But what will the battery life be? At least when the gaming laptops are big and bulky they also have a huge battery. This thing looks like it'll run out of juice flat in 1 hour.
Sure, it's very similar to the MBP, but it's not just a paintjob and a sticker - turning the trackpad into a touchscreen and moving it to the side of the keyboard is a big change.
Are you seriously proposing that Apple has some monopoly on the idea of a rectangle with rounded corners? There's only so many practical shapes that a laptop can be.
I'm looking at this on an MBP right now and pretty much all of the details are different except for... a similar shape and keyboard type? What do you want out of them?
It looks like a simple purist one color professional notebook. The curves are all different. As a apple zealot you surely see how the Macbook is a whole different league in terms of style and smart-term-that-ends-with-ility (and by that obviously different).
The last thing the PC gaming community needs right now is another insanely expensive piece of hardware with a gimmick attached. I really cannot see this going anywhere within the community. I'm guessing that those who largely play the PC games that would require such high specs aren't likely to want to play them outside of their homes. Besides you can purchase a comparably spec'd desktop system for a quarter of the price.
Heck, the most popular PC game at the moment (World of Warcraft) can be played on relatively cheap laptops already.
Man, geeks are a tough crowd. I for one applaud their effort to shake things up. You say there's no market for this, well they say they're building it for themselves. I think chances are good there are lots of people out there just like them.
I don't think "taking off" is the best way to describe Steam's current position. I don't think there's been any major game in the last few years that required a disc for playing. Perhaps a couple required it for installing, but not many there either.
The point I was trying to make was that many people still choose to buy the physical disc from a high-street or online retailer. Just because the disc isn't strictly necessary, doesn't mean they're going away. A friend works at GameStop, and every now and again has to work for midnight launches for the likes of World of Warcraft where people will be queued around the corner to get their copy of the game.
Right, I can agree with you on that. Your example is very fitting though since at least for the WoW expansions, probably every single one of those queuing already had the game preloaded and just needed a product key to upgrade their account, furthering the notion that the drive itself is not necessary.
The market will decide for itself what it needs or wants.
I'm glad they have the courage to try this. Outside of Apple, most computer companies stopped innovating a long time ago. They're happy to fight over scraps in a commodity market. HP finally got sick of it and are betting their business on a major shift in strategy.
When it comes down to it, you get what you pay for. With computer taking over more-and-more tasks in our lives, it's worth it to spend a little more on a system that better suits your needs.
But who am I to argue with someone that thinks any advancement in HCI over the ancient keyboard-and-mouse is a "gimmick"?
I would definitely consider buying one. Why do people think that high priced, high design PC's can't sell when Apple has been selling exactly this with great success? The PC crowd has been lulled into cheap hardware but not everyone wants that. I typically buy high end Sony Vaio's just because of the sheer elegance of the product. I have raved on here about my Vaio Z, portable "workstation" power in 3 pounds of 13" goodness. I think there is a market for this.
The funny thing is that by optimizing the supply chain and manufacturing process, Apple has managed to significantly cut costs (or keep them high for competitors). For example, the Vaio Z is much more expensive than the latest MBA.
While it is true that the Vaio Z is priced higher than the Air, the Vaio Z also has a faster processor (2.3ghz vs 1.7ghz), and can be configured to have up to a 2.7ghz i7, 512gb SSD, 8gb of ram, and a full 1920x1080 display (the Air maxes out at 1.8ghz, 256gb SSD, 4gb of ram and a 1440x900 screen). That alone would be worth it for many users looking for a machine that is closer to a desktop replacement in a small, lightweight form factor.
Oh yeah, it also includes a CD/DVD drive and a decent GPU (although it is external only).
because very few "hardcore gamers" (who this is aimed at) are the same who can afford to drop $3k on a laptop just for gaming. I spent around $4,000 on my desktop set up, but that's something I use for everything.
People think that because the high-end PC gear can't compete right now on price, design, longevity, toughness, etc.
For instance, this laptop can't manage to hit the MacBook Pro price point, and it's in a plastic case, as opposed to a single-piece slab of aluminum. Which do you think will hold up better? Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement? Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
The 17" MBP has a quad-core processor, a 60% larger battery, an optical drive, a vertical resolution of 1200 instead of 1080, a 500GB 7200RPM drive instead of 320GB for the Razer, and still weighs 5% less than the Razer.
On the other hand, the Razer will offer a much better GPU and will be $150 cheaper than the high-end MPB 17".
It's hard to compare machines built for such different specs, but I'd say the $150 premium on the MBP is more than justified.
GPU becomes a lot more important if you are going to be using the laptop for gaming.
Ultimately they serve two different needs and therefore two different markets. For one person the Macbook is a no-brainer, but for someone else, the Razer laptop is a better choice.
Relevant to what argument? To what use case? What is a gaming PC? What is a gaming laptop? What are the use cases for each?
I would liken the gaming PC to an audiophile hi-fi setup, almost no one expects it to fit in a messenger bag and run off a battery. For the connoisseur, no portable setup will fulfill all of their needs, and in all likelihood, they'll have setups to cater to each use case. But what if you can have a machine that's ultra-portable, but could also be docked to a setup that allows for high frame rate/high res gameplay? Some people already do this on laptops with express card bridges to external PCI-E sockets. Works pretty well. Here's an example of one such build, although I've seen better:
I understand that. It's obvious, and it's also not the point. The point is that Razer made so many sacrifices to specialize this laptop that they ought to be able to undercut the MacBook Pro by a lot more than $150.
