Razer’s next gaming laptops will be pricier thanks to chip shortage
Razer has announced that its next-gen gaming laptops coming out in 2022 will be more expensive than current models.
The bad news was delivered by the CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan, who tweeted to warn would-be buyers that there have been ‘significant increases’ in the cost of hardware components that go in these notebooks, so price hikes would be necessary due to that.
Just had a long meeting to review our gaming laptops line for next year - looks like there are significant increases in component costs etc and we'll be seeing price increases for next gen gaming laptops across the board (including the @Razer Blade) next year.November 30, 2021
As noted, the more expensive price tags will be applied to gaming laptops across the entire Razer range.
As VideoCardz, which spotted this tweet, points out, pricing for Razer’s core Blade gaming portables already starts at $1,800 for the Blade 15 (though the US store suggests pricing starts from $1,700, we can’t see a model with that tag). As a caveat, there are currently a couple of Blade Stealth 13 models which have been price-cut to below this and as low as $1,300 on the US store (but that’s temporary discounted pricing).
The flagship Blade 17 (with a 4K touchscreen) weighs in at an eye-watering $3,700 in the US. In the UK, the Blade price range is from £2,150 (again with temporary discounts going down to £1,450 as a caveat) through to £3,000 (not including the Studio model, of course, which isn’t a consumer machine).
Analysis: Prepare your wallet for the worst – or buy a current-gen model now
Razer’s next-gen gaming laptops will be loaded up with Alder Lake mobile processors or AMD ‘Rembrandt’ APUs (Zen 3+, Ryzen 6000), plus new laptop GPUs from AMD and Nvidia, with the latter rumored to include a mobile version of the RTX 3080 Ti. The use of DDR5 RAM is another possibility for pushing prices up, as it’s very expensive in its initial incarnation.
It’s not difficult to imagine how costly pairing one of those cutting-edge CPUs with an RTX 3080 Ti might be, even before the price increase Razer’s CEO is talking about – driven by the global chip shortage, which has no end remotely in sight – is factored in. Clearly, prices are going to exceed the $4,000 mark, and maybe even start creeping up towards the £4,000 mark in the UK, and you’ll be wise to prepare your wallet for the worst if you’re planning on buying a next-gen portable from Razer.
Reaction on Twitter has been predictably displeased, although at least some commenters have given kudos to Razer for at least being transparent on the pricing situation. The announcement may, of course, lead to some folks pulling the trigger now rather than waiting, if they want a Razer Blade for a more affordable (relatively speaking) outlay.
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