New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/razer-to-release-stylish-2800-gaming-laptop-complete-with-dynamic-buttons.ars

by zeratul • 15 years ago

292 180 15 years ago

arstechnica.com

iam2• 15 years ago

But what will the battery life be? At least when the gaming laptops are big and bulky they also have a huge battery. This thing looks like it'll run out of juice flat in 1 hour.

windsurfer2• 15 years ago

Depends on what you're doing. It's got a 60Wh battery, so it should last a little less than a macbook pro, so 2 to 7 hours.

unavoidable• 15 years ago

Not while gaming it wont

bitmover2• 15 years ago

It also looks to have an innovative lawsuit inducing ID. Seems pretty lazy to just anodized a MacBook Pro black, swap the logo and call it a day.

icebraining3• 15 years ago

I didn't realize MacBook Pros had touchscreens on the keyboard...

bitmover2• 15 years ago

Look at this gallery of product shots:

http://www.engadget.com/photos/razer-blade-0/

That is Apple's industrial design language. They could have made it look like anything and they chose to ape apple, that's lazy.

aw3c2• 15 years ago

It looks like a simple purist one color professional notebook. The curves are all different. As a apple zealot you surely see how the Macbook is a whole different league in terms of style and smart-term-that-ends-with-ility (and by that obviously different).

amelim• 15 years ago

The last thing the PC gaming community needs right now is another insanely expensive piece of hardware with a gimmick attached. I really cannot see this going anywhere within the community. I'm guessing that those who largely play the PC games that would require such high specs aren't likely to want to play them outside of their homes. Besides you can purchase a comparably spec'd desktop system for a quarter of the price.

Heck, the most popular PC game at the moment (World of Warcraft) can be played on relatively cheap laptops already.

marknutter• 15 years ago

Man, geeks are a tough crowd. I for one applaud their effort to shake things up. You say there's no market for this, well they say they're building it for themselves. I think chances are good there are lots of people out there just like them.

A-K• 15 years ago

Agreed! Expensive? Sure it is. But I applaud Razor for trying something daring. Given how slim it is, those specs are pretty outrageous.

WeAreKnights• 15 years ago

The market will decide for itself what it needs or wants.

I'm glad they have the courage to try this. Outside of Apple, most computer companies stopped innovating a long time ago. They're happy to fight over scraps in a commodity market. HP finally got sick of it and are betting their business on a major shift in strategy.

When it comes down to it, you get what you pay for. With computer taking over more-and-more tasks in our lives, it's worth it to spend a little more on a system that better suits your needs.

But who am I to argue with someone that thinks any advancement in HCI over the ancient keyboard-and-mouse is a "gimmick"?

51Cards2• 15 years ago

I would definitely consider buying one. Why do people think that high priced, high design PC's can't sell when Apple has been selling exactly this with great success? The PC crowd has been lulled into cheap hardware but not everyone wants that. I typically buy high end Sony Vaio's just because of the sheer elegance of the product. I have raved on here about my Vaio Z, portable "workstation" power in 3 pounds of 13" goodness. I think there is a market for this.

w1ntermute2• 15 years ago

The funny thing is that by optimizing the supply chain and manufacturing process, Apple has managed to significantly cut costs (or keep them high for competitors). For example, the Vaio Z is much more expensive than the latest MBA.

citricsquid• 15 years ago

because very few "hardcore gamers" (who this is aimed at) are the same who can afford to drop $3k on a laptop just for gaming. I spent around $4,000 on my desktop set up, but that's something I use for everything.

Bud• 15 years ago

People think that because the high-end PC gear can't compete right now on price, design, longevity, toughness, etc.

For instance, this laptop can't manage to hit the MacBook Pro price point, and it's in a plastic case, as opposed to a single-piece slab of aluminum. Which do you think will hold up better? Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement? Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?

dkl• 15 years ago

It's essentially the same price as the Mac Book Pro 17". Those things are like a plague at coffee shops and conferences all over the world. If the hardware is good, I think they have a good chance. I love the fact that the input pad is on the right. When using laptops where it's in front of the keyboard, I'm always accidentally pressing and moving the mouse.

jra101• 15 years ago

Oh neat, I initially thought it still had a normal trackpad centered under the keyboard but that is just a small bevel for opening the laptop.

