PAX 2011 West (aka PAX Prime) hit Seattle this past weekend and the Futurelooks Team was on hand along with sister site MEGATechNews, to take in the sights and sounds of one of largest fan and community based gaming events around. While there were a lot of new games for all platforms being demo’d at the event, Futurelooks focused on checking out what was new for PC gamers. For example, RAZER unveiled something that we never thought they’d ever bring to market: A high end gaming notebook.
Check out the video above (or directly on YouTube) for the moving pictures and interview.
The NEW RAZER Blade Gaming Notebook
As you’ll see in the video above, the new RAZER Blade is quite the beauty. It utilizes a unibody aluminum construction that’s somewhat similar to ones made by a certain fruit company. But unlike said company, the RAZER Blade is geared strictly towards gaming by using an Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge processor and nVidia’s top end gaming GPU using their Optimus technology to save power when not gaming. It also has a 17 inch screen, but because of the slim aluminum construction, it feels even smaller than most 15 inch gaming notebooks on the market today, weighing 6.97lbs and is no more than 0.88 inches thin. The RAZER Blade is also outfitted with their Switchblade touchpad that gives you unlimited programming options for your macros.
In the video, Robert Krakoff, the company’s head RAZER, alluded to some leaks about the pricing being upwards of $2800 US. While official pricing has note been released, do expect it to be hitting Q4 of this year near the top end of the pricing scale.
The Tiamat 7.1 True Surround Sound Gaming Headset
Also shown off in our video above is the new Tiamat 7.1 Surround Sound Headset. We previously reviewed Cooler Master’s new gaming 5.1 headset called the Sirus. And while the $129 US price tag is fairly reasonable, at $179 US, the Tiamat seems to be in a league all its own, despite the $50 premium over the Cooler Master unit. It seemed to address many of my annoyances with the Sirus like the heavy weight and even improved upon the microphone placement by making it completely recessed into the ear cup. When you pull it out, placement is very flexible so you can get it to the right place in front of your mouth. Plus, it even includes a similar control module that allows individual adjustment of each of the individual channels.
As far as cosmetics go, even thought he unit we had to play with was completely pre-production, it gave us a reasonable look at how comfortable it’ll be with its wide head band and well padded ear cups. We hope to see this in our labs for testing in the near future, and we wouldn’t mind seeing the RAZER Blade as well.
Keep an eye on our YouTube Channel for more PAX Prime 2011 goodness from Seattle!
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