Switchblade

The last time I took a look at the Razer Blade, it was sitting amid the crowded show floors and weird wireless networks of CES 2012. Razer's bold, somewhat experimental foray into gaming laptops has finally begun shipping, and we have one here at CNET to check out at long last.

First off, the Razer Blade is hardly cheap; $2,799 places it at the higher end of gaming laptops. Regular laptop shoppers would quake in their boots at those prices, and rightfully so. However, the Blade does incorporate some design and technology that make it a design piece of sorts.

It's a bit like a collectible Nike shoe: not completely practical, but sexy for a certain kind of person. The matte black, solid-metal construction has an attractive if fingerprint-collecting appeal, and the Blade does have some solid specs, with a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor (3.5GHz in Turbo mode), Nvidia GeForce GT 555M graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 17.3-inch 1,920x1,080-pixel display.… Read more

Following its "PC gaming is not dead" ad campaign, Razer has officially unveiled its first foray into system-building. The new product, teased in a full-page ad Razer ran in the Wall Street Journal on August 22, is the Razer Blade, which the company describes as a "full aluminum chassis gaming laptop featuring true portability, incredible performance, and an all-new revolutionary user interface."

This is surprising in a way, not because a mouse-and-keyboard maker is getting into the business of making and selling laptops, but because we were hoping the mystery product was the pocket-size Switchblade, a curious handheld prototype we saw and played with at CES 2011.

Instead, this is a 17-inch gaming laptop, although Razer claims it will be only 0.88 inch thick and weigh under 7 pounds, which is impressive if you've seen any of our recent monster gaming laptop reviews. The unique part is the right side of the keyboard, where you would normally expect to find a number pad.… Read more

We tried something a little different at CES 2011. Instead of shooting individual hands-on videos with a bunch of different laptops, we instead invited the most promising systems (including some experimental prototypes) all up to the CNET stage at once, where Molly Wood and I hosted what might be the world's first live laptop talk show.

Highlights included the under-development Razer Switchblade gaming laptop and Toshiba's prototype 3D eyeglass-free laptop, along with Samsung's slim and sexy 9 Series and Lenovo's back-from-the-dead IdeaPad U1 tablet/notebook hybrid. Watch the show to see us give each one a … Read more

Another CES in the books means it's time to take a look at the past few days and highlight what we thought were the most exciting moments of the show. To the right are some video First Looks in gaming from CES 2011.

Unlike last year, gaming was able to earn a few moments of glory this year as we were treated to some impressive products, mind-blowing prototypes, and the latest in state-of-the-art surround-sound headsets.

From iPad joysticks to mouse and keyboard control for the Xbox 360, it's safe to say that CES 2011 solidified gaming as a … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The gadget orgy that is CES always throws up some pretty weird tech concepts, and the 2011 show is no different. Razer has just come up with the concept for the Switchblade, a portable gaming system with a multitouch display and an adaptive LCD-based keyboard that changes dynamically depending on what you're playing.

Razer developed the Switchblade idea because, in the words of Chief Executive Min-Liang Tan, PC gaming "has always been impossible in a portable form factor." Apart from, y'know, on laptops, Netbooks, tablets, and other devices that Razer seems never to have heard … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Every year at CES, there are the concept devices and out-on-a-limb concepts that inevitably grab headlines and rapt attention. The Razer Switchblade, announced today, is certainly one of these.

Described as a way to bring desktop PC gaming to a portable form factor, the concept device comes from Razer, a company known for making mice and computer peripherals. And yet, the Switchblade is a full Netbook of sorts, an actual PC product, albeit not one that's set for production yet.

The Switchblade is Intel Atom-based, with a touch screen and a dynamic tactile keyboard that adjusts its layout … Read more