The use of a dual-core CPU instead of a quad-core CPU should cover most of the cost of the GPU upgrade, which means that either Razer's trying to make a lot more profit per machine than Apple's flagship laptop, or Razer's getting screwed on the cost of a bunch of commodity components.
I agree that they are too different to directly compare.
For me, the real $150 premium that makes the MacBook Pro justified is the fact that it runs OS X. For hardcore gamers, that's not really a plus. Also, the optical drive is a "meh" at best.
I have to add a comment that personally I dislike Apple's aluminum slab design. I have friends with MacBooks who's legs are red from the heat transfer after it's been on their (insert irony here...) lap. Also I have never had a problem with a well designed "plastic" cased laptop standing up. The Thinkpad is generally considered one of the the toughest laptops around and it's in a plastic case.
Edit: ooh - feel the downvotes! Go to apple.com and count the number of mentions of 'notebooks' vs. the number of mentions of 'laptops'. The only place you really see the word 'laptop' is in quotes in the customer success stories.
I'm a fan of the aluminum body. My Macbook Pro is 4 years old and it's a tank. You're right though, it does get pretty hot, but most high-end laptops do. I burned the graphics card out of my old plastic Fujitsu many years ago playing video games. Heat's just the price you pay to have the current fastest hardware.
I use a laptop cooler on my desk and lapdesk on the couch.
The following are some of the changes that have been made to the ThinkPad line:
Added Magnesium-alloy chassis roll cage to reduce motherboard flex caused by holding the laptop one handed on a corner.
Added Magnesium-alloy lid roll cage for a sturdier lid while replacing the lid material from magnesium-alloy to plastic for better wireless signal reception.[12]
Added Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic to 15 in (380 mm) ThinkPad Models.*
Hold better against what? Parachute drops? I have a laptop with a plastic case and I take on trips and use it at home, never had anything happen to it when I was thinking "man, I wish this thing was built out of a single-piece slab of aluminum to hold up better"
> Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement?
A company that is passionate about their customers...?
> Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
What does that matter. I'll just review whatever else is new and suitable for me and buy that (It could be a different company).
> and it's in a plastic case, as opposed to a single-piece slab of aluminum.
My Lenovo T400 has taken a lot of abuse, and it's still kicking.
> Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement?
In the PC world, each manufacturer contracts this sort of thing out. Apple does it in-house, sure, but that's not how it works outside that ecosystem. I've had no problems dealing with the Lenovo warranty people, and it's fairly likely that it would be the exact same people.
> Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
I don't need them to be alive at the end of the machine's life. I just need them to live through (or insure) the manufacturer warranty; then, I can just get any repairs directly or do them myself.
I would be very surprised if this laptop manages to bankrupt Razer within the term of the warranty, even if they did bet the company on this thing.
Because it has a 17.3" screen. My personal anecdotal evidence suggests people don't buy laptops that big. Even Apple don't sell that many compared to other models.
It's essentially the same price as the Mac Book Pro 17". Those things are like a plague at coffee shops and conferences all over the world. If the hardware is good, I think they have a good chance. I love the fact that the input pad is on the right. When using laptops where it's in front of the keyboard, I'm always accidentally pressing and moving the mouse.
PC gamers who want such high specs might want to play them outside of their homes, when they go to LAN parties. This is fairly common amongst some gamers, and a portable powerhouse has some attractions for that use.
As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development. I hope that particular feature is copied into a subsequent Macbook Pro release.
It's really bringing the innovations pioneered by the iPhone (programmable UI rather than built-in keyboard) back to the laptop.
Among other things, you could have custom glowing save/search/email keys within Word to increase the accessibility for the average joe. They might not be able to find control-F, but they can see the key in their top 10 list.
For Mail.app, Keynote, etc. you'd have different sets of keys (show presentation, download attachments, etc.)
It could get even more interesting if different keys are available in different modes within the same app, like tooltips to the nth degree. For example, each new emacs mode could light up 10 hotkeys for useful functions associated with the mode (compile, jump to, view in browser, and so on).
tl;dr: programmable LCD keys are a very interesting way to combine the best of iPhone-style programmable UI and keyboard-style haptic feedback.
But those need to be clicked with the mouse. Having a top 10 list of extremely common hotkeys in an app is just a lot more discoverable (for the non-expert or first-time user) and much faster (for all users) than finding the right icon to click.
Apple's done this with great success in their re-use of the f-keys as system control buttons (as have other manufacturers.) I'm not sure most Mac users are even aware those are f-keys any more.
"As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development."
If you are a developer and you want programmable keys, don't sit around waiting for an expensive keyboard, reprogram the ones you've already got in front of you. As far as I know, all major OSes can already arbitrarily remap keys to any keystroke you like, and it's easy to pick up software to turn any keystroke into any action you like.
Are you really using PrintScreen, or SysRq, or ALT-PrintScreen, or any of the other combinations you've got unmapped and waiting to serve you?
I am and was aware of that. You don't need LED keys is my point. Just take control of what you already have. You can do it right now.
