Razer Switchblade: What Happened?
I have been waiting patiently for two years now to see if Razer would ever deliver a real product from the “Razer Switchblade” concept. [Spoiler, more pics are on page 2]
A couple of years back, gaming peripherals brand Razer was working on a portable gaming machine, the Razer Switchblade, designed with a key feature that would blow your mind. Of course it was 2011 and they were building it around an Intel Atom processor so it isn’t exciting by today’s standards, but they now have an even wider variety of chips they could update it with for today’s market. I don’t understand why Razer would tease us with something so exciting and new that it could alter the face of gaming, and then put it under wraps indefinitely for seemingly no reason.
With a form-factor not too much larger than a Nintendo 3DS, The Razer Switchblade would have the ability to download, install, and play a full PC game. I am not concerned with how slow the prototype was, I am only concerned with how and when they can get a new version back in the works. With Windows 7, a fully adaptive keyboard (the key feature in my eyes), and wireless gaming mouse, I could go fit a handful of matches of League of Legends casually within my daily schedule.
Razer Switchblade’s adaptive keyboard in action
In a video a shot a couple of years ago, (Chief Gamer/CEO of Razer) said of the Razer Switchblade:
“PC gaming has always been impossible in a portable form factor. So, we took a familiar traditional piece of hardware, the keyboard, and developed an all new user interface designed just for mobile PC gaming. And quite frankly, the result is just phenomenal. One of the biggest problems with bringing PC gaming to a mobile platform is replicating the mouse and keyboard user interface in a handheld format, and we’ve solved that by combining an ultra-sensitive, multi-touch screen with a tactile adaptive keyboard. A keyboard that changes and adapts on the fly with the games you play. We’re always pushing the boundaries and our user interface designers have reinvented PC gaming with the Switchblade.”
If the result of all this effort was “phenomenal” then why did it never hit shelves? I feel like they must have hit a serious roadblock as far as pricing, or 3rd party mechanical parts manufacturers, or something. I refuse to believe that they just put this project on the back burner while moving on to the tablet PC replacement, the “Razer Edge”. I appreciate what they have accomplished with the Edge, but I desperately want the Razer Switchblade to come back to relevance.
The adaptive keyboard it sports is one of the few features I’ve been waiting for in a portable device for ages. You don’t use up valuable screen space with an on-screen keyboard, you don’t have to dock it to use a keyboard, and the keys would change themselves relative to the application you boot up. For two years I’ve been throwing my wallet at the screen hoping that somehow, somewhere, Min-Liang Tan could hear my desperation, take my money, and give me a Razer Switchblade. Alas, I feel that may never happen and I am saddened by thinking about it.