Razer Blade -- Discuss

Thanks. That's higher than the Early 2011 MBP 17",

I'm looking around searching for the Late 2011 MBP 3dmark 11 benchmarks but I can't find it anywhere...

 

Guys, come over to this thread so we can continue discussion there.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/other-manufacturers/638962-razer-blade-discuss-6.html#post8284304

A member, johnnobts, has received the laptop and he has posted some initial impressions as well as 3dmark 11 scores. Should be some pictures and vids soon as well!

 

Probably best to keep all the negative out of that thread since John said he would stop posting if all comments were heading south and in this thread that is pretty much all it is

 

I wouldn't hang my hat on 3DMark06 but Vantage and 11 are more realistic. Also would be good to get some real game benchmarking in, although I think we'll find it remarkably similar to M14x and the LG P330.

 

hmm, the green light on the front of the laptop (left corner) doesn't seem to light up.... will contact razer about this tomorrow.

 

will work on pics for tomorrow morning. The green light does come on when the display is closed.

 

happy to see Razer included 2 plastic adhesive screen protectors for the LCD Touchpad. Already messed up the first one second one went on like a charm.

 

Looks slick! I look forward to the photos tomorrow!

 

Must

Hold back

Jealousy

-Stabs johnnobts with pocky- GRAWR

 

Same here! more pics please

 

Real classy.

 

that keyboard screen saddens me. I never look on my keyboard cmon.
why not just make something rather thin and powerful. Slightly thinner then mbp, better gpu, sub $2000 price and they would sell millions of that.

Instead they add expensive gimmicks, make it super duper thin and sell for 3k

 

Can we get some shots of that as well? Be curious how it looks versus an Apple Magsafe, HP Envy, or Alienware M11x unit.

Nice that it comes with a matte screen. The tech specs on Razer's site don't mention that. Can you also post a screenshot of information about the SSD? It'd be interesting to know what brand/model Razer is using.

 

What is the power adapater rated at? 65W?

 

It's a 120W AC Adapter. They say it's a "Slim" Adapter.

 

Different strokes for different folks. It would be nice getting a gaming notebook than thin, coming from a 2.5" thick Alienware. Perhaps if Razer could have fit all of that into a 15.6" form factor still with 1080p LCD and dropped the price 1000 it wouldn't receive as much hate as it does now. There's a reason why the MBP 17 costs 2500, so I don't see how the Razer is that huge of a rip off PLUS it now comes with a 256 GB SSD whereas the MBP does not (original specs had it with a 7200 rpm 320 GB HDD).

Anyways that is one impressive machine, just don't have 2800 to spend on it.

 

What bothers me most is this is not "The first true gaming laptop." It has near obsolete mid-grade performance components in a large chassis. The LG P330 and M14x have the same components (minus the touchpad) for half the cost at half the weight and size. Macs are not marketed as gaming laptops either, they are their own category.

The only reason they added the SSD was because of admitted backlash by Razer from the community wondering why a laptop so expensive had an HDD and not SSD. I guess if nothing else I've lost confidence in Razer and that their "next best thing" is nothing that they market it as.

And as Lieto states, they add gadgets and jack the price up $1000 more than it should be, where if they were to have just developed a super thin, super light 15" notebook they could have sold them like crazy at less than $2000.

 

Razer does this a lot.

Razer Blade 17" Laptop: "The first true gaming laptop".
(If you don't count Alienware, Dell XPS, HP Envy, Sager, Clevo, Acer, Asus, and Sony).

Razer SwitchBlade 11.6" Laptop: "PC Gaming has always been impossible in a portable form factor"
(If you ignore the Alienware M11x, Dell XPS M1330, Sony Vaio S-series, and more recent Sony Vaio Z-series)

Razer Mamba: "The worlds first 1000Hz / 1ms USB polling rate mouse"
(If you ignore the Logitech G5, Logitech G500, Logitech G700, Logitech G9, Logitech G9x, SteelSeries Xai, Mionix Naos, Razer DeathAdder, NZXT Avatar, Corsair Vengeance M60, Corsair Vengeance M90, Cyborg RAT5, Cyborg RAT7, Cyborg RAT9, Roccat Kone, Roccat Kone+, and probably a dozen more than I'm forgetting).