People have this huge blind spot around their keyboards for some reason. Every keyboard is "programmable" nowadays. The symbols on the keycaps are only suggestions. Don't pine, do.
(And before anybody brings up the usual objection that your customizations travel to other people's machines poorly, bear in mind that today we're discussing a custom hardware keyboard. Software keyboard configurations travel better than that.)
> And before anybody brings up the usual objection that your customizations travel to other people's machines poorly...
I'd say that's unimportant compared to other people traveling to your machine's configuration poorly, when the displayed UI does not reflect the actual result. Imagine, if you will, someone sitting down at a keyboard configured as anything not QWERTY, but still labeled in QWERTY. They're going to ask how to fix it. In contrast, an accurately labeled keyboard will at least allow them to hunt-n-peck.
Even Apple's customizations of the trackpad travel poorly to other users. A familiar scene: a user taps it several times, then has to ask the owner how to click.
Even accurate UI needs careful design. The standard bad example is Microsoft's menus that automatically "simplified" themselves by hiding infrequently used items, making life more complex for everyone.
It turns out in practice not to be a huge problem.
As you might guess, I'm speaking from experience. I don't need to "imagine" or theorize, I'm living it.
It also turns out that if you really want to, it's easy to make your keyboard flip back and forth between QWERTY and whatever customizations you like. (In my environment, "setxkbmap us" and "jerf_keyboard" (setxkbmap dvorak & an xmodmap) does it. Bind a key to it if you like. I used to use xosd to pop up which mode just turned on when I was sharing a computer with my wife.)
I reiterate, people have a huge blind spot here and are so busy hypothesizing about how it might not work that they miss out on the fact that it does work, and there's no need to wait for fancy keyboards... that, by the way, your coworkers will still be intimidated by, so it's not as if your argument actually affects anything in any direction anyhow. Reap the benefits of these keyboards now, if you like.
Your experience isn't universal. I have people using my computer sometimes that I have to change the keyboard back to QWERTY for them, because they can't find the keyboard icon to do it themselves, even when they have directions. It really is a pain, in my experience.
Of course you and I configure tons of hotkeys, but we're hackers here and can't expect normal people to do that!
What I found interesting is the potential of LCD keys to make program features more discoverable for first time users and more accessible to the masses.
Agreed - can't wait to use this in a technical context, and write some custom apps for that touch pad. I do hope there is an option to skip the neon-green accents though, and throw in a SSD.
When my MBP hits the two-year-old mark, I would really like to replace it with something along these lines and finally get back to running Linux natively on some respectable hardware.
One more thing, I really liked the magnesium alloy case on my Actius MM10 - wish I could have that on a full-size machine. Maybe we'll get there if this thing sees some sales.
My gaming machine is a laptop, for example. Until my netbook, it was my everything machine, but it was still my gaming machine. My tower serves underused as a server much more than a used computer. I _love_ laptops for their mobility and versitility.
I find the biggest impediment to gaming in this situation is that it's hard to use a mouse on the couch.
Solution: a $5 polypropylene cutting board, still in its shrink wrap, wrapped in patterned contact paper. It's rigid enough to sit on a couch cushion or (wide) chair arm and provides a nice big mousing surface.
I understand they say they don't care if there's no market, but I'm curious who's going to buy it. Pro gamers will not care about a trackpad, or dynamic key-screens, as they don't want to spend time looking at the keys when they're looking at the screen. They have everything memorized anyway. But they are the ones who can justify spending ~$3000 on a laptop.
Casual gamers would like these features, but don't spend $2800 on gaming.
I love the idea of having a touchscreen instead of a touchpad. The possibilities! Just that one aspect of this box seems like highly innovative and hopefully a harbinger of things to come in the PC world.
Their advertisement took a stab at PC gaming vs console gaming and then they release a $2,800 device? This puts it in a different market (one that I don't think is very big).
Their advertisement had nothing to do with consoles. It was simply a statement that PC gaming is not dead.
If you want to spend $400 and play games, buy a console. You're not the target market for pc games.
Alienware made a name for itself selling $5k gaming rigs. They were incredibly successful at it. Since Dell bought them, their products have gotten crappier and crappier. If Razer wants to fill that void, more power to them.
I certainly hope they succeed. Not only has Alienware's quality reputation been slipping, but they've always been absolutely hideous eyesores. This razer actually looks pretty sexy.
The Razer Blade may be a fairly blatant MBP ripoff, but at least it looks good. Alienware seems to be pursuing the clunky F117-inspired look, complete with superfluous LEDs. This is, unfortunately, not unique to Alienware. Asus teamed up with Lamborghini to offer the VX7: http://rumors.automobilemag.com/files/2011/04/asus-vx7-lambo...
Lamborghini makes beautiful cars, but I'm not keen on plopping one on my desk in the middle of class. The Razer looks like something I'd actually feel good about being seen with.
Whenever I play a game with a laptop I use a real mouse. Anything else is a bit painful for me. Because of that, as a righty I'd rather have the dynamic buttons on the left side of the keyboard.
Heck, make the whole keyboard dynamic. Then when you're playing a game, instead of an alphanumeric symbol on the key being displayed, the action it's bound to can be displayed.
I always have trouble remembering my lesser used hotkeys (e.g. if you have 20+), but maybe I'm the only one. A quick glance at the keyboard could make it easy.
