The New Razer Blade: The Beastly Beauty

First revealed a year ago, the Razer Blade was a fascinating machine. Dubbed "The World's First True Gaming Laptop" by its makers, the $2,800 17-inch machine, weighing less than seven pounds, was a bold experiment that traded power for portability, and portability for price.

The experiment was an overwhelming success. Earlier this year the Blade hit the PC market, garnering mostly favorable reviews. Despite performance that fell short of comparably-priced traditional laptops, the Blade's sleek profile and startling portability drove strong sales — Razer could barely keep up with the demand.

And now that Razer has proven the power of the Blade to customers, critics and suppliers, it's time for an upgrade.

Meet the new Razer Blade. It's much more powerful, and costs $300 less.


While the exterior design remains unchanged, Razer has completely overhauled its internals. Instead of a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7, the Blade now features a quad-core Intel Core i7 chip. Razer has not disclosed the exact specifications of the new silicon, but says it is a brand new processor scheduled to be announced sometime next month. The Blade has made a significant leap in terms of graphics, ditching the Nvidia GT 555M in favor of the Nvidia GTX 660M, making it competitive with Alienware's M17x. Although the original model had a single 256GB SSD, the refreshed version has two drives — a 64GB SSD and a 500GB HDD — providing more space and cutting component costs. According to Razer, the new configuration and renegotiations with suppliers has allowed them to cut the cost of the system from $2,799 to $2,499.

The New Razer Blade
Price: US$2,499.99
Availability: September 2012
Product Specifications:

• Future platform with 3rd Generation Intel Core Processor
• NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 660M with NVIDIA Optimus Technology
• 2GB Dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory
• 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Memory
• 17.3-in. LED Backlit Display (1920x1080)
• Built-in HD Webcam
• Integrated 60Wh Battery
• 500GB 7200RPM HDD (Primary Storage)
• 64GB SATA III SSD with NVELO Dataplex Software (Cache Acceleration)
• Wireless Network 802.11 A/G/N + BT4.0
• 16.81" (Width) x 10.9" (Depth) x 0.88" (Height); 6.6lbs (Weight)

With those specs, who wouldn't want a piece of this baby?

Naturally, refreshing a product after just over eight months of availability is certain to ruffle the feathers of early adopters. But according to Razer's CEO Min-Liang Tan, it's a matter of perfecting the formula: "We really focused on polishing and iterating based on the feedback we received from fans and critics." What's more, Tan says that the company is extending an additional $500 discount to existing Blade owners.

Razer will begin taking pre-orders on September 4th with shipments expected to begin on September 30th.

Credits: Kotaku, The Verge

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