Razer launch Blade

PC gaming peripheral makers have finally revealed the point of their “PC gaming still alive” campaign that we previously reported on, and rather disappointingly, it appears that it was simply a marketing stunt for a new portable games-focused laptop named the Razer Blade.

According to Razer’s reveal website, which oddly claims the new product is the “World’s first true gaming laptop”, the Blade has some rather impressive technical specs. Sporting an Intel Core i7-2640M dual-core mobile processor, 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GT 555M discrete GPU along with USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, it should have the power to run demanding modern games on the 17 inch 1080p screen.

The most interesting part of the announcement is the ‘Switchblade UI’, an LCD touchscreen built into the chassis alongside the keyboard that will allow programs to display dynamic information and re-assignable hotkeys customised for the game being played.

Razer Blade

The major downside of the Blade is the price. According to reports, the laptop will go on sale in the US at around $2,800, which many as many commentators have pointed out could not only buy a higher-spec desktopĀ  but a comparable laptop and a stack of other equipment.

We feel rather let down by the announcement, as it seems that Razer have exploited PC gamers’ concern at being overlooked in favour of console-led development to announce a product that is overpriced, over-hyped and innovates far too little to justify the campaign built up around it.