If the trackpad is any good, and it supports gestures which can be bound, the trackpad has the potential to be as good or better than a mouse. And of course, nothing's stopping you from attaching a mouse to this, meaning the trackpad can now be used for something different. (The fact that it's an LCD trackpad is just screaming for it to be used as a dedicated map viewer/mover in Starcraft.)
Trackpads are surprisingly well suited for FPS. I was with a bunch of programmers recently and we started playing Urban Terror with our Macbook Pros and we did fine with our track pads. It was more difficult to 180 in an instant, but otherwise aiming was almost normal.
Quality is obviously important. A $400 Dell laptop's trackpad would've been awful. Interestingly, a $5 optical mouse is a nearly optimal setup, which is why I doubt there is much attention on trackpads which cost much more.
"The hardest thing was convincing a manufacturing partner to consider our designs," Tan said. "No one wanted to do it. They all said there's no market, it's too expensive, no one wants this. Gamers would want something big, thick, and cheap."
Serious gamers actually flesh out a lot of money on their setups. And I don't know much about any scenes except Starcraft 2, but I know those tournaments give out products from certain companies who sponsor the event as prizes, I could see this computer fitting in that way. SC2 game "casters" have been doing the same thing on their own, and it's normally equipment of this sort of high end pricing.
The question here is can the gamers who build their own custom set-ups piece by piece be convinced to buy this kind of all-in-one package instead?
I really like the concept, but practically for MMO play it's faster to use the left-hand hotkeys or click buttons in the UI. I could see the video touchpad having a lot of awesome uses though (minimap, buffs, quest log, etc), and the buttons above the trackpad would be pretty useful for non-combat items like inventory, settings, character screen, crafting and things like that.
I've always found the idea of a secondary display on a laptop intriguing. Would be nice to be able to look down at the keyboard and have docs for whatever I'm working on already there, without having to page over to another screen or such. I would presume the screen has some sort of API (or at least a WebView mode) so this sort of thing would be possible.
On the flip side, a 17" display means you have room to keep both on the screen at once, negating the extra display. 15" model please?
You know what would be really nice on a gaming laptop? A foot pedal. It would actually be really nice for browsing too. As it is, I don't use my feet for anything... it's only intuitive that a foot pedal should be developed.
Reading the quotes from Razer in the article, it really makes me angry at the big PC manufacturers and happy that HP got out. Nothing Apple does is truly that amazing or innovative. The difference is that Apple actually has the balls to try to produce a high quality product. Not expensive for the sake of being expensive like Sony, but quality worth paying for. HP and Dell would rather sell low margin crap at high volume than try at the high quality game.
Go Razer! Glad they're the only PC company out there will the balls to compete on quality and innovation.
Worth pointing out that until this announcement, Razer wasn't a PC manufacturer. Barring a concept laptop they showed at CES, Razer's only products have been mice, keyboards, gamepads, and headsets.
"Nothing Apple does is truly that amazing or innovative."
That's absurdly unfair, companies like RIM didn't even think the iPhone was possible before it came out [1]. The iPad completely changed the "slate" market in an unimaginable way. People may or may not be wrong about a post-PC era, but its undeniably closely related to the iPad and its predecessor the iPhone (especially given Android's UI before and after the iPhone [2]). If your comment referred specifically to the laptop/desktop market, go back to the original Macintosh GUI, unibody design, the high battery life and relatively low cost of the Macbook Air (sure, they existed in the 90s as slim as an MBA but not with equivalent design or battery--and the rest of the market was into netbooks when the MBA came out anyway), touchpad gestures, and MagSafe. And when other companies announce these features, like Razer here, it usually ends with a $2800 Sure, you can name prior art on alot of these innovations but having 'balls' is PART of innovation--execution is just as important as the idea.
Games could already hook up to the pocket-sized multitouch high-res color screens that we all carry with us already. Why not start with that and, if there are actually some usages that work well, then consider building it into the device itself?
"Today, there hasn't been a single PC laptop that anyone has been passionate about for the longest time. It's not because there's no innovation, but [because] the big PC guys just don't want to innovate anymore," Min-Liang Tan, the CEO and Creative Director of Razer, told Ars.
Completely true. For example Lenovo/Thinkpad stopped producing the 4:3 screens that all their business users loved. Too hard/expensive to produce, 16:9 screens are the future, etc.
Until Apple produces millions and millions of 4:3 iPad displays. Now can we reopen the discussion?
I don't think Razer's expensive hardware and new UI is the answer, but that doesn't mean every PC laptop needs to ship with a just a shitty touchpad and 2 buttons. How about a 3rd button? A mousewheel? Start small and build from there.
The part I really don't understand is how the PC mouse industry is so innovative/over-the-top. 7 buttons, independent DPI controls, lazer tracking, ergonomic designs, etc. But then every laptop has the same terrible small touchpad and two badly-designed buttons. Seems like adding a 30-cent mousewheel to your case would instantly differentiate you from all your competitors.
True, the 'business' laptops with Trackpoints are the exception to this rule. They have 3 for some reason. That's basically why I only buy Thinkpads now.
I think part of the reason for the insane PC mouse industry is the relatively low cost of the periphreals and the (perceived) direct impact it has on the skill of the player playing a game. Where the PC gamer will drool over the 500$ amazing graphics card he can't afford, he can placate himself with a 70$ crazy ten-thousand button mouse.
