Gaming PCs are do-it-all workhorses for fanatics. Not solely do these machines have the ability to deal with trendy AAA video games, however they’re equally adept at tackling day by day productiveness duties.
Narrowing the main target even additional, gaming laptops lengthen that versatility on the go, permitting you to partake in your favourite shooters, journey video games or simulators when you’re not sitting at your desk. Need to take to the skies in Microsoft Flight Simulator whereas ready on your precise flight to take off from the airport? Certain, why not?
Corsair is elbowing its manner via a crowded subject with its first gaming laptop computer: the Voyager a1600. Our configuration with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU, a Radeon RX 6800M GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD rings in at $2,799 ($2,299 on sale after we wrote this).
We must always point out that the Voyager a1600 can also be one of many few AMD Benefit-certified gaming laptops available on the market. Corsair has additionally thrown some streamer-centric options into the combo, just like the Elgato-infused S-Key Macro Bar and webcam software program. However as we’ll see in testing, its gaming efficiency is not fairly as much as the equally priced competitors, making it powerful to contemplate for our Greatest Gaming Laptops listing. Until perhaps you care much less about body charges than you do about novel streaming options.
Design of the Corsair Voyager a1600
Because of its 16-inch show, the Corsair Voyager a1600 has a comparatively massive footprint. Its show sits up a bit greater than different laptops in its class, to supply clearance and visibility for the S-Key Macro Bar (which we’ll focus on extra in-depth later on this overview). The 16:10 side ratio additionally offers you a bit extra vertical actual property, though that is arguably of extra profit for productiveness than gaming.
The show is framed by skinny bezels on the left and proper and a thicker bezel on the high that homes the ambient gentle sensor and 1080p webcam (which options an built-in bodily privateness shutter). A a lot bigger bezel sits under the show, with distinguished Corsair branding.
Picture 1 of 5
The massive body permits for a full-size keyboard, flanked by Dolby-optimized audio system. The keyboard options Cherry MX mechanical switches with Cappellix LED tech and per-key lighting. You may additionally discover a fingerprint reader constructed into the ability button for biometric authentication. Beneath the keyboard is an enormous Microsoft Precision glass touchpad.
The Voyager a1600 comes with one USB 3.1 Kind-A port, one USB 3.2 Kind-C port and an SDXC reader on its proper aspect. On the left aspect are two USB 4 ports (with Thunderbolt 3 compatibility), a 3.5mm combo audio jack and a proprietary energy port for recharging the 99 Whr lithium-ion battery. Whereas the Voyager a1600 includes a 230 W barrel-style energy adapter within the field, it may be charged (albeit extra slowly) over USB-C utilizing a 100 W adapter or transportable battery pack. This supplies added flexibility for people who wish to scale back the variety of energy adapters/cords they should embody of their bag whereas touring, nevertheless it will not present the complete degree of gaming efficiency.
Curiously, you will not discover built-in GbE or 2.5 GbE on this machine; Corsair thinks avid gamers will both be glad with Wi-Fi 6E or use a USB-C dongle for wired networking. Likewise, there isn’t any HDMI 2.1 port both; you will want an adapter except you pair it with a gaming monitor that includes native USB-C/DisplayPort connectivity. These are odd selections when you think about that this laptop computer comes with each {hardware} and software program options devoted to streaming.
Along with the Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity built-in with the Qualcomm WCN685x combo card, Corsair contains its Slipstream Wi-fi expertise. Slipstream means that you can join as much as three wi-fi Corsair peripherals (like mice or headsets) without having to plug in a USB dongle.
All this {hardware} is wrapped in a high-quality aluminum-alloy chassis, completed in black, that weighs simply 5.3 kilos in a 14.01 x 11.29 x 0.78 inches (356 x 286.7 x 19.9mm) footprint. That places it on the portly aspect in comparison with Razer Blade 15 (4.4 kilos) however is only a tick lighter than the Lenovo Legion 5i Professional (5.49 kilos).
