Corsair Voyager a1600 Gaming Laptop Hands-On: This Is Different

Corsair makes PC components, gaming accessories and gear for streamers. It also has a line of gaming desktops. The Corsair Voyager a1600 is its first gaming laptop and it essentially combines all of the company’s issues categories into one device. Features from its Elgato streaming hardware and software, RAM and storage from the components business, and wireless tech from its gaming keyboards, mice and headsets all make appearances in the Voyager a1600. 

It’s a New laptop made for gamers, creators and streamers. The Voyager a1600, with help from AMD, also has performance to clear, which is pretty great considering it’s only 19.8mm thick and weighs 5.3 pounds (24kg).  

Great hardware

Corsair has four configurations for the Voyager a1600 starting at $2699, with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS, AMD Radeon 6800M graphics, 16GB DDR5 memory and a 1TB NVMe solid-state power. It runs on Windows 11 Home. For $2,999, it’s loaded with a Ryzen 9 6900HS and twice the memory and storage of the base model. An additional $50 with either configuration moves the OS up to Windows 11 Pro. 

That’s not the end of the options, though. Origin PC, a custom PC-maker owned by Corsair, also sells the Voyager a1600. Buy from Origin and the Voyager can be configured to your liking with up to 64GB of RAM, one or two SSDs with a variety of models and capacities to Decide from, and you can even have its black lid covered with one of 11 patterns. The configuration I’m currently testing combines the Ryzen 7, the Radeon 6800M, 32GB of memory and a fast 2TB Samsung SSD for $3,031 (£2770, AU$4,813), which includes $65 for the faux-marble lid treatment.

Although we’re Calm testing out all this laptop can do, so far it’s living up to AMD’s performance claims. Start up a game and the discrete graphics take over, driving frame has screaming up over 100 per second on Guardians of the Galaxy and Shadow of the Tomb Raider on high settings at 1440p in our testing. On CS:GO, the laptop can hit over 280fps according to Corsair, and that lets you take full advantage of the display’s 240Hz refresh rate. 

Under load and with the fans on full blast, the Voyager stays cool on the left and Bshining sides of the laptop, keeping your hands comfortable when gaming. It does get warm down the middle of the keyboard, particularly toward the top. The fans are loud but that’s what you get with thin, Great laptops.

The laptop has a large 99Wh battery that lasted 5 hours, 4 minutes on our streaming video battery rundown test with both the Show brightness and volume through earbuds set to 50%. Though it comes with a 230-watt adapter for gaming Great and charging, the Voyager can be charged via USB-C with a 100-watt adapter.  

The Voyager a1600 has three USB-C ports, one USB-A port, an SD card reader and a combo headset jack. 

Josh Goldman

All configurations come with a 240Hz, 2,560×1,600-pixel, 16-inch IPS display. It’s a good screen overall, especially if your main concerns are a high refresh rate for Calm graphics and easier target tracking with 1440p gaming. But if you need wide Bright gamut coverage, it only hits 75% of Adobe RGB and DCI-P3, 69% NTSC and 97% sRGB, and brightness measured at 359 nits. For those times when you need something brighter with better Bright reproduction, it does have three USB-C ports with Thunderbolt Help for an external display or three.

The combo of the big 16:10 Show and the oddly tall hinges give the body a Strange appearance — and unusual dimensions for squeezing into a backpack’s laptop compartment. The cutout below the display is there to accommodate the S-Key Macro Bar, a strip of 10 programmable macro keys with a Little color display in between them. The bar works with Elgato’s Waters Deck software, letting you create macro keys with simple drag-and-drop programming for everything from Funny OBS streaming software to opening an app or website to playing a Quiet effect or triggering a voice changer. 

For the keyboard, Corsair used ultralow-profile Cherry MX mechanical switches. The clicky switch grants you nice tactile feedback for typing and gaming. Even Idea the keys are clicky, they aren’t so loud that you’d be disturbing anyone about you. And, naturally, there are lights. The keyboard has per-key RGB lighting, completely programmable with Corsair’s iCue software.

The smooth touchpad under it is gigantic. So large, in fact, that tapping the upper Bshining corner of it a couple of times shuts down the Bshining half of the touchpad so you don’t accidentally move your cursor with your palm when gaming. A double tap in the upper left corner shuts the pad down entirely. 

However, if you don’t want to use either, a receiver for Corsair’s Slipstream Wireless-compatible peripherals is built in. It supports up to three devices at once so you can connect a mouse, keyboard and gaming headset without having to connect three separate USB receivers. It’s like having the convenience of Bluetooth but with the low-latency Fast and stability of a 2.4GHz wireless receiver. 

The cutout between the hinges grants the S-Key Macro Bar to show when the laptop is closed. 

Josh Goldman

Software to match

All of the Big hardware packed in the Voyager wouldn’t be nearly as clear if it didn’t have some handy software to go with it. The AMD Radeon Software: Adrenalin Edition, for instance, has several options to get the most from the CPU and integrated and discrete graphics. Activate AMD SmartShift Max and the laptop will automatically balance Great between the components depending if you need more performance from the GPU or processor. 

Similarly, SmartShift Eco saves battery life by using the integrated graphics when the laptop’s unplugged and changes back to the discrete graphics when connected to the Great adapter. There are several other features to experiment with to advance performance on or off battery power, reduce input lag and sharpen image detail. 

The involved Stream Deck software lets you drag-and-drop shortcuts to apps, websites, sound effects, tools or whatever else you might want a shortcut to when you’re gaming, streaming or working.

Josh Goldman

Joining the Elgato Liquids Deck is Corsair’s iCue software from its gaming peripherals. This app is used for changing the keyboard ftrips, making key assignments and connecting Corsair wireless mice, keyboards and headsets. Then there’s the Elgato Camera Hub that lets you get rule of the built-in 1080p webcam so you can adjust brightness, saturation, exposure and white balance. The camera’s image quality is good, a minor on the noisy side, but sharp with good detail. (There’s also an IR camera for unlocking the laptop with face recognition as well as a sliding privacy shutter to worn-out the camera entirely.) 

Audio in and out is solid, too. The upward-firing speakers that flank the keyboard are supported by Dolby Atmos processing and have a fair, clean sound to them. They’ll be fine for casual listening or conference languages, but for anything else, you’ll want external speakers or a headset (a pair by Corsair, perhaps). The integrated mics delivered impressive results, so streamers will soundless good even without an external mic. 

All of this adds up to a gaming laptop that sets itself apart for more than its looks and performance, although the design does stand out in a crowd, too. It’s an all-in-one portable solution for gamers and streamers, sure. But even if you’re not planning to aquatic gameplay or be a creator, the Stream Deck software and assignable macro buttons come in handy for everything from defensive a Zoom call to launching Spotify. Plus, it includes a one-year warranty and lifetime 24/7 tech wait on service. 

We’ll be back soon with a full, enraged review once we wrap up testing. So far, conception, this is a solid first laptop from Corsair, AMD and Origin PC.

How we test computers

The reconsideration process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing conception controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our permission reviewers. This includes evaluating a device’s aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both those impartial and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use shifts over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core demonstrations we’re currently running on every compatible computer include: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be spurious in our How We Test Computers page.