Having the trackpad on the right makes a lot of sense, hopefully we start seeing more laptops that do this.

MartinCron4• 15 years ago

I always turn off tap-to-click for just that reason.

pstoneman• 15 years ago

PC gamers who want such high specs might want to play them outside of their homes, when they go to LAN parties. This is fairly common amongst some gamers, and a portable powerhouse has some attractions for that use.

ramanujan3• 15 years ago

Hmmm. Strongly disagree with this.

As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development. I hope that particular feature is copied into a subsequent Macbook Pro release.

It's really bringing the innovations pioneered by the iPhone (programmable UI rather than built-in keyboard) back to the laptop.

Among other things, you could have custom glowing save/search/email keys within Word to increase the accessibility for the average joe. They might not be able to find control-F, but they can see the key in their top 10 list.

For Mail.app, Keynote, etc. you'd have different sets of keys (show presentation, download attachments, etc.)

It could get even more interesting if different keys are available in different modes within the same app, like tooltips to the nth degree. For example, each new emacs mode could light up 10 hotkeys for useful functions associated with the mode (compile, jump to, view in browser, and so on).

tl;dr: programmable LCD keys are a very interesting way to combine the best of iPhone-style programmable UI and keyboard-style haptic feedback.

glhaynes3• 15 years ago

It seems to me that that role is pretty well served by icons in the regular UI that the user's already looking at.

jerf3• 15 years ago

"As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development."

If you are a developer and you want programmable keys, don't sit around waiting for an expensive keyboard, reprogram the ones you've already got in front of you. As far as I know, all major OSes can already arbitrarily remap keys to any keystroke you like, and it's easy to pick up software to turn any keystroke into any action you like.

Are you really using PrintScreen, or SysRq, or ALT-PrintScreen, or any of the other combinations you've got unmapped and waiting to serve you?

rch• 15 years ago

Agreed - can't wait to use this in a technical context, and write some custom apps for that touch pad. I do hope there is an option to skip the neon-green accents though, and throw in a SSD.

When my MBP hits the two-year-old mark, I would really like to replace it with something along these lines and finally get back to running Linux natively on some respectable hardware.

One more thing, I really liked the magnesium alloy case on my Actius MM10 - wish I could have that on a full-size machine. Maybe we'll get there if this thing sees some sales.

mixmax• 15 years ago

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

sukuriant• 15 years ago

My gaming machine is a laptop, for example. Until my netbook, it was my everything machine, but it was still my gaming machine. My tower serves underused as a server much more than a used computer. I _love_ laptops for their mobility and versitility.

richcollins• 15 years ago

It remains to be seen whether the UI is a "gimmick" or not. We'll have to wait for games that use it.

pragmatic3• 15 years ago

Your missing a huge market - couch gaming.

I have my laptop _on my lap_ working/playing games etc on the couch instead of watching TV.

It's difficult to play many games in this situation.

lotharbot• 15 years ago

I find the biggest impediment to gaming in this situation is that it's hard to use a mouse on the couch.

Solution: a $5 polypropylene cutting board, still in its shrink wrap, wrapped in patterned contact paper. It's rigid enough to sit on a couch cushion or (wide) chair arm and provides a nice big mousing surface.

axxl• 15 years ago

I understand they say they don't care if there's no market, but I'm curious who's going to buy it. Pro gamers will not care about a trackpad, or dynamic key-screens, as they don't want to spend time looking at the keys when they're looking at the screen. They have everything memorized anyway. But they are the ones who can justify spending ~$3000 on a laptop. Casual gamers would like these features, but don't spend $2800 on gaming.

zeratul• 15 years ago

I would buy it if I had the money. I was looking to build a gaming desktop and that's what I would end up paying anyway.

