PC gaming titan Razer has unleashed a new version of its Razer Blade 15 laptop, enhanced with what it calls the world’s first optical keyboard designed for gaming laptops.
The firm says it the new keyboard offers near-instant actuation to give gamers an “unfair advantage” over human rivals and CPU players alike.
Razer says the infrared light beam under every key will offer much faster detection of keystrokes, which it says brings greater precision and speed then your standard laptop.
Or, as Razer puts it: “The result is a groundbreaking keyboard with an actuation point of only 1mm at 55g of actuation force with 50% more travel, allowing players to input more commands in less time in the heat of battle.”
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Despite the super slim profile of the keys, there’s also a nice mechanical click upon each press, which the company says “helps users know when an input has been registered and provides a superior typing experience compared to traditional membrane keyboards.”
Razer is retaining the RGB backlighting of the keys, giving users a choice of up to 16.8 million colour combination over all.
Elsewhere, the laptop offers a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU, an Intel Core i7-9750H 6-Core CPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB SSD storage. That’s alongside a 15.6-inch full HD display with a 240Hz refresh rate.
In our review, the keyboard earned 3.5/5 stars, winning praise for its ray tracing support and ability to provide 60fps full HD gaming for most titles. However, the near £3,000 price tag cost it some points.
Right now, the new optical laptop keyboard is only available on the Razer Blade 15 presently, and sadly only in the US, China and Canada right now. It doesn’t appear as if Europe will be graced with the tech at this stage, but Razer does say more models will get the upgrade in 2020.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
