SINGAPORE - Razer has refreshed its Razer Blade gaming laptop with a new compact design, making it - according to the gaming firm - the "world's smallest gaming laptop in its class".
Gone are the thick bezels surrounding the 14-inch screen on last year's model. Instead, the new Razer Blade has bezels of just 4.9mm thick around its 15.6-inch display.
Despite its larger screen, the new model is only 10mm longer than the previous one. But its weight has gone up slightly from around 1.9kg to 2.1kg.
Razer is not the first gaming company to launch a near-bezel-less gaming laptop, though it claims that the Blade is more compact than its competitors from Gigabyte and MSI.
Like the previous version, the Razer Blade sports a matte black unibody aluminium chassis. It looks more angular, with the corners not as curved as its predecessors. Its keyboard backlight can display up to 16.8 million colours and users can pick a unique colour for each key. The touchpad is also now larger and supports Windows 10 gestures.
Its 1,920 x 1,080-pixel screen boasts a high refresh rate of up to 144Hz for fluid, lag-free gaming. Razer will also offer a 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) option with multi-touch support in select markets.
The Razer Blade is powered by Intel's latest six-core Core i7 processor. Buyers can choose between Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 Max Q and GTX 1070 Max Q chip for graphics.
The laptop comes with two full-sized USB 3.1 ports, a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port and a mini-DisplayPort. For those who need additional ports, Razer has launched a new laptop stand with a multi-coloured LED light strip and a 3-port USB hub.
In addition, Razer also announced a new external graphics enclosure with a lower price tag than its existing Razer Core V2 enclosure (S$750). Dubbed the Core X, this enclosure, which can be equipped with a desktop graphics card, connects to compatible PC and Mac laptops, via the Thunderbolt 3 port to offer desktop-class graphics performance. In Singapore, it is priced at S$449.90 without a graphics card and is available now on the Razer Store.
The new Razer Blade goes on sale today in the United States, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany and China at a starting price of US$1,899 (S$2,549).
Razer says it will be available in Singapore early next month. Local prices start at $2,899.90 for the base model with a 60Hz display and a GeForce GTX 1060 while the top configuration with an Intel Core i7 chip, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage and a GeForce GTX 1070 costs $3,899.90.
