Day three of E3 2021 has come and gone. Closing out the day was Razer, who did their very own presentation, all by themselves. They grow up so fast. Here is a round-up of everything they had to show us.
AMD powered Razer Blade 14
Razer is touting its new Blade 14 as being the “world’s fastest 14-inch gaming laptop” and with the inclusion of newly released AMD 5000 mobile series chips and Nvidia RTX 3080 GPUs it very well might be. This marks the first time the company has moved away from using Intel chips in its laptops since they entered the gaming laptop market back in 2011.
Other stand-out features include a choice in the display you get. Razer is offering two options, both of which are IPS-based and offer variable refresh rate support: 1080p 144Hz or 1440p 165Hz. For storage and memory, the Blade 14 comes with a 1TB NVMe SSD and 16GB of DDR4-3200 respectively. It should be noted though, that the 16GB of memory is not expandable so if you’re looking for more, look elsewhere.
Rounding out the feature-set, the new Blade 14 also comes with a per-key RGB backlit keyboard and all the I/O ports you would ever need on a gaming laptop (except for an ethernet port, for some reason). 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, 2 x USB 3,2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 1 x HDMI 2.1 (capable of up to 4K 120Hz), a combined 3.5mm headphone-mic jack and a Kensington Security slot to keep your precious safe. Also featured are a 720p Windows Hello webcam, THX-certified audio from the two onboard speakers and up to twelve hours of battery life, but your results there may vary.
If you’re keen to get your hands on one of these then you’ll need to wait until 14 June when they start shipping. There is no word yet on local launch or pricing but we suggest having a tissue ready to wipe up the tears from your wallet as they won’t be cheap.
Razer Raptor 27
Razer has released an update to their standalone monitor, the Raptor 27. This new variant has a slightly faster refresh rate of 165Hz (up from 144Hz), a THX certification and G-Sync compatibility.
Everything else is pretty much the same as the 2019 model. This new version will still feature a 27in 1440p IPS panel and come with a sleek and sturdy aluminium base that allows 90-degree tilt for easy access to cable management.
Razer must have peeked over Apple’s shoulder in class because they are also offering a VESA adaptor which will allow you to mount the monitor on an arm or wall mount (providing the mount supports the VESA standard). However, this adapter will not come with the monitor and will have to be purchased separately.
130W USB-C GaN Charger
The world of fast chargers for your electronic devices is about to change forever. Okay, that might be a little dramatic and we’re not talking about USB-C. We already have those. We’re talking about the move from using silicon to gallium nitride (GaN).
The main advantage of using GaN instead of the traditional silicon is that GaN produces less heat, which means the internal components can be closer together and the overall product can be smaller while still meeting the safety and power production requirements.
Razer’s GaN charger will have two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports that will output a combined 130W. All this comes in a package that measures 32mm wide, 77mm long and 62mm tall and only weighs around 350g. The price tag may be heavier than the product though at $180 (again, no word on local pricing) but it does come with international adapters so at least there’s that.
Project Hazel Mask
Earlier this year, we reported that Razer was turning their smart mask concept into an actual product and at E3 this year CEO Min-Liang Tan showed us what that’s going to look like and when we can expect them.
The design will remain largely unchanged from what we saw earlier in 2021, but Tan shared they will be making some changes including added lighting and an anti-fog coating to the interior of the mask.
The mask will only be available from Razer’s website which, at the time of writing, does not ship to South Africa but thankfully we can still experience what we would look like wearing the mask via an Instagram filter.
