Razer's New Gaming Tablet Is One Of The Most Blatant Nintendo Switch Clones Yet

It makes you wonder whether Nintendo's lawyers will have anything to say about this - one would have thought it would infringe on certain patents

On the Nintendo theme, it looks like absolute DS.

It looks unfinished. And if it is finished this looks loads more uncomfortable than the Switch so Razer is just setting themselves up to fail

Eh, I give them a pass since it honestly does seem like the natural evolution to that hideous 2013 device. That had analogue sticks and buttons too. The Switch-like new design seems like the natural next step. But yeah, "clone" and all that.

They made one years before the Switch, so who is ripping off who?

This is so ugly. And what a brain fart by the designers.
It looks absolutely horrible to use. So uncomfortable.

They copy the awful facial buttons from the joy-cons, but here they have no functional use. On Swtich you can split the controllers for multiplayer gaming, and that is the reason behind the design.

Why not go with a comfortable d-pad instead? Then at least this would be usable for something.

It's like they just copied the joy-cons button design without any thought, and because the Switch is so popular.
It's not like handheld play on Switch is comfortable by any means, but somehow Razer managed to make it look even more uncomfortable with this device.

Why not try to make something original instead? Without a d-pad, this is totally worthless to me.

to be honest how else is a screen and two controllers meant to look

Good luck Razer, because we know how much their revolutionary gaming phones affected the gaming market...
Honestly they have solid hardware in the pc front, maybe just stick to that?

Imitation is the biggest form of flattery (especially if you sue them)

Razer makes fantastic mice, ok keyboards, good wired controllers, and amazing fight sticks. This makes me a bit ashamed to own multiple other Razer products, however.....

I assume these devices run Steam?

Watch Gamevice will sue Razor for stealing the control design from them...

As long as Switch has a nice long list of exclusives likenit does right now, Nintendo can sleep peacefully

@Damo Oh, so because it has detachable controllers is the reason for the article. Got it!

@YessMasster This device will have access to libraries like Steam and GOG. Yet, the Switch will always be more successful because these Nvidia things tend to be close to a thousand dollars.

@jockmahon

Well, they could include a d-pad for a start. That would help a lot.

Also the balance seems totally off with this design. The control sticks are placed to close to the top, making it look very uncomfortable to use.

With your index fingers on the shoulder triggers, it just seems way to close to the control sticks to be comfortable. But that is just my first thought about it.

Look at this picture, and compare. Then you understand what I mean. The joy-cons are much better balanced, without being perfect:
https://images.nintendolife.com/d05b79ec6a69f/switch.original.jpg

Honestly I think this final note about the product(and it's likely pricing) will be the main nail in this thing's original coffin:

"Could this be a rival to the Switch? That's probably unlikely, given that Razer's products usually skew towards to the top end of the PC gaming market. If this new device is anything like the original Razer Edge, then expect a price point much higher than that of the Switch and Switch Lite."

The reality is that even if "stronger handheld than Switch" may be possible, no one would be ready to pay the actual price of such a thing unless it was direly underpriced.

And since the crowd this might appeal to is a much uncertain one(not having the brand recognition of console devs like Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft) , that just increases the risk one would get selling this at a loss.

Without saying that a platform like this most likely hasn't got a deal where they can get a cut of games sold on their console since it's meant to run either mobile or PC games outright which would be distributed in environments they likely don't control(and thus can't get a cut from the distribution meaning they likely can't afford even more to sell at a loss).

Hopefully it has the affect of making Nintendo more bold with the hardware specs of their next console which is hopefully is the Switch 2.

@BenVenn well the bottom pic is a copy of a windows tablet controller that came with a tablet before the switch which had xbox controls and could stream from a xbox or steam on pc

The switch has really emphasised the form factor for me, if they added in a package that could also use their external graphics boosting dock I'd be really interested in this.

If window based and decent price I am in.

With cloud save I can keep playing max settings using my PC at home and only sacrifice the experience on the GO.

