Razer Project Fiona Review

The “Project Fiona” is essentially a portable gaming PC with tablet form-factor and physical controls. The powerful hardware allows you to run standard 3D PC games and it is simply nothing like you have ever seen. However, although multi-touch displays are perfect for casual gaming, they perform poorly on first-person shooters and most PC games. What Razer has done is to combine a 10” touchscreen display, dual analog sticks, accelerometer and an Intel Core i7 processor. The high-end hardware configuration allows the tablet to run existing PC game titles adequately.

The tablet runs a stripped version of Windows 7 to improve performance, which still retains important functionality, such as web browsing, video playback and many others. The company will release the Windows 8 version commercially later this year. Although the tablet features a touchscreen display and analog game controllers, users can optionally hook up a keyboard and mouse. The idea is that, users can have a portable gaming platform, that’s easier to handle than a full-blown gaming laptop.

Games look great on the 10” display and they run at very respectable frame rates. Although the tablet is much heavier than the iPad, it’s not a difficult device to use. The form factor and game controllers may take some getting used to, but they drive home the tablet’s utter uniqueness. However, some users complained about its controls that don’t seem to be fully optimized for the device and sometimes it is difficult to tell what button does what when playing fast-paced action games. Despite the fact that it plays demanding 3D games, the table doesn’t feel hot to the touch and the internal fan does a good job of blowing the excess heat. The manufacturer said that all existing PC games will run on Fiona out of the box. Overall, the tablet is a bold attempt to combine traditional PC gaming with the sleek tablet world. Although the tablet is interesting, it’s unclear whether this is something that PC gamers are looking for.