You're right it's not for a casual gamer but all Razer's products are not for casual gamers and somehow they can make living.

pazimzadeh• 15 years ago

Apple's legacy lives on in Razer. Finally, a company not afraid to build a quality product for fear of raising the price.

kprobst• 15 years ago

I love the idea of having a touchscreen instead of a touchpad. The possibilities! Just that one aspect of this box seems like highly innovative and hopefully a harbinger of things to come in the PC world.

kuviaq• 15 years ago

More info from engadget (including lots of pics): http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/26/razer-blade-hands-on-with...

joss82• 15 years ago

The pictures look like real ones here and not like CG.

Thank you!

icebraining3• 15 years ago

A $2800 laptop without an SSD and with a smallish (by current standards) hard drive?

typicalrunt• 15 years ago

This is a nice looking laptop. It's expensive, but it's the first of its kind so there's not market price set for it yet.

I hope it's easy for programs to change the look of the multitouch display buttons. It almost bring the Optimus keyboard into the mobile realm!

watty• 15 years ago

Their advertisement took a stab at PC gaming vs console gaming and then they release a $2,800 device? This puts it in a different market (one that I don't think is very big).

redthrowaway2• 15 years ago

Their advertisement had nothing to do with consoles. It was simply a statement that PC gaming is not dead.

If you want to spend $400 and play games, buy a console. You're not the target market for pc games.

Alienware made a name for itself selling $5k gaming rigs. They were incredibly successful at it. Since Dell bought them, their products have gotten crappier and crappier. If Razer wants to fill that void, more power to them.

theBobMcCormick2• 15 years ago

I certainly hope they succeed. Not only has Alienware's quality reputation been slipping, but they've always been absolutely hideous eyesores. This razer actually looks pretty sexy.

sbov2• 15 years ago

Whenever I play a game with a laptop I use a real mouse. Anything else is a bit painful for me. Because of that, as a righty I'd rather have the dynamic buttons on the left side of the keyboard.

Heck, make the whole keyboard dynamic. Then when you're playing a game, instead of an alphanumeric symbol on the key being displayed, the action it's bound to can be displayed.

artursapek3• 15 years ago

A person using hotkeys probably never has to look at the keyboard, I don't know how useful a fully customizable keyboard would be.

sbov2• 15 years ago

I always have trouble remembering my lesser used hotkeys (e.g. if you have 20+), but maybe I'm the only one. A quick glance at the keyboard could make it easy.

lukifer• 15 years ago

If the trackpad is any good, and it supports gestures which can be bound, the trackpad has the potential to be as good or better than a mouse. And of course, nothing's stopping you from attaching a mouse to this, meaning the trackpad can now be used for something different. (The fact that it's an LCD trackpad is just screaming for it to be used as a dedicated map viewer/mover in Starcraft.)

bricestacey• 15 years ago

Trackpads are surprisingly well suited for FPS. I was with a bunch of programmers recently and we started playing Urban Terror with our Macbook Pros and we did fine with our track pads. It was more difficult to 180 in an instant, but otherwise aiming was almost normal.

Quality is obviously important. A $400 Dell laptop's trackpad would've been awful. Interestingly, a $5 optical mouse is a nearly optimal setup, which is why I doubt there is much attention on trackpads which cost much more.

artursapek3• 15 years ago

"The hardest thing was convincing a manufacturing partner to consider our designs," Tan said. "No one wanted to do it. They all said there's no market, it's too expensive, no one wants this. Gamers would want something big, thick, and cheap."

Serious gamers actually flesh out a lot of money on their setups. And I don't know much about any scenes except Starcraft 2, but I know those tournaments give out products from certain companies who sponsor the event as prizes, I could see this computer fitting in that way. SC2 game "casters" have been doing the same thing on their own, and it's normally equipment of this sort of high end pricing.

