My Take: The Razer Blade

http://www.razerzone.com/blade

Have you heard of the Razer Blade? Apparently it’s what Razer calls The Saviour of PC Gaming. I don’t think I can agree with that. There’s a few problems with it.

1. Price
The price of PC gaming has always been brought up as an argument by console gamers. While a console costs at most $500 and can easily last at least 5 years, “PC gaming is too expensive, it requires a graphics card that’s the price of a console and needs to be changed regularly”. Although I do know that the above statement isn’t exactly true, the Razer Blade does nothing to ease this perception of PC gaming being an expensive hobby. US$2800 is easily more than $1000 more than it should be worth, if you consider only it’s specifications. The additional cost comes most likely from the brand name, the sleek design, the customizable buttons, and the cost of squeezing in all that power in such a compact frame. I, for one, do not believe in paying for that. Which is probably why I’ll never get a Mac.

2. A Laptop? Really?
Why a laptop? Does anyone even use gaming laptops anymore? What’s the point of a gaming laptop nowadays? Pardon my ignorance, but I’ve seen less than 5 people who bring their laptop outside of their house just to game. I guess the only time a gaming laptop would come in handy is when you bring your laptop for a school or work project, and you end up gaming somehow… but that shouldn’t even be happening. Furthermore, with mobile gaming so prevalent on our smartphones, and a readily accessible 3G network, multiplayer mobile gaming has never been easier. Also, LAN shops.

And one of the horrors of PC gamers: not being able to upgrade your rig.

The only reason that I can see for this, is that Razer is merely using this as a stepping stone. An experiment of sorts.

3. Those customizable buttons
Aren’t those on our desktop keyboards already? And on our mice too.

4. Appearance
Alienware. Stickers.

5. Alienware
Alienware has been selling gaming laptops for years now. What makes the Razer Blade so different that it’ll save PC gaming? Portability and customizable keys? That’s it? That’s not a deal breaker at all.

So yeah, to me, the Razer Blade is just another gaming laptop out in the market. Nothing interesting to see here, move along.