When I discussed this machine back in November of 2016, it was pretty much known that it was “the” upgraded laptop of its caliber, so much so, it’s been considered a desktop in the form of a laptop ever since its debut. Perhaps it’s insanely high pixel count of 3840 x 2160 on a 17.3-inch screen, or even its incredible processing power using 7th-gen Intel quad-core CPU processor, clocked at 2.6GHz, with a max-out at 3.5GHz is what fulfilled that definition. Now, a newer, cheaper Razer Blade Pro has shifted into a lower-end price range, and if you know Razer, you’d know low price isn’t something that usually goes along with the brand. However, the PC peripheral company has been maintaining its reputation in the past few years of building not only ultra-pricey, but ultra thin gaming machines. Ultra-pricey rigs are to be expected in the gaming realm because of the amazing hardware inside of them.

When looking at Razer’s latest big-screen Blade Pro, with an MSRP starting at $2,299, your eyes should open wide, especially knowing its predecessor ran for about $3,699. Given, this bad boy is a good 17.3 inches, it definitely strayed away from the last Razer Blade Pro’s dimensions, and hey, it’s declaration of being one of the slimmest gaming laptops you can buy also meant you had to pay the piper. Razer made the new version cheaper with some major compromises. Nothing surprising here. In fact, what is the first thing you’ve got to reduce to take away some of those dollar signs? The answer lies in the graphics, and in this case, the new Razer Blade Pro dropped from the quite high-end Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, to a more mainstream Nvidia GeForce 1060. With that, the display wouldn’t handle as high specs the other rig’s display, hence this version now sports a 120Hz IPS 1920 x 1080 full HD LCD screen.

Let’s think about what else that Nvidia drop might mean. Because in the Razer Blade Pro of 2016 ran with a ton of efficiency, at a 16nm manufacturing process, it helped reduce energy consumption, while three circulating fans took care of that rumbling of both CPU and GPU. So, if saying goodbye to a screaming fast processor meant Razer was able to drop price, what did they choose? While the last version held an Intel Core i7-7820HK quad-processor, while this machine flipped to an i7-7700HQ processor. This accompanies a drop in storage, from a 512GB SSD to a 256 one, and a memory decrease from 32GB to 16GB. Don’t worry, though. Not only is the switch to a full HD display a good move because the Nvidia 1060 is well designed to render at that pixel level, you’ll have more battery power left (battery life hasn’t been specified on the new rig yet) that an HD screen wouldn’t.

So this is a laptop that isn’t exactly living up as “the most powerful, nearly a desktop, type of rig”, as its bigger, badder bro. However, there’s so much good still going on here, and you could find yourself become a fan, because the point is to meet the needs of folks looking for something powerful and under 4 grand. Additionally, this is giving Razer a chance to fill a niche in the laptop space that basically isn’t there. Not that we don’t hear about thin gaming laptops on the daily, but they’re most likely far cheaper than this, and in turn, not quite powerful enough for serious gamers.

This change in Razer is taking hold of the minds of competitors, which, many of them, are decidedly going with the trend by steering away from the bulk, and that’s arguably one of the hardest things to balance. If you take something like the MSI GE73VR, for just $2,000, you may recall that even they killed this piece off because, at over an inch thick (and yes that’s one of the thinner options), folks just weren’t havin it. Many of the laptop companies trying the hardest aren’t necessarily making it onto the “Best Gaming Laptops of 2017” (sorry Dell Inspiron 15 7567, maybe one day!), but that’s okay. They are such an investment- and creating one you can pick up and take on the move is a big accomplishment. Because the new 1080p Razer Blade Pro has downgraded in hardware, doesn’t mean it won’t be able to “beast mode”. The key is having the balancing act as close to mutual desire as physically possible. And with that, Razer’s new Blade Pro will beast mode, all whilst sitting on your lap at just .88 inches thick- thinner than ever, and weighing a stealthy 6.8 pounds.