The question here is can the gamers who build their own custom set-ups piece by piece be convinced to buy this kind of all-in-one package instead?

samlevine• 15 years ago

This is a great marketing gimmick for the keyboard they're selling:

http://www.razerzone.com/swtor/keyboard

At around $200 this is a lot more likely to sell.

DannoHung• 15 years ago

Yeah, I'm a fool with too much money, but that keyboard looks SOOOO cool, like an almost reasonably priced Optimus.

jarin• 15 years ago

I really like the concept, but practically for MMO play it's faster to use the left-hand hotkeys or click buttons in the UI. I could see the video touchpad having a lot of awesome uses though (minimap, buffs, quest log, etc), and the buttons above the trackpad would be pretty useful for non-combat items like inventory, settings, character screen, crafting and things like that.

ConstantineXVI2• 15 years ago

I've always found the idea of a secondary display on a laptop intriguing. Would be nice to be able to look down at the keyboard and have docs for whatever I'm working on already there, without having to page over to another screen or such. I would presume the screen has some sort of API (or at least a WebView mode) so this sort of thing would be possible.

On the flip side, a 17" display means you have room to keep both on the screen at once, negating the extra display. 15" model please?

Shenglong3• 15 years ago

You know what would be really nice on a gaming laptop? A foot pedal. It would actually be really nice for browsing too. As it is, I don't use my feet for anything... it's only intuitive that a foot pedal should be developed.

dman• 15 years ago

Theyve been around for a long time - http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/fs-savant-elite.htm

agravier• 15 years ago

That idea is at least as old as Emacs ;)

random result for "emacs pedal": http://www.cb1.com/~john/computing/emacs/handsfree/pedals.ht...

Shenglong3• 15 years ago

I can't believe it took this long to make a non-apple laptop that isn't ugly. Simple, sleek and smooth. It really isn't that difficult.

jinushaun2• 15 years ago

Reading the quotes from Razer in the article, it really makes me angry at the big PC manufacturers and happy that HP got out. Nothing Apple does is truly that amazing or innovative. The difference is that Apple actually has the balls to try to produce a high quality product. Not expensive for the sake of being expensive like Sony, but quality worth paying for. HP and Dell would rather sell low margin crap at high volume than try at the high quality game.

Go Razer! Glad they're the only PC company out there will the balls to compete on quality and innovation.

ConstantineXVI2• 15 years ago

Worth pointing out that until this announcement, Razer wasn't a PC manufacturer. Barring a concept laptop they showed at CES, Razer's only products have been mice, keyboards, gamepads, and headsets.

MaxGabriel• 15 years ago

"Nothing Apple does is truly that amazing or innovative."

That's absurdly unfair, companies like RIM didn't even think the iPhone was possible before it came out [1]. The iPad completely changed the "slate" market in an unimaginable way. People may or may not be wrong about a post-PC era, but its undeniably closely related to the iPad and its predecessor the iPhone (especially given Android's UI before and after the iPhone [2]). If your comment referred specifically to the laptop/desktop market, go back to the original Macintosh GUI, unibody design, the high battery life and relatively low cost of the Macbook Air (sure, they existed in the 90s as slim as an MBA but not with equivalent design or battery--and the rest of the market was into netbooks when the MBA came out anyway), touchpad gestures, and MagSafe. And when other companies announce these features, like Razer here, it usually ends with a $2800 Sure, you can name prior art on alot of these innovations but having 'balls' is PART of innovation--execution is just as important as the idea.

[1] http://www.razorianfly.com/2010/12/28/rim-we-thought-apple-w... [2] http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-l...

baddox• 15 years ago

Here's some non-Apple laptops that aren't ugly:

http://www.samsung.com/us/news/newsRead.do?news_seq=19774

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/16/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-review...

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/03/hp-envy-14-review/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-...

glhaynes3• 15 years ago

I bet this'll be as successful as Windows SideShow. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SideShow)

Games could already hook up to the pocket-sized multitouch high-res color screens that we all carry with us already. Why not start with that and, if there are actually some usages that work well, then consider building it into the device itself?

