The Razer Edge is a powerful Android tablet designed for cloud gaming

But Razer’s newest gaming handheld comes at a high price

Source: Razer

2022 is clearly the year of the gaming handheld. Today, Razer revealed an Android tablet built from the ground up for cloud gaming. Named the Razer Edge, it’s the latest entry in a string of cloud gaming hardware.

The Razer Edge comes in two variants, a $400 WiFi model and a Verizon-exclusive 5G model (no price yet on this). The tablet will ship with the Razer Kishi V2 Pro, a slightly modified version of the Razer Kishi V2. This enhanced controller comes with a dedicated headphone output and haptics and, of course, fits Razer’s tablet.

A good display can make or break a handheld, and while we don’t know exactly what the Razer Edge’s screen will look like until it’s in our hands, the specs sound impressive, sporting a 6.8″, 144hz, 2400×1080 AMOLED display. 144hz support is excellent to see and a noticeable improvement over its main competitor, the Logitech G Cloud. There’s no headphone jack in the tablet itself; you’ll find this port on the Kishi v2 Pro controller instead.

Within the Razer Edge, there’s a Snapdragon G3x Gen1 processor. This processor was purpose-built for the Edge and should be more than sufficient, considering you’ll mostly stream on the tab. For this purpose, the Razer Edge supports WiFi 6E for home and 5G on the go. There are six vents on the rear of the device to keep everything cool, which means there’s active cooling with an internal fan. Good battery life is essential to a device like this, and the Edge’s 5000mAh will hopefully suffice. The 144hz screen may have a significant impact here, but we can’t say for sure until the unit is tested.

The Razer Edge comes with Game Pass, Nvidia GeForce, and Steam Link preinstalled. And as it’s an Android tablet, so you can install games from the Play Store.

Source: Razer

There are a lot of gaming handhelds to choose from right now, but the Razer Edge faces one major competitor in the streaming scene, the Logitech G Cloud. At $350, the G Cloud is cheaper than the Edge, and as we mentioned in our hands-on, this is already too high for a streaming-centric device. The 144hz screen of the Edge will be nice, undoubtedly, but for the same price, you could pick up a Steam Deck or the tried-and-tested Switch OLED. These may only play at 60Hz, but their performance, libraries, and prices add up to challenging competition in the same price range.

The Edge has no release date yet, but you can now sign up as a beta tester starting today. The beta will only be available to US applicants, which is disappointing, but we can hope to see a broader expansion soon.