Technologies

Razer Handheld Dock Chroma Follows Its Accessories’ Formula: High Quality With a Higher Price

Review: The Razer Handheld Dock Chroma is great for traveling with your gaming handheld, but it’s not the only option.

The Handheld Dock Chroma from Razer is a compact stand and dock for portable gaming consoles and tablets, offering charging and an interface to send your games to a bigger screen. As the name suggests, it includes RGB lighting that’s part of Razer’s Chroma ecosystem. It was announced at CES in January, and it recently started shipping. Is it any good? Well, largely yes, with some important caveats.

What I like about the Razer Handheld Dock Chroma

The Razer Handheld Chroma Dock is well built. It follows the company’s signature trend of delivering high-quality accessories that look great and are reliably durable. The metal build quality is a nice touch against all the other plastic, cheap-feeling options out there. It’s also fairly small, making it easy to drop in a bag as you head out. That’s kind of the point, as Razer designed this dock to be portable, fitting in nicely with the whole idea of handheld gaming in the first place.

One big difference of the Dock Chroma, compared to other docks and which also plays well into the portability aspect, is that the stand to hold the handheld is adjustable. It will lie flat, covering the mounting deck entirely and turning the whole thing into a little cube. Or you can adjust it as steep as 75 degrees to find the perfect viewing angle while gaming.

As the Chroma name suggests, there’s an RBG light strip on the front that syncs up with your Chroma settings. If you aren’t using a device that supports Chroma, there’s a button on the right side you can use to cycle between some preset lighting scenes.

What I don’t like about the Razer Handheld Dock Chroma

The first odd design choice almost flies in the face of the whole portable idea: There’s a USB-C cable sticking out of the back. This is what you connect to your handheld but oddly it can’t be detached or even folded into the dock itself. So it’s a bit clunky from a portability standpoint.

Then there’s the port selection. There’s a 100-watt USB-C port, three USB-A Gen 1 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port and an HDMI 2.0 port. That’s not a terrible port selection for a docking station, but the lack of a second USB-C, DisplayPort or a 3.5mm headphone port is rather disappointing.

Performance

For something that’s essentially a docking station for handheld gaming rigs, the Chroma Dock works well. I hooked it up to a ROG Ally and had no issues at all. It was cool to be able to drop the Ally onto the dock, Switch-style, and instantly have my games up on my monitor and TV. The plethora of ports navigating Windows 11 on the Ally makes it so much easier by letting me use a keyboard and mouse with it.

The Chroma Dock works with any device that supports USB-C, including the Nintendo Switch. Just be aware that it’s kinda awkward with the Switch because you have to set it upside down for it to work, and you’ll need to use the original Nintendo charger that came with it. You’ll also need to provide your own charger for any device you use as Razer doesn’t include one in the box. But for the Switch specifically, you’ll need the Nintendo one.

Technically, you could mount any USB-C device onto the dock, including a tablet or phone, to have an all-in-one sort of situation. If you’re on the go a lot, this might be a game-changer in more ways than one.

Should you get the Razer Handheld Dock Chroma?

If you’re ready to pay the Razer premium, then perhaps. The Chroma Dock will set you back $80, which is more than double the price of most other similar docks. That’s a lot to ask for something like this. But if you want that Razer brand and you have other Chroma lighting gear, it’s well-built, if lacking in some features.

Technologies

In Honor of the Artemis II Mission, Explore the Moon in Fortnite Now

You might not be able to see the moon the way the Artemis II team is, but there’s an educational Fortnite simulation that will get you onto the celestial body’s surface.

You may not be able to explore the vast majesty of space in the same way that the four-person crew of the Artemis II is, but you can still get an up-close-and-personal view of the moon… in Fortnite, at least.

While you may not be able to slingshot around Earth’s own lunar body, space enthusiasts can see a little bit of what the Artemis II crew is seeing by spending time on the Lunar Horizons Fortnite map right now. The map is a creative collaboration between Fortnite’s creator, Epic Games, and the European Space Agency. Lunar Horizons was released in 2024 after extensive testing and play from ESA trainee astronauts.

If you’re looking to learn more about our own orbiting body, the Lunar Horizons map is an educational simulation of the surface of the moon’s South Pole.

It blends game mechanics with learning, as players get to build up their own sterile lunar habitat bases, interact with ESA astronauts and roll around with robotic rovers as they discover informative plaques that contain information about the moon and international space agencies. There are still dangers to navigate, too — a solar storm may strike when you least expect it.

