Mobile gaming is no more like what it used
to be. Sure, you can buy a portable from Sony or Nintendo, but the video game
industry has transformed into a more diverse industry today. There is no
shortage of hardware choices for gamers: from tablets, smartphones, gaming
laptops and purpose-built handhelds, all of which give a new definition for the
mobile gaming platform. These wind of change must has been recognized by the
CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan as he fabricated the Project Fiona, which is now
known as the Razer Edge. The marketing document of this company records this
curious device as an all-in-one gaming arsenal; it is a tablet, according to
the product page, but is a PC and console as well. Above all, it is modular, a
tablet with many small docks and cradle designed to satisfy the desire of
playing game from all angles. In short, Razer has titled it the most powerful
tablet in the world. Equipped with specifications that are seen in a mid-range
gaming laptop, it might be that – but we cannot let that claim pass through
without testing it ourselves.
The
Razer Edge Pro
Hardware
At first glance, the Edge’s 10.1-inch
screen and thick, generic bezel give a very familiar feeling. With the
exception of two indentations which are placed on the center of the device’s
north and south edges, Razer cannot freely go out of the dull standard design
of a tablet. It leads to a boring result, but it’s practical. Fortunately, the
aluminum backside, which is borrowed from the subtly ridged design profile from
the Razer Blade laptop, gives the tablet a unique personality. Ornamented by a
backlit Razor’s logo, the backplate slightly bends to the device’s outer frame,
and therefore fits into users’ palms smoothly without digging in.
You might feel comfortable with the shape
of the Edge’s chassis, but the fatigue is inevitable issue – There are some
limits for how long you can hold a 2.1 pound tablet high. If you compare the
tablet of Razer with the Surface Pro, you will note that it is larger in all
aspects, at 10.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches. Heaviness is sure but its specifications are
better than that of the Surface all around in return: 4 GB compared to 8GB DDR3
RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, an Intel Core i5 or i7 and discrete NVIDIA graphics
card. The only aspect where Microsoft still dominant is in display quality: the
Edge peaks at 1,366 x 768, while the Pro is packed with the display of 1920 x
1080. But at this time, let’s finish our tour around the hardware.
The
backlit Razer’s logo on the backside
There is a 40-pin connector on the bottom
edge of the tablet. Its sides are secured by stereo speakers and two peg holes,
which are used to lock the Edge into its dock and accessories of the
controller. Mirroring these holes is a pair of divots on the top edge of the
device. These divots are accompanied by a blue Razer USB 3.0 port, 3.5mm audio
jack, volume controls and a LED-equipped power button. There are also two
buttons used to lock automatic screen rotation and activate the software
keyboard of Windows 8. The latter one is extremely convenient because we noted
that some games tend to activate the virtual keyboard of Windows 8 accidentally.
There are two large vents one the Edge’s back-plate and they locate on the
north of the company logo, while there is only one Windows button, 2
microphones and the 2MP camera on the front side of the tablet. In short, the
hardware unit is well designed, although the tablet is still quite heavy.
Etc.
Unfortunately, there is still one important
component of the Edge product collection in this review: the keyboard dock. It
is strange to think that the Edge is launched without but there is not any kind
of its accessory is sold with every other Windows 8 tablet. It is said that
Razer will introduce such keyboard sometime in the third quarter of the year
with an undetermined price. We cannot predict how it will perform once it is
launched, or giving any guess how much it will cost, but it can be said that we
miss it now. If taking everything into a careful consideration, Razer Edge is
mainly a PC, and it would be really inconvenient and complicated to install
games, manage data and working from devices without a suitable keyboard. Such
lacking accessory is still not available yet, so it feels like the Edge is
incomplete. We will have another look at the device once it is fully equipped.
Display, sound and camera
Earlier, the IPS 1,366 x 768 display of the
Edge is considered as one of its drawbacks, especially when it is taken to the
comparison with the Surface Pro. Although the 1,920 x 1,080 display of the
Surface Pro might be impressive, its resolution exceeds its panel size, so we
have to switch between two different text-scaling configurations depending on
the way we use the tablet. There are not so many problems for the small display
of the Edge, which remains the 1:1 ratio in its default configuration. No
change in scale, no tweaking, no trouble. It is also possible that the low
level of life-like display has been chosen because of the need of reducing the
demand on GPU and improving the game performance. Anyway, the smaller screen
seems to be an advantage of the device, and it also looks nice, with strong
color, pure white and deep black. There is nothing outstanding, but good. We
dare to say that this is the best display among the Razer products, leaving the
high-resolution display of the Razer Blade behind in terms of contrast as well
as color quality. The view angle of the screen is a little distorted by the
glossy surface of the screen – how bright the images look turns out to be
unimportant if they are surrounded by unwanted reflections.
The
Edge’s display
We do not expect much about the speakers of
the tablet – it just needs to be loud, clear and undistorted. Fortunately, they
sound just like that. They might be placed at the backside of the tablet, but
their voices create resonates spreading throughout the device, filling the air
vents as if by design. Its sound might not be the most decent one, but it is
balanced with few of distortions. The speakers set of the Edge is absolutely
fitted to one user, or even a small group of people gathering around the
device. Gamers who wish to experience stronger sound would have to find an
appropriate headphone, or lead the audio out through the tablet’s docking
station, which supports the Dolby Home Theater 7.1.
The 2MP webcam is sufficient for chatting
on Skype, but that’s all. The images created are grainy and muddled. The videos
recorded by using Windows 8’s camera application stutter and lag, despite the
resolution from 320x240 to 1,920x1,200. The applications done by the third
party are better, but still it cannot produce smoother videos at higher
resolution. Anything above 640x480 was a mess indeed.