Cargo cutting the awful button style “dpad” when it’s not actually required.

Still... it won’t have Zelda.

How many times have we stated this: Nintendo didn't invent the concept of the Switch in the first place. Don't make me copy / paste my post about the Aikun Morphus x300 again.

@qeiYnn Well, that depends on which Zelda you're talking about. Now, a legal, legit Zelda, that's another thing entirely...

@qeiYnn Yeah, I'm sure emulators won't work on this thing...oh wait...

@yuwarite Okay, I just looked the thing up, and it looks legit. From their website: " The World 1st Proffisional 3D Gaming Console true mobile gaming device."

I'll take ten.

@betterbygames

Well That is the Windows standard Y,X,A,B arrangement. It is also shared with XBOX, Android and iOS. That is more their target audience.

I'm not sure why it's taking so long for companies to put some buttons on a tablet or phone for games. Touchscreen-only is such an unnecessary handicap. And, stop me if I'm wrong, i think people like to play games on devices.

@Woomy_NNYes

Amen to that

Nintendo didn’t sell the Switch on the portability concept alone. 2017 was a great year for software on the platform. I bought the Switch to play Mario and Zelda- getting them portable was just the icing on the cake.

@ConanLives
If Jeremy Clarkson had a Switch, he'd ask for "MORE POWER!".

@NotTelevision
Very true.

@Woomy_NNYes Putting buttons on things makes them toys, 'phones are status symbols. There is a stigma to playing games that you can overcome with touch-screens because it is their secondary purpose.

If you see someone at a train-station playing Candy Crush they are taking a quick break from executive calls and number crunching.

If they are playing a dedicated gaming device they are a nerd.

I'm excited for all of this inovation in the tablet/arm market because that gives Nvidia more experience, Nintendo more competition (which pushes them to be better) and hopefully this will help the Switch form factor become the new "Nintendo" the way that the NES and SNES and (arguably) N64 were.

My Shield K1 Tablet is still faster and it is years old. nVidia owns the mobile processor world, no other ones come close to what they are doing on a graphics level with them.

@BumpkinRich
Aw.... nerd!?
Jk, you're right. It could absolutely be percieved immature on a phone. Good point.

Sounds more like Nintendo copied Razer then Razer copied their adjustments back.

@BarefootBowser Just to be clear, I wasn't saying being a 'nerd' is wrong. If playing a Switch at a train station makes you one I am in the club.

The idea of someone choosing not to do something because of the way someone else will perceive them is ridiculous but, sadly true.

@BumpkinRich so true. My wife will call me out when I take my Switch to wait for a haircut, but everyone else in the waiting room is playing candy crush or some other F2P title. But I know what I'd rather be playing.

Hold on let me find the article about how Nintendo ripped off the original from 2013. Hmmm...cant find it.

Nope. Not going to touch the Switch. Going to take more than than to unseat Nintendo.

Yea.. not really going to happen at all..

@NEStalgia Yeah, they don't actually make these "amazing flight sticks" you speak of, never have.

@Racthet916 You're right, they've never made any flight sticks. They do however make the fight sticks I mentioned.

Atrox and Panthera are effectively the successors of the Mad Catz TE2. Razer hired the designer behind the famed Mad Catz after they closed shop.

(Since then Mad Catz re-opened shop, but that's a whole other story....)

@holygeez03

I seriously doubt it, look how thin it is , there are no SOC that are possible that will fit in that thin a profile that would not overheat or have decent battery life.
I’m guessing it’s a android gaming device, wish it was Steam ready though.

@NEStalgia Haha, my brain saw "flight" sticks since I'm a PC sim junkie. I was like, "what, Razer doesn't do flight sticks, I would know about those!"

@Racthet916 Haha, don't worry, I'm pretty sure we've all done that at least once! I used to say "joysticks" but then people get even more confused.

Somewhere under a pile my old Saitek HOTAS still lives....

