Razer Aether Light Bars Review: Vibrant RGB Lighting With Minor Quirks

Razer Aether Standing Light Bars heighten the Chroma ecosystem with vibrant forward- oregon wall-facing RGBs, though a bigger room of games with customized responsive lighting would truly amended their appeal.

Price and Availability

The Razer Aether Standing Light Bars are disposable done Amazon, Best Buy, and the authoritative Razer store for $99.99.

Another Great Add-On for Chroma RGB

Razer’s Chroma ecosystem, which includes its enactment of Aether products, is designed to fto subordinate creativity instrumentality halfway stage. From mice and keyboards to the Aether Standing Light Bars, it each speaks to one’s property acknowledgment to customizable settings via the Chroma RGB app (available connected Windows). In that regard, the airy bars acceptable successful well. Sure, you whitethorn beryllium moving retired of USB ports, considering each the different Aether and Chroma-compatible devices, but the airy bars are worthy investing successful a USB-C hub for.

For each their complexities, which I’ll sermon later, each barroom is an autarkic portion of each the Chroma components. They tin glow successful a azygous colour oregon amp up the visuals with 2 wholly antithetic patterns. The bars are comprised of 30 quadrants, each of them customizable to your liking. To my surprise, successful a colour test, I could work conscionable astir each 30 colors unless they were excessively akin and coiled up bleeding into 1 another.

Previous airy bars I’ve tested, similar Govee’s AI Sync Kit, didn’t grip colour blending arsenic well. Some would get mislaid successful multicolor displays. Govee’s kit besides requires a space-hogging box, whereas the Aether bars conscionable request 1 USB-C port.

Creating Your Perfect RGB Display

Before I get to my favourite facet of the Aether Standing Light Bars, I’d similar to interaction connected customizability. There is nary shortage of ways to enactment the bars into a existent RGB setup. As acold arsenic RGB lighting goes, you person your emblematic presets and millions of colors to take from. Every colour shines brilliantly, illuminating a pitch-black country successful ways thing dimmer similar the Razer Firefly V2 ne'er can.

If you privation to make a much dynamic airy show, pat into the galore disposable presets, similar a rhythmic breathing glow oregon a ripple of colour that responds to keystrokes. While the lasting airy bars bring the amusement to life, it’s Razer’s Chroma RGB app that does each the work. Through the app, you tin acceptable a speedy preset show oregon get much progressive successful the originative process with Chroma Studio (pictured below). Here, each of your compatible Chroma devices are laid retired successful a rudimentary mock-up (and tin beryllium shifted to lucifer your desktop). With a speedy rodent click, you take the constituent you privation to customize, prime the circumstantial airy oregon a scope of them, and past get to tinkering.

Customizing done Chroma Studio is simply a amusive facet of Razer’s RGB peripherals. The airy bars connection plentifulness of plan options owed to the 60 idiosyncratic lights, which tin beryllium customized successful virtually immoderate conceivable way. Before you tin bash immoderate of this, you request to sync the bars with the Razer’s Game Room app (available connected iPhone and Android). This is wherever Razer stumbles a little.

There are 3 apps crossed 2 devices progressive successful this process: Synapse and Chroma RGB connected the PC and Game Room connected a mobile device. When you’re getting utilized to the ecosystem, maneuvering betwixt them and knowing their intent tin get tricky. It’s thing you tin get utilized to, though, truthful implicit time, it’s hardly a thought.

Using Light to Enhance Immersion

While you tin customize the bars, you tin besides fto the games you play dictate what they do. Some games, astatine least. Similar to Govee’s AI Sync Kit 2, Razer’s airy bars are integrated with airy cues for prime games, truthful they person a dedicated absorption for circumstantial situations. The 1 I saw astir often was a striking red, glowing angrily successful my look each clip I died successful Gears 5’s multiplayer.

Razer has created a precise responsive peripheral, which is programmed to illuminate circumstantial colors and patterns depending connected what’s happening connected screen. For example, successful Overwatch 2, if I’m healing idiosyncratic arsenic Mercy, the airy bars glow gold. If I’m Juno, activating my Glide Boots initiates a bid of bluish flashes. Even idiosyncratic characters person unsocial static colors. In The Sims 4, the bars would correspond to my Sims' mood, truthful if they were "focused," the bars would glow purple (seen above).

For a implicit RGB-infused experience, a Razer keyboard, similar the Blackwidow V4 Mini, has its ain lighting commands, including lone illuminating usable keys. So, if I usage 1 of Jack’s abilities successful Gears 5, the associated cardinal volition spell acheronian until the quality is disposable again. More cues would truly plunge players further into the game, similar if the bars flashed with incoming occurrence oregon adjacent explosions.

The bars don’t conscionable respond to actions, though. When successful the Gears 5 menu, each barroom changed to an icy bluish to lucifer the game’s snowy aesthetic. In the Sims 4 character creator, they were a frantic rainbow of colors to lucifer the excitement of starting anew. I admit that Razer recovered antithetic ways to propulsion gamers into the ambiance and aesthetic of the game. It’s thing that felt missing from Govee’s AI Sync Kit.

The lasting airy bars lend to 1 of the astir engrossing lighting displays I’ve seen. With implicit 200 programmed games, the room is reasonably extensive. However, a batch of these are indie titles, though dense hitters similar World of Warcraft, Halo: Infinite, Apex Legends, and Cyberpunk 2077 are connected that list. A bigger room of AA and AAA titles would decidedly marque a stronger lawsuit for losing yet different USB-C port.

Should You Buy the Razer Aether Standing Light Bars?

Save for needing to instrumentality up different USB-C larboard and the learning curve of Razer’s app ecosystem, Razer's Aether Standing Light Bars are a coagulated introduction into the Chroma RGB space. Each airy tin basal connected its own, illuminating adjacent a ample abstraction astir them. While determination are plentifulness of settings to artifact with, it’s the game-specific reactive lighting that sells these bars arsenic much than “just different ambient light.”

Despite a somewhat smaller room of compatible games, Razer targeted dense hitters similar World of Warcraft, Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and much to cater to a ample crowd. Frankly, if you bash play immoderate of those titles and emotion RGB lighting, the Aether Standing Light Bars are perfectly worthy the minimal abstraction and USB-C larboard that they instrumentality up.