So yes, if you ignore ALL of those, then Razer is correct. They are the World's First.

 

Here's what I posted in another thread:

 

Yeah Razer is full of those claims, though it has seriously burrowed into Htwingnut's skin like a tick that it is "The worlds first true gaming laptop".

Anyone with a single brain cell knows it is not the first gaming laptop so i don't understand why that is even bothering anyone since we all know it is not true.

Plenty of companies across the globe make those same claims about they're products as well, so that is nothing more then marketing which is how companies move the product . Some claims are just more outrageous then others.

There sure is some serious anger issues around here though for something people will never buy and do not want .

 

This..

I can feel the hate towards this laptop.

Anyone know what kind of warranty they provide and what length?

 

Baka is wondering about battery life ._. Idle, light usage and heavy gaming.

 

Well, it does bother me when companies pass stuff off as the biggest and best and mislead consumers that aren't as savvy about the product. Granted shame on the customer when shelling out three grand for a product and not knowing what they're getting.

It's a 17" laptop with 14" guts and passed off as the greatest thing in laptop history and priced as such. Saturnotaku has it spot on. Razer seems to think consumers are idiots apparently, and Razer needs serious product development redirection. I mean really. If I worked for a company and said, let's make a 17 inch laptop as thin as we can get it and throw in mid-grade performance parts, throw in our new tech touchpad, and price it twice as high as anything else with similar components, I'd be fired in a minute.

Macs are near the high end of pricing tolerance but they've also made a name for themselves, and don't pass it off as something it isn't (well for the most part).

To be honest, when I first saw this, I was impressed. Until they eventually published pricing. Then I thought it was just a joke or proof of concept for advertising something else they were going to release. But apparently not.

 

I think most people are savvy enough to do the homework and weigh all the pro's and cons before making such a large purchase.

Considering Razer is a rather niche product to begin with IMHO means to me anyone looking at this laptop will certainly understand all the specs and what else they can get for the same amount or less.

Take Johnobots who actually purchased one , this guy sold his M18x and Macbook Air to buy the Razer, now clearly this guy understood completely what he was getting into prior. I would say he represents the market they are after more or less.

 

Well, people value things differently.. but I do hold the point that they are overlooking what 17" DTR Laptop gamers are looking for in a 17" laptop.. They assumed that "thinness" was what they wanted, and made it as thin as possible.. I feel that this adds nothing for 17" laptops as they aren't carried around mostly anyways.. but.

But it's surprising how much they put into this though.

Johnnobts has stated that they provide a Razer Orochi mouse, 2 plastic covers for the touchscreen as well, so they did think a lot in terms of providing extras.

If the warranty is 2 years+ and covers accidental for the first year or so, I'd say it's very competitively priced against a MBP. Again, niche market willing to pay for OS X and aluminum looks; another niche market willing to pay for the innovative Switchblade UI and the thinnest 17".

I mean on paper, the performances aren't that different between the MBP and the Blade.

 

Not to mention they are creating a false demand saying that they sold out in the first 30 minutes but don't publish actual number of units. And where's the production units sent out for reviews? I want a real review, not some shmo website that saw it on display at CES.

Ok I'm done complaining. As you were.

 

It is not twice the price bro, at least try to get it right. The most comparable thing is the current Macbook Pro 17 inch. For a similar spec without the second screen or customizable OLED keys the Macbook would run $3200, $3400 with bootcamp to run Windows. The Razer Blade is $600 cheaper.

The HP Envy is somewhat comparable, it runs roughly the same price for the same spec.

If I am in the market for a high quality thin and light 17 inch notebook, I want it to run Windows, I would like to game, and maybe I want something unique with extra features, then the Razer blade is the only option. It is an excellently designed laptop and it fits into its own niche just fine. If you are too cheap, too poor, or just not interested then don't buy it. I hate Mac OS X so I will never go out and pay $$$ in Apple tax for one of their laptops. However, I understand lots of people put value in what Apple offers, and that is fine, I hope they enjoy their products. This is the same thing, whether you think so or not the Razer design and features DO add value, a laptop is more than just the parts and specs.