Innovation != just stick another screen on there.

pkamb2• 15 years ago

"Today, there hasn't been a single PC laptop that anyone has been passionate about for the longest time. It's not because there's no innovation, but [because] the big PC guys just don't want to innovate anymore," Min-Liang Tan, the CEO and Creative Director of Razer, told Ars.

Completely true. For example Lenovo/Thinkpad stopped producing the 4:3 screens that all their business users loved. Too hard/expensive to produce, 16:9 screens are the future, etc.

Until Apple produces millions and millions of 4:3 iPad displays. Now can we reopen the discussion?

I don't think Razer's expensive hardware and new UI is the answer, but that doesn't mean every PC laptop needs to ship with a just a shitty touchpad and 2 buttons. How about a 3rd button? A mousewheel? Start small and build from there.

The part I really don't understand is how the PC mouse industry is so innovative/over-the-top. 7 buttons, independent DPI controls, lazer tracking, ergonomic designs, etc. But then every laptop has the same terrible small touchpad and two badly-designed buttons. Seems like adding a 30-cent mousewheel to your case would instantly differentiate you from all your competitors.

MartinCron4• 15 years ago

just a shitty touchpad and 2 buttons. How about a 3rd button?

The Dell Precision laptops have two sets of three mouse buttons (above and below the trackpad). I still plug in a real mouse, though.

pkamb2• 15 years ago

True, the 'business' laptops with Trackpoints are the exception to this rule. They have 3 for some reason. That's basically why I only buy Thinkpads now.

zdorab• 15 years ago

I think part of the reason for the insane PC mouse industry is the relatively low cost of the periphreals and the (perceived) direct impact it has on the skill of the player playing a game. Where the PC gamer will drool over the 500$ amazing graphics card he can't afford, he can placate himself with a 70$ crazy ten-thousand button mouse.

Why there isn't any innovation in laptop input devices I'm without a clue. It seems like there are so many better ways to input data than a touchpad and two buttons.

tomkarlo3• 15 years ago

Because it's a poor risk to take - you have this whole product you've designed, and if you built in an unproven pointing device and it flops, the whole product is a dud. At least with desktops a mouse or trackpad is cheap to replace, so a user might be willing to buy a computer with an unconventional input device knowing that it's only $50 to replace. Buy a laptop and find out you hate the pointing input, you're out 2 grand.

moe• 15 years ago

I can't really imagine anyone in the FPS/RTS crowd wanting to look down on their keyboard during gameplay. Normally you have to set their chair on fire if you want them to break eye-contact with the main-screen...

Perhaps there are slower paced games where this makes sense, though.

njhwang• 15 years ago

For gaming, mostly agree. Although I think that the pretty graphics are mostly for show, the real power will be the ability to customize gestures for any application, and the utility you get out of these gestures can well be worth looking down at a "mouse screen."

I'm imagining being able to manipulate a CAD model in isolation, freely rotating items in PowerPoint, redistributing power among throttle/lasers/shields using sliding bars (X-wing, anyone?)...I'm sure there are many more.

I'd almost argue to keep a normal track pad for dedicated cursor navigation and have the awesome set of touchscreens as a peripheral. Then have an amazing API for software developers to do creative things with it, and have an amazing UI for the layman to create their own mappings. That might get adoption for this type of thing going faster.

wtallis4• 15 years ago

Remember that with a laptop, your eyes don't have to move all that much to get to the keyboard. Still not likely for the hardcore FPS and RTS gamers, but this could be pretty useful for more casual gaming and things like WoW.

sandGorgon3• 15 years ago

question - why is everyone making alumninium unibody notebooks ? Is carbon fiber not lighter and (arguably) just as strong. Is it just the design aesthetic that everyone is trying to reach out for or is there something else.

falcolas4• 15 years ago

If I had to guess, I'd say that it's easier to cast and mill the aluminum unibody than it is to mold the carbon fiber.

