Gadgetory

this is David at the verge and this is the razor edge the edge some format anyway has actually been around for a while it came out last year at CES as project Fionna a hybrid tablet slash controller slash video game console over the next year Razer refined the look made the whole thing modular and then re-released it at CES 2013 as the edge so there are three parts to the Razer edge really the first is the tablet itself it's a fairly normal looking Windows 8 tablet an all-black rectangle with tapered plastic edges and a matte back the biggest difference the thing that sets the edge apart is that it's huge it's eight tenths of an inch thick making it not only thicker than most tablets but most recent laptops as well it also weighs 2.1 pounds it's pretty well made really solid and almost sleek if that's possible for a tablet this stick on the front of it all there's a 10.1 inch 1366 by 768 screen surrounded by a pretty gigantic black bezel the screen itself is okay it's a little low res for device this expensive but it's bright and has good viewing angles the only part that's rough is the touch screen it's just kind of unresponsive often scrolling awkwardly or taking three taps to do something which really makes no sense on a device this powerful there are a couple of reasons the edge is so big but mostly it's to make room for specs unlike anything we've seen in a tablet before this is Razer says the only tablet with a discrete GPU inside a separate graphics chip that is basically required for any kind of serious gaming all that gets hot which is why there are two gigantic fans on top of the edge and as I found they're pretty necessary along with the tablet itself there are two accessories that are more or less required to get the most out of the edge one is the hundred dollar docking station which adds three USB ports and an HDMI port to the edge so you can just drop the tablet in here fire up steams big picture mode and game right on your TV it works really well and since there's only one USB port on the edge itself you're gonna want more inputs the edge is definitely powerful enough to be your only machine but you'll need the peripherals to make it work the other necessary accessory is the 250 dollar gamepad controller which adds the two-handled controller to the tablet and turns it into the project Fionna we saw a year ago it adds a lot of weight to the edge but it also adds all the controls you'd need to play almost any game you get two analog sticks and a d-pad plus all the buttons and triggers you'd get on an Xbox or Playstation controller as well it also adds another battery into the edge which it turns out you kind of need as a PC the edge is more or less what you'd expect powerful enough to do anything you throw at it it's SPECT like a high-end laptop and it performs like one whether you're streaming high-def movies or using Photoshop or just browsing the web it's plenty powerful it works great with an external monitor through the HDMI port or just by hooking up a keyboard and mouse via a USB or Bluetooth but let's be honest this isn't a tablet that also happens to play games it's a gaming tablet and I'm sort of surprised to say this but it's a really good one I played high-end games on really high settings and the edge handles it all really well there are basically three ways to play one is with the controller on your lap which is kind of like having the most awesome iPad gaming experience ever you can also hook it up to a TV and play games with a mouse and keyboard or a controller or just play on the tablet itself the first two are really the best way to play it works on a TV just like a dedicated console or gaming PC would and playing with the controller is a lot of fun just using the edge itself isn't quite as good the screen isn't great not a lot of games are optimized for touch and 10.1 inches is pretty small for a big game anyway I played all sorts of games on the edge and everything I tried was playable not perfect when I cranked up detail in Crysis 3 the frame rate definitely dipped enough that I could tell it was stuttering but that's an incredibly intense game and it was still playable slightly less intense games like Borderlands 2 worked really well and relatively simple ones like NBA 2k13 were perfect things did get worst when I was playing in 1080p on a TV rather than on the lower res screen on the edge but most games were still totally playable I never found a game I just couldn't play on the edge which is kind of a remarkable feat for any tablet no matter how big the performance here is definitely a full level below a true dedicated gaming desktop or even a device like razors played laptop but it's way beyond what any other device this size is capable of it does get pretty hot and really loud when you're playing games but neither is surprising for a gaming laptop or really a problem the tablet itself only gets about an hour of battery life when you're really gaming intensively and with the controllers extra battery only gets about two but honestly this thing is so big and so heavy that you're not gonna use it in public much anyway here's the thing I don't quite know how to feel about the Razer edge it's much more powerful than any tablet on the market and if you're in the market for a gaming tablet it's really the only option but if you're just a person who wants a computer the edge costs $1000 for the lowest spec model and by the time you've purchased the accessories and maybe upgraded to the more powerful edge Pro you're looking at $1,500 for a gaming machine the edges performance is great without being remarkable and if you're spending this much money on a gaming laptop you can probably do better for your money but if you want a 2-pound gaming PC with a pretty cool controller and you can afford it you really won't be sorry you bought the edge