Razer Blade Pro 17" 2016 is late...

File this under "unsubstantiated rumor," but I heard something interesting from a friend who knows somebody that knows somebody:

The 2016 update to the 17" Blade Pro won't ship until late summer due to manufacturing delays.

Well, maybe that's obvious since it is already June and they have not even announced it yet, but the other part of the rumor is that it will be "significantly different and more powerful."

Ok, so that's what I heard. Read into it what you may...

 

Doesn't surprise me.

Other manufacturers now have thin 17" desktop-class gaming laptops (MSI, Aorus, Gigabyte). If Razer just did a simple hardware refresh to Skylake on their Razer Blade Pro 17", it would just blend in with every other laptop.

It would be amazing if they managed to pull off Skylake and a desktop 1070 in their next refresh. 1800p or 4K display, with Gsync, and your have an absolute killer of a machine.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

So I have heard a couple more things about the 17" Blade Pro, which has been curiously missing in action...
Expect to hear something in October.
"More powerful" means a system power > 250 Watts, but in the same thin form factor.
"Significantly different" means the switchblade UI is gone, but it will have a thin mechanical keyboard (like the one Razer recently released as an accessory of an iPad).

That power number blows my mind. The original 17" Blade, with the woeful GT 555M, was only about 100 W. I was expecting a 1070, but 250 W might be enough for either a 1070 desktop, or a 1080.

 

Hoping for gtx 1080 & kaby lake processor.

 

250watt would be just enough for a 1070 in combination of a 6700HQ cpu. a 1080 really requires more unfortunately.

 

CE news says that OEMs are being held back by lower than expected manufacturing volume from parts suppliers. They are offering the manufacturers more money to step it up, but they aren't biting.

 

When window shopping Alienware's new 17 inch system I was very surprised to see that they didn't have a 1080 in their 17 inch lineup yet... So I'd be very surprised to see it all of a sudden here. But I suppose anything is possible, I just don't think it's likely.

 

So from the early post on the Spanish website, here are the specs:

Core i7-6700HQ @ 3.5 GHz
Nvidia GTX 1080
32 GB DDR4 RAM 2133 MHz
3840 x 2160 resolution display
Mechanical keyboard
Trackpad on right side of keyboard in place of the Switchblade UI
Same thin form factor at 22.5 mm

All for the low low price of 4,199 euros.

This is more impressive than I was expecting (including the price.... in a bad way).

 

Oh wow now I see "teclado mecanico". That's actually pretty cool. I wonder what switches they use.

 

I'm pretty sure it is the same as their iPad accessory: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-keyboards-keypads/razer-mechanical-keyboard-case-ipad-pro
I believe the switches are their own design, but probably made by Kailh.

 

It definitely looks like it.

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro#ultra-low-profile

 

What about a GTX 1080 4K Gsync display, mechanical keyboard, dual pcie slots, and 32GB of ram standard?



(The trackpad even has chroma lighting!)

Edit: What's above the trackpad?

 

Volume above trackpad. Not a scroll bar....

The keyboard is a redesign of the Cherry ML switches. I love the keyboard, but it is only 25 for one new... not groundbreaking stuff. Very very ergonomic, but not groundbreaking.

 

It's been said already, the volume roll will be programmable to scroll (just like everything on every keyboard or mouse which they produce).

 

Who really needs that though? Considering gestures and the oversized trackpad that it is the double finger down is good enough for scrolling, isn't it? You're really going to use your touchpad (Because your right hand is already there) and then you're going to move your wrist up to run the dial while your wrist is hovering over the trackpad? While in theory it sounds good, in actual practice if you think about it doesn't really compute IMO.

Most people who are already using the trackpad would rather just scroll using two fingers and not move their entire wrist to a new position/location.

I could be wrong here though, but these are my opinions and I have extensive use of using a trackpad as I use one everyday for several hours at home and in the office.

 

Might be useful for "slow precision scrolling", where any trackpad set to fast scrolling fails at, no matter the acceleration setting (experienced it on macs and on my blade, both on Linux and Windows).

I'm not sure if I'd use it that much either, might be useful setting the side keys to mouse ones so that it'd work just like a mouse, which ud to move with your thumb.

Anyway, in just speculating, no idea how I'd really use it without testing it first.