Razer to Unveil Dime-Sized “Future of Gaming” at Exclusive Event on May 30th, Could Be the Switchblade

Razer says that it will introduce a new product for “serious gamers” at an event in San Francisco on Thursday, May 30th, and the subject of the announcement is shrouded in mystery. Razer’s teaser line for the event is, “What’s Thinner Than a Dime?”; an accompanying teaser trailer for the event is just as obtuse, so much so that you’ll probably be annoyed with yourself for even watching it. But go ahead anyway.

See? There’s not much there, although the rolling dime does bump into something dark roughly ten seconds into the video, which is probably a clue.

Razer announcement

Razer already has the Blade gaming notebook and the Razer Edge gaming tablet/PC hybrid, so it’s likely that this mystery device, which we presume is super thin, will be the fruit of the Switchblade design that Razer had teased at CES...back in 2011.

The Switchblade (at least as far as the concept design is concerned) is a handheld gaming device that looks to be about the size of a typical phablet and is equipped with a multitouch screen and runs Windows 7 (or by now, Windows 8 or Windows RT) on an Intel Atom processor.

Razer Switchblade

The little device will also have 3G and WiFi connectivity, a “dynamic tactile keyboard”, mini HDMI, USB 3.0, headphone and mic jacks, and the option of adding a gaming mouse. The keyboard ostensibly can switch dynamically between the standard numbers and letters to mapped keys germane to the game you're currently playing.

In addition to running games, the Switchblade will theoretically be capable of typical computing tasks such as Web browsing and even office productivity. To put it in a nutshell, the device will be a gaming phablet/PC, much as the Edge is a gaming tablet/PC. It might also have phone-like capabilities.

Razer Switchblade

Of course, we’re speculating here, but we’d wager that Razer figured out how to make the Switchblade (or whatever the device will look like and be named) in a very, very slim form factor. We’ll have to wait and see on May 30th.