Gamers on the move as well as Razer fans better get their wallets ready as Razer unleashes a more affordable Razer Blade Pro gaming laptop as an answer to the clamor for a cheaper alternative to last year's more expensive Blade Pro model.
The Razer Blade Pro, a thin 17-inch laptop unveiled at Razer's PAX West booth in Seattle in the first week of September, features a beefy set of computer hardware. Although it's price being lower than that of last year's Blade Pro model, it comes at a compromise in terms of performance. Last year's Blade Pro was positioned as premium at $4,999, while this year's Blade Pro just sits comfortably at the $2,300 price point.
The most notable compromise is that the new device uses a Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics processing unit (GPU) instead of the Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU. The GTX 1060 is considerably "lower-end" and is in-fact two tiers below the GTX 1080 in terms of GPU hierarchy.
The central processing unit (CPU) or more simply called the "processor" remains unchanged, however, as the new Blade Pro still bears the same Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor from last year's 4K resolution Blade Pro model.
The 4K-resolution screen has also been replaced with a full high-definition (FHD) screen, albeit with 120 hertz (Hz) refresh rate instead of the usual 60Hz FHD monitor. This means that the resolution was reduced from the impressive 3840 x 2160 to the more common 1920 x 1080. The touch-screen feature has also been scrapped in the new Blade Pro model.
The storage capacity for the new Blade Pro also only has one configuration, which is 256 GB of solid state drive (SSD) and a 1 terabyte (TB) Hard Drive, both of which are fortunately replaceable. Also replaceable is the 16 GB of random access memory (RAM) of the said high-end gaming laptop.
Included in the replaced parts for the new Blade Pro is the cooling system, from the vapor chamber cooling system of last year's Blade Pro model to a traditional cooling system of heat pipes and fans.
The final compromise is on the keyboard. Last year's version was a mechanical keyboard; now, it's a membrane keyboard, which may be less durable than its mechanical counterpart.
The new Razer Blade Pro, despite its compromises, still proves to be a capable gaming laptop, albeit more aimed toward a different demographic. It is now available for $2,229.
