Razer Blade (fall 2012)

(Credit: Razer)

When I reviewed the Razer Blade -- PC gaming hardware manufacturer Razer's first laptop -- this spring, I found two ideas at cross-purposes: the Blade was undoubtedly the thinnest, perhaps the most stylish-looking gaming laptop I'd seen, and boasted an excellent screen, but the performance, processor, graphics, and overall specs didn't match its high price, and its experimental touch-screen Switchblade interface had barely any app support.

The new second-generation revision to the Razer Blade, announced today at PAX, has the same 0.88-inch-thin, 6.6-pound design, crisp, matte 17.3-inch 1,920x1,080-pixel display, and experimental touch-screen Switchblade UI touch pad, but a vastly different set of specs under the hood, as well as a lower price.

(Credit: Razer)

The fixed-configuration second-generation Blade comes with an unspecified third-gen quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M (2GB) graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive with 64GB solid-state drive (SSD) cache acceleration.

In comparison, the last version of the Blade had a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7-2640M CPU, Nvidia GeForce GT 555M graphics, and a 256GB SSD. The key drawback of the last Blade was its graphics performance: games didn't run as well as on higher-end gaming laptops. The new Blade's specs make it look much more equivalent to other higher-end gaming laptops.

The switch to a hybrid 500GB hard drive doubles the storage of the Blade from its previous 256GB capacity. Other features include a built-in HD Webcam, 802.11 A/G/N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, an expanded set of three USB 3.0 ports including powered-off USB charging, and what Razer claims are optimized speakers and quieter fans.

The innovative but quirky Switchblade UI, which incorporates Synaptics touch-screen technology into a second screen along with 10 programmable LED-screen keys, has new apps and functions, according to a conference call I had with Razer earlier this week. Specific games should finally start having Switchblade support, and an SDK released earlier this year promises some additional independently developed functions. In the initial Razer Blade release, the Switchblade UI was limited to very basic features, mostly amounting to programmable macros and a few Web-browsing-related apps for the second screen. Confirmed compatible games this time around include Firefall, Battlefield 3, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, along with apps including a League of Legends game timer, a combat logger for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and a screenshot-taking utility. These are exactly the types of apps I was expecting the first time, but that hadn't materialized.

The second version of the Razer Blade costs $2,499, so $300 less than the original, but still very expensive by laptop standards. Razer, to its credit, acknowledges this. There few equivalents in the space and price range other than the $2,199 Retina Display MacBook Pro, which has a similarly thin optical-drive-free body.

The new Razer Blade will be available for preorder on September 2, and should be shipped somewhere toward the end of September. Those who bought the first Razer Blade are eligible for a $500 credit toward the purchase of a new Blade.

I did ask Razer about the new Blade's pre-Windows 8 timing strategy, and the official word is that, while the Razer Blade is Windows 8-ready, some of the Switchblade UI drivers will need updating. If you're dead set on getting a Windows 8 gaming laptop this fall, stay tuned for info on how the Blade handles the upgrade.