Razer's First Mainstream Laptop Still Has an RGB Keyboard (engadget.com) 46
Gaming hardware makers have been diversifying their laptops recently, and Razer is the latest to join that trend. From a report: The company is announcing the Razer Book 13 today, which it's calling a "hyper focused productivity laptop." It's not just a subtler version of a Blade laptop, either. The emphasis on productivity means Razer also strove to include a generous array of ports, as well as interesting lighting features that could help highlight keyboard shortcuts. The Book 13 is also the company's first Intel Evo-certified notebook, meaning it meets certain requirements for performance, battery life and wake time. As its name indicates, the Book 13 has a 13.4-inch IPS display that comes in touch or nontouch configurations. If you opt for the matte nontouch version, you'll only get Full HD+ resolution, while the touch models also come in UHD+ (3,840 x 2,400). The touchscreens are also covered in Gorilla Glass for better durability and you can add an anti-reflective coating to reduce glare. All configurations feature a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is new to Razer's family of laptops and lets you see more on the screen at once than older 16:9 devices.
The Book 13 also houses a 720p webcam in its slim bezels, and it's Windows Hello-compatible. There isn't a fingerprint scanner here, though. That's understandable -- Razer's already crammed a lot into the Book 13, which is impressive for a device thatâ(TM)s 0.6 inches thick and weighs 2.95 pounds. Plus, despite that sharp profile, the company managed to offer two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a USB-A socket (at USB 3.2 speeds), a microSD card reader, a 3.5mm audio jack and an HDMI 2.0 slot. [...] The slim, lightweight package is something Razer fans are already accustomed to, and they'll also appreciate some other familiar features. The most prominent of these is Razer Chroma integration which allows users to customize the colors of individual buttons on the keyboard. Starts at $1,199. Pre-order starts today, with shipping to be followed later this month.
The Book 13 also houses a 720p webcam in its slim bezels, and it's Windows Hello-compatible. There isn't a fingerprint scanner here, though. That's understandable -- Razer's already crammed a lot into the Book 13, which is impressive for a device thatâ(TM)s 0.6 inches thick and weighs 2.95 pounds. Plus, despite that sharp profile, the company managed to offer two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a USB-A socket (at USB 3.2 speeds), a microSD card reader, a 3.5mm audio jack and an HDMI 2.0 slot. [...] The slim, lightweight package is something Razer fans are already accustomed to, and they'll also appreciate some other familiar features. The most prominent of these is Razer Chroma integration which allows users to customize the colors of individual buttons on the keyboard. Starts at $1,199. Pre-order starts today, with shipping to be followed later this month.
Could be good, (Score:2)
if all of the fancy features will work without hiccups under Linux. And it's nice that a matte display is available - glossy displays suck unless you're doing graphics or photography.
IIRC Razer tends to be pretty Linux-unfriendly though.
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Famous judge Ruth Ginsburg Bader of course....
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glossy displays suck unless you're doing graphics or photography.
They suck for graphics and photography for the same reasons they suck for everything else.
The market direction is insane.
Once upon a time we used to pay MORE for a matte CRT because CRT's were by default glossy due to needing to use glass, which itself is by default glossy, so the added cost was in putting a matte finish on that glass.
Then these capacitive touch displays came along and they are by default matte... but we still pay more for matte....
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$1,199 ha ha ha ha. No, really.
Spending over a thousand bucks for a keyboard is a no-go with me.
But hey if that's your fetish, go for it.
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This keyboard comes with a built-in laptop, though, which probably has something to do with the price.
it's Windows Hello-compatible (Score:2)
Razer keybords are also backwards (Score:3)
Any key that has a dual purpose where you have to use the shift key to get to it is upside down. For example, the number row at the top should have the numbers below the special characters. 1-2-3 on the bottom (no shift required) !-@-# on the top (shift required.) But not razer. They decided to be different. If you are a touch typist, you won't be with razer.
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So a touch typist occasionally has to hunt for a key but doesn't instinctively remember that shift is used for uncommon symbols? No you didn't put any actual thought into your reply what so ever.
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Why does this even have to be explained? Because you'd be typing the wrong character. Shut your eyes. Now type "1 2 3" What did you type on a Razer keyboard? "! @ #" THAT'S why.
Re: Razer keybords are also backwards (Score:1)
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Ah, so that's what different on my Kinesis Gaming Freestyle Edge [amazon.com] keyboard as well! Some fucking moron put the numbers above the symbols as well. WTF?!
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My Logitech mechanical keyboard has this. I never really noticed all the labels were upside down until I looked one day.
Oddly, it has never bothered me
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That's because the CherryMx switches they imitate have their LEDs above the stem so the top half of the keycap gets more light. And they put the primary function on the well-lit portion of the key, maybe they should put a down arrow on the shift key to match.
Uh, what's an RGB keyboard? (Score:5, Insightful)
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A dead Supreme Court justice.
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Re: Uh, what's an RGB keyboard? (Score:4, Insightful)
RGB is the really annoying tendency of PC hardware vendors these days to put colored LEDs on everything. I'm currently shopping for a ryzen 5600x build, and every decent case and motherboard that I find has RGB shit all over it, as does a lot of RAM. They don't understand that some people want to see what's on their monitor, not spinny flashy lights on their computer.
Basically it's the 60's all over again, only for computer parts instead of clothing and kitchen appliances. Those tie-dye hippie shirts and avacado green and orange appliances didn't age well for a reason.
