Razer - Stream Controller X All-in-one Keypad for Streaming and Content Creation - Black

Does it work, yes and very well. However, I had used it less than 20 days after picking it up on 1/6/2024 and went to move it to clean off some accumulated dust to keep it clean and the bottom pad broke the screw holders and stayed in place. Never dropped, hit, otherwise assaulted. Contacted RazerCare and they have given me nothing but the run around for several days. After this, I do not think I will place trust in Razer products ever again. Is it a big deal, not really except when you buy something that is not cheap you expect it to last if nothing else until the warranty runs out! I know I could return it to Best Buy and may still depending on if they deem it warranty or not and I can easily fix it but shouldn't have to just yet. Should have gone with the Elgato I guess.

this has provided me additional productivity in my daily tasks. the software takes a little bit of knowing how to program your tasks and buttons but once you get it it, it is a game changer and i am sure im not using it fully to the max. with extra time and need you would be able to make amazing productivity functions with this

The Razer Stream Controller X is an extension of your workflow and content consumption. Out of the box, the default profile is catered towards streamers. There are multiple pages of buttons setup for Twitch and OBS. For example, there are buttons to mute your microphone, mute audio for an application, re-rerun a subscription notification, etc. To start off, the packaging is solid. It is well protected inside the box. There were also cable covers for the supplied USB-A to USB C cable. I have never seen that before. I will be using those covers when I travel. In terms of the product, it is built like a brick. It does not move when you press any of the buttons. The front plate with the Razer logo is removable. We might see custom front plates and if you wanted, you could even paint it without damaging the device. The bottom has this rubbery-sticky texture to it preventing it from moving as well. When I first plugged it in all the buttons showed green pacman's. I downloaded the razer synapse software thinking it needed that software. That did not work. Then I downloaded the Loupedeck software. It still was not recognizing the device. I only had about ten minutes the first day I got this product to troubleshoot it so I had to figure out why it was not working another day. A few days later I tried another USB port on the back of my PC and then it showed the default profile. I'm assuming it was plugged into a USB 2.0 and the device needs a 3.0 port. Even though this is a Razer product, it does not use Synapse and even the default profile configuration has nothing to do with Razer's software or products. This is essentially a minimial Loupedeck product. So at this point, Razer impressed me by the packaging, the build quality and the cable covers. It is the software that holds this thing back from having higher potential. I will say, it's not terrible. The user exerpience could be improved. Also, some plugins are completely broken. It has a hard time figuring out when I'm streaming. If I open up a game, the dynamic mode, which is supposed to know that OBS is open, will turn back to the default profile. Because of this, I built some buttons on the last page on the default profile for whenever I am streaming. It took me awhile to build the buttons for OBS. At first, the OBS plugin mentions all these things you can do, but for the first day I tried adding them it could only do a couple things. It took me awhile, but I figured out how to unlock all the features. The dynamic mode does work if I leave the application open. However, if you open up a game, the dynamic mode should still stick to the application, since no games are supported on this yet. The Premiere plugin works after tweaking some settings, provided by a guide by Loupedeck. Photoshop says the plugin for Loupedeck is incompatible. Maybe due to the lack of dials that the other Loupedeck products have. I also think the price is too much. It is a niche product, with limited capability, that has a learning curve to it and that has some plugins that are completely broken. I have no complaints about the build quality. And the plugins that do work, do work well, although it takes a while to figure them out. However, I could see someone trying the different brand or creating a similar setup with an external tablet just due to it being pricy and half baked on the software.

