Although the Razer Chimaera was first announced over a year ago at CES 2010, Razer has finally caught up and fired the product into their production line, with preordering now open. The Chimaera comes in two variations, as outlined in the following chart:

[Razer's Product Info Page]

Always finding new things that we never knew we needed, Razer has announced their newest product: a small speaker system for portable devices. The Ferox is an omni-directional speaker that features a 12-hour battery life and pocket-sized design that promises full-size sound quality and coverage. The product is shipping now for a price of $59.99

[Info Page, Store Page]

This little gem appeared in our inbox today. Apparently, one of our readers thinks we’re Razer.

Dear Razer,

Usually I don’t do this, but this is something that is eating me up. For a gift, one of my friends bought me one of your Mamba gaming mouses. (wireless/wired) Couldn’t wait to try it out. Took it home, downloaded drivers, charged the batter, plugged it in, and tried to use it. No response. The mouse lit up, but wouldn’t work. Checked device manager. It couldn’t detect the device. Under unfortunate circumstances, I was unable to return it. One hundred twenty dollars down the drain. Caused a lot of stress for my friend and I. I’m deeply dissapointed, and wanted you to know that I will be sticking to Logitech from here on out. (I had ordered a Death Adder before I had received the Mamba from my friend. That order has been cancelled.)

Regards,
Justin Lee

Wow, Justin. We’re very sorry that you had to experience this. Because of this terrible occurrence, we are prepared to offer you a full refund and a replacement Mamba for both you and your friend. However, because we don’t work for Razer, we can’t authorize that. Perhaps you should contact their support and you’ll get a bit further on this.

CES 2011 has now come and gone and what a week it was! While the show officially started on Thursday, companies were already announcing and unveiling new products as early as Monday, and since I didn’t cover everything that happened under the Las Vegas Convention Center roof, I decided to sit down and reflect back on the week, as well as catch up on stuff that I missed.

After the break, I’ll be recapping some of the best in PC products that were shown at CES and give you my prediction on what this year will have in store for us based on what we saw at CES 2011.

Razer Switchblade

One of Razer‘s biggest show stoppers at their booth was a concept known as the Switchblade. This is essentially a small 7-inch netbook, but with only one purpose in mind: mobile gaming. For a 7-incher, this little device packs quite a punch and it’s almost unbelievable. It has a capacitive multitouch display at 1024 x 600 resolution and another full LCD display under the physical chiclet keyboard. This allows the keys to change to pretty much anything and each game will have its own keyboard profile. Nifty if I say the least.

On the inside, the Switchblade runs on an Intel Atom CPU with Windows 7 on board, as well as WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G chips. Unfortunately, that’s all Razer wanted to unveil about that. On the outside though, there’s a USB 2.0 port, mini-HDMI, the AC power port, and a built-in webcam.

Razer says that this concept is fairly close to what will hit store shelves in the future, except for a few minor things that they’re still deciding on such as the type of storage system to use, whether to include 3G or not, and what type of memory card slot to add. Unfortunately, no release date or price has been heard of so far.

Intel Sandy Bridge

This was one of the hotter topics at CES this year. Intel‘s latest update to the Core line of processors was seen inside many new desktops and laptops that were announced this week, including models from HP, Santech, Fujitsu, Acer, Toshiba, Samsung, and Sony. However, no company put on quite the Sandy Bridge show that MSI put on, who announced 18 different machines running Intel’s latest gen Core chips, as well as a ridiculous Sandy Bridge motherboard with eight PCI-E slots, eight USB 3.0 ports, and three BIOS chips.

AMD Fusion

On the other side of the CPU spectrum, AMD announced a new processor line of their own. Just like Intel’s newest Core procs, AMD’s Fusion chip stores the CPU as well as the GPU, making it a hybrid/combo of sorts. It’s aimed at netbooks and other ultra-portable laptops and is specifically taking on Intel’s Atom chip. HP, Lenovo, Sony and Acer already have Fusion-equipped netbooks and laptops lined up for release in the coming months and AMD says that we’ll see Fusion tablets sometime this year as well.

Desktop users who want in on the Fusion action will be able to, thanks to Gigabyte’s CES announcement of their first Fusion motherboard. However, we don’t know when it’ll be up for grabs or how many pennies it will cost.

