Gaming peripheral maker Razer has announced plans to enter the gaming laptop market with
the Blade, a $2,800 laptop that's less than an inch thick and weighs just under 7 pounds.
The aluminum-cased laptop, powered by an Intel i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, includes a 17-inch screen and claims 2.5 hours of battery time while playing a "hardcore" game, or up to 6 hours when on standby.
The new laptop is being billed as a new iteration of the Switchblade,
a handheld concept PC first shown at this year's CES.
That device has a foldout 7-inch screen and a specially-designed tactile keyboard, which the Blade reworks into a set of 10 adaptive tactile, LCD hotkeys. These keys can be used to activate programmable macros, to display in-game information, or just as a touchpad when a mouse isn't being used.
In a press presentation at the Penny Arcade Expo today, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan called the Blade the "world's first true gaming laptop," dismissing previous laptops targeted at gamers as not having the Blade's precise balance of portability, performance and game-focused user interface.
Razer is planning to release the Blade in the fourth quarter of 2011.