There's also the Smach Z...

I don't care who copied who, but just by looking at this, the Switch has this thing beat in terms of design and shape of the device. By a country mile.

They lost me with the controller layout. I like the DualShock layout (d-pad to the left and joysticks at the bottom). Looked promising tho.

Razer makes some of the most overpriced junk you can find on the market. And it is literally junk. I bought three of products several years ago, and two of them developed significant faults within six-months.

Looks uncomfortable.

Design wise it a direct copy thus a "Copyright Infringement" regardless of what one says. You can't get any closer then what they just did. Just moving the buttons around shows clearly what the intent was a copy of Nintendo Switch layout.

Looks amazing, can't wait to get my hands on one of these.

Is it just an Android tablet with controllers? I already have an Android tablet with an 8BitDo controller. The Switch is designed for gaming from the ground up, has amazing software support with high quality real games. Android tablets are limited to trashy mobile games and emulators to play pirated retro content.

Doubt it will come to fruition. There's no way the controllers could attach firmly using just magnet like the design.

@SwitchForce is it also worth figuring out who copied who in regards to the Xbox vs the Playstation and starting a litigation campaign? Sorta baffles me how many people think everyone needs to sue everyone else now because an innovative console has sparked similar concepts. There's no room for marketplace competition so long as Nintendo fans exist huh?

Might have to start a flame war on a phone forum now because I've just learned that Samsung and Apple are both making portable touch screen devices that are rectangular, small enough to pocket, have cameras, can play games, can be locked, have voice control, etc, etc, etc, etc...

@Damo why would you give an article like this such an inflammatory headline? The whole "Switch clone" ordeal really needs to be dropped. It is so needless and petty.

Damn, I was hoping for a new edge pro, but judging by the size of the tablet, it's probably a android based one. They could be using the refresh Tegra X1 or the SD 8CX.

Idk why razer thinks a gaming tablet for Android would sell, after their Android home console failed.

Damien next time instead of copy-pasting clickbate articles from another website you should look up the source.

The original patent was actually filed internationally by Razer in 2014. I believe the Nintendo Switch was released in 2017. Razer patented this concept more than 2 years before the Switch came out. So who copied who?

RAZER (ASIA-PACIFIC) PTE. LTD. [SG/SG]

(WO2016080906) GAMING CONTROLLER FOR MOBILE DEVICE AND METHOD OF OPERATING A GAMING CONTROLLER

International Application No.: PCT/SG2014/000545

International Filing Date: 18.11.2014

https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2016080906&tab=PCTBIBLIO

@Tamri3l I mean, that's all well and good, but when did Nintendo file patents for the switch? The earliest I could find was October 2013, but that was a really early prototype joy-con patent. Regardless, neither company probably copied the other, these devices have probably been in R & D for years.

@gamer89 haha. Nice!

I mean, who cares?!

No thanks, I can already run Android on my Switch

So this thing was made by the same company that bought and killed Ouya? Should had just improve Ouya's operating system and games then put it on this instead of killing it.

@MagnaRoader I mean the razer phone sparked the asus ROG phone, the xiaomi black shark, etc. so I'd say it made an impact.

I'm just not seeing it.

@SomeLunatic actually no, the razer phone wasn't the first gaming phone that sparked all of this. Xiaomi and Huawei actually had gaming focused phones before the Razer but not marketed towards gamers first. Dont forget about Redmi and Play series by both, they came out before.

@MagnaRoader Those lines are "gaming-focused" in the same way the Galaxy line is. Which is to say, they aren't. They may advertise mobile gaming as a feature, but so does Samsung. That doesn't mean there are any gaming-specific features to set them apart from any other phone. The razer phone very specifically marketed itself as a gaming phone with features to back it up and a style to match. ROG and black shark were direct responses to the razer phone.

@SomeLunatic OK buddy. I wish you and your Razer loving ways the best of luck. I'm sure this tablet will be a runaway success just like the Razer phone before it (note: it wasn't).