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They don't understand that some people want to see what's on their monitor, not spinny flashy lights on their computer.
No they understand that just fine. That's why they give you the option to turn it off. It costs them somewhere between nothing and a rounding error to add to their hardware so what's the issue.
Car analogy: My car has a toe hitch but I don't own a trailer. That doesn't mean that a car manufacturer doesn't understand some people don't have trailers, and it also has zero impact on me.
Those tie-dye hippie shirts and avacado green and orange appliances didn't age well for a reason.
I'm going to disagree there. Firstly the hippy world is alive and well. As are people obsessed with colour (walk through an IKEA
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Means the same thing on the context of a keyboard. It just means it has a color backlight as opposed to a mono color backlight or no backlight at all.
Of course, it doesn't detail anything at all - some have all the keys the same color, others allow individual colors to each key, others stil
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Usually RGB is an acronym associated with graphics (red-green-blue). No idea what it means in the context of keyboard. Fail.
This is hilarious. Yeah in the context of the keyboard it very much also means red green blue. In the same way as pixels on your screen are RGB i.e. lighting effects.
Death to the wide scam (Score:3)
All configurations feature a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is new to Razer's family of laptops and lets you see more on the screen at once than older 16:9 devices.
Now that's pretty good. Not ideal like 3:2 (see: most Microsoft Surface devices), but 16:10 is still a huge improvement over pathetic 16:9 - or the unholy abomination of even "wider" (actually shorter) ratios.
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You can pry my 16:10 display from my cold dead hands. I'd still take an IBM T221 even in this day and age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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The 5:4 landscape display has the interesting ability to fit two side by side 10:16 portrait displays, where with window title bars and such it fits two "A4 paper" aspects perfectly.
At the time there were 4 LCD aspect ratios in mass manufacture
5:4 for business (due to side-by-side 10:16)
4:3 emulating CRTs
16:9 mainly laptops
16:10 mainly for higher end laptops
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The only 5:4 monitors I ever saw were 1280x1024, and almost all were either 17 or 19". 1280x1024 is an old resolution used on CRTs, which almost all CRTs were 4:3 so 1280x1024 ended up being squished vertically unless you actually set the screen to 1280x960, which wasn't always supported.
The 5:4 1280x1024 monitors were by far the most common LCDs of their day for both businesses and home users. As 4:3 goes, there were 1024x768 (usually 15") and 1600x1200 (usually 20") monitors, a few at 1400x1050, and han
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Hah! I have Slashdot up on my side monitor now... an old 1280x1024 Dell from 2007.
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Razer is still running a cryptocurrency scam (Score:3)
Razer is still running a cryptocurrency scam [segmentnext.com] together with GammaNow.
Razer SoftMiner/Razer Gamma (old/new name) is a cryptocurrency mining program, mining actual cryptocurrency (Etherium, Zcoin, Zcash) that Razer encourages its users to install, in exchange - not for cryptocurrency, but for store credit.
To get this store credit users would spend more money on electricity and wear on their equipment than for value that they could actually spend in Razer's store. Each token also expires after twelve months, before anyone would have been able to mine enough for buying anything substantial.
So please, don't support this awful company.
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This is hilariously abusive and undoubtedly the wave of the future for gadgets, TVs, phones, etc etc.
You'll have to let them mine X-coins on the devices you buy or the gadgets won't work. Maybe they'll limp along in "Reduced Performance" mode.
Razer is still running a cryptocurrency scam [segmentnext.com] together with GammaNow.
Razer SoftMiner/Razer Gamma (old/new name) is a cryptocurrency mining program, mining actual cryptocurrency (Etherium, Zcoin, Zcash) that Razer encourages its users to install, in exchange - not for cryptocurrency, but for store credit.
To get this store credit users would spend more money on electricity and wear on their equipment than for value that they could actually spend in Razer's store. Each token also expires after twelve months, before anyone would have been able to mine enough for buying anything substantial.
So please, don't support this awful company.
Could be good, except Intel inside (Score:2)
Gee, I can't believe companies are still producing Intel Security Flaws Inside computers.
Image the ease of which any semi-intelligent spy agency, (or pre-teen wanabe hacker), can break into your brand new, state of art in security flaws, laptop!
[/sarcasm]
On the more serious side, at least at home, Intel CPUs are off my shopping list. (Especially since AMD is actual competition now, with a wide range of good CPUs.) Not that I buy much, since I tend to shop for computers that last for years, as
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Yes, especially with the recent release of the Zen 3 yesterday...
https://www.anandtech.com/show... [anandtech.com]
Though sadly, no laptop Zen 3 CPUs from AMD yet...
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Yes, especially with the recent release of the Zen 3 yesterday...
https://www.anandtech.com/show... [anandtech.com]
Though sadly, no laptop Zen 3 CPUs from AMD yet...
The laptop AMD Zen 3 CPUs will come, it's just that they tend to 6 months to 1 year after the main introduction. And while it would be nice to have same release as the desktop and server CPUs, I am far too glad that AMD broke the Intel model of laptop CPUs.
You may ask, "What do you mean Intel model of laptop CPUs?".
Well, for what seemed like more than 5 years, the really low end Intel laptops only had 2 cores, 2 threads. And while you can get AMD laptop CPUs with that same configuration, it's just a lit
RGB or just red (Score:2)