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Razer Project Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet reviews
Did hear the latest announcement from Razer on their project Fiona for Windows 8 gaming tablet? Read more about the Razer Fiona Windows 8 tablet PC and find yourself the future of Windows 8 in gaming world.
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In the Computer Electronics Show (CES 2012) held at Los Angeles, Nevada, many companies demonstrated their new products. Also, there were several demos of upcoming products and concept products. One of the concept units that stole the show was the Razer Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet PC. It was a proof of concept that demonstrate the true power of Windows 8.
Typically, tablets run on special hardware designed specifically for tablet PCs like ARM processor. It comes with the advantages - light weight, smaller size and so on. However, the advantages comes with a cost - low power. But that usually does not matter much since tablet PCs are not meant for high horse power applications.
Razer Fiona Windows 8 tablet PC is changing the game by coming up with a gaming PC on a tablet computer that made many eye brows raised. The project Fiona is not really a regular tablet PC but is a computer and a gaming device too.
Most of the Windows games are developed to run on high power computers and not for tablet. The high CPU requirement make many games fail to run on under powered tablet devices, even though tablet form factor is a better platform for gaming. Moreover, tablets are better candidates for games because people like to play games when the travel in car, airplane etc. Big computers and high end laptops are difficult to carry just for playing games while on travel. On the other hand, tablets are easy to carry. This is where the Project Fiona could change the game with it's high powered Intel based Tablet PC that take advantage of the power of Windows 8.
Project Fiona's innovative design that combine the power of Intel based gaming hardware in to a tablet computer is focused on serious PC gamers. Thousands of existing and future PC games can be played on the Razer Project Fiona tablet.
Game controllers on a Tablet PC
If you look at the pictures of Project Fiona, you will see the game controllers projecting from the tablet PC. These controllers make it easy to play the computer games that require external controllers. Project Fiona features integrated dual game controllers on both sides of the tablet, alogn with very precise analog sticks to make the movements and actions easy on the PC games. This innovative gaming tablet design has drawn the attention of many Windows gaming experts.
While Project Fiona Windows gaming tablet supports playing existing PC games, they expect future games togive more native support to take advantage of the cool features of the tablet PC like multi-touch screen, Windows drag and drop feature, accelerometer based controls and so on. The hybrid gaming controls offered by this Windows 8 tablet PC would be a challenge for the Windows PC game developers, but would offer extra power and opportunities to the expert gamers.
Gaming on the GO
My kids use a Dell desktop computer, which currently runs on Windows 8 developer preview edition. Kids use the computer primarily to play PC games and occasionally to browse. They have hundreds of their favorite PC games installed on this Windows 8 computer. However, we rarely allow playing games except during vacations. But during most of our vacations, we will be on travel and we can't carry the PC with us. So, to keep the kids busy, we carry the iPod and Nindento DS with them to play games on the go. Kids miss their PC games while on travel, but not anymore with the Project Fiona. As soon as we get a Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet, I think my kids are going to forget their iPod and DS and will switch to the Fiona so they could take hundreds of PC games with them.
Take a look at the video of Razer Project Fiona in action:
Razer Fiona: Windows 8 Tablet PC or a Gaming device
Is Razer Fiona a Windows 8 Tablet PC?
The answer is YES and NO. It does look like a Tablet PC and so we can call it a Windows Tablet PC. The concept tablet PC demonstrated at the CES runs on Windows 8 and the company has mentioned that Razer Fiona gaming Tablet will take advantage of the Windows 8 operating system. So, we can expect a powerful Windows 8 Tablet PC from the Razer Fiona.
However, one thing that make the Razer Fiona tablet from other Windows 8 tablet PCs is, it runs on a powerful Intel® Core™ i7 processor rather than a ARM based tablet processor. This alone is enough to call it a PC instead of a Tablet computer. Gaming computers need to process a lot of graphics operations which require a lot of computing power. Normal ARM processors would struggle to deliver the horse power required to run graphics rich gaming applications. This is one the reasons Razer decided to go for a Intel i7 CPU on it's gaming tablet.
Another interesting feature on the Razer Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet is the gaming console and accessories. In one of the popular websites, a critic has mentioned that Razer must be a subsidiaary of SONY since the gaming accessories look a lot like Sony Playstation accessories!
Take a look at the picture of the concept device shown at the Razer website:
Razer Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet reviews
The Razer Fiona Windows 8 tablet is not released yet. It is a concept design, demonstrated at the CES and may take 1 or 2 years to hit the market. Before the Fiona tablet come to the market, it would possibly undergo several enhancements and changes. After all, Windows 8 is not released yet and is not even at beta stage yet. The concept design of the Fiona tablet is based on the currently available information the Windows 8 OS. As Windows 8 undergo changes, the Fiona tablet also would under go several design changes.
It is practically not possible to give a genuine review of a product before it is not commercially available. The best review we can give by looking at the concept design is, it looks very innovative idea. Combining a tablet, computer and a gaming device in to one unit is definitely an attractive deal. Most of us use tablet devices to read news, browse websites and read books. In my case, I use my iPad in the bed to browse through various blogs, websites and news. When it comes to serious computing like programming, documentation etc, I switch to my Lenovo Windows laptop (Lenovo has no Windows 8 tablet yet, but I am sure they have some Windows 8 tablets in their labs already).
Here is my reviews on the Fiona concept design:
1. Good: It is a unique model and yes, it is appealing.
2. Good: Playing high power games on a laptop is a great idea.
3. Bad: The projecting game controllers on both side of the Fiona tablet PC make it a gaming device and not a tablet computer for regular computing needs.
4. Good and Bad: It is a tablet and a computer, meaning it can run any programs that can run on a regular PC or tablet computer. However, the non removable game controllers make it more like a gaming-only device.
5. Good: It will support the new, cool features of Windows 8.
6. Good: Support for multi touch and high sensitive screen could make Fiona challenge for iPad and other Android based tablets.
One of the reasons not many people use tablets for gaming and computing is, tablets are not designed for such high horse power programs. Most tablets run on ARM processors which offer low CPU power which make it not suitable for high graphics gaming. However, the Razer Fiona is two step ahead in this race. The Razer Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet is powered by an Intel® Core™ i7 processor which make it suitable for any computing needs including serious gaming.
Price of Project Fiona Windows 8 gaming tablet
There is no official information from Razer regarding the price of Fiona tablet. Usually Windows tablets are not cheap, which would be the biggest challenge for Windows 8 tablets. Serious gaming PCs are priced from US$ 1000 to US$ 1500 and tablets could cost even more. However, some market analysts suggest Windows 8 tablets would come at a lower price compared to its predecessors. Officials have mentioned that Project Fiona tablet would cost under US$1000, which is expected to attract many PC gamers to this tablet.
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