CESpotlight 2016: Razer unveils ultrabook, watch, and webcam

Razer has always been one of the companies to watch out for at CES every year with the company regularly showcasing products that always end up winning “Best of CES” awards like its Forge TV last year and the Project Christine concept the year before that. And this year may be another successful CES showing for one of the biggest gaming tech companies in the world with the unveiling of its first Ultrabook, the Razer Blade Stealth, its Core external desktop graphics enclosure, the Nabu Watch, and the Razer Stargazer webcam.

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Razer Blade Stealth and Core

Razer was the first to start the trend of thin but powerful gaming laptops with the original Razer Blade notebook back in 2012 and with the Blade Stealth and Core the company is taking that idea and pushing it to another level.

As previously mentioned, the Razer Core is an external desktop graphics enclosure that looks much like a miniature PC and it can equip most PCI Express graphics cards. Once a graphics card is installed in it, it need only connect to the Blade Stealth via the Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C connector. It also provides a slew of additional connectors including four USB 3.0 ports, an Ethernet port, and whatever external display ports the equipped graphics card features.

As for the rest of the Blade Stealth’s specs, they include a 12.5-inch IGZO touch display that’s available in either QHD or UHD resolutions, a 6th generation Intel Core i7-6500U dual-core processor with Hyper Threading clocked at 2.5GHz or 3.1GHz while in Turbo mode, 8GB of dual-channel LPDDR3 1866MHz RAM, up to 512GB of PCIe M.2 SSD storage, wireless AC connectivity, and a 45Wh lithium-ion polymer battery. It’s also one of the only Ultrabooks with individually backlit RGB keys and both the Blade Stealth and Core support Razer’s Chroma technology.

While Razer has yet to announce the price of its Core external desktop graphics enclosure, the company is surprisingly pricing the Blade Stealth quite competitively giving its base model a price tag of only $999.99 and $1,599.99 for the high-end model and considering what the Blade Stealth is already equipped with that’s actually a great price. The Blade Stealth is already available to order today in several territories and will start shipping sometime this month as well.

Razer Nabu Watch

Razer originally unveiled its Nabu smartband during CES 2014 but other than a lackluster and watered-down version called the Nabu X which was launched at last year’s CES, the Nabu sadly did not see an official launch date until late into 2015. But at this year’s CES, the company intends to not make people wait too long for the next evolution of its wearable technology with the launch of the Nabu Watch, a device that combines a traditional digital wristwatch and the Nabu’s array of smart features.

The Nabu Watch features a design much like a modern digital sports chronograph with a round face, a main button below it, and four buttons around its circumference. But its face essentially comes in two main sections – the upper two-thirds displays the traditional digital chronograph functions while the lower third is a secondary screen which displays the device’s Nabu smart functions. The main button below the face cycles through the Nabu smart functions while the four buttons around the circumference control the watch functions.

The watch comes with the usual array of features including world time, countdown timers, stopwatch, and alarm functions while the Nabu smart features include notification streaming, private message display, and fitness tracking features such as steps walked, distance traveled, calories burnt, hours slept, and more. The watch is also able to automatically sync its date, time, world time, and alarms to the time and date on the paired device or can be manually adjusted via the Nabu app.

What’s unique and interesting about the Nabu Watch is that it comes with two batteries – a replaceable coin cell that’s meant to last 1 year for the digital watch portion and a built-in rechargeable battery that will last up to 7 days for the Nabu portion.

The Nabu Watch will come in two versions – a standard variant that’s made from touch polycarbonate materials with Razer’s signature green and black color scheme and a Forged Edition which replaces some of the watch’s components with stainless steel and features a premium black finish. The Forged Edition is already available for $199.99 while the standard edition will be releasing later this month for $149.99.

Razer Stargazer Webcam

The last of the products unveiled by Razer at CES 2016 is proving to be its most innovative and one that may become one of its most popular products this year.

In an age where more and more people are getting into game streaming and live broadcasting, the need for better equipment for it has increased dramatically. This time, Razer wants to raise the bar for video capture with the Stargazer.

To start with, the Stargazer is capable of HD video capture at either 720p/60fps or 1080p/30fps giving users optimized choices for their streaming and video conferencing needs. The Stargazer is also equipped with an automatic noise cancelling dual array microphone for clear and high quality audio capture.

What makes the Stargazer stand out from other webcams is the Intel RealSense technology. Among others, it gives users the ability to dynamically and automatically remove one’s background using a combination of state of the art depth-sensing technology and software. This eliminates the need for cumbersome green screen setups. Another RealSense feature incorporated into the Stargazer is its 3D scanning capability that can scan both objects and faces.

Razer is planning to launch the Stargazer sometime in the second quarter of 2016 at a price of $199.99, a pretty hefty price for a webcam but with the amount of features it comes with and the untapped possibilities of its Intel RealSense technology the high price may be worth it.