Young+Ventures

The gaming industry has set standards for almost any aspect when it comes to technology.  If you’ve seen the latest iPhone or the newest Android-powered phones, these things come with the assurance that your gaming experiences will be more than just amazing.  If you think that laptops and computers have their processors upgraded way too often, you should check out every video card when it comes out.  When that piece of hardware is put in a new model, you’ll see something that reads “the ultimate gaming laptop” or something to that effect.  We can really say that if a device can play any of the most graphic-heavy games, it can do anything.

Being a gamer myself, I marveled at the change in gaming hardware over the last few years.  It would excite a person in the 90’s to connect his brand new Play Station to the TV with the usual red, white, and yellow-tipped RCA cable.  Now, the PSP can be brought anywhere and brings you even better gaming than what you used to hurry back home for to enjoy all day.

Mobile gaming became such a wonder to me since I played Space Impact on my black and white Nokia 8910.  Now, it’s no surprise to me that I can just pick up an iPhone in the house and play Asphalt 5, Angry Birds, or Fruit Ninja.  It also wasn’t that surprising that Nokia made its new Symbian^3 operating system that offers the same titles in their seemingly successful attempt to be equal with or even surpass Apple and Google, claiming back their crown in the mobile revolution. To sum it all up, the balance between an appealing gaming experience and the mobility of a device is what makes up today’s war.

Someone did just that.

One day, I was browsing through the feeds of my Facebook account when I saw that my friend George, posted something on my wall.  He told me to check out this device called SwitchBlade.  So, I did. What I saw was very much related to a thought of mine that I’ve been pondering on for some time – a gaming laptop so powerful yet so small that I can bring it with me in one hand, not complaining that its size was a hassle.

It was a stroke of genius on the part of a company called Razer.

The SwitchBlade is a handheld device that could play PC games on it.  In other words, you need not bring a laptop or find a personal computer for you to play Left 4 Dead, Warcraft, and others.  It’s a computer that only brings you the entertainment side in the best way possible. A video posted in YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz5v9fh4MI8) shows that you can play all your favorite PC games (or at least it is conceptualized to play all your favorite games), go on the internet, or watch movies with absolutely astonishing quality.

In order to appreciate this child of ambition, its best that we break it down and see the quality of each part that makes it up.

First we have a multi-functional touch-screen interface.  No matter how good the navigation utilities of a device may be, nothing will be as direct and interactive as good old touchscreen.  The screen size, though not mentioned, is about 7 to 10 inches wide. It’s small enough that you can bring it anywhere, yet not too small that you’d have to squint to enjoy your game and other multimedia functions. The touch screen serves as the best alternative to a mouse, which as the uploaded video suggests, will still be useable with the SwitchBlade.

The keyboard is another stroke of genius.  This is where you can see all the ambition oozing out of Razer’s concept.  They call it an adaptive tactile keyboard because it adapts to the games you’re going to play.  The idea is that each key uses some sort of heat-sensitive technology like in most mobile phones today.  The keys change with each game allowing you to easily access only the buttons needed for you to enjoy a certain game.  Since they couldn’t put a full-sized keyboard on the SwitchBlade, this makes each key completely tangible and comfortable to stroke, push, or swipe.

The only 2 things that bother me about this device is the use of an Intel Atom Processor, and the fact that Razer also failed to indicate what graphics card was used. The Intel Atom Processor is not exactly a gamer-appealing kind of hardware.  It is mostly used in netbooks for basic functions, not for gaming. The newer desktop processors, the Core i3, i5, and i7, have already been created in a manner that makes it possible for them to be placed even in laptops.  Perhaps the same technology can be utilized in the SwitchBlade, for it to really deliver the ultimate gaming experience to millions of itching gamers out there.  If not, it could at least bear a Core 2 Duo processor that has already been placed in the 11-inch MacBook Air, a powerful device in almost the same size category as itself.

The Razer leaves us hanging by not mentioning what kind of graphics card gets the honor riding its flagship.  This very important detail would help them deliver on the best gaming promises they make, no matter what processor it decides to stick with or upgrade to. There could make even more improvements on this product before it comes out.  Perhaps an HDMI-out cable would make it possible for this to replace the Play Station 3 or any other console, with an appeal to developers that it will be the most successful gaming device in the market.All in all, I still believe that we shouldn’t simply stop at words but transform these ideas to reality.  However, that doesn’t mean that this concept isn’t feasible.  In fact, just the mere thought of it excites me.  A few years ago, we didn’t think that we would be able to create devices that allow people to communicate real-time with other.  Now, I can talk to my friends and look them in the eye through my mobile phone.  I hope that that sense of “accomplishing-the-impossible” can also be attained with the SwitchBlade.