It is also worth pointing out that the M14x and other small laptops with similar hardware have serious overheating and GPU failure issues. The Razer Blade was tested in 90+ degree F ambient temperature to insure it is completely solid in terms of heat dissipation. Could they stuff more or better hardware in? Maybe, but then it would be an overheating failing mess like so many other gaming laptops.

 

I was just wondering that too. What is battery life like with gaming? And what about fan sound? Temperatures, etc?

 

Based purely on specs, you can find many laptops at about half the cost of this machine, even with more powerful components, in 13, 14, 15, and 17 inch form factors. Show me any review that has published temperatures during gaming for the Razer. There is none. There is so little actual information on this laptop it's silly. For whatever reason Razer is reluctant to give up review samples that they don't have a rep hovering around them and only letting them run certain apps, games, programs. So all we have to go by are assumptions, unless you can provide me with actual test data?

Point me to any 17" gaming laptops that were an overheating mess? The M14x isn't an overheating mess either. Most of the overheating issues are from overclocking, and the Razer may be too, but since they aren't releasing any real information I guess we won't know.

Take the Sager NP5175, i7 QUAD core (not dual core), 1080p screen, GT 555m with Optimus, 8GB DDR3, Razer Orochi Mouse, Win 7 for < $1200. Add an SSD for $300 and you're at ~ $1500. 6.8 lbs, 1" thick.

They would have been better off offering the touchpad as a USB peripheral and left it at that than designing an entire laptop around it at an exorbitant cost.

 

To be fair, let's configure it out of the box as close to the Blade as possible. Using XoticPC as the reseller:

- FREE Digital Copy of Battlefield 3 w/ Any Intel 120GB SSD or Higher Hard Drive Upgrade
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 72% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080)
(Will add 4-7 business days to build time) (SKU - X1R552)
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU - S2N222)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- nVidia GT 555M 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology (SKU - S3R507)
- No Video Adapter
- 8GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R365)
- Remove All Branding
- Standard Finish
- 250GB Intel 510 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III) (SKU - S5R056)
- 6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Special! (SKU - S7P557)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- No Floppy Drive
- Internal 3-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS)
- No Back Up Software
- Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Intel® Advanced-N 6230 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth (SKU - S8R111)
- No Network Accessory
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- NO Spare Battery
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- No Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- Razer Orochi Wired/Wireless Bluetooth/USB Notebook Gaming Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's + Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included with OS Purchase
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- Sager 2 Year Parts & Labor Warranty, Lifetime Sager Toll Free Support (SKU - S9R207)
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Standard Production Time
- No Xotic PC Gear

The Blade does have a matte screen. I don't know its warranty so I went with 2 years, as that's what Razer offers for many of its mice.

Total cost with current $100 off $1500 Sager promotion - $1,921.01

I realize you can shave quite a bit off the price by going without the SSD, but I wanted this to be as much of an apples to apples comparison as possible.

 

for $1900 you can get a clevo p170hm with a nice matte screen with a large gamut, a cleaner sleek look, and actual gaming hardware

amd 6990m
2nd gen quad core i7

another thing i forgot to add is that the dual core i7 certainly won't outbench the quad core under any scenario. the dual core i7 is rated for 2.8ghz with two processors, the quad core is 2.4ghz for all 4 processor cores. if less cores are running, turbo boost kicks in. the quad core should run at > 3Ghz on a single core, and should run at ~3 Ghz on 2 cores (although conceivably it could run higher if the system permits). So, there is no conceivable benchmark scenario where the dual core i7 beats the quad core.

what will you do with your extra $1000?

---

not all manufacturers offer the same value per component. i'd say the apples-to-apples truth is somewhere in the middle. I'd say $1700

 

If you don't include the SSD, you're right. Razer does out of the box, pretty much everyone else doesn't.

