This Week In Tech

Razer’s new Blade Pro is a gaming marvel

MANILA, Philippines – Gaming notebooks are designed to blow minds, as proven by Asus and Acer’s recent launches on the grand stage. As each company continues to one-up the other, Razer discreetly released its latest Blade Pro model, to the delight of gamers everywhere.

While the ROG GX800 and Predator 21 X wowed us with built-in water cooling and a curved display, this year’s Blade Pro takes all the technologies needed to make the best possible gaming notebook, and crams everything into a shell that mimics a conventional laptop.

Seeing a laptop as big as an Apple MacBook Pro doesn’t seem that special, but once you know how far Razer has gone this time around, you’d understand why it’s priced at a jaw-dropping $3,700.

For one, there’s a low-profile mechanical keyboard equipped, which is far more pleasurable to game on than with plain membrane-lined keyboards. Razer claims it’s spent so much time designing it to perfection, that it could have created a whole new laptop instead.

Squeezing in such a sophisticatedly complicated keyboard is a challenge in itself, but knowing that there’s a full-sized NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card inside adds to the amazement. This makes the new Blade Pro a true desktop PC replacement, and not just some second-rate gaming alternative.

To make the most out of the dedicated video card, Razer made sure to leave space for an Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 17.3-inch 4K resolution display that supports NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology. If none of that makes sense to you, just know that this is as good as it gets for a gaming laptop that you can actually purchase.

Storage options range from 512GB to 2TB of the SSD kind, making it way faster than HDD speeds. In terms of connectivity, anyone able to afford this gets three USB 3.0 ports, one Thunderbolt 3-compatible USB Type-C port, an SD card reader, and a Killer DoubleShot Pro card for both wireless and wired networks.

So yes, virtual reality games should work just fine on the Blade Pro. The only catch is it’s still 22.5mm thick and weighs 3.54kg – amazing for a rig this powerful, but bulky for a mobile computer.

The Razer Blade Pro will be available in November, so start saving up (or dreaming about it, like us).

Mi Mix Is Xiaomi’s Ceramic Concept Of The Future

In the tech world, you either imitate or innovate. Xiaomi has always been known as an imitator, but all that’s about to change with the unveiling of the practically borderless Mi Mix. Unlike other concept devices, however, this stunner will actually see the light of day sooner than you think.

Although Xiaomi calls the Mi Mix a “full-screen concept phone,” there’s so much more to it than that. With a 6.4-inch 2040 x 1080-pixel display (for an unusual 17:9 ratio) taking up 91.3 percent of the front, the only comparison we have is Sharp’s Aquos line of edge-to-edge smartphones, but those never really took off.

Of course, there’s still a chin at the bottom, where the speaker and front-facing camera are located. If it’s anything like the awkwardly placed selfie shooters of the Aquos phones or Dell XPS laptops, expect some unflattering photos of your own chin.

Another standout element is the use of ceramic for the frame and buttons – yes, the same nonmetal material used in your grandparent’s pottery collection. Credit goes to French designer Philippe Starck for coming up with the head-turning physique, and Xiaomi for maintaining a practical 7.9-millimeter profile and 209-gram weight.

With all this bezel cutting, you may be wondering how to make a phone call with this thing. Xiaomi employed a piezoelectric driver that creates vibrations to produce audio through the glass, and ultrasound is used in place of a proximity sensor. Basically speaking, it’s still a phone – a powerful one, at that.

The same Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset used on the Mi Note 2 runs the show here, and the rear and front cameras are armed with 16-megapixel and five-megapixel image sensors, respectively. A battery capacity of 4400mAh and Quick Charge 3.0 ensure your investment won’t die in less than a day of use.

As amazing as the Mi Mix is, the announcement isn’t a total surprise. When we uncovered leaks of a borderless Xiaomi handset a week ago, we thought it was that of the just-launched Mi Note 2. Turns out we’ve been looking at the Mi Mix all along.

Configurations and their respective prices come in two options; the 4GB of memory with 128GB of storage model costs CNY 3,499 ($516), while the 6GB RAM with 256GB storage variant retails for CNY 3,999 ($590). The latter is extra special with 18-karat gold accents encircling the camera lens and fingerprint sensor located on the back.

Here’s the best part: Both models come with a leather case, and will be available beginning Nov. 4 in China. We’ve never wanted a Xiaomi to experience a global release as badly as we do now.