Corsair Voyager a1600 Specs
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon RX 6800M (12GB GDDR6), AMD Radeon 680M built-in graphics |
| Reminiscence | 32GB DDR5-4800 |
| Storage | 2TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Show | 16-inch, 2560×1600, 240 Hz, 16:10 |
| Networking | Qualcomm WCN685x |
| Ports | 1x USB 3.2 Kind-C Gen 1, 2x USB 4 Kind-C, 1x USB 3.1 Kind-A, 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Digital camera | 1080p |
| Battery | 99 Whr |
| Energy Adapter | 230 W |
| Working System | Home windows 11 House |
| Dimensions (WxDxH) | 14.01 x 11.29 x 0.78 inches (356 x 286.7 x 19.9mm) |
| Weight | 5.3 kilos (2.4 kg) |
| Value (as configured) | $2,799 ($2,299.99 on sale) |
Gaming and Graphics on the Corsair Voyager a1600
The Corsair Voyager a1600 options an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and a Radeon RX 6800M GPU. This all-AMD laptop computer is “AMD Benefit” licensed, permitting it to benefit from SmartShift Max and SmartAccess Reminiscence applied sciences. The previous dynamically shifts energy between your CPU and GPU to spice up efficiency on-demand (i.e., allocating extra accessible energy to the GPU whereas gaming). The latter permits Ryzen processors to faucet right into a GPU’s onboard reminiscence to extend efficiency.
The potent CPU/GPU mixture is backed by 32GB of DDR5-4800 reminiscence and a 2TB PCIe SSD.
For our gaming benchmarks, we rounded up three different 1440p/1600p gaming laptops: the Razer Blade 15 (Core i7-12800H, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 1440p), Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (Ryzen 9 6900HS, Radeon RX 6800S, 1600p) and the Lenovo Legion 5i Professional (Core i7-12700H, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 1440p).
Picture 1 of 5
The Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest) noticed the Voyager a1600 hit 44 frames per second at 1080p and simply 26 fps at its native decision of 1600p. These numbers had been a bit puzzling contemplating that the ROG Zephyrus G14 with the identical CPU and a Radeon RX 6800S GPU with much less VRAM (8GB versus 12GB) managed to tug 62 fps at 1080p and 36 fps at its native decision of 1600p. The Blade 15 got here in second place, with 90 fps at 1080p and 61 fps at 1440p (greater than doubling the Voyager a1600’s rating). The Lenovo Legion 5i Professional took first place with 110 fps at 1080p and 69 fps at 1440p.
The Voyager a1600’s fortunes improved barely within the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (Very Excessive), vaulting from final to 3rd place, with 80 fps at 1080p decision and 51 fps at 1600p. This efficiency put it comfortably forward of the similarly-configured ROG Zephyrus G14 at 71 fps/41 fps (1080p/1600p). As soon as once more, the Legion 5i Professional led the sphere, placing up 131 fps at 1080p and 78 fps at its native decision of 1440p.
We run the Borderlands 3 benchmark on the “Badass” setting, and the Voyager a1600 once more discovered itself in final place with 67 fps at 1080p and 40 fps at 1600p. Curiously, the first-place Legion 5i Professional managed that very same 67 fps at its native 1440p decision and cranked up the juice to 99 fps at 1080p. The ROG Zephyrus G14 and Blade 15 had been evenly matched at 1080p, however the former scored 46 fps at 1600p whereas the latter managed 58 fps at 1440p.
The Voyager a1600 handed the ROG Zephyrus G14 with 72 fps at 1080p and 57 fps at 1600p. The Legion 5i Professional ended its benchmark sweep with 88 fps at 1080p and 70 fps at 1440p, however held a slimmer margin of victory over the second-place Blade 15 (83 fps 1080p, 69 fps 1440p).
Lastly, the Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 benchmark (Medium) noticed the Voyager a1600 tied for third place with the ROG Zephyrus G14, with 48 fps at 1080p and 28 fps at 1600p. Unsurprisingly, the Legion 5i Professional leads all challengers with 81 fps at 1080p and 53 fps at 1440p.
Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 has been out on the PC for some time, nevertheless it’s a recreation that I maintain coming again to simply for the huge recreation world. I made a decision to have some prolonged time with the sport on this laptop computer, however struggled to get a lot higher than 30 fps on the native 1600p decision throughout common gameplay (which mirrored our benchmark outcomes). To essentially benefit from the recreation, I dropped the decision right down to 1080p.
