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Razer beefs up its already powerful Blade gaming laptop

The 2015 Razer Blade has a QHD screen.

Image Credit: Razer

Razer has found the muscle for its top-of-the-line notebook screen.

The gaming hardware maker takes its top-end Razer Blade gaming notebook to new performance levels and resolutions in its 2015 version. The Blade debuted in 2013, making waves as a high-priced, premium gaming notebook, marketed to gamers that want the most powerful portable configuration available. The newest Blade, starting at $2,200 and available in February, continues that tradition with the inclusion of the latest in gaming tech, though it manages to keep its thin profile (0.70 inches in height) and low weight (4.7 lbs).

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The 14-inch indium gallium zinc oxide QHD+ display from the 2014 Razer Blade returns in the latest model. The 16:9 LED panel runs at 3,200-by-1,800 resolution and features capacitive multitouch — one of the finest available, and much better than the debut model’s 1600-by-900 display. While last year’s Blade could struggle with framerates at higher resolutions, the Nvidia GPU and other upgrades included this year should match the display well.

Intel’s Core i7-4720HQ is a beefy processor for a 14-inch notebook. It gives this new Blade 2.6GHz of processing power, a fair step up from its predecessor’s 2.2GHz. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM is also quite the promotion from last year’s tech, though the system can seamlessly trade graphical duties with the included Intel HD Graphics 4600 chip to improve battery life. Razer doubled the system memory in the new Blade, now packing in 16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L memory, and solid state storage is available up to 512GB.

Though the new processing updates will make better use of the Blade’s high-end screen, Razer will also make available a cheaper Full HD version of the 2015 model. Most of the specifications stay the same as the QHD+ model, save for the 1,920-by-1,080 screen and the RAM count, which goes down to 8GB. We’ve reached out to Razer for details on pricing and will update when they arrive.

The new Razer Blade will hit select stores Feb. 16, though Razer’s online store is taking orders now.