Razer's 17.3" gaming notebook on track for December release

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Unveiled in August, Razer's gaming laptop is reportedly in the home stretch of production and should be available before Christmas. In fact, according to Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, a handful of privileged insiders have already received their systems. Preorders of the Blade are expected to open on the Razer Zone website in the next few days and orders will be shipped before Santa squeezes down your chimney.

Billed as the first "true" gaming notebook, the Blade is inspired by Ka-Bar's combat knife and offers some solid specs for sub-inch-thick laptop. Its hardware remains largely unchanged from August, including a 17.3-inch 1080p display, a 2.8GHz Core i7, 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M with 2GB of VRAM and Optimus, an HD webcam, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, HDMI-out, and Bluetooth 3.0.

Interestingly, the company has managed to upgrade the system's storage without charging more. As the story goes, before the Blade was announced, Razer had to offer component suppliers a premium to get them onboard because they didn't have much confidence in the system. However, they were "floored" with the community's response in August, allowing Razer to renegotiate its component pricing.

The company used those savings to upgrade the 320GB HDD to a 256GB SSD. We wouldn't be surprised if the recent spike in hard drive prices also played a factor in the shift to flash storage, but that's hearsay. Regardless, the change should make it a little easier to swallow the Blade's $2,800 asking price if you already planned to purchase one, and it could sway a few people teetering on the fence about it.

Besides cramming more horsepower into less space, Razer's gaming notebook offers a unique interface. The "Switchblade UI" (presumably borrowed from the Switchblade prototype) is adjacent to the standard keyboard and offers 10 customizable hotkeys above a multi-touch screen. The latter serves as a trackpad when you're on the go, but it can display handy in-game data if you're using an external mouse.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/46595-razers-173-gaming-notebook-on-track-for-december-release.html

 

[amstech]

It's going to sell very poorly as the specs are awful for the price and Razer has toughness/quality issues with their reputation, but it will get their foot in the door for the future.

 

[ghostchili]

A "True gaming laptop" with an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M with 2GB of VRAM and the price is $2800?!! Is this a joke? I have an Alienware M18X with dual 6990's that cost less. Maybe they will have a "fire sale" on these for $999 like HP did with the touch pad when none sell

 

[Ubwarcher07]

I would hesitate on $1400 let alone $2800 -.-

 

[herpaderp]

I'd rather pay $2800 for an authentic wartime used Ka-Bar than this laptop. Also, I hadn't realized how huge this thing is before I saw those pics of the guy holding it up.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I'm more interested in the Switchblade if they ever release it.

 

[howzz1854]

too bad their marketing team is just as bad as their product pricing team. do they really need to hire a male model to pose with the laptop?

 

[Guest]

The person in the photos is the CEO. Do some research/learn to use Google.

 

[Guest]

I love Razer's mice, but for $2800 I'll stick with my m11x thank you

 

[lawfer]

Guest said:
The person in the photos is the CEO. Do some research/learn to use Google.

Because the guy in the photo being CEO changes everything, right? Still awkward pictures.

Oh, and the price is an absolute joke.

 

[Guest]

That price is ridiculous, I'm guessing that's an introduction price just to see if people will actually spend that much for the brand name. They'll catch some suckers then they'll have to lower it.

My laptop:
15.6', i7 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR3 1333MHz, Radeon HD 6770M 2GB, 500GB HDD + replaced DVD drive with HDD catty, stuck the 500GB HDD in catty, stuck an Intel 320 Series GEN3 120GB SSD as boot drive in the regular HDD slot. Total cost: $1100 = amazing performance + just as good gaming performance as the Razer laptop.

A laptop is for portability, why buy a 17 inch? I have a 24 inch monitor that I hook up my laptop to when I'm at home (with a mouse and keyboard of course). Dell IPS 24 inch monitor was $300. So I basically have a portable desktop. That's an amazing looking screen, I could have bought a cheap 24 inch for $150. But even with all that I only paid $1400. I already have the keyboard and mouse. Still using my MX518 - the best mouse in existence.

 

[Julio Franco]

Awkward, maybe. But it does change things if the reason he's showcasing the laptop is that he believes in the product and has been involved on its development.

 

[LinkedKube]

I saw the press release for this. If it actually performs how they say it does I'd be willing to pay for it.

 

[RzmmDX]

Now to be fair, it does have optimus. And how would optimus function in a gaming setting is beyond me... More FPS? Smoother rendering?

But $2800 is a bit steep unless it has a 5 year warranty. And shoots lasers.

 

[lawfer]

Julio said:
Awkward, maybe. But it does change things if the reason he's showcasing the laptop is that he believes in the product and has been involved on its development.

Right, and in the process of showcasing his involvement and belief in his product, the result are awkward pictures... Are we going somewhere with this? Lol

Ultimately, I think we (tech enthusiasts) may have been exposed a little too much to either seeing female models showcasing devices mostly targeted to male audiences, or seeing such devices by themselves; thus why these pictures may seem awkward to some. Not like it's a big deal anyway. (Pun intended.)

 

[Guest]

awesome... i'd like to see a high performance ultrabook from razer hahaha

 

[slh28]

Claiming it's a true gaming laptop and then sticking a GT555M in it doesn't really cut it. Even before considering the price tag.

And what's with the knife anyway - surely that's encouraging teenagers to take their in-game violence onto the streets?

 

[Mudvayne819]

they have it all wrong, that trackpad with dynamic display on it should be on the left side, not the right side rofl. and anyway wahts the point of that thing, yo dawg, we put a display on the right side of your keyboard, so you can LoL when you are playing LoL... they got it all wrong

 

[Adhmuz]

Well, theres so much to say about this laughable Razer product. First price, Really? I can think of at least 5 alternatives for less if not half the price. Second, wheres the hot chicks? You want to sell your laptop to nerds don't have one pose with it, also does the knife come with it? "A True Gaming Laptop" Thats a bold statement, so lets put a dual core i7 and a GT555m in it? Logical of course and for $2800... I will make a point out of slapping anyone in the face that buys one (By that I mean anyone I see with one) Don't get me wrong here I do own Razer products, and I like them, this laptop is just too ridiculously pathetic for me to even consider it a contender in the realm of gaming laptops.

 

[Zilpha]

Guest said:
The person in the photos is the CEO. Do some research/learn to use Google.

He's pretty hot though. Could have been a model, and frankly, I'd sooner pay the 2800 for a night with him than that gaudy monstrosity of a laptop. He needs his head examined if he actually thinks that venture is going to topple Alienware and Asus as the reigning kings.

 

[herpaderp]

rzmmdx said:
Now to be fair, it does have optimus. And how would optimus function in a gaming setting is beyond me... More FPS? Smoother rendering?.

Now to be fair, do you know what Optimus is? It's not some special performance enhancing mode, it's just Nvidia's graphics switching tech that can shift between the integrated Intel graphics and a dedicated GPU when the workload calls for it. How it would function here is just like on any other laptop, switch to the IGP when you don't need the 3D processing muscle of the dGPU and save battery life.

 

[DokkRokken]

If the dude came with the laptop, the price would be much more fair.