2014 Razer Blade 14 Ship Date thread

if they had delayed it straight from 4/4 to 5/9 people wouldnt freak out as much because its only one delay. its the fact that we keep getting a few days before then it get pushed back.

 

These delays are getting really out of hand. I ordered this laptop for work since I'm currently using a dieing macbook. I was(and so is my work) expecting it almost a month ago.

If it wasn't for the 870m not being available in any other 14" screen laptop, I would have jumped ship allready. The 870m upgrade is way too nice to pass up though.

 

It does seem to be pumping out some impressive performance, even at native res. I may have just been underestimating a mobile GPUs power though.

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Nowadays mobile GPUs are only slightly less powerful than their desktop counterparts. For example, the GTX 870M should be about 85-90% as powerful as the desktop GTX 870, where 'powerful' can mean anything from GFLOPS to frame rate, to pixels/s or texels/s.

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Completely agree with you. The fact that it is also a day or two before the actual shipping date they move it. They do not even send an email or do they explain the current situation. Tbh I could not give a hoot about the "free" mouse. This situation is just getting out of hand and it does not shed a good light on Razer.

 

More like 50%, and that's being generous. Even comparing the 870M to the 770, you're at like 60% of the texture rate and 80% of the pixel rate. Passmark score is also around 60%. You can look it up at GPUBoss.

It's still pretty impressive though, especially considering that you're comparing a 75W part with a 230W part!

 

Agreed, perhaps I overestimated. I compared the 770 and 770M, on average, the 770M is give or take half as powerful as the 770. But for 1/4 the TDP. That actually is pretty decent.

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Sorry, thought I was quicker. I edited my post to basically say what you just said.

 

why hasnt apple sued over design similarities.

almighty apple the omnipotant thinks they can sue over anything.

 

Because they don't see Razer as a threat. It's not like Razer is selling Samsung numbers.

 

Yeah. Apple won't sue until forced to compete.

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I dunno. Razer is a big enough company to be sued. I guess they would sue if there would be a reason to sue them and I seriously doubt that they would back off doing it considering how much money they pay to lawyers.

 

But there is no way Razer even comes close to Macbooks in sales, and they aren't even competing for the same customers for the most part. People who buy macbooks buy them for OSX, the build quality and sadly some do it for the status. People buy Razer laptops for gaming, windows and well, status. That said the consumer market of individuals who are comfortable dropping that much money, are comfortable with both OSX/Windows and game is extremely small. Most people are comfortable only in their own environment and most gamers enjoy Windows. A diehard windows gamer is a rare find in the Apple world. There is very little overlap to compete for.

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Not doubting that at all but if you see someone copying your design, you will sue them. It does not matter if your product does not match the target audience as the "copied" product. At the end of the day it is still plagiarism and a company like Apple would not tolerate such a thing.

 

Well, we don't know. Razer may very well have licensed the base design from Apple in secret. It does look like a black rMBP. Except a lot more beast. And a lot more Windows (I'll be hackintoshing), and a lot more graphics.

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That would normally be true, except for the fact that Apple has not followed that pattern AT ALL. Look at their lawsuits leveled at Samsung and then look at the number of other companies who violated those same patents. There are devices with "slide to unlock" etc. that existed BEFORE Apple ever even implemented it, along with many other things (rectangular devices with round corners). hell, they could have sued HTC, Barnes and Noble, Microsoft, etc. etc. etc. The point is that Samsung is their biggest competitor in the tablet/smartphone market, and instead of competing in the market through innovation, they are attempting to stifle sales through litigation.

I get why patents exist, and I understand the need to protect one's design, but that is not Apple's biggest concern in the courtroom.

And even then there are ways for things to look similar without it being a "copy". I mean laptops existed well before either produced these newer devices. Heat sinks, RAM, etc. are all common components. Unless you're talking about the physical look of the device, in which case most consumers can obviously tell the difference. I think it would be hard for Apple to argue that there was any consumer confusion resulting in loss of sales, as well as any significant lost consumer base. It'd be almost impossible to tie down the value of damages.

 

I would not necessarily agree with that. Apple has earned itself a reputation as a "patent troll" and if they see a ground for suing they would. There have been cases where Apple would sue a smaller company than they are. Take this as an example: http://gawker.com/5853402/apple-threatens-to-sue-tiny-german-cafe-whose-logo-is-an-apple. They are suing a small cafe which is a completely different branch than they are AND they are suing the cafe of using a similar design on the logo. Therefore it should be the same with the Razer Blade since Apple is very proud of its designs. But it could be as SRSR333 mentioned. They could have paid for the patent for using a similar design to the MBPr.

 

1) This is also going way off topic.
2) Unless you're invested... who cares?

 

well if they sued: sometimes apple gets devices banned from sale.
which would further delay shipping

 

And we're back on topic!

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They won't sue. "You copied my plain rectangular design"? That has the potential to cost them a million to sue and potentially make only hundreds of thousands. Not to mentions it would hurt Apple's rep even more to sue over something as lame as that. Razer is no threat to them at all.

 

Exactly. The Samsung suit has the possibility of netting them millions. And as for the cafe suit, I'm sure the cafe would just bend over and change their design, Apple doesn't have to be concerned about ponying up significant legal fees to win the case. Now suing Razer has the possibility of being costly AND not resulting in much return, which is why they don't do it. To assume that Apple sues everyone who copies them is just idiotic. When you're suing people, you only sue those you expect to make significant profit from.

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i would bet the second batch is shipping tomorrow even without the 512s

 

Well my 128GB just gets here tomorrow, haha. Stupid free shipping
...

