MacBook Pro meets Alienware in Razer's Blade gaming notebook

When we talk about gaming notebooks, the first thought that comes to mind are huge, bulky and heavy notebooks that are by no means portable. With Razer now entering the gaming notebook space, all this may soon change. Their first attempt at a notebook is called the Blade, which Razer claims ise the first ‘truly portable’ gaming notebook. Imagine a MacBook Pro in black with beefed up internals and Alienware-like lighting and you have the Razer Blade. The notebook will be available in Q4 2011 in the US for $2799.99 (approx. Rs.1,26,000). The Blade would eventually come to India like most of their products do, either towards the end of 2011 or early 2012.

An interesting concept, but will it work?

Just like Apple’s MacBook Pro, the Blade features an all aluminium chassis (probably not unibody) for light weight and durability. The screen size is 17.3 inches with LED backlighting and Full HD resolution. Other specifications include, Core i7 2640M, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GT 555M with Optimus, 60Wh battery, 320GB hard drive and a built-in HD camera. While the rest of the components are fine, I feel Razer have skimped in the storage department. I would expect a 1TB hard drive at this price - nothing less.

What distinguishes the Blade from the rest of the crowd is their new 'Switchable' user interface. On the right side of the backlit keyboard are 10 programmable macro keys that dynamically change depending on the game you’re playing along with matching icons. Of course, the game profiles will have to be present in order for this to work and so far Razer has promised Battlefield 3, Rift, End of Nations, League of Nations and many more. The really interesting bit is the large colour LCD panel below the macro keys. It features two modes. It can either display in-game information as you’re playing or act as a multi-touch trackpad. Other than the whole dynamic keys bit and the aluminum body, this is not revolutionary by any means. Dell’s Vostro 3750 is a perfect example as it delivers great gaming performance, even though it wasn't designed for that task. It packs in all the ingredients for a gaming notebook along with a 17-inch screen and aluminum body for nearly half the cost of the Blade. What say?