I coached a small team of streamers a few years ago. And have experience with OBS, Streamlabs, Xsplit, etc etc. I wish I had this product when I was doing that! A TLDR summary of this product, it's 15 buttons that activates some function you program it to. Now that may not sound like a big deal, but once you understand it and utilize it, it's life changing. First the product feels like a solid product. It sits heavy, it has anti-sliding rubber base, the magnet for the face cover feels strong and solid, every edge is clean cut on the buttons, the brightness of the buttons is great, the resolution of the buttons is excellent (although you will need to find your own images to optimize the resolution), and it just sits in front of you like a little assistant. It's great. Setting up the product was great, you plug it in, download the app/software as it instructs you to (it's from Loupedeck not Razer), and multiple pre-installed streamer friendly functions/macros are pre-built and ready to go. Fantastic. The magic of this is really in the preparation. Investing the time to setting up the functions, the macros, the design, etc, is important. Spend the time to personalize how you want it, because once you're done, you're done. Don't have to do it again. There are pre-built functions that are nice, such as subscribing to someone, or applauding someone, pre-built applause sound bytes etc, all that already comes pre-built, which is very nice for the new streamer. But if you're in the game for a long time, you know this can really personalize your streaming channel, and make it great experience for your audience once you get it all set up. For NON-streamers, I tasked it to do simple things like change my speaker, play spotify or change songs on spotify (came built with that btw), also great and excellent as you do your daily stuff gives you a quick and easy access, all the while giving your desk a clean modern aesthetic. I docked it 1 star for the complexity of some of the software and the bugginess of some of the software, which might be fixed by the time of this review any way, but a few of the crashes were annoying and erased the macro I created, which was frustrating after it happened a few times. I didn't do anything different and just recreated the macro and it worked, so I'm sure it's just a bug. Would recommend for beginner to experienced streamers that want to elevate their game!

I like Razer products. They're sturdy (I dropped my wireless mouse about two dozen times and it still works without a problem), their design is great and they at least try to innovate (I have a Tartarus and I wouldn't want to game without it). The Stream Controller X doesn't disappoint. Razer likes to package their products in style and they didn't disappoint with this one. The box contains the actual unit, a stand with a sticky rubber surface which keeps the unit in place and a type-C to type A USB cable (which is braided). You have the usual documentation and a nice Razer sticker. Installation couldn't be easier: plug it in, Windows will detect the new device and download Razer Synapse which is a unified driver. The last step is to install Loupedeck and you're ready to rock and roll. As the name implies, it is originally made for streamers and content creators in mind. It doesn't stop there, though. It can be useful for pretty much everyone in one way or another thanks to the use of Loupedeck as a companion app. It allows to create a multitude of profiles and allows to assign functions such as macros, shortcuts, combined key presses, play sounds, opening web pages and much, much more. I have used it in combination with my drawing tablet, games and other software and it has proven to make things a lot easier for me. Each key is a small screen of its own and can be assigned images from a library or extract them from executables or can simply be picked from your computer. Note that the software might seem slightly intimidating at first, but after some time, it becomes a very easy process to map the keys the way you want them. I made several profiles for Adobe software and some Movavi apps. I created a bunch of icons I needed for games, app shortcuts and it turned out very nicely. You might wonder what the advantage the Stream Controller X offers over a regular set of macros. It's simple really: You don't have to remember what key is assigned to a specific action as you can actually *see* it and switching from one set to another only takes one key press. You can't really make things better or easier than that. There are of course a couple of small issues here and there: When creating a shortcut to launch a program, the software will try to use the original icon and depending on the resolution of the icon, it might look blurry. Not all programs installed on your computer are available to pick from the drop-down list. You might have to go fishing for the proper executable, which might be problematic for users who aren't really that tech savvy. I've also lost one of my profiles after restarting the PC, it only happened once after the initial setup, but it did bum me out. Also, I would have liked a couple of USB ports on it. All in all, I could probably keep on lauding this device for another four or five pages, but simply put, it's a really useful addition for people who stream, who work with creative apps and even for gamers. The quality is top-notch even if the software seems to need some more work. I would recommend the Stream Controller X without hesitation.