@MagnaRoader I stated an unbiased fact that isn't strictly negative about razer, therefore I must be a fanboy, eh?

@Agramonte
I think the same as well. I have an insane ton of games on PC (near 700 on Steam alone from years and years of sales and Humble Bundles), so a console like this would be worth it even if price is much higher than the Switch.

My only "problem" with this, and this is a big one IMO, is if Razer solved the "problem" of Windows' sleep function that completely mess up most games being played. Windows is just not build as a tablet-friendly system and will mostly wreck havoc in the stability department when you have to instantly close your game session. This is one of the factor made me not buy a GPD Win 2 (I had the first one, loved it, but same issue with Windows). This is what makes the Switch great IMO, as I game a lot in my daily train ride.

But if that is not a concern (of if it works better on this device), it could end up replacing my Switch as my default portable gaming device.

But.... right now... it looks pretty uncomfortable....
(Although the Switch is too, in long portable gaming sessions).

@gamer89 no one's claiming nintendo invented the gaming tablet, they didn't after all, but you gotta admit the new razer one is clearly inspired by the switch.

NIntendo Switch is a major success because of NINTENDO. All the copy cats are not NINTENDO. End of story.

If it’s a quality build and can run titles from GoG ( which are drm free) I would buy one, day one.

Nintendo were the first to make a tablet with removable controllers. Amirite.

@Realnoize 100% with you on all of that and the sleep/suspend.

I was playing Gears 5 and had to leave for dinner. No idea if it had saved, so minimized it and put the PC to sleep. When I got back home It worked fine. So I think thy are working on it.

Yeah, the switch gives me hand cramps. Xenoverse 2 was painful on my hands. Not sure why they went this way.

I have a GameVice for my iPad Mini/Air (much more comfortable than the Switch - but most Mobile games not for me) and getting the HORI next week (see how that goes)

To those whom tries to deny the obvious why did they wait til after the Switch sales to release the product? If they started sooner why not release it sooner but oh wait they wanted to get on the bandwagon misinformation so buyers would buy their device was Switch console. Nah, excuses are late here they had chance to release but the timing makes it "SUSPECT" in itself. Anyone with common sense knows what they are trying to do here and I doubt anyone is that stupid to not know this or are they.

@SwitchForce
Huh.... That form factor and detachable controllers predates the Switch by quite some time, if you didn't know. All of those joystick attachments for phones and tablets that were around for years existed long before the Switch... even Razer themselves had a similar concept (not 100% the same as both side controllers were linked in a single shell you dropped the tablet into), in 2013. I myself had a "clipping" controller on each side of my tablet way before anyone knew about the Switch.

Nintendo didn't invent anything here. They just designed a whole console around the idea, and made it work very well because it was designed like this from the start instead of having controllers being an "add-on" to something else.

Sure, Nintendo made the idea much more popular and mainstream than it was back then, but to say companies like Razer waited to release an update to what they already had in 2013... because of the Switch is a bit stretched. I mean, sure, they might've noticed that the Switch made the idea more mainstream and that might be beneficial to them, but the idea in itself... they had it (and it was on the market) in 2013. This is an evolution of that idea. Yeah, the Switch was surely influencial. So what?

@Agramonte

I think Gears 5 is built as an UWP app (Universal Windows) which is new to Windows 8/10. These are the type of apps and games that can be bought and downloaded from the Windows store, and aren't compiled the same way as a regular x86 app. I think apps built like that are more friendly to quick shutdowns and sleep mode. Their drawback are that as far as I know, these apps are "self-contained" in some way that makes them un-modable. (Unless this changed recently, I don't know). But they should be more stable than x86 apps regarding sleep mode.

That may explains why Gears 5 works better.

I also know that it usually helps when you minimize a game before putting the system to sleep. But what makes the Switch great for me these days, is that even in the middle of a game, you can hit the power button and put the system to sleep instantly. Never worked as well on my GPD Win.

