Razer's new Blade looks like the future of 4K gaming laptops

The Razer Blade has proved to be a stunningly thin and beautiful gaming laptop and this year it comes packed with more power than ever.

The 14-inch gaming laptop now comes outfitted with an Intel Skylake Core processor and a Nvidia GTX 970M with 6GB of video RAM to help it run games at Ultra HD resolution. Last year's Blade maxed out with half the amount of video memory, which proved to be too little to play games at 4K at a decent clip.

Of course, we're a little skeptical any mobile chip-powered rig can truly game at Ultra HD without the absolute, best configuration – as seen with the Gigabyte P35X v5 – or two mobile GPUs linked in SLI.

Despite all the extra power, the new Razer Blade is significantly lighter at 4.25 pounds (1.93kg), nearly a quarter pound compared to last year's 4.47 pound model. It's also just as thin at 0.70-inches (1.79cm) thick.

Razer Blade

The updated 14-inch also gains a Razer Chroma keyboard that users can fully customize to the tune of 16.8 million color combinations. As well as a Thunderbolt 3.0 (USB-C) slot that connect to peripheral Maker's external GPU solution called the Razer Core.

Every Blade also comes standard with 16GB of DDR4 RAM, Intel Core i7-6700HQ, Nvidia GTX 970M as well as a 3,200 x 1,800 resolution display as there are no plans to release a 1080p model yet.

Razer plans to offer the Blade at a direct discount for $1,999 (about £1,391, AU$2,642) when purchasing the QHD+ 256GB model. Alternatively, users can pick up a unit with a 512GB SSD configuration for $2,199 (about £1,530, AU$2,906).

  • Here's what we think of Razer's first Ultrabook, the Blade Stealth
Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.

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