Why there isn't any innovation in laptop input devices I'm without a clue. It seems like there are so many better ways to input data than a touchpad and two buttons.
Because it's a poor risk to take - you have this whole product you've designed, and if you built in an unproven pointing device and it flops, the whole product is a dud. At least with desktops a mouse or trackpad is cheap to replace, so a user might be willing to buy a computer with an unconventional input device knowing that it's only $50 to replace. Buy a laptop and find out you hate the pointing input, you're out 2 grand.
I can't really imagine anyone in the FPS/RTS crowd wanting to look down on their keyboard during gameplay. Normally you have to set their chair on fire if you want them to break eye-contact with the main-screen...
Perhaps there are slower paced games where this makes sense, though.
For gaming, mostly agree. Although I think that the pretty graphics are mostly for show, the real power will be the ability to customize gestures for any application, and the utility you get out of these gestures can well be worth looking down at a "mouse screen."
I'm imagining being able to manipulate a CAD model in isolation, freely rotating items in PowerPoint, redistributing power among throttle/lasers/shields using sliding bars (X-wing, anyone?)...I'm sure there are many more.
I'd almost argue to keep a normal track pad for dedicated cursor navigation and have the awesome set of touchscreens as a peripheral. Then have an amazing API for software developers to do creative things with it, and have an amazing UI for the layman to create their own mappings. That might get adoption for this type of thing going faster.
Remember that with a laptop, your eyes don't have to move all that much to get to the keyboard. Still not likely for the hardcore FPS and RTS gamers, but this could be pretty useful for more casual gaming and things like WoW.
question - why is everyone making alumninium unibody notebooks ? Is carbon fiber not lighter and (arguably) just as strong.
Is it just the design aesthetic that everyone is trying to reach out for or is there something else.
hmm.. I honestly never thought that was the issue, given how popular graphite tennis racquets are.
What about fiberglass then ? I even saw a show on TV, where they remade a car chassis by handfilling fiberglass filaments and the resulting could withstand sledgehammer blows.
does fiberglass/carbon-fiber affect laptop cooling ?
The processes for Fiberglass and carbon fiber are nearly identical (both use mats of the material and resins that have to be formed/cooked (in the case of carbon fiber)).
I would imagine carbon fiber wouldn't conduct heat quite as well as aluminum, but I don't have any data on that.
Because CF is still ridiculously expensive. It's cheaper now to make than before and you might see it around more often, but it's still an exotic material. Otherwise, we would see it everywhere.
I always thought that carbon fiber weaving was not widespread and thus that was one factor in the high cost of carbon fiber. For example when Lexus was building their LFA car they also built their own 3D CF loom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry9uiP2I6kQ
Typically though you don't custom-weave CF into the product shape; you buy CF cloth and lay it into a mold. I think, though, that a lot of composite layup is still done by hand since it is not as easy to automate as a lot of metalworking processes are.
The laptop looks very nice as far as design goes, but as a 3k gaming machine it leaves a lot to be desired. I am starting to wonder if some of these technology companies are intentionally trying to lose money.
The GT 555M is a mainstream consumer video card. It can be found on laptops around $700 and I doubt it will run BF3 well at anything higher than medium settings. As a $3000 gaming machine that hasn't even been released yet, it should have a 6990M or a GTX 580M.
Finally, what kind of gamer who is willing to spend $3000 on a laptop is even going to use a trackpad? I wonder how much this ridiculous, unnecessary addition adds to the price of the system.
To put things in perspective, an Alienware M17x with a 6990M starts at 1799, and an identical clevo/sager would run about 1600.
Maybe it would work better for a leftie. A left-handed person could keep their hand on the mouse and use their other hand for the trackpad interface when needed.
razer makes quite a few right handed products. it's a trade off to make it better for 90% and lose some customers. i think in this case it's even more important than with mice. trackpad below keyboard instead of to the side is not so good for gaming.
They should make a keyboard with all the keys on the left side. That way, it won't tempt lefties into using their useless right appendage. [Disclaimer: I'm a lefty, though fairly ambidextrous.]
These guys took out an ad in The Wall Street journal drumming up hype for this release.
Guys: I can buy a Sony Playstation 3 for a little over $200. Call it $300.
I can then buy an large television for $1000, and a solid set of speakers for $200.
That's $1500 all-in, for something that will play every single PS3 game flawlessly.
Why would I spend $2800 on this? What I am getting for $1300?
If it's the variety of PC games like minecraft, I can throw an additional $500 at a low-end gaming PC, hook it to my television, and play console and PC games.
You can actually get a laptop with the same specs for about 900€. (the only thing that missed is the little touch screen on the right, and the 17", it was 15.6)
The screen size is a pretty big difference -- the 17.3" is just under 23% bigger (in terms of surface area) than the 15.6. Of course, that's not $1500 worth of difference.
I'd be interested to know where you found that, though. Newegg has exactly five laptops with 15.3"+ 1920x1080 screens with CPUs clocked for at least 2.5GHz. All are $1560+, which is about $200 more than 900 Euro. Two are out-of-stock Toughbooks, two are recertified MBPs, and one is an absolute beast of an Asus that still has substantially lower specs than this thing. You may have found me my next laptop, assuming it will ship to someone I know.