@Realnoize trying to deny the obvious is obvious here. They were late and now they are trying to fool buyers. Why, else release now when they could've before. We all know why they did this and trying to Troll for them shows they knew exactly what they were trying to do here.

@Realnoize "Nintendo didn't invent anything here. They just designed a whole console around the idea, and made it work very well because it was designed like this from the start instead of having controllers being an "add-on" to something else."

Now this is rich. So that means Razor didn't invent anything either using your same lines with the same design. They invented the Switch with Joy-Con something others failed to do correctly so they did Invent the Switch with Joy-Con setup but that already falls on deaf ears.

@SwitchForce
We can play the fanboy game all we want, you know. This is like saying every PC manufacturer who started including a mouse with their PC were copying the Mac despite Apple having copied it from Xerox first. Or that Google copied the iPhone system from Apple despite HP, Palm and others having similar products out already.

I don't particularly like Razer, I own absolutely nothing from them, I'm just saying that their first iteration of this (a PC tablet with detachable side controllers) was out in 2013. Accusing them of profiting of Switch's popularity is a bit weird, given that this isn't even targeting the same market (PCs costing over $1000). It could very well be that this successor to their 2013 model was in development for quite some time already, who knows? I'm not saying Razer invented it. This layout for a portable device with detachable controllers existed before that too. And I don't think these were all "failed" attempts. Countless of side controllers for tablets would like to have a word with you.

You just assume that because it works in a similar way to the Switch (an aspect that others featured before the Switch was even known about), that it, of course, was meant to profit from it.

You know, portable gaming, detachable controllers... this has been around for quite some time... Looks like the Switch? As the PS Vita layout somewhat was similar to the GBA, which was similar in layout to the old GameGear... I mean, we could go on.... but this is just stupid.

It's not a crime, nor something wrong, to inspire yourself from stuff made previously and improve upon it. That's what drives technology forward. And it does not mean others are copycats from getting inspired by what you've done.

But, you know, ok. Believe what you want to believe and keep thinking that everyone out there building detachable side controllers is copying the Switch.

I remember the Razer Edge Pro back in 2013, how it challenged even the Nvidia Shield and how it was able to run games like Crysis 3. It's essentially an Ultrabook-like Tablet, but not one in the traditional sense.

This is just a patent, however. But we'll surely learn more next year (alongside other next-gen stuff....)

@Mr_Muscle and the switch made the D's before that

@ryurei actually they did. If you really think about it the Gameboy was a gaming.tablet.

@Realnoize exactly what I was coming here to say.

@Realnoize Oh, thanks for all that info. Yeah, I am playing Gears on PC game pass. So by extension the windows store

In other news I read over at Guru3D... wonder if at the heart of everything 🤔

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/limix-drivers-entries-suggest-two-apu-amd-lines-in-2020.html

@Agramonte
To add to this, I've heard that the next gaming portable from GPD is going to use an AMD chipset, which will be awesome as AMD integrated GPUs are generally much more powerful than their Intel equivalent. Given the GPD Win 2 used an Intel Core M (and was quite a decent machine), maybe they plan on using one of those new low-power AMD chipsets....

Good things ahead for tech enthusiasts!

Um maybe its just a regular gaming tablet that's aiming to capitalize on the mobile gaming crowd and lacks the good majority of features on the Joy-Con that Nintendo themselves patented--NO IT CAN'T BECAUSE IT BARELY RESEMBLES A SWITCH AND HAS A CONSOLE STANDARD BUTTON CONFIGURATION LIKE THE SWITCH, SO THEREFORE ITS JUST A CLONE

Razer gear is total trash, I avoid ever since the MMO mouse I had for 6 months that literally fell apart bit by bit, the keyboard that had an E key that always double or triple registered on a single preeess, and headphones that also fell apart. It's a cheap brand with a premium price. Yuck!

Yeah like Switch is the first to do this "controllers attach to the tablet" thing first.