Razer Blade -- Discuss

Wait... Something just clicked. You guys want to customize so you can customize how you play your games correct? So it's safe to assume you don't just grab the machine with the highest specs you can afford and crank up the graphics to 11 and rock out? Yeah l, ok, I believe that totally. And of you want to say that, you do realize that if we were getting the most out of our machines, as I have suggested, then you could still turn the graphics down if you wanted to for whatever reason right? I mean... Seriously guys, you want me to believe you don't buy the most computer you can afford?

 

I would most likely not use "most likely" in this case since this is Razer's first such product and we have 0 clue how they will react.

What you say sounds awfully familiar, almost identical to what Gizmodo posted a couple of days ago:

( I Can't Believe It: The Razer Blade Might Not Just Be the Future of PC Gaming—It May Be the Future of PCs)

I think there is an issue with the above train of thought. If a product, like the standardized laptop you describe, gets updated every year then nobody can really optimize for it. The platform has to be stable for at least 1 year before its release for companies to produce games/software for it and then have a substantial lifespan (2-3 years at least) with the same specs, in addition to a market space that is large enough, for companies to be interested and keep developing for the platform. Consoles can handle this, they are build just for this reason and a portable gaming console that looks like a laptop can easily be created. A PC or Mac turning partially into a console it's not that easy.

Look at Mac book pros for example. They are all pretty standardized in hardware and software and one would expect that software companies would have optimized programs running on them, right. Well some programs run a bit faster on them compared to a same spec PC but the difference is marginal and in some instances PCs are faster. Nobody can say that a Mac can run Photoshop 30 times faster than a PC (same spec)... ,for example, although an XBOX can do that (run games 30 times better) compared to a similar spec PC or a mac from 4 years ago.

Also, the Razer blade, as far as I am concerned, is only technically a true gaming laptop at 1080p on a 555m: I have crossfire 6990ms and I have to overclock them sometimes to get good frame-rates at 1080p for some games at max settings. So for the Razer, I would say that there will be a lot of compromises to make for portable gamers, compromises that may not have to be made on an m14x for example or an m17x if they don't mind the size.

 

Definition of Innovation: the introduction of something new.

lol, it has nothing to do with pushing away from safety, and, even at that, more powerful components usually require more power, which = more heat, which = fire, which = unsafe.

happy now?

Both what alienware has done and what the razor blade just did are BOTH examples of that.

ahem, ALIENWARE FTW!

 

This 'gaming' laptop is a disgrace price-wise.

It's a mid-range system... suitable for playing games, yes, but horribly overpriced.
Have they gone Apple?

The only reason why it's so slim most likely is because it doesn't have a DVD/Blu-Ray drive.

Remove optical readers from notebooks overall and you can easily get a thin system (besides, it's way past their time to be discarded).

Ridiculous.

And the video on this laptop stated that there are no gaming laptops today that weight well over 10 pounds.
Sheesh... what morons.
A customized 15" laptop with a high-end gpu, quad core and 16GB of RAM costs less and is at maximum, what... 6.5 pounds heavy?
Quality = basically the same if not better on the custom system.
Battery life = practically equal except the customized system is much more powerful.

Lol... such a laugh.

 

It's aesthetics over capability, marketing over performance. It looks great, but when it comes to the crunch the GPU will be underpowered for new and upcoming games at 1920x1080. It's too dear as well.

 

Consoles don't look that great, though. Crysis 2 on the 360 actually looks jarringly bad. Same with Dragon Age: Origins, and a host of other games.

This Blade was a waste of development resources. It's a mediocre gaming machine priced above most good gaming machines.

 

Razer is an incredibly strong marketing company, that happens to coincidentally make computer peripherals.

Look at the Razer Blade... EVERY tech news site on the internet is talking about this "mediocre gaming machine." When was the last time major tech news sites talked about an Asus, Acer, Clevo, or Sager?

The Razer Blade falls right in line where Razer is strong. Take a product that performs on-par with the top-end products in its class, apply Razer's incredibly strong marketing engine, and market/price it as a premium product targeted for serious gamers with disposable income.

 

A 1080p display driven by a 555 is not anything for "serious" gamers.

 

There is nothing worse than spending 2000.00USD + on a system and having to turned down the graphics because of a lack in power. I can see the Blade coming in at 1600.00 to 2000.00 at most. W/O a Blu-ray drive this thing is full of fail at 1600.00+.

I'd rather have an 11" or 13" model.

 

It is *marketed* as a product for serious gamers. It doesn't mean that "serious" gamers will actually buy it based on specs, like this thread has shown.

Very much like how Bose is *marketed* as a product for audiophiles. But serious audiophiles rarely buy Bose.

Or how Monster Cable is *marketed* as a product for home-theatre enthusiasts. But serious home theatre enthusiasts rarely buy Monster.