Probably cheaper, as well.

sandGorgon3• 15 years ago

hmm.. I honestly never thought that was the issue, given how popular graphite tennis racquets are.

What about fiberglass then ? I even saw a show on TV, where they remade a car chassis by handfilling fiberglass filaments and the resulting could withstand sledgehammer blows.

does fiberglass/carbon-fiber affect laptop cooling ?

jinushaun2• 15 years ago

Because CF is still ridiculously expensive. It's cheaper now to make than before and you might see it around more often, but it's still an exotic material. Otherwise, we would see it everywhere.

sandGorgon3• 15 years ago

sony makes laptops using carbon fiber - http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisp...

same ballpark pricing ~2000 USD. Is unibody aluminium that commonplace a manufacturing process that it is much more feasible than carbon fiber ?

OWaz2• 15 years ago

I always thought that carbon fiber weaving was not widespread and thus that was one factor in the high cost of carbon fiber. For example when Lexus was building their LFA car they also built their own 3D CF loom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry9uiP2I6kQ

rhygar• 15 years ago

Aluminum conducts heat really well.

mambodog• 15 years ago

The dynamic keys remind me of Art Lebedev's Optimus keyboard designs: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

phaus5• 15 years ago

The laptop looks very nice as far as design goes, but as a 3k gaming machine it leaves a lot to be desired. I am starting to wonder if some of these technology companies are intentionally trying to lose money.

The GT 555M is a mainstream consumer video card. It can be found on laptops around $700 and I doubt it will run BF3 well at anything higher than medium settings. As a $3000 gaming machine that hasn't even been released yet, it should have a 6990M or a GTX 580M.

Finally, what kind of gamer who is willing to spend $3000 on a laptop is even going to use a trackpad? I wonder how much this ridiculous, unnecessary addition adds to the price of the system.

To put things in perspective, an Alienware M17x with a 6990M starts at 1799, and an identical clevo/sager would run about 1600.

dekz• 15 years ago

So one has to fork out $3000 every 6mos/year instead of $700 to just upgrade a graphics card?

Looks cool, doesn't seem practical to replace a gaming rig.

tomkarlo3• 15 years ago

What if you're left-handed? Seems like you're kind of screwed on this one.

OWaz2• 15 years ago

Maybe it would work better for a leftie. A left-handed person could keep their hand on the mouse and use their other hand for the trackpad interface when needed.

xenophanes• 15 years ago

razer makes quite a few right handed products. it's a trade off to make it better for 90% and lose some customers. i think in this case it's even more important than with mice. trackpad below keyboard instead of to the side is not so good for gaming.

biot• 15 years ago

They should make a keyboard with all the keys on the left side. That way, it won't tempt lefties into using their useless right appendage. [Disclaimer: I'm a lefty, though fairly ambidextrous.]

sodiumphosphate• 15 years ago

Personally, I'd like to see the trackpad centered between the two halves of a split keyboard.

blhack• 15 years ago

These guys took out an ad in The Wall Street journal drumming up hype for this release.

Guys: I can buy a Sony Playstation 3 for a little over $200. Call it $300.

I can then buy an large television for $1000, and a solid set of speakers for $200.

That's $1500 all-in, for something that will play every single PS3 game flawlessly.

Why would I spend $2800 on this? What I am getting for $1300?

If it's the variety of PC games like minecraft, I can throw an additional $500 at a low-end gaming PC, hook it to my television, and play console and PC games.

A gaming laptop? Why?

eagleal2• 15 years ago

You can actually get a laptop with the same specs for about 900€. (the only thing that missed is the little touch screen on the right, and the 17", it was 15.6)

amalcon2• 15 years ago

The screen size is a pretty big difference -- the 17.3" is just under 23% bigger (in terms of surface area) than the 15.6. Of course, that's not $1500 worth of difference.

