Gamers who are planning to acquire a gaming laptop this year -- and have US$2,000 to spare -- can get themselves the latest Razer Blade.
The Razer Blade 2016 uses the latest hardware available in the market. The processor is the Intel Core i7-6700HQ 6th Gen Quad-Core with a base clock of 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHZ on Turbo mode. It also contains an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU with a 6GB GDDR5 VRAM and a 16GB DDR4 RAM.
This is a great improvement compared to last year's model that houses an Intel Core i7-4720HQ processor, GeForce GTX 970M GPU with 3GB VRAM and 16GB DDR3 RAM.
The Blade 2016 model also comes with a 14-inch IGZO QHD+ multi-touch display screen that offers 3200 x 1800 pixel resolution, a Killer Wireless-AC adaptor, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 256 SSD (PCIe M.2), which is three times faster than an mSATA SSD. A 512 SSD (PCIe M.2) variant is also available for US$2,200.
There is a Chroma backlit anti-ghosting keyboard, 2MP webcam, stereo speakers, microphone array, built-in 70Wh battery and 165W power adaptor.
When it comes to ports, the Razer Blade 2016 has three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI 1.4b video and audio output, a 3.5 mm combo headphone jack, and a Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C). The Thunderbolt port also gives access to the Razer Core, a docking station that can accommodate a full-size desktop GPU. This gives the gaming laptop extra muscle for graphical horsepower requirements. The Razer Core provides four additional USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet port. This will be available soon.
The body of the Razer Blade 2016 is made out of aluminum and is less than a quarter of an inch thick. It is 13.6-inch wide and 9.3-inch deep. It weighs at 1.93 kgs.
The new gaming laptop comes with the Windows 10 operating system and several freebies that include FL Studio 12 for music production worth US$199 and "Tom Clancy's The Division," courtesy of NVIDIA.
It is now available for pre-order on Razer's store and will start shipping by March 31.