 

you also have to see the audience it targets. ofcourse it attracts every gamers attention, but where they will get their gold is from those spoiled kids who see this and whine to their parents to get them one. It all rolls downhill from there.

 

Right. I don't think it's fair to include the SSD as an option in the pricing because it's standard on the Blade, and OEM bulk pricing is significantly cheaper, plus we don't know what brand, etc. I was able to snag a 256GB for $200, and not uncommon to find them for < $300. That's why I added +$300 not the $565 that XoticPC or other Sager resellers are charging.

 

I asked the guy in the other thread who bought one to post info about the SSD. Also, I would doubt Razer is getting an outstanding deal on those drives in the first place. It's not like they're Dell or HP where they would be buying them by the thousands. There is some discount certainly, but I don't think it's as great as you might think.

 

It would be good to know brand and model though. If you're buying in the thousands, heck even hundreds, I'm sure they get a considerable discount.

 

At that price, you would expect a very thin bezel and IPS screen.

 

Spoiler

 

heat, don't have an external thermometer but it does get warm in the back. Not as hot as my MB Pro 13 got playing games. Alumimum absorbs and dissipates heat though... The left fan kicks on more frequently than the right and is audible (think its the NVIDIA fan). I like that the air flows diagonally to the rear of the notebook, not horizontally to the side.

 

Any chance you could post some SWTOR FPS info? Also, does it come with any bloatware installed on it?

 

don't have SWTOR, sorry. Redownloading battlefield 3, have skyrim, mass efect 2, saints row 3 installed.

Skyrim, running same settings as most m14x users belows, full res, ultra settings with shadows dialed down.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/624541-m14x-skyrim-performance-questions-best-driver-settings-general-chatter-discuss-here.html

Gettings 30+ frames so happy about that.



just watched a blake griffin youtube dunk on the touchpad while playing skyrim. pretty cool. I can see where running video tutorials or whatever would help in some gaming instances.

hoping they add a video player app to the touchpad to play videos off the ssd or something. Would probably have to be lower rest files though.

 

Hah, that is awesome. Can the little screen do like Flash at all? For instance could you watch a live stream at teamliquid.net on the little screen while gaming?

 

makes a blade like sound (like a knife being unsheathed) when you boot up into windows, pretty cool.

 

Interesting...the system is using a Liteon SSD. I've used their optical drives on many a desktop PC build, but I didn't even know they were dabbling in that aspect of data storage. Doesn't look like they make their drives available to the general public, but a quick Google search shows that their products have found their way into Dell/Alienware notebooks.

 

Got the answer based on a BIOS picture the owner posted. It's a Liteon SSD, which I didn't even know they were in that business. If the SSDs are like their optical drives, then Razer certainly isn't paying a ton of money for them. I'd be shocked if it were more than $200 per unit. Though it's hard to tell because Liteon doesn't appear to sell them to the general public.

 

This rig indeed looks very sexy, it screams gamer...

And the Liteon SSD I've used in my Precision, very reliable and decent speeds.

I'd have to say that rig will live up to its hype on looks, although the mid-range card lags behind the other gaming rigs.

Definitely interested to see what the heat levels are.

 

Seems they use(d) this in the M18x too: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/582272-anyone-buy-dell-ssd-liteon-who-2.html

 

Considering Razor is not a laptop company and has no where near the buying power as other companies plus all the R&D it takes to design something like the Blade, i am not shocked in the least bit the machine costs as much as it does.

Also the uncertainty of how many units they might sell to recoup all the cash to the investors has to be pretty scary.

Kudos to them for taking such a risk in this day and age.

They will need some serious marketing muscle to get the money back.

I am sure the next iteration of the device will be better specced and cheaper as well.

 

I've merged the two Razer Blade threads to make discussion a bit less confusing.

 

there is a dedicated youtube key and an internet browser key. will test for flash on internet a little later. my dsl SUCKS btw. been restoring my macbook air, still downloading lion... reminds me, anyone interested in an i7/128GB/4GB RAM Macbook Air 11 with Windows 7 and a superdrive hit me up.