Razer Announces the Razer Blade Pro Gaming Notebook

A high-powered gaming system doesn’t need to be a large desktop, it can actually be quite portable as proven by Razer’s latest notebook, the Razer Blade Pro. This new 17-inch sized system is designed from the ground up to be the best possible system at the smallest possible size as it’s less than 1 inch thick.

Despite the compact size, the Razer Blade Pro features the latest Intel i7-6700HQ quad-core processor and packs 32GB DDR4 RAM. There are three different storage options, all of them RAID 0 setups with either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB PCIe SSDs to provide you with 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB blazing fast storage. A gaming system needs more than a good CPU, RAM, and storage, it also needs a great graphics card and for that Razer packed the Nvidia GTX 1080 into this tiny notebook. That kind of hardware should blast through any game and also do very well for work tasks.

“It’s impressive what Razer was able to pack into the new Razer Blade Pro,” said Mark Aevermann, senior product lead for GeForce gaming laptops at NVIDIA. “They have managed to design a gaming laptop with our flagship GeForce GTX 1080, in a form factor gamers can take with them on the road.”

The Razer Blade Pro looks like the other Razer notebooks and also uses the same CNC aluminium chassis that allows it to stay below 8 pounds in weight and be just 0.88-inch thick. One of the first worries people might have with a system this powerful and this small is heat and whether the system can handle it or throttle itself.

But heat shouldn’t be an issue for the Blade Pro as it features the world’s thinnest vapor chamber cooling solution. The vapor chamber reduces heat resistance and hotspots by spreading heat quickly, evenly and efficiently. A custom fan design and dynamic heat exchanger are paired with the vapor chamber to maximize the heat dissipation and allow the Blade Pro to be the most powerful computer ever assembled in such a thin chassis.

“The original 17-inch Blade was the first laptop that truly blended power and portability in a PC,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “We’ve taken that approach another step further with the new Razer Blade Pro. The thermal engineering behind it is staggering. It’s incredible how far we’ve come, from having one product and a small team, to today, with a full catalog of gaming systems and a large group of engineers and designers pushing what a portable gaming machine can do.”

The basic hardware and cooling are nailed down, but what about the keyboard? After all, that’s a vital part of a gaming system and having to carry an external mechanical keyboard would defeat the purpose of this system. But not to worry, Razer thought of that too and the Blade Pro is the first notebook to utilize Razer’s Ultra-Low-Profile Mechanical switches. Each switch features a true actuation and reset point while presses are registered with 65 grams of force.

The overall specifications on this notebook easily exceed the minimum hardware requirements of the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and OSVR HDK 2 headsets, making it VR-ready besides just being highly mobile.

Features

• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad-Core Processor (2.6 GHz / 3.5 GHz)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB GDDR5X VRAM)
• RAM: 32 GB Dual-Channel System Memory (DDR4, 2133 MHz)
• Storage: (various)
  512 GB SSD RAID 0 (2x 256 GB PCIe M.2)
  1 TB SSD RAID 0 (2x 512 GB PCIe M.2)
  2 TB SSD RAID 0 (2x 1 TB PCIe M.2)
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Network: Killer DoubleShot Pro
  Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.1)
  Killer E2400 (Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000)
• Ports and connectors:
  Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
  USB 3.0 port x3 (SuperSpeed)
  SDXC card reader
  HDMI 2.0 video and audio output
• Display: 17.3-inch IGZO UHD G-SYNC
  Ratio: 16:9
  Resolution: 3840 x 2160
  Type: LED backlight
  Touch: Capacitive multi-touch
• Keyboard: Anti-ghosting individually backlit ultra-low-profile mechanical keyboard
• Audio:
  Built-in stereo Speakers
  Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater Edition
  7.1 Codec support (via HDMI)
  3.5 mm headphone/microphone combo port
  Array microphone
• Built-in webcam (2.0 MP)
• Razer Synapse enabled with programmable keyboard, trackpad, backlighting, and fan control
• Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) security chip embedded
• Kensington security slot
• Compact 250 W power adapter
  Built-in 99 Wh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery
• Approx. Size: 0.88 in. / 22.5 mm (Height) x 16.7 in. / 424 mm (Width) x 11 in. / 281 mm (Depth)
• Approx. Weight: 7.80 lbs. / 3.54 kg