Expensive boondoggle, or the thing that changes PC gaming forever?
Gamers will get to make up their own minds at Penny Arcade Expo this weekend, where PC gaming manufacturer Razer is showing off its first gaming laptop. Called the Razer Blade, its unique functionality is apparent from the second you look at it: The $2,800 device has a built-in touchscreen and buttons with LED displays, almost like someone Frankensteined a smartphone into a computer keyboard.
Blade, which will be released in the fourth quarter of this year, is the first gaming machine created by Razer, best known for their gaming peripherals like mice and keyboards.
"We designed a product for ourselves -- for gamers, by gamers," said Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan at a preview event Friday morning.
The screen, called the Switchblade UI after a concept design of a handheld gaming PC that the company showed at this year's CES, serves two functions. Its multitouch interface can be used as a trackpad mouse to control games. But if you've already got a gaming mouse -- and as a dedicated PC gamer, why wouldn't you? -- the screen can be used as a secondary display. It could show vital in-game information, like character stats.
But it can also be used to display whatever else you'd like. Want to watch a hint video on YouTube while you're still playing the game? Chat with friends on Twitter? You can do it on the small screen, without having to multitask on the monitor.
Besides its unique interface, reminiscent of Nintendo's Wii U controller and its secondary touchscreen, the Blade has been designed for the gamer on the go. Tan says other gaming laptops aren't portable enough -- too thick, too heavy. Blade is 0.88 inches thick and weighs 6.9 pounds, he said, with a power supply that weighs 0.7 pounds.
That's hardly an ultralight laptop, but Blade also packs a 17-inch display, a Core i7 Intel CPU, graphics processor by Nvidia and 8 GB of RAM. Tan calls it a "no-compromise" machine that even has a full-sized keyboard.
But the potential game-changer here is the inclusion of the second screen. While Razer is not yet doing hands-on previews of the screen (the units on the PAX show floor will be under glass), it definitely seems like an interface that PC gamers may someday be unable to live without.
Individual games can change the ten buttons above the touchscreen, each of which has a tiny LED display embedded in it, to whatever context-sensitive functionality they want. The buttons could be hot keys that bring up different weapons or magic spells, for example.
Razer will include a music app inside the device that will let you play your tunes via the touchscreen.
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