Our gaming laptop computer stress check employs the Metro Exodus benchmark, which we run 15 instances utilizing the RTX setting. We averaged 38 fps at 1080p and 24 fps at 1600p. The CPU posted a median clock velocity of two,758 MHz in the course of the stress check and ran at 67.1 levels Celsius. The Radeon RX 6800M GPU averaged 1,566 MHz and 64.9 levels Celsius.
Productiveness Efficiency on the Corsair Voyager a1600
Corsair outfitted the Voyager a1600 with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU. We beforehand examined this CPU within the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, and it’s a 35W SKU with 8 cores and 16 threads (3.3 GHz base clock, 4.9 GHz most increase clock).
The Voyager a1600 delivered scores of 1,571 and 9,875 within the single-core and multi-core assessments, respectively, on the CPU-centric Geekbench 5 benchmark. Whereas its single-core rating was the weakest of the bunch, its multi-core efficiency ranked third. Total, the Voyager a1600 carried out equally to the ROG Zephyrus G14 (1,623 / 10,004). The Razer Blade 15 delivered the strongest single-core rating at 1,765 and a multi-core rating of 9,263. Curiously, the gaming champ Lenovo Legion 5i Professional had one of many weakest single-core scores (1,595) however ran away from its rivals on the multi-core entrance (13,008).
Picture 1 of 3
The Voyager a1600 scored its first benchmark win in our file switch check, which entails copying 25GB of recordsdata. The Voyager a1600 recorded 1,671.71 MBps, effectively forward of the second-place ROG Zephyrus G14 (1,260 MBps). The Blade 15 and Legion 5i Professional pulled up the rear at 932.1 MBps and 925.46 MBps, respectively.
For our video transcoding check, we transformed a 4K video to 1080p with Handbrake, and the Voyager a1600 got here in second at 5:51 behind the first-place Legion 5i Professional (4:29). The ROG Zephyrus G14 wasn’t far behind the Voyager a1600 at six minutes flat, whereas the Blade 15 was behind the pack at 7:25.
Show on the Corsair Voyager a1600
The Corsair Voyager a1600 has a 16-inch show with a 2560 x 1600 decision (16:10 side ratio). The refresh price checks in at 240 Hz, and the panel helps AMD FreeSync Adaptive-Sync expertise.
I had no complaints in regards to the show’s colours, which undoubtedly popped as I rewatched some pivotal scenes from Thor: Ragnarok for the millionth time. All the pieces seemed nice, just like the puffs of inexperienced smoke in the course of the preliminary battle scene between Thor and Hulk, to the frantic chase sequence within the race to flee via “The Satan’s Anus,” to Valkyrie’s wonderful color-infused firework-backed strut on Asgard’s Rainbow Bridge as she ready to mow down Hela’s reanimated Berserker military.
I additionally watched considered one of my 90s favorites from Luc Besson: The Fifth Ingredient on the laptop computer. The movie is an train in extra, from its costume design to its scene-chewing villain, Zorg. Nevertheless, I need to give props to the Voyager a1600’s show in dialing within the dingy yellow hue of Corbin’s taxi cab and futuristic metropolis skyscape in the course of the police chase and highlighting the Diva’s blue pores and skin throughout her rousing efficiency on the Fhloston Paradise.
In our instrumented assessments, the Voyager a1600 lined 82.1 % of the DCI-P3 colour house and 116 % of sRGB. Each figures had been in the identical ballpark as its rivals, with the Razer Blade 15 being the standout with 87.1 % DCI-P3 and 123 % sRGB protection. As for brightness, the Voyager a1600 was mid-pack at 335 nits. I had no bother seeing the show indoors or open air due to the anti-glare coating.
S-Key Macro Bar and Middle Show on the Corsair Voyager a1600
One distinctive side of the Corsair Voyager a1600 is its S-Key Macro Bar, which sits slightly below the show. It provides ten customizable buttons that may be programmed through Elgato’s Stream Deck software program. The macro bar is successfully a miniature Stream Deck by itself, which could possibly be useful for each streamers and energy customers.
