Gift Ideas: The Best Laptops

[caption id="attachment_5162" align="alignleft" width="330" caption="Razor Blade"][/caption]

If you know someone who is in need of a new laptop, then take a look at some of these computers, courtesy of The New York Times Gift Ideas:

Razer Blade Laptop

There is an old saying among building contractors: There are three ways a job can be done — cheap, fast and well — and you can pick only two of the three.

That is a useful model for laptops. In this case there are three variables: cheap, light and powerful. Razer, a maker of gaming peripherals, has stepped into the laptop market with the Blade, which is light (6.9 pounds) and powerful (it has a 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 processor).

What it is not is cheap. The Blade has a starting price of $2,800. For your extra coin, you do get an extremely thin laptop — the Blade is 0.88 inch thick, just a fifth of an inch thicker than a MacBook Air. You also get a 1080p display, a powerful graphics card and other components and features designed for hardcore gamers.

But the most eye-catching feature is the panel to the right of the keyboard. A game can use that panel as a display to show ancillary information. Alternatively, the panel can be used as a multitouch touchpad for game control. Know a gamer who has everything? They probably do not have this.