Microsoft

What would CES be without Microsoft? While they didn’t really have anything absolutely substantial to show, they still had some pretty note-worthy stuff at their booth and also during their presser: 2nd gen Surface, Touch Mouse, ARM support in Windows, and Ballmer’s words about bringing Kinect to the PC.

The 2nd generation of the Microsoft Surface has been updated to include newer touchscreen technology called PixelSense, which essentially makes each pixel act as its own little recognition camera and can sense whatever is placed on it. The Surface itself is also only 4-inches thick, but will still cost a slight fortune at around $7,600.

Redmond also unveiled their multi-touch mouse that has been in the works for a while (we’ve known about it since 2009). After further research, it turns out it uses some new and different technology that you won’t find on Apple’s multi-touch Magic Mouse. Microsoft’s Touch Mouse includes a visible matrix of tiny Xs. These are an array of capacitive touch-sensing electrodes allowing for a whole slew of finger gestures. The mouse will be going on sale in May for $80.

Microsoft has also confirmed that the next version of Windows (i.e. Windows 8) will include ARM support, which means that Windows will be able to run on not only Intel and AMD CPUs, but also ARM chips, as well as Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm chips. However, that’s pretty much all the details we were given.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that “in the right time,” Microsoft will add PC support to the Kinect. He continued on by saying that when Microsoft has “an announcement to make,” they’ll “make that announcement.”

Lastly, Microsoft had a playable PC port of Fable 3 on display at their booth. We definitely know what this means.

Asus Eee Slate EP121

Probably one of the most impressive Windows-based tablets that I saw was the Eee Slate EP121 from Asus (Samsung’s 7 Series a close second). For a tablet, this Windows 7-equipped Eee Slate is stunning spec-wise. Core i5-470M processor, 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), 64GB SSD, 12.1-inch IPS capacitive display at 1280 x 800, HDMI-out, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, 802.11n, and a front-facing camera. Oh, and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon right now starting at $1,000. It’s okay with us, you can bust out the plastic.

Wrap Up

It’s no doubt that CES 2011 was all about portability and making things smaller. We saw this with Razer’s Switchblade, AMD’s Fusion chip, Windows support for ARM, and the slew of tablets that were unveiled. I think in 2011, netbooks will gain traction and will get faster and faster. Tablets were obviously a hot trend at CES this year, but I’m not so sure they’ll wipe out netbooks. I think they will simply co-exist with each other magnificently.

What am I looking forward to the most, though? Honestly, I’m really excited for the Razer Switchblade. I hope it comes out in 2011. Not like I will have the money for it and I’m not a huge gamer, but the Switchblade is what a netbook should and needs to be. However, I would not be surprised if it showed up at CES next year still in the prototype phase. It’s definitely a device that deserves to have a lot of hard work and time put into it.

So, my award for the best PC product shown at CES 2011 goes to the Razer Switchblade!

Bring it on, CES 2012!

Shocking the gaming industry, Razer announced a new project of theirs at CES. The project is titled Switchblade, and is still in conceptual stages, but details are promising. It’s still a “concept design,” so details are bound to change (including the name, according to Razer) before we see any more solid information or pricing. You can read Razer’s FAQ on the project, but we’ll summarize some features below.

• Tactile keyboard with full-color LCD backing for each key, allowing completely dynamic buttons images that change based on what game is running
• Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity
• Running Windows 7 OS
• Mini HDMI and USB 3.0
• Dimensions: 172mm x 115mm x 25 mm

via [Big Download]

So, here we are. It’s our final article in our year-long Mamba Files series. What are we doing this month? A complete disassembly. For those wanting to fix, tweak, customize, or maintain their Mamba, look no further. It’s also worth noting that this doesn’t break any warranty seals, so you could actually do this without leaving any evidence of tampering, thus (in theory) keeping your warranty intact. But it’s best to not tinker around if you want to heavily rely on the warranty later.

Without further adieu, let’s dig in!

With just a small phillip’s-head screwdriver and a precision flat-head screwdriver or similar tool, this guide will walk you through the complete disassembly of your mouse. Before we begin, we’re going to completely turn off the mouse by flipping the switch on the bottom.

1. Remove the Mamba’s battery cover, as well as the battery and set them aside. We don’t want you electrocuting yourself now do we?