You possibly can drag and drop shortcuts to the buttons, permitting for limitless customization choices. You aren’t restricted by the default actions supplied by the included software program, both. You possibly can create customized macros for video games/apps or launch purposes/video games on command.
You possibly can even customise the colour of the buttons utilizing the bundled iCue software program. Smack dab in the course of the S-Key Macro bar lies a small show that may present issues like battery proportion, time and CPU temperature. Wanting intently, you possibly can see two arrows on both aspect of the show. These controls cycle via the totally different show modes.
Keyboard and Touchpad on the Corsair Voyager a1600
Corsair outfitted the Voyager a1600 with a powerful keyboard, which was a pleasure to make use of equally whereas typing or gaming. The keyboard makes use of Cherry MX mechanical gaming switches backed by Cappellix LED expertise. In accordance with Corsair, Cappellix LEDs are 60 % brighter and 60 % extra environment friendly than LEDs generally present in gaming laptop computer keyboards. Though we won’t check the effectivity declare, the keys had been certainly brilliant in various lighting circumstances.
Along with per-key backlighting, the included iCue software program permits a variety of customization of the colours and show patterns for the keyboard. I caught with a single colour with no funky transferring patterns. The assorted pulsing and randomized patterns accessible in iCue gave me a headache. Whereas cool-looking, they served no useful profit except you take into account exhibiting off for bystanders a plus.
My go-to typing check is discovered at keyhero.com, and I managed 81.67 phrases per minute at 93.62 % accuracy utilizing the keyboard.
The touchpad is among the greatest I’ve encountered on a Home windows laptop computer. At 6.07 x 3.93 inches, there may be loads of room for mousing round whereas leaving ample house to the fitting and left of the deck on your palms to relaxation.
Audio on the Corsair Voyager a1600
The Voyager a1600 boasts Dolby Atmos assist, however you would not know that from listening to the audio system. Given the value of the laptop computer, we anticipated higher sound high quality. As a substitute, we heard the identical mediocre sound high quality and lack of bass that runs prevalent within the finest sub-$1,000 gaming laptops. I used to be immediately dissatisfied after I queued up “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones to listen to how completely flat it sounded. No depth, no bass, no life… simply lackluster throughout. I heard higher sound from the $700 Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3.
The Dolby Entry utility can tweak the audio settings, nevertheless it doesn’t supply a lot reduction for audiophiles. Tinkering with the assorted settings made little distinction within the sound high quality. On the constructive aspect, I could not detect even a touch of distortion as I moved the quantity slider as much as 100%.
Upgradeability on the Corsair Voyager a1600
The Corsair Voyager a1600’s aluminum backside panel is held in place with 11 Phillips screws. Your complete panel lifts off, utilizing simply your fingers, giving quick access to the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Key-E M.2 module, two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots (each had been occupied in our overview unit), and two M.2 slots that may each accommodate full-length 80 mm NVMe PCIe SSDs.
Battery Life on the Corsair Voyager a1600
The Corsair Voyager a1600 includes a beefy 99 Whr battery, charged through a 230W energy brick with a barrel-style plug. Corsair additionally says you possibly can join a 100W adapter to a free USB-C port, which can be good for trickle charging, however we suggest the included charger for gaming.
Our battery life benchmark entails net shopping, gentle graphics work and video streaming whereas related to Wi-Fi with show brightness set at 150 nits. Right here, the Voyager a1600 lasted for six hours and 05 minutes. This was sufficient for third place, placing it forward of the Razer Blade 15 (4:54) however behind the Lenovo Legion 5i Professional (7:30) and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (10:38).
Warmth on the Corsair Voyager a1600
We measured the pores and skin temperature of the Corsair Voyager a1600 in the course of the Metro Exodus stress check to see how scorching the machine will get throughout a typical gaming session. We file 40.6 levels on the heart of the keyboard (between the G and H keys).
Picture 1 of 2
Nevertheless, the underside of the Voyager a1600 grew to become barely uncomfortable whereas sitting on my lap, hitting 54.9 Celsius. The followers labored time beyond regulation to maintain the Voyager a1600’s temperatures in verify below load, and so they undoubtedly made their presence identified. The fixed drone of the followers was distracting however could be simply drowned out by throwing on a pair of the high gaming headsets accessible.