***QUALITY & ASSEMBLY:*** Razer put together a high quality product with the Stream Controller X. Everything snaps together with magnets and grippy surfaces. Assembly is quick and intuitive, with a little black instruction booklet included to guide you. Though plastic, the stand and Controller are both very sturdy. A magnetically-attached faceplate comes preinstalled on the front, though can be easily removed (should you desire). Included is a 5 foot USB A to C cable, which gives me enough slack to use the Controller with my electric standing desk. ***LOOK AND FEEL:*** As this is a device you will continually be handling, the look and feel are important. In that regard, Razer gave it a nice, matte, scratch-resistant texture for the majority of the outer surfaces. Buttons are made of a clear, flat plastic with a slight wavy quality. If you have ever painted something before, it’s almost like “orange peel”. It isn’t polished gloss. This helps slightly in reducing straight on glare, but also allows you to clearly see what you have configured the buttons to be. As for the feel of those, operation works with a half-push on an edge or a whole push, flattening the button. It feels like a two-stage switch (but it doesn't act that way). This is a bit strange to deal with as you won’t be assured the same experience every time. It kind of lends to you mashing the button (to be confident it will activate). This may not be a big deal regarding long term reliability, but nobody knows at this point. Razer, if you come out with a V2, I want consistent button presses. Make it even shallower and one click. ***SOFTWARE:*** Since I already had a Razer microphone, plugging in the Stream Controller X automatically opened Razer Synapse software and showed the device. Synapse prompted me to download “Loupedeck”, which then allowed me to configure the buttons as I wished. If you don’t already have Synapse, you may need to start there, though it _seems_ Loupedeck works independently. As for configuration, it took me a bit of trial and error to determine how to configure special shortcuts to use for my primary purpose: video editing. I may still move things around, but I feel I have a good setup to save me some time in a comfortable configuration. From what I understand, custom icons can be assigned to my shortcut buttons, but that’s more of a “nice to have” for me, personally. Other reviewers have commented that it isn’t easy enough, but this being a new product, hopefully our feedback can spur a fix. I will note that brightness control isn’t included on the main page for some reason (c'mon, man!). When I discovered where it was hidden (3 dash menu, Settings), I also saw an option to toggle a “Workspace” dropdown on the main page, which will be very useful for switching profiles between everyday use, Streaming and Video Editing. ***SCREEN:*** For what it is and what it costs, the screen is good. There seems to be plenty of contrast and decent brightness. At full, you may find it a bit dim in office lighting. There also isn’t a ton of resolution, so my eyes tell me it’s a bit blurry. After months of use you may find this to be even more of an issue, since the clear plastic is very likely to scratch with time. Even just after unboxing I noticed a couple hairlike scratches on some keys. ***WILL YOU LOVE IT?:*** I really like the unit. Its sturdiness and grippy stand mean it will stay where you plant it. Its software isn’t amazing but is definitely workable. The biggest drawback, to me, is the long button travel (compared to a laptop or my K800 keyboard) with that “double-press to depress" feeling. As I want consistency and precision, it’s off-putting. As I will be constantly feeling that double-press and squish, it isn’t a small deal. I don’t know why they released it like that. This takes it down a star for me.

When you open it up, you get the deck itself, which can sit on the table with four rubber feet. They are a little bit grippy, but the box can still slide around. But there is also a stand that moves the deck to around a 45 degree angle, and this this is VERY grippy, as it holds so well that it won’t move unless you intentionally pull on it. Also included is a USB-A to USB-C cable, as the unit has a USB-C jack in the back. If you want to plug into a USB-C port on your computer, then you will need to provide your own cable. But this device communicates at USB 2 speeds, so you don’t need an expensive cable. This little box comes with a LOT of potential functionality, provided that you don’t mind investing some time to get it set up. It comes out of the box with a lot of useful preset functionality. Among the default settings include buttons to launch Chrome, Steam, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and more. Navigating to other pages includes buttons for playback control (play, pause, etc.), inserting canned sounds into your sound stream (applause, rimshot, boom, etc.). There are also buttons for controlling various functions of Twitch streams. So without making any modifications, this is very useful to Twitch streamers. But if you are paying this much for a controller, you should be able to use it for more than just streaming. Well, you are covered there too. If you are invested in the Adobe ecosystem, there are application profiles that pop up when you run certain programs. So if you launch Photoshop, you get a bunch of shortcut buttons that are applicable to that program too. In addition to Adobe products, Ableton Live is also supported. If this is not enough, there is a marketplace where you can download additional profiles for such programs as Davinci Resolve, Slace, Reaper, Audacity, and Spotify, among others. You can also install plugins that support such things as ones that can control audio devices, allowing you to quickly switch between headphones and speakers at a push of a button (one of my favorites), and also to mute certain programs and not others. Since I use a “tenkeyless” keyboard, there is another button that will turn the deck into a number pad – very useful! Another plugin allows integration with “Libre Hardware Monitor” and can show such things as memory usage, CPU temperature, and CPU power. While the hardware monitor also shows maximum CPU frequency, and GPU stats such as frequency and power, the plugin does not allow those stats to be displayed. This is unfortunate, and hopefully this will be improved in the future. Finally, if nothing there is what you want, you can create your own custom macros, and program in keystrokes to be used with your favorite programs. You can then go to the marketplace and get icon packs to customize these macros. So, overall, this is a very flexible and capable device.