2. Starting just below where your palm would sit (where it changes from rubbery-coated plastic to smooth plastic), pry up the top cover until you hear a few snaps. Once it’s loose on that end, pull the cover towards the back of the mouse and it should release from the front clips.

3. To remove the upper shell, you need to remove two black screws: One under each side grip, along with two silver screws: Under the rear mouse foot and in the battery bay.

4. Now you’re ready to remove the upper shell. Like the top cover (step 2), lift from the bottom, pull back, and it will lift freely from the lower body.

5. The next screws and connectors are clearly visible by this point. Just be sure to take pictures for reference or label the connectors to ease reassembly. It might also be worth making a list of screws and where they go before proceeding further.

6. Remove the three screws and two connectors that are restraining the upper circuit board (outlined above).

7. Carefully prey the mouse wheel’s LED board away from its restraining pegs (outlined above) and lift the upper circuit board (mouse wheel included) up to remove it.

8.  You’re now down to the final few circuit boards. After removing the remaining screws (6 silver and 2 black), you’ll need to pry the base’s front plastic shroud loose from its plastic peg supports, after which the final board should come loose.

You’ve now successfully disassembled your Razer Mamba!

9. To put it all back together, simply reattach the upper shell, screw it back together (two black screws under side-grips, two silver screws under battery and under the rear teflon foot), reattach the back teflon foot and side-grips (may require a bit of extra glue), snap the top cover back into place (front clips first), re-insert the battery and switch it on. You’re ready for gaming once again!

With this being the 12th and final month of our year-long test and article series with the Razer Mamba, this brings it to a close. Overall, the Razer Mamba is an undeniable king of premiere gaming mice, even after a few years on the market and countless challengers, the Mamba can still stand among few other gaming mice to be considered one of the best that money can buy. If you have any further tests you want the Mamba to be put through, send us an email and we might just jump back in the saddle for another Mamba Files article!

Much to our pleasure, Razer has released an upgraded and high-endurance battery upgrade option for the Razer Mamba. For $19.99 you get a fresh, new high-endurance Lithium Ion battery that — according to Razer — will double the Mamba’s estimated battery life to 28 hours of non-stop gaming. You might remember us complaining about wanting more from the Mamba’s battery in our Mamba Files articles, and this is Razer delivering to their crying fans.

You have two choices: For a limited time, you can purchase the battery with a new Mamba for $129.99, or you can purchase just the upgraded battery for $19.99.

[Press Release]

Today, Razer has announced another addition to their constantly growing line of PC gaming peripherals. The Anansi is a gaming keyboard specifically aimed at MMO gamers. It shares “the same successful design philosophy” as the Razer Naga, the company’s MMO gaming mouse. It features dedicated thumb modifier keys, as well as “the power to instantly use up to seven times more commands and abilities over the current 12 ability keys normally accessible on a standard keyboard. The Razer Anansi also features over 100 fully programmable keys, on-the-fly macro recording, five additional gaming keys and the ability to customize the key backlighting from over 16 million colors.”

The Razer Anansi will be available in December for $99.99.

[Press Release]

Back in January we tested the Mamba’s battery to see how well it compared to Razer’s claim of lasting 12 solid hours of gaming before requiring life-support in the form of its charging cable. To its credit, the Mamba really lasted 12 hours of hard gaming before begging for mercy, so lets see if it can perform just as well after these past 9 months of wear and tear.

With a full cache of snacks, a fresh night ahead of me, and a fully charged battery, the gaming began. Launching myself into the desolate wastes of Fallout: New Vegas, I was tumbling with the tumbleweeds for about 10 hours. After running into a game-killing bug, I resorted to my hidden blade and killed targets in Assassin’s Creed for an hour before the Mamba couldn’t take any more. With a final gaming time of 11 hours, 37 minutes, and 49 seconds, I got my sleep results.

So, final verdict? Gaming time across the two tests shows about a 5% decline in usable battery life from a full charge. It’s about what we expected. And, considering Razer only gives the Mamba’s battery a 6-month warranty, it’s good to know that you can still rely on it far past its warranty date.

While you’re waiting for the next and final month of The Mamba Files, be sure to catch up on previous months!

The mouse will be available next month for a whopping price of $130.

[Press Release]