it's still an interesting idea that's unusual in the gaming space, and can also work as a Zoom meeting controller.

The touch controls can be accessed while the laptop is closed. I like that you can see the battery indicator before opening the laptop, but I wonder if buttons could be bumped while the laptop is in a backpack. When we get our hands on the device, we will know more about how the buttons work.

A full-size Cherry MX mechanical keyboard with per-key RGB backlighting will be included in the Voyager. Corsair may be putting some effort into this area, which is a good sign, since not all gaming manufacturers do.

Prospective buyers can choose between a Ryzen 7 6800HS and a Ryzen 9 6900HS, both of which have a Radeon 6800M graphics card. You can get up to 64GB of RAM and 2 terabytes of storage. The device has a 16-inch display, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and oneUSB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port.

Corsair is following in the footsteps of Razer, a gaming hardware company that expanded into the enthusiast laptop sphere after a building and buying spree. Corsair has made a number of recent acquisitions, including Elgato, Scuf Gaming as well as Origin, and it seems poised to expand its reach to users who don't necessarily want to build their own systems.

The success and quality of this laptop may be the first clue as to how well that expansion will go. Origin has made decent PCs in the past and is notable for the customizability of the systems they sell. It will be interesting to see how well the Corsair machine is configured and how well these design choices go over in the enthusiast space.