You seem to be under the mis-impression that there isn't already a market for gaming laptops. There is. Go to almost any laptop makers page and you'll find a whole section devoted to "gaming laptops". Hell, it's part of how Alienware made their name.
Most of them unfortunately have a reputation for being enormously heavy and bulky, and for generating inferno levels of heat. But people do still buy them. If this thing really does have competitive performance to the current top end gaming laptops and is as thin and nice looking as those pictures make it seem, I think they've got a real winner on their hands.
From the looks of the pictures in the article I was certain it was the Switchblade, but now looking back at the old pics on their site, I realized that it's not the same Switchblade I saw months ago. In the article they even named it "Switchblade User Interface". They said from the beginning that the Switchblade was a concept, so I'm just glad they are releasing it earlier than I though.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 445 ms ] threadhttp://www.engadget.com/photos/razer-blade-0/
That is Apple's industrial design language. They could have made it look like anything and they chose to ape apple, that's lazy.
Heck, the most popular PC game at the moment (World of Warcraft) can be played on relatively cheap laptops already.
I'm glad they have the courage to try this. Outside of Apple, most computer companies stopped innovating a long time ago. They're happy to fight over scraps in a commodity market. HP finally got sick of it and are betting their business on a major shift in strategy.
When it comes down to it, you get what you pay for. With computer taking over more-and-more tasks in our lives, it's worth it to spend a little more on a system that better suits your needs.
But who am I to argue with someone that thinks any advancement in HCI over the ancient keyboard-and-mouse is a "gimmick"?
Oh yeah, it also includes a CD/DVD drive and a decent GPU (although it is external only).
For instance, this laptop can't manage to hit the MacBook Pro price point, and it's in a plastic case, as opposed to a single-piece slab of aluminum. Which do you think will hold up better? Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement? Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
If you configure a 17'' MacBook Pro to have similar specs as this, the MacBook Pro costs a little more.
On the other hand, the Razer will offer a much better GPU and will be $150 cheaper than the high-end MPB 17".
It's hard to compare machines built for such different specs, but I'd say the $150 premium on the MBP is more than justified.
Ultimately they serve two different needs and therefore two different markets. For one person the Macbook is a no-brainer, but for someone else, the Razer laptop is a better choice.
I would liken the gaming PC to an audiophile hi-fi setup, almost no one expects it to fit in a messenger bag and run off a battery. For the connoisseur, no portable setup will fulfill all of their needs, and in all likelihood, they'll have setups to cater to each use case. But what if you can have a machine that's ultra-portable, but could also be docked to a setup that allows for high frame rate/high res gameplay? Some people already do this on laptops with express card bridges to external PCI-E sockets. Works pretty well. Here's an example of one such build, although I've seen better:
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/graphics-...
The use of a dual-core CPU instead of a quad-core CPU should cover most of the cost of the GPU upgrade, which means that either Razer's trying to make a lot more profit per machine than Apple's flagship laptop, or Razer's getting screwed on the cost of a bunch of commodity components.
For me, the real $150 premium that makes the MacBook Pro justified is the fact that it runs OS X. For hardcore gamers, that's not really a plus. Also, the optical drive is a "meh" at best.
Edit: ooh - feel the downvotes! Go to apple.com and count the number of mentions of 'notebooks' vs. the number of mentions of 'laptops'. The only place you really see the word 'laptop' is in quotes in the customer success stories.
I use a laptop cooler on my desk and lapdesk on the couch.
(Quoting from https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ThinkPad#Leno...)
The following are some of the changes that have been made to the ThinkPad line:
Able to and want to are definitely different when gaming on MacBooks.
Were they just doing that as a test? Because there's a Mac version of WoW...
Hold better against what? Parachute drops? I have a laptop with a plastic case and I take on trips and use it at home, never had anything happen to it when I was thinking "man, I wish this thing was built out of a single-piece slab of aluminum to hold up better"
> Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement?
A company that is passionate about their customers...?
> Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
What does that matter. I'll just review whatever else is new and suitable for me and buy that (It could be a different company).
Not plastic.
My Lenovo T400 has taken a lot of abuse, and it's still kicking.
> Who would you rather deal with for warranty repairs and replacement?
In the PC world, each manufacturer contracts this sort of thing out. Apple does it in-house, sure, but that's not how it works outside that ecosystem. I've had no problems dealing with the Lenovo warranty people, and it's fairly likely that it would be the exact same people.
> Which company is more likely to still be alive at the end of the machine's life?
I don't need them to be alive at the end of the machine's life. I just need them to live through (or insure) the manufacturer warranty; then, I can just get any repairs directly or do them myself.
I would be very surprised if this laptop manages to bankrupt Razer within the term of the warranty, even if they did bet the company on this thing.
Having the trackpad on the right makes a lot of sense, hopefully we start seeing more laptops that do this.
As a hacker rather than a gamer, the concept of a programmable set of LCD keys next to the standard keyboard is extremely interesting for native app development. I hope that particular feature is copied into a subsequent Macbook Pro release.
It's really bringing the innovations pioneered by the iPhone (programmable UI rather than built-in keyboard) back to the laptop.
Among other things, you could have custom glowing save/search/email keys within Word to increase the accessibility for the average joe. They might not be able to find control-F, but they can see the key in their top 10 list.