Those three companies are very strong in *marketing*, and not actually creating ground-breaking innovations in actual products.

 

The difference being that your other examples are at least affordable for the regular people that want to be like the enthusiasts. $2800 is a price point far beyond most people.

 

As was mentioned above - those other products are at least within reasonable reach of those who want them and still perform well enough that someone who isn't an audiophile or theatre enthusiast wouldn't tell the difference.

With the Blade, Razer is effectively marketing Lamborghinis to people, but actually selling them Pontiac Fiero kit cars. It looks really nice and is plenty flashy, but it won't keep up with the real thing and the innards are still crap compared to something legit.

 

lol...I really like how you said "marketing Lamborghinis to people, but actually selling them Pontiac Fiero kit cars"...too funny. I asked the AW tech today over the phone what he thought of the Razer blade and he laughed and countinued on with my order. It wasn't even worth his time to indulge on the subject.

 

Was it worth yours to even ask the question, hehe
They actually could make something out of the idea but it will be miles away from a true gaming rig. On the other hand with the current gaming tendencies, the uber power is no longer needed...

 

It's rare that I ever get to speak to a AW Tech who really knows his/her stuff and has a good attitude. When I do, I can't help but to get their PoV on things M18x related while I wait for them to get approval on my order. Everyone at my job wants one. A few mbp peeps there are ready to drop down the cash and have posted their macs for sale on the break rooms billboard. I guess mac people are gonna be all over the blade.

NBR should create a sub forum for Razer.

 

Everywhere i go on the NBR i get the hate for the Razor Blaze....sager/clevo, Asus, Alienware, etc...which is a sad thing to see....

 

I think the razor looks great.

I cant help but smile when members of the AW community shout overpriced. Perhaps we should look a little closer to home.

The Razor for me shows some great design features. For its first outing it is a good, sleek machine and has an amazing light weight. The Razor and the AW occupy different spaces. I could not take my AW on a plane as its just too heavy. However , I would certainly pop this little sucker in my luggage.

The G card is the only fly in the onitment for me. Otherwise, I would seriously consider this. Its great to see quality manufacturers entering the market and this can only be good for us.

 

As stated before, this product WILL fail, I have no doubt, they aim to target hardcore gamers and enthusiast but spec a laptop for mainstream.... Hardcore/enthusiasts are very knowledgeable people that are willing to spend for the right product/s, mainstream users have very little idea what they want but want to pay very little...

This product has absolutely zero market....

 

Yes the Razorblade is a pure incoherent product.

I think its total sh;t.

 

I dont think you can say it has zero market when it is aimed at mobile gaming. That brick of a laptop (m18x) is not mobile. Its a DTR. I took my m17x to lectures once and with the added weight of books would not recommend the experience.

The Razor is slim and light. I can see a market for that.

 

Alienwares at least have the performance to justify their position as gaming PCs and somewhat justify the price. The Razer won't play games well, won't travel well at 17 inches, and certainly won't fit into anyone's budget.

Imagine a Venn diagram with these circles: "People who will spend $2,800 on a PC", "PC gamers", and "People who want a PC with midrange performance". There is no point of intersection between those three. There is no market for this computer.

I don't see how you can say "this is a fine product, except for the graphics card". The graphics card is the CORNERSTONE of any gaming PC.

 

The Alienware in my sig was less than $2800 lol what are they thinking Lucky for them there's a sucker born every minute

 

I can see a market for a slim and light 17 inch. I can see a market for a slim and light gaming PC. I can see a market for a gaming PC that costs $2800. What I can't see a market for is a "gaming PC" with worse performance than my dv6t selling for $2,800 just because it's slim and light.

 

It's a good product IF it's priced much lower than 2799.

 

meh, my laptop (sig) is 1.22 inches thick.

 

lol ur funny.


With that price, I could build the best desktop with crossfire'd GPUs and the best CPU with at least 16GB RAM.

Wow, just wow.

 

Very good explanation!! +rep

 

You forgot to include the group "Uneducated buyers who (mistakenly) think they know about hardware specs, but really end up making purchasing decisions based on marketing messages."

That group of people includes quite a number of Apple customers. And that same group of people would be the target buyer for a Razer Blade.

Razer developed this laptop to compete with the Apple MacBook Pro 17". It has similar size, weight, construction, design, and pricing. I'm not saying it will sell WELL... it won't sell well (even Razer agrees with this prediction).

But the very existence of this laptop has everybody talking about it. And that means great brand perception and PR for Razer. The brand perception and PR is the real reason why Razer would release a product like this... it isn't for direct revenue.

 

I guess if the mission was to get people talking about how stupid it is, then mission accomplished.

 

only a few elitists in a forum dedicated to laptops would talk about "how stupid it is." Other people would either say it's too pricy, or find a comparible laptop... say the MBP 17 (before realizing what Razer just did there ).

