In recent years, Razer has moved away from showcasing traditional gaming peripherals at trade shows. KESand instead focused on lifestyle accessories such as chairs, tables and lamps. The trend continued this year at CES 2025, where the gaming company announced several desktop accessories using Chroma, including a sleek aluminum desktop monitor stand, freestanding vertical light bars, and a concept gaming chair called Project Arielle with built-in cooling and heating. systems.
The $200 Razer Monitor Stand Chroma (yes, that’s what it’s called) is a sleek, minimalist desktop monitor stand made of anodized aluminum and a matte black finish. It’s actually quite an understatement in terms of Razer’s design (though it fits well with Razer monitor design), with the only real branding being the Razer text logo that’s modestly embossed along the top front edge, and Razer’s signature green color peeking out from the USB ports. Oh, and, well, it also has a downward-facing Chroma light strip along the front, because your gaming rig probably doesn’t have enough Chroma lighting yet.
The stand measures 19.7 inches (502.41 mm) long and 8.27 inches (210.06 mm) wide. Razer hasn’t specified the height, but it looks like it’s at least tall enough to comfortably accommodate a full-size Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro under. The stand has anti-slip rubber feet on the bottom and supports monitors (and/or other items) weighing up to 44 lbs (20 kg).
The right side of the stand has a built-in USB-C powered connectivity hub with four ports—2x USB 3.2 Type A, 1x USB 3.2 Type C, and 1x HDMI 2.0—enough to connect a “set” of monitors (according to Razer). I don’t know about the “set”, but at least a couple – and that’s probably too many, considering that this is one monitor stand. The USB ports are located along the right side of the stand, and the HDMI port is on the back. Next to the USB ports is a Chroma RGB button, which is set to cycle through lighting effects (but can be remapped to anything).
And… that’s it. Quite minimalistic—perhaps too minimalistic for the $200 asking price. You can take any number of similarly equipped (albeit less elegant) the monitor costs half the price (or less).
Razer debuted its Aether lighting line two years ago at RazerCon 2023, and by the looks of it, it’s still going strong. Last year we saw a reversible model with Chroma. Aether monitor lightbar at last year’s CESand this year the brand is introducing more light bars—but they’re not for your monitor, they’re vertical, and they’re not reversible, although they do offer “dual-light flexibility,” meaning they rotate. .
Aether standing lights are supplied in pairs, with 30 RGB LEDs in each vertical light. They’re part of the Razer Chroma system, of course, and can be configured and controlled in a variety of ways, including through Razer’s Gamer Room app, as well as other smart home devices supported by Matter. The light bars are designed to fit on either side of the screen – they are connected to each other and are powered by a single USB-C power cable. They can be rotated on stands to face you (for immersive lighting) or away from you (to create ambiance).
Finally, there wouldn’t be a Razer at CES without a code-named concept project that makes you wonder, “Would I even want this?”
This year it’s Project Arielle, which Razer says is the world’s first mesh gaming chair with built-in heating and cooling. Project Arielle is a mesh gaming chair (built on Razer’s existing Fujin Pro gaming chair) with a built-in bladeless fan system with three speeds for “personalized on-demand cooling.” According to Razer, this fan system, combined with the “airflow” of the chair (read: it’s a mesh chair), can reduce the perceived temperature by two to five degrees Celsius in a dry environment.
But wait, there’s more! For those on the opposite side of the heat spectrum, the chair also features an “advanced built-in heating system” with PTC heaters that deliver temperatures up to 30 degrees Celsius. In terms of convenience, the chair comes with a touchpad on the right side of the seat to control the temperature and fan speed, as well as a quick-release cable so you don’t have to roll too far from the outlet and take the whole system out by accident. And since you’ll have to plug it in anyway, it looks like it might have lighting too… perhaps with Chroma.
We haven’t made it to Razer’s booth yet, but it looks like the cooling/heating system could be built into the frame of the chair, or at least around it, which would make this concept more intriguing than other chairs we’ve talked about. I’ve seen ones with built-in heating and cooling systems. And we’ve seen other chairs with built-in heating and cooling systems over the years, although Razer might be able to keep its very specific claim of being a “world’s first” because other chairs weren’t heated or cooled. either didn’t have a mesh, or technically didn’t have one built-in.
In 2017 Thermaltake X Comfort AIR the base had four high-pressure fans that forced air through perforated artificial leather (like a cooled car seat). The X Comfort Air was marketed as a gaming chair, but it wasn’t mesh. A few years ago we looked at Elemaks from X-Chairan additional unit for work chairs that provides cooling, heating and massage to the lower back. Many of the X-Chair task chairs have a mesh design, but are not technically gaming chairs, and since the Elemax is an add-on, it is not technically integrated into the chair. However, in 2023, Cougar showed off its mesh (well, mesh-lined) NxSys Aero gaming chairequipped with a 200mm aRGB cooling fan integrated into the backrest… but not heated.
ToucheReiser.
We’re planning on heading to Razer’s suite to see this chair in person later this week, so we’ll report back with some thoughts once we get some hands-on experience.
The Razer Chroma Monitor Stand and Aether Standing Light Bars are now available for pre-order – the monitor stand will cost $199.99 and the light bars will cost $119.99 per pair. Project Arielle is a concept that has no price or release date.