Okay Geek Farm
Razer announces "Blade", world's first true gaming laptop retailing for nearly 3 grand
Jason Tsay
Wait Razer makes computers now? And the first gaming laptop? Yeah, we were a little shocked at first too but with all that “PC Gaming is Not Dead” viral marketing preceding today’s announcement, we should have seen it coming. Today, Razer has announced something they claim to be the world’s first true gaming laptop. While companies like Alienware make super powerful laptops out there, none of them are really “gaming laptops” Why?
Why?
What exactly makes the Razer Blade the first true gaming laptop? Razer’s Min-Liang Tan puts it this way, “there are desktop replacements that perform well for gaming but are over three inches thick and weight up to ten pounds … and on the other hand, there are really thin portables but they lack the performance required for gaming.”
The Razer Blade weighs in at 6.97 pounds and measures 0.88 inches thin. For a 17” gaming laptop, that’s pretty darn impressive.
Features
But aside from the portability, the Blade also boasts one feature that stands out to us - to the right of the keyboard is an LCD multitouch panel and ten “adaptive tactile keys” (Optimus Maximus keyboard style). Sound familiar? It’s the same thing that they based the Razer Switchblade concept off of.
One interesting thing to note is that the Blade has no disc drive. It’s not totally surprising since it probably helped them slice off some weight and thickness but some games still come on discs so it’s a pretty common feature on “gaming laptops.” Perhaps Razer will come out with a DVD drive accessory?
Encased in a lightweight aluminum chassis, the build quality is no doubt very good. Perhaps even as sturdy as the unibody MacBook Pro?
According to Razer, the battery is supposed to last 6 hours idling so we’re too excited about how long the machine will last when you’ve got a gaming up and running.
Specs
Of course, it wouldn’t be a gaming laptop without some beefy internals -
- 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 2640M Processor
- 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory
- 17.3” LED Backlit Display (1920x1080)
- NVIDIA GeForce® GT 555M with NVIDIA Optimus Technology
2GB Dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory - Built-in HD Webcam
- Integrated 60Wh Battery
- 320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
- Wireless Network 802.11 b/g/n Compatible
- 16.81” (Width) x 10.9” (Depth) x 0.88” (Height); 6.97lbs (Weight)
How much does it cost?
$2799.99. That’s right, Twenty eight hundred dollars. As Dave of gdgt puts it, “Seriously, Core i7-2600k, 16GB RAM, and **2 x Radeon 6990** would be cheaper!” There’s been a lot of outrage about the pricing and you can obviously get something specced better for less money but you can’t really put a price on the “first gaming laptop” can you? We’re sure that touchpad/adaptive keys combo isn’t cheap and neither are the rest of the quality materials put into the Blade. And when you think about the engineering that went into designing a 7 pound 17” gaming laptop under an inch thick, it’s a petty price to pay. Interested in the Blade? You’ll be able to get your hands on one Q4 of this year.
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