Then again, there are people who hate on Apple, too, so whatever.

 

How is it elitist to point out that a midrange PC marketed as a gaming machine and priced in the stratosphere (the chief knock on PC gaming being "dead" is the high price of hardware) is stupid?

 

Like I said in the other thread about the Blade, you only need one of 2 things to make something sell (preferably both):
- 1 or 2 features that set your product apart from the competition
- a solid marketing strategy

How do you think overpriced things like Bose, Monster Cable, Beats by Dr Dre and Bang & Olufsen TVs sell? It's because they find a way to market their products to a specific niche of people who are willing to spend for them.

 

So what is the niche for this?

 

What was the niche for the iPad when it came out (remember all the "it's a big iTouch" comments)? What's the niche for a 5000$ TV that's made of the same anodized metal as a Lamborghini? What's the market for an HDMI cable that costs 50 times what you can get at the Dollar Store with the same performance? If you can't find one, you make it.

I'm not saying they'll succeed, I'm just saying that it's happened in the past that there have been overpriced, underperforming products that have managed and quite well at that.

 

They offer the most expensive gaming laptop with a GT 555m GPU. Something to be proud of.

Razer will sell some units, but this will be seen more of a luxury item, than a industry changer.

What I would like is a gaming laptop that replaces the DVD drive with a caddy that hold a hidden wireless mouse, that can be used for gaming. The mouse would have to be very thin, but that would make a lot more sense to me.


I wish them luck, but Razer will miserably fail.

 

This product is all about mobile gaming. Perhaps you should draw another circle in your venn diagram and include people that are mobile and wish to play Pc games on the fly.

Yes this is expensive as is AW. Why are you saying 'it wont travel well' , when its so light and is an inch thick? It is half the weight of an m18.That brick isn't the least bit portable.

Your tribalism is stupid. Be glad that other firms are entering the mobile gaming market. You dont have to buy it and this reminds me of many threads knocking AW for similar reasons.

 

My tribalism? I own an HP, which is coincidentally faster, lighter, and cheaper than this. Is it as pretty? No. That's about it.

My point is that I think the number of units that will move will be closer to zero than 1000.

Edit: Oh, and my HP has an advantage in that the 15.6 inch screen doesn't look nearly as crappy when forced to run games in 1366x768 as a 17 inch screen does.

 

But what's the niche?

 

Yeah, I was going to use the DV6 as an example. And if you wanted to use the 17" vs 15.6" argument, they make a DV7t too! You're paying the extra $1800 for a touchscreen LCD in a bad spot on the keyboard, and about 0.5" thinner, and maybe a better LCD.

 

Anyone who's willing to buy the BS marketing they're going to attempt?

 

i'm worried about if this thing will overheat at all... $2.8k? screw that.

 

nvm


..

 

2.0GHz Intel® CoreTM i7 2630QM Processor
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory
15.6" LED Backlit Display (1920x1080) 95% color gamut
NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 485M
2GB Dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory
Built-in Webcam
Integrated 79Wh Battery
500GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
6230 802.11 b/g/n/bluetooth
Height: 1.38-1.69 inches
Width: 14.80 inches
Depth: 10.08 inches
1,686.83!

and i could upgrade it more if i wanted. oh did i mention that it weighs less too.

one thing though, is if they made an option for the touchpad to be moved to the left or right side of the keyboard then it would be great, for lefties, and although im not a big fan of the touch screen, on the side of the keyboard is much better placement than in the middle, it saves space to put stuff like speakers.

 

I agree that it is badly priced. But taking the price variable to one side, is there a niche? I think there is, due to the weight and the size of the screen. Its a stunning looking product.

If it had a better G card it would be a real contender. Unfortunately they went with the GT555. I hope future variants will have more power but retain their light weight ethos.

 

they just took and m14x and redistributed the thickness into a 17.3" form factor, the extra half pound or so is from adding the touch screen.

 

Original MacBook Air for gamers?

Thinner and lighter than (best-recognized) competition?
Check!

Slick look and slick marketing?
Check!

Premium+ price?
Check!

Underpowered compared to bulkier competition?
Double Check!

Yup, I think that about does it...

Granted, the MacBook Air isn't quite as weak or expensive anymore, hence "original" in the first line...

 

2.8K, for that load of bullocks? I rather hit my head with hammer then buy that, it's nearly equal to a M14X.

And you know what? I could get my dream desktop for 2.8K USD.


RIPAMANJARO!

 

Overpriced for its performance, style over substance, ridiculous over-the-top claims, and marketing that is both over-hyped and deceptive.

It's honestly no different than every other Razer product ever released. And Razer has done quite well so far with that. So why should this product be any different?

 

Definitely an eye candy, but riDONKulously priced. lower 2k-ish then its doable.

 

Way out of my league, but boy does she look beautiful! *drools*