For Mail.app, Keynote, etc. you'd have different sets of keys (show presentation, download attachments, etc.)
It could get even more interesting if different keys are available in different modes within the same app, like tooltips to the nth degree. For example, each new emacs mode could light up 10 hotkeys for useful functions associated with the mode (compile, jump to, view in browser, and so on).
tl;dr: programmable LCD keys are a very interesting way to combine the best of iPhone-style programmable UI and keyboard-style haptic feedback.
If you are a developer and you want programmable keys, don't sit around waiting for an expensive keyboard, reprogram the ones you've already got in front of you. As far as I know, all major OSes can already arbitrarily remap keys to any keystroke you like, and it's easy to pick up software to turn any keystroke into any action you like.
Are you really using PrintScreen, or SysRq, or ALT-PrintScreen, or any of the other combinations you've got unmapped and waiting to serve you?
People have this huge blind spot around their keyboards for some reason. Every keyboard is "programmable" nowadays. The symbols on the keycaps are only suggestions. Don't pine, do.
(And before anybody brings up the usual objection that your customizations travel to other people's machines poorly, bear in mind that today we're discussing a custom hardware keyboard. Software keyboard configurations travel better than that.)
I'd say that's unimportant compared to other people traveling to your machine's configuration poorly, when the displayed UI does not reflect the actual result. Imagine, if you will, someone sitting down at a keyboard configured as anything not QWERTY, but still labeled in QWERTY. They're going to ask how to fix it. In contrast, an accurately labeled keyboard will at least allow them to hunt-n-peck.
Even Apple's customizations of the trackpad travel poorly to other users. A familiar scene: a user taps it several times, then has to ask the owner how to click.
Even accurate UI needs careful design. The standard bad example is Microsoft's menus that automatically "simplified" themselves by hiding infrequently used items, making life more complex for everyone.
As you might guess, I'm speaking from experience. I don't need to "imagine" or theorize, I'm living it.
It also turns out that if you really want to, it's easy to make your keyboard flip back and forth between QWERTY and whatever customizations you like. (In my environment, "setxkbmap us" and "jerf_keyboard" (setxkbmap dvorak & an xmodmap) does it. Bind a key to it if you like. I used to use xosd to pop up which mode just turned on when I was sharing a computer with my wife.)
I reiterate, people have a huge blind spot here and are so busy hypothesizing about how it might not work that they miss out on the fact that it does work, and there's no need to wait for fancy keyboards... that, by the way, your coworkers will still be intimidated by, so it's not as if your argument actually affects anything in any direction anyhow. Reap the benefits of these keyboards now, if you like.
What I found interesting is the potential of LCD keys to make program features more discoverable for first time users and more accessible to the masses.
When my MBP hits the two-year-old mark, I would really like to replace it with something along these lines and finally get back to running Linux natively on some respectable hardware.
One more thing, I really liked the magnesium alloy case on my Actius MM10 - wish I could have that on a full-size machine. Maybe we'll get there if this thing sees some sales.
I have my laptop _on my lap_ working/playing games etc on the couch instead of watching TV.
It's difficult to play many games in this situation.
Solution: a $5 polypropylene cutting board, still in its shrink wrap, wrapped in patterned contact paper. It's rigid enough to sit on a couch cushion or (wide) chair arm and provides a nice big mousing surface.
You're right it's not for a casual gamer but all Razer's products are not for casual gamers and somehow they can make living.
Thank you!
I hope it's easy for programs to change the look of the multitouch display buttons. It almost bring the Optimus keyboard into the mobile realm!
If you want to spend $400 and play games, buy a console. You're not the target market for pc games.
Alienware made a name for itself selling $5k gaming rigs. They were incredibly successful at it. Since Dell bought them, their products have gotten crappier and crappier. If Razer wants to fill that void, more power to them.
The Razer Blade may be a fairly blatant MBP ripoff, but at least it looks good. Alienware seems to be pursuing the clunky F117-inspired look, complete with superfluous LEDs. This is, unfortunately, not unique to Alienware. Asus teamed up with Lamborghini to offer the VX7: http://rumors.automobilemag.com/files/2011/04/asus-vx7-lambo...
Lamborghini makes beautiful cars, but I'm not keen on plopping one on my desk in the middle of class. The Razer looks like something I'd actually feel good about being seen with.
Heck, make the whole keyboard dynamic. Then when you're playing a game, instead of an alphanumeric symbol on the key being displayed, the action it's bound to can be displayed.
Quality is obviously important. A $400 Dell laptop's trackpad would've been awful. Interestingly, a $5 optical mouse is a nearly optimal setup, which is why I doubt there is much attention on trackpads which cost much more.
Serious gamers actually flesh out a lot of money on their setups. And I don't know much about any scenes except Starcraft 2, but I know those tournaments give out products from certain companies who sponsor the event as prizes, I could see this computer fitting in that way. SC2 game "casters" have been doing the same thing on their own, and it's normally equipment of this sort of high end pricing.
The question here is can the gamers who build their own custom set-ups piece by piece be convinced to buy this kind of all-in-one package instead?
http://www.razerzone.com/swtor/keyboard
At around $200 this is a lot more likely to sell.