Let me start by saying that this is my first stream deck, and I can honestly say I don't know how I lived without one for so long. As a gamer, software developer, and content creator, I've known about stream decks for some time, but as I'm sure so many people do, simply relate them to streamers. In reality, these are capable of so much more than just streaming, but more on that later. First impressions as I removed this from the box is it feels like a solid high-quality unit. Setting it up was a breeze too. I have both a MacBook and a Windows Laptop, and set it up on both. All you have to do is go to the Loupedeck site, which you can link to directly from the Razer product page, and download the software for whichever OS you're using it on. Once the software is installed, just open it up and you're ready to start customizing the stream deck. It honestly took me all of 3-5 minutes to figure out how to go about setting everything up. It's laid out in a fairly intuitive way that just makes sense. Best part is, once you have some different actions created, it's basically just drag and drop. One of my favorite things about this stream deck though is how you can set up different profiles, but best of all, how it will automatically switch between them anytime you enter a window or program set for that profile. For example, I set this stream deck up on my MacBook because that's what I use for all of my content creation, specifically for Final Cut Pro. As I'm navigating around my MacBook, the main profile is up, which I have general things setup for like taking screenshots or starting a screen recording. Then as soon as I open up Final Cut Pro, whether from the task bar or hitting the stream deck button I have on the main profile, it instantly switches to the Final Cut Pro profile, which I've customized to have buttons for those tasks I use the most. As soon as I click on anything outside of Final Cut Pro, this stream deck again immediately switches back to the main profile. The stream deck may just have 15 buttons, but between all the profiles you can set up and them having multiple 'pages' you can rotate through, there's more customization options than I can even think to need at this point. So if I have one tip for setting it up, I would say don't worry about getting every single button on every single profile assigned. It's ok to leave some blank buttons and then as you're doing various tasks, assign them as needed. Otherwise it can be overwhelming and you might just end up wasting time setting up buttons you never use just for the sake of setting them up. Now let's switch to my Windows laptop, this is where I do more of my gaming. I have a usb hub switch that this stream deck, along with my mouse and keyboard, are hooked up to so that I can easily swap between machines. As soon as I hit the switch, the stream deck changes to all my windows settings since it's now talking to the Loupedeck software installed on there. I've just started live streaming in addition to my usual static content I create, and again this stream deck becomes invaluable. From playing pre-set sounds to specialized graphics, this can do it all. That's what I love so much about this stream deck, it's almost a necessity for anyone looking to get into streaming, but it's also for so much more than that. It could almost be considered a 'productivity' deck. In fact, you don't even need to be a streamer to make use of this. While I am using this for streaming, so far the majority of my use of it has been in editing videos. If you're someone who works on a computer, chances are a stream deck will make your life easier and more productive, like if you're in software as I am, which leads me to my one negative about this stream deck. I also have a 3rd laptop, one I primarily use for work, for coding, and that laptop is a Linux machine. I wish I could use this stream deck for that, but unfortunately, Loupedeck doesn't have software that supports Linux. This is a big bummer as I spend most of my work day on Linux. That, however, is the only negative I have, and it seems this Razer Stream Controller isn't the only one out there that doesn't support Linux. That really is the only negative I have though. This has otherwise been an amazing device that I truly wish I knew about and had years ago. Couple other things I want to mention before wrapping up this review though. The marketplace on Loupedeck is awesome, you can find plug-ins, profiles, sounds, and button icons for many of the more common uses, like Final Cut Pro and VS Code. The last thing I want to mention is the physical stand. You can use this with or without it. Without the stand, the deck has rubber feet that do a great job to keep it in place. On the stand though, the bottom is so sticky this thing will definitely not move a single hair as you're using it, which makes it even easier to use when you don't have to worry about it sliding around everywhere, not to mention it's at a perfect angle. In conclusion, if you're looking for a stream deck or something to help you become more productive, you can't go wrong with this Razer Stream Controller X. In the short time I've been using this, it's become almost as much of a necessity as my mouse and keyboard are.