Razer's new 'Blade' laptop has a touchscreen that won't kill battery life
Beating last year's Blade is a tall order, but Razer hopes throwing a fancy new 14-inch, 3,200 x 1,800 touch display into its 2015 gaming laptop will help it do just that. The outfit's using an Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO, for short) panel, and all those pixels are powered by NVIDIA's GeForce 970M GPU that runs on Maxwell architecture. In terms of memory, there's 16GB of RAM (double that of last year) in addition to a maximum 512GB of solid-state storage. All that to say, much like our laptop buyer's guide choice from last year, games will almost assuredly look gorgeous and perform incredibly well here.
While we decried the 2014 unit's battery life, it looks like Razer might've found a way to address that: the new Blade automatically swaps between the aforementioned GPU and Intel integrated graphics, using NVIDIA's Optimus technology. Until we get one for review, though, it's anyone's guess howhe 70Wh Li-ion polymer battery will fare in real-world use.
You can order one right now either factory-direct or from the Microsoft Store. Or, should you want to give yourself a little something post Valentine's Day, you can pick one up at select Microsoft Stores on February 16th. How much will one set you back? Well, starting price is $2,199. Of course, if dinner, chocolates, roses and a pair of tickets for 50 Shades of Grey left you a little cash-strapped, you can always opt for the 1080p model. A bit of screen resolution isn't all it sheds: It loses some weight and $200 off its sharper sibling's base price, too.
