Razer's Blade gaming notebook was certainly an eye-catcher back when it was launched but it was also underpowered and certainly overpriced. Now Razer appears to have stepped its game up and announced the new Razer Blade R2 that features an updated CPU, updated GPU, different storage and most importantly, a lower price tag.

Although not yet detailed to exact specs, the new Razer Blade R2 will feature quad-core Intel Core i7 GPU as opposed to the dual-core 2.8GHz Core i7-2640M seen on the original Blade. It will still feature the same 17.3-inch 1920x1080 LED screen which will now be powered by Nvidia's GTX 660M rather than the GT555M. The Blade will still feature 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory but this time around, it will use 64GB SSD and 500GB 7200rpm HDD combination for storage rather than a lonely 256GB SSD. According to Razer, such storage option will increase size, decrease price and probably keep the performance at the same level.

The exterior will apparently remain unchanged as it is certainly impressive and was pretty much the main selling point of the old Blade. The best part of the story is the price of the new Blade R2 which apparently went down to US $2,499.99. Although it is still a very steep price, it is at least a bit lower than the original US $2,799.99 for the old Blade. Razer also announced that the existing Blade owners will get an additional US $500 discount.

Razer will start to take pre-orders on September 4th for the new Blade R2 and it is expected to ship on September 30th. You can check out more here.