Webcam on the Corsair Voyager a1600
The 1080p webcam featured on the Corsair Voyager a1600 is a particular step up from the 720p webcams usually foisted upon gaming laptops. As well as, the webcam is backed by Elgato Digital camera Hub software program, permitting you to tweak settings to your want (or you possibly can depend on auto mode in case you want).
I used to be impressed with the overall improve in picture decision in comparison with extra budget-oriented options. Additionally, low-light efficiency was considerably improved over lesser 720p counterparts. There’s even a built-in privateness shutter in case you’re involved in regards to the webcam taking up a thoughts of its personal whenever you’re least anticipating it.
Software program and Guarantee on the Corsair Voyager a1600
Provided that the Corsair Voyager a1600 runs Home windows 11 House, it comes preloaded with loads of bloatware like Disney Plus and Spotify. Nevertheless, Corsair additionally contains a whole suite of software program that means that you can customise the {hardware} within the machine. For instance, the aforementioned Elgato Digital camera Hub helps you to to tweak the webcam. Elgato Stream Deck software program integrates with the S-Keys under the display screen. As well as, iCue software program means that you can alter lighting schemes for the keyboard, fan speeds, and extra.
Corsair additionally contains Corsair Diagnostics (self-explanatory), Corsair Voyager Hub Launcher (which provides you fast entry to the Elgato Stream Deck, Elgato Digital camera Hub and iCue), Dolby Entry and the Realtek Audio Console.
The Voyager a1600 comes with a 2-year producer {hardware} guarantee.
Corsair Voyager a1600 Configurations
There are two configurations of the Corsair Voyager a1600; our overview unit with an AMD Ryzen 6900HS, Radeon RX 6800M, 32GB DDR5-4800, a 2TB SSD and Home windows 11 House is priced at $2,799 however is on sale as of this writing for $2,299.99 direct from Corsair (opens in new tab).
The second configuration comes with a Ryzen 7 6800HS processor, Radeon RX 6800M, 16GB DDR5-4800, a 1TB SSD and Home windows 11 House for $2,499 ($1,999 on sale). The lesser configuration should not make a serious distinction in gaming efficiency, because it has the identical GPU as our pricier mannequin, and 32GB of RAM overkill only for gaming. However halving the put in storage means there will probably be lots much less room for video games.
Backside Line
On paper and in observe, the Corsair Voyager a1600 has lots to supply. It comes with an 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, a potent Radeon RX 6800M GPU, 32GB of DDR5 reminiscence and a spacious 2TB SSD. As well as, it is loaded up on options that attraction to avid gamers and streamers, just like the Elgato software program integration for the 1080p webcam and the S-Key Macro Bar.
The 16-inch 1600p show boasts a heady 240 Hz refresh price, a responsive keyboard options per-key RGB lighting and Cherry MX switches, and Slipstream tech for connecting wirelessly to your Corsair peripherals with out the necessity for a USB dongle.
However whereas Corsair spent loads of effort and time on the extras, it fell a bit behind on the fundamentals, specifically gaming efficiency. In consequence, the Voyager a1600 both completed in final place or subsequent to final place in all of our native decision gaming assessments. In some situations, the gaming efficiency differential between the Voyager a1600 and the first-place, $1,999 Lenovo Legion 5i Professional was staggering.
The Voyager a1600 additionally positioned mid-pack in our productiveness assessments, with its solely stable win coming within the file switch benchmark, the place it simply topped the competitors.
Many of those negatives could possibly be neglected if the Voyager a1600 was extra competitively priced. At its as-tested worth of $2,799, the laptop computer shouldn’t be definitely worth the cash. Even on the present gross sales worth of $2,299, the Voyager a1600 stays a troublesome promote in comparison with the better-performing and longer-lasting Legion 5i Professional.
However then, Lenovo has been making laptops for many years, whereas the Voyager a1600 is Corsair’s first try at a gaming transportable. We hope to see extra from the ship-themed elements and peripheral maker. As a result of whereas its first vessel provides some distinctive and appreciated options, it simply cannot sustain with the competitors within the crowded gaming laptop computer waters.
MORE: How you can Purchase a Gaming Laptop computer
MORE: Greatest Gaming PCs