First impressions review of the Razer Freyja HD Haptic gaming cushion

The next step in gaming immersion - but is it too soon?

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Razer has officially launched its latest accessory today, the Razer Freyja HD Haptic gaming cushion and we’ve had some hands on time with it to see whether it can bring games to life like never before.

Razer are continuing their journey into new and exciting peripherals today, releasing what they’re calling the “world’ first HD Haptic Gaming Cushion” – the brand’s latest leap into Haptic technology. Essentially, Razer’s Freyja gaming cushion is the next step towards gaming immersion – a way for players to literally feel their gaming, whether it be a nearby explosion, an intense gun battle, or the subtle footsteps while your on horseback.

The Freyja is powered by Razer Sensa HD Haptics, with six built in motors that vibrate and pulsate when various events occur in your game. The multi-direction haptics should give you a heightened sense of immersion in everything from games and movies to sport and live music.

But how does that translate in a real-world situation? Well, we got hands on with the Razer Freyja to see exactly how it performs in gaming and general entertainment consumption.

At a glance

• Razer Freyja launches on the 28th of September, 2024
• Retailers for $299
• Utilizes Razer Sense HD Haptics technology
• Equipped with 6 independent motors
• Multi-directional Haptics for placing audio origins
• Utilizes Razer HyperSpeed Wireless and Bluetooth
• Works with Razer Kraken V4 Pro

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Features

Despite being a fairly straightforward piece of kit (at surface level), the Razer Freyja comes with a healthy list of features. Below, we’ll go into more detail on how each affects your experience – whether that be gaming, movies, or music.

Razer Sensa HD haptics technology

The Razer Freyja was born out Project Esther, a concept that wanted to increase immersion by adding feel to the gaming experience. The Project was officially unveiled to CES audiences earlier this year, with crowds seemingly curious about how the product would come to life.

Fast forward 9 months and we finally have a real-world product that offers multi-directional feedback when gaming. The project is powered by Razer Sensa HD Haptics technology which can be incorporated into games (by developers) or work independently by using audio EQ data.

The HD Haptics cushion comes equipped with 6 standalone motors that are powered by the Sensa HD Haptics technology, allowing you to feel the action as it happens.

Customize your experience through Razer Synapse 4

Alongside the cushion, Razer has also unveiled Synapse 4, the latest software suite for the brand’s wide range of products. Alongside all the usual peripheral customization, users will also be able to fine-tune the user experience of the Freyja through the software.

Users can easily navigate to the Freyja within the software suite and start tweaking its settings – whether that be altering the intensity of the chair (as a whole or by unique motor) or setting custom profiles for when the motors are activated. The software has a number of built-in presets that offer a variety of experiences depending on the level of intensity you want.

The presets include: Controlled, Balanced, Dynamic, and Custom – with the latter used for fine-tuning the cushion to your own requirements. The software will also enable a game-specific preset when used in tandem with a developer who has implemented the technology into the game.

Quick release connection

Razer has equipped the Freyja with a quick release connection that means you’ll never run into a situation where you either break the cable or drag your PC off the desk. While a fairly simple idea, it’s one that I welcome as I’ve had numerous occasions where I forget something is plugged in and see chaos ensue when doing a chair swizzle.

The chair does need to be plugged in at all times to work, so having a quick release connection is a handy feature to have.

Versatile straps that suit almost any chair

As stated earlier, the Razer Freyja is fully compatible with almost any chair – kind of like the same way a cushion is. Essentially, the cushion sits on any chair and you secure it in place by using the straps provided.

Integrated directly into games

Lastly, the Razer Freyja will be fully compatible with any game developer that decides to implement coding for it. As we’ll soon touch upon, the Freyja needs quite a bit of fine-tuning to make it feel immersive. That being said, game developers have the opportunity to implement their own unique profile into the chair which should, in theory, make the product a little more plug-n-play. Of course, we’ll have to wait to see just how long it’ll take for developers to jump on board with this thing, but early signs are positive from games being signed up.

Design

Quickly looking at the Freyja from a general design perspective, you’d have to say that it’s a fairly decent looking product overall. The Cushion features Razer’s logo at the top (which is in fact RGB, shock), alongside some Razer Sensa HD haptics branding on a tag the top. A thin strip of bright green stitching can be found outlining the shape of the chair, giving it that Razer aesthetic we’ve come to know over the years.

A small control panel can be found on the right hand side (depending on how you look at it), which offers a power button, intensity settings, and a Bluetooth/WiFi toggle for quickly changing between connectivity options.

Segmented panels separate the various motors of the chair, giving it a racing-esque bucket feel that is both comfortable to sit in and attractive to look at.

Hands on experience

So, onto the hands on experience and, overall, I think it was a bit hit and miss. Don’t get me wrong, it was certainly a game-altering experience overall, but without fairly comprehensive tweaking, the cushion modulations didn’t feel as dialed in as I’d like.

I started by installing the software and syncing the chair to the PC – which was a pretty straightforward process overall. After that, I set the profile to “controlled” and fired up the Top Gun Maverick trailer because, what better place to start?

The chair sprung into life and vibrations could be felt all over my back and through my legs, which was surprisingly intense at first. Once the initial surprise wore off and I started paying more attention to the trailer (and when the chair would activate), it was clear that some fine-tuning was required.

The biggest issue for me at this stage was, there wasn’t a great deal of finesse when watching the trailer – it seemed like the cushion was just on all the time. I jumped into the software and set the preset to custom and started tweaking the activation points. After about 5 minutes of back and forth, I managed to get it dialed in where the chair would spark into life when Tom Cruise’s jet burst past the screen but would then turn off when characters were in conversation.

At this stage, I was pretty happy with the experience and decided to see how the cushion would respond in a live concert type scenario. I quickly loaded up Queen at Wembley and, sadly, the chair didn’t respond as well as I’d like as the sound profile was completely different to the action trailer I’d watched before.

For me, this was the cushion’s biggest issue – it required too much tweaking in-between different types of content, and the presets weren’t universal enough to enjoy different types of media.

We quickly moved on to some gaming as, let’s be honest, that’s the main reason this product was design, and the experience was pretty pleasant in some of the game’s that had custom profiles designed by the developers – like Hogwarts Legacy. Different spells offered unique experiences depending on how powerful or long-lasting they were, which was pretty immersive overall.

That being said, when switching to a game that didn’t have a built-in developer preset, we ran into the same issues from earlier where fine-tuning was required.

Initial verdict

So, overall, I feel like there’s some work to be done here to make this a product that will bring in the masses.

Let’s be honest, the Razer Freyja certainly adds a new dimension to the way you experience both gaming and general entertainment, but, at $299, I’d like to think the product was more dialed in from the get go. Essentially, for that price, I’d like to plug this chair in and have it just work the way I want – but that isn’t the case.

Sadly, lots of fine-tuning is required to get the cushion to feel just right, and that for me is the chair’s biggest downfall.

That being said, for people who play one game or want the cushion for one use case, once it’s dialed it, it really does make things a whole lot more exciting and immersive.