The dedicated gaming laptop, the Razer Blade, has had its feature set boosted, making it twice as fast as the original.

The laptop, which features a 17.3-inch display, manages to maintain its svelte credentials, with a 22mm waistline when closed and weighing in at 3.1kg. This is despite the Razer Blade now being fitted with a third-generation Intel Quad-core processor and Nvidia GTX 660M class graphics card.

According to the manufacturer, this will ensure the next-gen Blade is the most powerful yet, running at double the speed of the original. There’s also now 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Memory, 500GB 7200RPM HDD primary storage memory and 64GB SATA III SSD with NVELO Dataplex Software.

Fans of the original Razer Blade will be pleased to hear that the Switchblade UI remains situated to the right of the Qwerty keyboard. This LCD display with multi-touch panel and 10 physical keys enables gamers to browse the web, view game guides and video and access their social networks while they carry on with their PC gaming experience. 

The thermal system has also been re-crafted to help keep the Razer Blade at a cooler temperature, while there’s a built-in HD webcam and three USB 3.0 ports that can be used to charge additional devices such as smartphones and tablets, even when the Razer Blade is switched off. 

The Razer Blade can be pre-ordered now for $2,499 with shipping set to commence in North America from 30 September.

The next-gen Razer Blade once again takes on Dell's Alienware range in the dedicated PC gaming market.