First and foremost, the device is solid, with bright and beautiful buttons that are clear and easy to see and use. Razer did a nice job with the design, until I realized that they essentially just repackaged a limited-use Loupedeck device, and that’s where the thrill wore off.
The initial install requires the installation of a Razer product that then leads to it installing the Loupedeck configuration app, which is what you’ll use to control the buttons that you interact with. Many of the buttons come pre-configured, including many Twitch actions you’ll commonly use during streaming, and work once you link your Twitch account in the Loupedeck software. The Twitch actions were one of the few packs of buttons that made sense for this device, where there were buttons configured to take you between screens for other actions.
But since I don’t stream 24/7, and do a lot of photo and video editing, I was excited to use this for macros for Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro. This is where it went off the rails.
Razer/Loupedeck comes with several pre-configured macro packs for each of the Adobe products, but don’t have the left & right arrows (like on the Twitch mode) for going between screens of additional actions. Why? Well, Loupedeck’s native device has dials on it that allow you to scroll between the different screens, so arrows aren’t needed. Here, they ARE needed, but not available. So you’ll have to manually create them for each individual screen, sacrificing 2 buttons per screen to add them.
Additionally, once you’re in a profile on the device, you HAVE to go back into the Loupedesk program on the desktop to bring you back to the “home screen”. The process is clunky, and that’s being nice.
Out of the box, you’ll be able to do very basic streaming actions if you’re using Twitch. There are no pre-created app packages for YouTube or Rumble streaming, so you’ll have to create your own buttons and macros to complete individual steps, and the curve to get up & running there is steep.
I think this would have been a better device with a standalone app for doing the configuration. It seemed like Razer wanted to brand something, but didn’t want to create it, so just leaned on Loupedeck’s existing tech to finish their homework. You simply cannot take the functionality of Loupedeck, which relies on buttons and knob navigation, and compress that into a device without said knobs.
I really wanted to love this device. I’m going to use it, and I’ll certainly enjoy some of the Twitch features, but for anything past that, I’ll use another (name redacted) device.