If you’re interested in exploring the moon, we’ve got all the information you need to join in on the Fortnite fun below. And if you’re looking for a more serious livestream during this momentous human achievement, tune into NASA’s feed here.

How to join the Moon Fortnite island while you follow the Artemis II mission

The Lunar Horizons Fortnite map is a great educational simulation that shares details about ESA’s work and catalogs information about humanity’s lunar research.

These three simple steps will get you up and running (or more accurately, taking slow leaps and bounds) on the surface of the Lunar Horizons Fortnite map:

Download Fortnite

If you haven’t played Fortnite before, but you want to check out this limited-time event, you’ll have to download the game. If you’re on PC, you can download Fortnite for free from the Epic Games Store. Console players can navigate the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store or Nintendo eShop in order to download Fortnite on their devices.

Navigate the in-game menus until you reach the Search button

Once you’re in the game, scroll down past the different official Fortnite game modes and the Discover tab until you find the Search button.

Input the Lunar Horizons island code

In the search bar, you can input a map’s name or its distinct search code in order to find it in the map directory. You can search for the Lunar Horizons map or input the code 3207-0960-6428 to explore this map in time.

Correction, 3:35 p.m. PT: This story initially was in error about the features available in the Lunar Horizons map. There is no Artemis II-specific mission in Fortnite. Rather, the Lunar Horizons map is an educational simulation of part of the moon’s surface.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 7, #561

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 7, No. 561.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun mix of categories, and the purple one cracked me up. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fore!

Green group hint: Hockey Night in Canada.

Blue group hint: Meteorologist favorites.

Purple group hint: And they’re off!

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Golf scoring terms.

Green group: Canadian NHL teams.

Blue group: Weather-themed teams.

Purple group: Things that race at MLB games.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is golf scoring terms. The four answers are birdie, bogey, eagle and par.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Canadian NHL teams. The four answers are Canadiens, Canucks, Oilers and Senators.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is weather-themed teams. The four answers are Hurricanes, Lightning, Storm and Thunder.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that race at MLB games. The four answers are pierogis, presidents, sausages and the freeze.

Technologies

Trump Administration Bans Chinese Routers. Phones and Cameras Could Follow

Major companies, including Huawei and Hikvision, could see the last of their import orders cut off from the US within 30 days of implementation.

The Federal Communications Commission continued its crackdown on Chinese tech on Friday, issuing a new proposal that would extend a ban on companies to products previously authorized.

In 2021, companies such as Huawei, Hikvision, Dahua, Hytera and ZTE were added to the FCC’s Covered List, a record of companies and products that the FCC believes pose a national security risk to the US, under the Secure Networks Act. The Chinese companies produce mobile phones, security cameras and other tech products.

But the 2021 ban applied only to new models that the FCC hadn’t authorized, and companies were free to keep selling models that had already received the FCC’s stamp of approval. If approved, the new proposal would ban these companies entirely, including those previously approved products.

«Older models of covered equipment pose an unacceptable risk today when imported or marketed in the United States, not only when such equipment is new to the market,» an FCC report from October said.

The proposal will be open for comment until May 6, after which the commission will vote on whether to adopt the rules. The ban won’t affect devices already owned by Americans.

Millions of consumers and businesses rely on Wi-Fi routers, telecommunications equipment and security cameras every day, making these devices critical links in both home and office networks. The Federal Communications Commission shocked the broadband industry on March 23 by effectively banning the sale of future foreign-made Wi-Fi routers (including some of the biggest router brands).

In recent years, Chinese telecommunications companies have faced restrictions on operating in the US. In 2020, The Wall Street Journal cited US officials who reportedly said that Chinese companies, including Huawei, used backdoor access intended for law enforcement to track sensitive information.

But this ban could be implemented quickly. The FCC proposes that «all parties [will have to] cease all importation and marketing activities within 30 days of the effective date of the prohibition.»

This proposition doesn’t reflect a final legal ruling on telecommunications imports, but it does reflect how the Trump administration has been increasingly pressuring Chinese tech companies in recent months.

The foreign-made router ban was only the latest in a string of decisions that have placed restrictions on Chinese tech companies operating in the US.

In December, the FCC banned the importation of Chinese-made drones into the US. Just months before that, the agency voted to block new approvals for any device containing parts manufactured by companies on the Covered List.

Representatives from the FCC and Huawei didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.