I'd be interested to know where you found that, though. Newegg has exactly five laptops with 15.3"+ 1920x1080 screens with CPUs clocked for at least 2.5GHz. All are $1560+, which is about $200 more than 900 Euro. Two are out-of-stock Toughbooks, two are recertified MBPs, and one is an absolute beast of an Asus that still has substantially lower specs than this thing. You may have found me my next laptop, assuming it will ship to someone I know.

dstein• 15 years ago

Selling expensive products to rich people is a lot easier than selling affordable products to poor people.

AdamTReineke• 15 years ago

And usually more profitable, I bet.

pnathan• 15 years ago

Which reminds me of the statistics for Android vs. iPhone app sales.

theBobMcCormick2• 15 years ago

You seem to be under the mis-impression that there isn't already a market for gaming laptops. There is. Go to almost any laptop makers page and you'll find a whole section devoted to "gaming laptops". Hell, it's part of how Alienware made their name.

Most of them unfortunately have a reputation for being enormously heavy and bulky, and for generating inferno levels of heat. But people do still buy them. If this thing really does have competitive performance to the current top end gaming laptops and is as thin and nice looking as those pictures make it seem, I think they've got a real winner on their hands.

teashorts• 15 years ago

I don't get why they didn't produce the Switchblade [1] instead of this expensive overpowered monstrosity.

[1] http://www.razerzone.com/switchblade

Kenan• 15 years ago

From the looks of the pictures in the article I was certain it was the Switchblade, but now looking back at the old pics on their site, I realized that it's not the same Switchblade I saw months ago. In the article they even named it "Switchblade User Interface". They said from the beginning that the Switchblade was a concept, so I'm just glad they are releasing it earlier than I though.

daeken• 15 years ago

Anyone know if you can buy just the touchpad or the keyboard+touchpad? I don't want the laptop, but that looks awesome.

gcb• 15 years ago

eeekeyboard had this. was a total failure.

i still want one. but the price point was just crazy.

ianl• 15 years ago

I think you are all missing the point. There already is a massive market for high end gaming pcs and laptops. Compare these prices and specs to what is available from Alienware or MSI.

This laptop only misgiving is the fact it does not have an SSD. However, it is competitively priced in comparison to its competition and with a sleek sexy design this is a very interesting entry into the market.

pragmatic3• 15 years ago

Exactly.

And this is the first one. If this succeeds with the high end people (you know those that spend $4000 on a gaming pc), then the price will come down.

This is the best thing I've seen in long time.

idle_processor• 15 years ago

Some people use expensive hardware as a status symbol, and having something expensive with a flashy UI will probably appeal to them. I don't know how common this type of person is.

Others spend a lot on hardware to eke out as much performance as possible. The Razer laptop will fail miserably with these people, because the specs obtained for the cost are abyssmal.

________________________________________________

Razer at $2800:

2.8GHz Intel® CoreTM i7 2640M Processor

8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory

NVIDIA GeForce® GT 555M (2GB VRAM)

________________________________________________

Sager/Clevo at around $2700 (using xoticpc).

3.2-3.46GHz Intel® Core™ i7-960 8MB L3 Cache

ATI Radeon DUAL (2) HD6990M's (4GB VRAM)

12GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory

________________________________________________

The GT 555M's 3DMark 06 score is 10586.3. The Dual HD6690M has a score of 23292, more than double. I would have honestly expected at least a single GTX 570M (preferably 580) from a cutting-edge gaming laptop housing an NVIDIA card.

The Sager will be a bulkier laptop, but my experience (with dragging an Asus G73 to and from university and work) is that carrying bags/backpacks mitigate the weight issue, and that bulk is never a factor. An inferior gaming experience due to weaker hardware, however, is.

Sources:

http://xoticpc.com (for configuring/pricing a Sager/Clevo laptop)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark... (for video card benchmarks)

phaus5• 15 years ago

There is no way this laptop is competitively priced with Alienware and MSI. For about $1200 you can get an Alienware with the same GPU(which accounts for 90 percent of your framerate). For under 1500 you can get an MSI or Asus laptop with a GTX 560M which is significantly better than the GT 555M. If you actually wanted a high-end gaming system you could go all out and get a M18X Alienware with dual 6990M GPUs. Just so we can rule this out as a gaming computer once and for all, here is a performance comparison.

