Razer’s been working on the whole “revolutionize gaming devices” thing for many years now, but lacked the reach of the big names in PC hardware. Teaming up with multi-national computer technology company Lenovo should do the trick.
Announced yesterday during the Dreamhack 2015 computer festival in Sweden, the partnership between Razer and Lenovo gives each company something they’ve been missing. Razer gets access to Lenovo’s manufacturing, supply chain and engineering expertise, while Lenovo scores a nice chunk of gamer cred.
Not that Lenovo didn’t have gamer cred before. Why just the other day... Okay, I’ve got nothing. Lenovo had absolutely no gamer cred. I didn’t even know they made gaming hardware. I’m not unfamiliar with the company—earlier this year I purchased one of its Yoga Pro 3 convertible tablet/laptops, and aside from its inability to properly render the color yellow and some network issues, I’ve gotten good work use out of it.
As for Razer, every other thing on my desk is Razer, so good for Lenovo, or as Razer co-founder and CRO Min-Liang Tan puts it in the “Lenovo and Razer Partner to Revolutionize Gaming Devices” press release:
“This agreement opens opportunities to advance the gaming lifestyle through world-class product in unprecedented ways. Lenovo is the world’s #1 PC maker. Razer is the world’s #1 gaming lifestyle brand. Together we have the passion, insight and operational capabilities to delight and empower the PC gaming community worldwide.”
I feel delighted and empowered.
The first way the pair of companies will be delighting and empowering is through a line of co-branded Y Series gaming desktops, the first of which made its debut in concept form at Dreamhack 2015 and will be on the floor at CES in January.
It’s black and green. Weird. But it also takes advantage of Razer’s Chroma color LED technology, as demonstrated by the multicolor drop shadow in the renders.
While spearheading the move to thinner gaming laptops with its Blade line of laptops, the closest Razer’s gotten to gaming desktops has been its “Designed by Razer” case program. It’s also black and green.
The Y Series desktops are just the beginning. With a big-name partner like Lenovo, expect more of Razer’s crazy gaming ideas come to fruition.
Contact the author, who was planning on replacing his Yoga Pro 3 with a Razer Blade at some point but now has no idea what to do, at fahey@kotaku.com or follow him on Twitter at @bunnyspatial