On the flip side, a 17" display means you have room to keep both on the screen at once, negating the extra display. 15" model please?
random result for "emacs pedal": http://www.cb1.com/~john/computing/emacs/handsfree/pedals.ht...
Go Razer! Glad they're the only PC company out there will the balls to compete on quality and innovation.
That's absurdly unfair, companies like RIM didn't even think the iPhone was possible before it came out [1]. The iPad completely changed the "slate" market in an unimaginable way. People may or may not be wrong about a post-PC era, but its undeniably closely related to the iPad and its predecessor the iPhone (especially given Android's UI before and after the iPhone [2]). If your comment referred specifically to the laptop/desktop market, go back to the original Macintosh GUI, unibody design, the high battery life and relatively low cost of the Macbook Air (sure, they existed in the 90s as slim as an MBA but not with equivalent design or battery--and the rest of the market was into netbooks when the MBA came out anyway), touchpad gestures, and MagSafe. And when other companies announce these features, like Razer here, it usually ends with a $2800 Sure, you can name prior art on alot of these innovations but having 'balls' is PART of innovation--execution is just as important as the idea.
[1] http://www.razorianfly.com/2010/12/28/rim-we-thought-apple-w... [2] http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-l...
http://www.samsung.com/us/news/newsRead.do?news_seq=19774
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/16/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-review...
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/03/hp-envy-14-review/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-...
Games could already hook up to the pocket-sized multitouch high-res color screens that we all carry with us already. Why not start with that and, if there are actually some usages that work well, then consider building it into the device itself?
Innovation != just stick another screen on there.
Completely true. For example Lenovo/Thinkpad stopped producing the 4:3 screens that all their business users loved. Too hard/expensive to produce, 16:9 screens are the future, etc.
Until Apple produces millions and millions of 4:3 iPad displays. Now can we reopen the discussion?
I don't think Razer's expensive hardware and new UI is the answer, but that doesn't mean every PC laptop needs to ship with a just a shitty touchpad and 2 buttons. How about a 3rd button? A mousewheel? Start small and build from there.
The part I really don't understand is how the PC mouse industry is so innovative/over-the-top. 7 buttons, independent DPI controls, lazer tracking, ergonomic designs, etc. But then every laptop has the same terrible small touchpad and two badly-designed buttons. Seems like adding a 30-cent mousewheel to your case would instantly differentiate you from all your competitors.
The Dell Precision laptops have two sets of three mouse buttons (above and below the trackpad). I still plug in a real mouse, though.
Why there isn't any innovation in laptop input devices I'm without a clue. It seems like there are so many better ways to input data than a touchpad and two buttons.
Perhaps there are slower paced games where this makes sense, though.
I'm imagining being able to manipulate a CAD model in isolation, freely rotating items in PowerPoint, redistributing power among throttle/lasers/shields using sliding bars (X-wing, anyone?)...I'm sure there are many more.
I'd almost argue to keep a normal track pad for dedicated cursor navigation and have the awesome set of touchscreens as a peripheral. Then have an amazing API for software developers to do creative things with it, and have an amazing UI for the layman to create their own mappings. That might get adoption for this type of thing going faster.
Probably cheaper, as well.
What about fiberglass then ? I even saw a show on TV, where they remade a car chassis by handfilling fiberglass filaments and the resulting could withstand sledgehammer blows.
does fiberglass/carbon-fiber affect laptop cooling ?
I would imagine carbon fiber wouldn't conduct heat quite as well as aluminum, but I don't have any data on that.
same ballpark pricing ~2000 USD. Is unibody aluminium that commonplace a manufacturing process that it is much more feasible than carbon fiber ?
The GT 555M is a mainstream consumer video card. It can be found on laptops around $700 and I doubt it will run BF3 well at anything higher than medium settings. As a $3000 gaming machine that hasn't even been released yet, it should have a 6990M or a GTX 580M.
Finally, what kind of gamer who is willing to spend $3000 on a laptop is even going to use a trackpad? I wonder how much this ridiculous, unnecessary addition adds to the price of the system.
To put things in perspective, an Alienware M17x with a 6990M starts at 1799, and an identical clevo/sager would run about 1600.
Looks cool, doesn't seem practical to replace a gaming rig.
Guys: I can buy a Sony Playstation 3 for a little over $200. Call it $300.
I can then buy an large television for $1000, and a solid set of speakers for $200.
That's $1500 all-in, for something that will play every single PS3 game flawlessly.
Why would I spend $2800 on this? What I am getting for $1300?
If it's the variety of PC games like minecraft, I can throw an additional $500 at a low-end gaming PC, hook it to my television, and play console and PC games.
A gaming laptop? Why?
I'd be interested to know where you found that, though. Newegg has exactly five laptops with 15.3"+ 1920x1080 screens with CPUs clocked for at least 2.5GHz. All are $1560+, which is about $200 more than 900 Euro. Two are out-of-stock Toughbooks, two are recertified MBPs, and one is an absolute beast of an Asus that still has substantially lower specs than this thing. You may have found me my next laptop, assuming it will ship to someone I know.
Most of them unfortunately have a reputation for being enormously heavy and bulky, and for generating inferno levels of heat. But people do still buy them. If this thing really does have competitive performance to the current top end gaming laptops and is as thin and nice looking as those pictures make it seem, I think they've got a real winner on their hands.
[1] http://www.razerzone.com/switchblade