$2880 Razer "gaming" computer - GT 555M Bad Company 2 Ultra Settings - 17-20 FPS $1799 Alienware M17X with single 6990M - Bad Company 2 Ultra Settings - 57-59 FPS $2499 Alienware M18X with dual 6990Ms - Bad Company 2 Ultra Settings - 110 FPS

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-C...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990M-Crossfire.5...

So price/performance wise, the Razer laptop offers about $550 worth of gaming performance, but it is lighter and also has a $2200 dollar trackpad that no one in their right mind would use to play a real video game.

falcolas4• 15 years ago

Owning one of those Alienware M15X Laptops, I can say that they are heavy and bulky. The form factor of this new laptop is a lot better, and would make a huge impact on my desire to buy it if I actually want to take it anywhere.

Hell, I about broke my back trying to lug my Alienware around a conference. I'll never do that again. I'd pay quite a bit for the ability to actually have my notebook computer be portable, and yet still able to play games.

jmatt• 15 years ago

Buying and owning a gaming laptop or desktop is similar to owning a hot rod.

There are as many different philosophies to how and what to buy as there are gamers. On one end of the spectrum people track pricing trends and chase the best possible value/performance and build it all themselves. On the other end people pay a premium for an innovative case or component or a name brand. This is clearly on the far end of the spectrum, including the expected premium price to get anything Razer.

In the end it's purely for the sport of it. You are right that there are better deals. But there is definitely a segment of people that are more than willing to pay a premium to get an awesome case with a ultra new innovative component like this. Bring a laptop like this to a gaming night at a local coop and everyone will be oogling it and checking it out... That's what it's all about.

dlevine• 15 years ago

For $2800 it had better have an SSD. Compared with a 320GB HDD, a 256GB SSD would only add $2-300 to the price of the laptop.

stcredzero2• 15 years ago

I think Google should invest in this thing. Include an SSD, and leverage the unique UI elements for Chrome OS. In this case, it wouldn't be just for gaming. Instead it would be a powerful and compelling alternative to the iPad for the end-user browse/email/word process crowd. If it's also a killer platform for MMOs and casual games, then it would have a powerful draw for college students.

duskwuff• 15 years ago

> I think Google should invest in this thing. Include an SSD, and leverage the unique UI elements for Chrome OS. In this case, it wouldn't be just for gaming. Instead it would be a powerful and compelling alternative to the iPad for the end-user browse/email/word process crowd.

At more than five times the price? I'm not so sure.

zerohp• 15 years ago

Instead of a handful of keys with tiny LCD's inside of them, I'd like to see a full keyboard that has e-paper on top of every key.

smokinjoe• 15 years ago

How much would that increase the cost of the product, though?

ImprovedSilence• 15 years ago

god, thats a sexy idea. but then again im the kinda person who choses laptops based on what their keyboard looks like. (ifi could get macbook pro style, with ubuntu, for not quite macbook prices, life would be good.) and by macbbok style, i mean yes, metal case, sexy keyboard, and awesome track pad features go a long way with me. and I dont think im too much of an outlier when it comes to asthetics. the pc world needs more innovation in this direction, and even if razor doesnt hit exactly the bullseye, its not giving up without a fight.

zobzu• 15 years ago

Incredibly thin and light for a gaming laptop mm? Arstechnica got paid to write that I guess. I can fit 4 light AlienWare gaming laptops of 13" for the weight of that 17". Even a big MBP is lighter... Odd.

darklajid• 15 years ago

You are really comparing a 17" gaming laptop with

- 13" gaming laptops (really? Those are lighter?)

- a popular 17" laptop that lacks in gaming power

Why the snark?

crag• 15 years ago

:) No love for left handers. That's another reason trackpads are centered.

New gaming laptop with innovative UI by Razer

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