For north of $1,500, the Razer Edge could be your next tablet, game console, laptop and desktop — and a way to play high-end PC games from pretty much anywhere. Razer, which has dabbled in making its own PCs but is mostly known for gaming peripherals, has spent the last year refining its concept for a powerful gaming tablet. We first got a glimpse of this concept, formerly dubbed “Project Fiona,” at CES 2012, when Razer showed off a tablet with game control handles attached to its sides. The idea was to bring portability to the kinds of games people play at home, like Call of Duty and Skyrim. The Razer Edge is the end result of Razer’s experiments. “We wanted something that wasn’t Angry Birds,” said Min-Liang Tan, Razer’s CEO, co-founder and creative director. Jared Newman / TIME.com The Edge, which starts at $1,000, is a 10.1-inch Windows 8 tablet that’s twice as thick as Apple‘s iPad, and 25 percent heavier, but much more powerful. Inside, Razer’s managed to pack an Intel Core i5 processor, an Nvidia GT640M graphics card, 4 GB of RAM and a 64 GB solid state drive. For players who need even more power, there’s a $1,300 “Pro” version with a Core i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM and either a 128 GB or 256 GB solid state drive. But the tablet alone isn’t the whole story. The Razer Edge is a modular device, able to take on different forms through extra peripherals. Foremost, there’s a $250 gaming controller, which wraps around the tablet and provides a pair of grips on either side, each with their own thumbsticks, triggers and buttons. Also, a $100 docking station provides HDMI output and three USB ports for external controllers, turning the Razer Edge into a desktop PC or living room game console. In the third quarter, Razer will sell a $200 keyboard dock, which collapses shut like a laptop. The whole package isn’t cheap, but then again most gaming laptops aren’t, and the whole point of the Razer Edge is that it’s a![]()
