Apple said goodbye to the Touchbar on their MacBook, when it was a good idea. If you think so, then this new laptop from Corsair might be for you.
It is sometimes said that physical buttons are better than touchscreens, and in some ways they are. The feedback you get from pressing a button is important for many products. Still, a lot is being switched to touchscreens on almost all devices, because they can do just that little bit more. A good mix between the two, in addition to a great example of how touchscreens work, we find in the MacBook Touchbar.
MacBook Touch Bar
Apple equipped the previous generation MacBook Pro with a Touchbar for the first time. How it works: Instead of Function (Fn) keys at the top of the keyboard, it was a thin touchscreen. In theory, the buttons worked just like the Fn keys, but just a little more interactive. Instead of endlessly hitting a volume knob, you could conjure up a volume slider. Scrolling through things was also possible with your fingers. It gives an extra dimension to a jumble of buttons on your keyboard: it was quite a good idea.
Goodbye
We say ‘was’, because the latest MacBook Pro has physical Fn buttons at the top of the keyboard. According to Apple, most “Pros”, the target audience for the MacBook Pro, of course, were not waiting for a Touchbar. However, if you do find the Touchbar fun and/or useful and happen to be looking for a gaming laptop, Corsair will help you out.
Corsair gaming laptop with touch bar!
We know Corsair from a range of (gaming) PC parts, but the brand has never released a laptop before. The full name is Corsair Voyager a1600 and the specs are quite interesting. We’ll come back to that in a moment, first about that “Touchbar”. Of course that term is not used by Corsair, they talk about a ‘row of configurable macro keys’. As you can see, at the very top of the keyboard you have ten ‘S buttons’ that you can assign to anything and everything. You also have a variable display, which in this case shows the battery percentage. However, the bar can do much more, because there is Elgato streaming power behind it. This can come in handy for those who like to livestream.
Better
The advantage of the ‘Touchbar’ of the Corsair Voyager laptop is that it coexists with the Fn buttons. Unlike Apple, you get both and not one as a solution. The Corsair Voyager also works with a special hinge, so that the S-bar (that’s how we call it) can also be seen and operated when the laptop is closed. It looks quite well thought out and is a solution for people who like to see the Touchbar from Apple again.
Corsair Voyager a1600 laptop
Furthermore, with the Voyager a1600, Corsair offers a potent gaming laptop. In terms of CPU, you can choose a Ryzen 7 6800HS or a Ryzen 9 6900HS. In terms of graphics card, you’re always stuck with a Radeon 6800M. RAM is also fine, Corsair excels at that and so you get up to 64 GB with DDR5. And to throw in gigabytes again: 2 TB of internal storage. The screen is 16 inches with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 and a refresh rate of 240 Hz. That will cost a bit, how much will be known when the Corsair Voyager laptop debuts in July.