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Will you be the first to give us the detailed review we've all been waiting for? I think all the current owners are too busy enjoying theirs.

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I think, at this point, it's safe to say that the 512's will not be shipped until sometime after 5/9/14. I'm beginning to think that Razer opted to process all the 128 & 256 pre-orders before the 512's. After a month long delay, I don't see how this is a resource issue anymore.

 

if i could get my 512 in any reasonable amount of time i will do a full review and teardown.

 

Mine gets here today! But I have a date right after work, and I'm sure I wont get home late, then work tomorrow... I have 1300 hrs of leave, maybe I should be "sick" tomorrow. hehe

 

Mine's out for delivery. Wish those trucks had gps for a live-updating map... Because I'm certainly not getting any work done until it arrives (and for several hours after) otherwise :Op

 

At this point the delays for the 512GB are stupid. It is their most profitable model, their high-end customers, and they are totally bungling the experience.

Why is it so hard to pick a real date and hit it? Why do this extremely frustrating one week at a time delay BS? It is just extremely infuriating, especially as lower models are now being delivered and I am probably a good 3 weeks from seeing my laptop. Or more likely I will wait another 2 weeks and they will bump it again. Inevitably they will wait to ship until the worst possible time when I will be out of town or something.

Has anyone had luck getting a shipping speed upgrade?

 

Ordered a day after you, same situation here, and they didn't reply my inquiries which I send them last week. Getting so frustrated about their CS.

 

It's probably about the money. Razer is a for-profit company and they want to maximize their income while minimizing expenses. So if you have 100 orders of 128GB, 100 orders of 256 GB and only 5 orders of the 512, Razer is going to pour all their resources on the 128 and 256 models.

Even without having to retool their factory to install a 512 HD, it still makes sense for Razer to hold off on the 512 while fulfilling the 128 and 256 models. It saves them money from having to source a 512 upon delivery and the cost of losing a few customers on the 512 side is minuscule compared to what they would lose if they shipped the 512 before the 128 and 256.

Of course this is all assuming that more people bought the 128 and 256 models than the 512, but I don't think that's an unrealistic assumption. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to hear about people putting in their orders for the 128 and 256 models today getting their laptops BEFORE the 512 pre-order folks.

EDIT: It's also not in Razer's interest to give us an exact ship date. By giving us a week-by-week notice, they know that most of us will keep the order and won't look elsewhere.

 

Well given Razer's ridiculously transparent pricing strategy over overcharging for higher capacity SSDs if they had any sense in the first place, they would have offered expedited processing of 512GB orders whereby an 512GB order would processed ahead of all the 128GB and 256GB orders. I am sure they would get a lot more orders that way for their most profitable underlying product. Retool a factory...lol.....

 

My problem with this is the 512GB is clearly the most profitable model, while the 128GB is the least profitable. It does not cost them anywhere near the like $500 premium to get a 512GB SSD. It probably costs them less than $100 more in parts for a lot more in profit. They probably make as much profit on a single 512GB as they do 3 or 4 128GB models. Thus, people like me, who chose to pay that premium, are getting screwed.

I don't know, it is just silly. If it is a supply issue or whatever then let everyone with a 512GB order know and offer to let us downgrade, or do something. Don't just wait until the ship date, push it back, rinse and repeat for 2 months straight. Even just communicating better would help, why is it being delayed, what is a realistic date? Basically, they have done everything wrong when handling the 512GB orders, and these are their premium customers who they make the most profit on. These are the customers that will buy bags, mice, extra AC adapters, etc. The total value of the premium customer is astronomically higher than the people buying the cheapest models.

 

I'm sure Razer is banking on their product to speak for them. Service be damned, if they have the sexiest gaming laptop on the market we'll put up with their terrible service; we'll let them make a dime off us 512 buyers as long as we get our machines. The gamble is, how long can they keep us on the hook before they lose enough of us that it costs them money?

Of course this could all be a supply issue, which still could be handled better than the "we are sorry but your order has been delayed due to an unforeseen issue outside of our control" emails. Again, why should they tell us anything? We'll still buy their product...

 

In any case, are there any viable alternatives to the Blade 14 yet?

 

the prices really arent that different.
if they sold 5 512s thats 5 x 2,699.99usd. = 13,499.95usd
if they sold 200 256s. thats 200 x 2,399.99usd. = 479,998usd

we know people bought 128s and 256s more than 512s because its a mid model and everyone just thought they were going to change the ssd out or put in a second one.

they are making more overall profit on the lower models

 

Called CS again today, as my order wasn't shipped over the weekend (I was told it would be last week). Was given the usual run around, then told that the next expected date is somewhere between 5/9-5/23. I asked about why they said it would be 3-4 weeks for shipping, and they just gave me the run around again. No real response. Getting tired of waiting each week, only to have the date shifted each time, the day before it's "supposed" to ship.

I don't have much of a choice, though, there's really nothing to compete with it available yet. If there was, you better believe me, that if would have already cancelled and ordered something else.

 

If you are not a gamer... the Dell XPS 15 Touch, has many of the same specs, including the same screen resolution, it will double your RAM and give you more ports in a carbon fiber body, at the expense of the graphics card, which is GT 750M. But despite the carbon fiber, it looks kind of boring, imo. Also the estimated ship date is 5/12, if ordered today. So Razer might, I repeat, might ship before a dell could, at least for me. My date slipped to 5/9 for a 512 ordered 4/6, like many others here.

 

I just canceled my 512GB. I may go with a MSI GS60 Pro or wait to see what GPU is in the new rMBP.

 

I might be in the same boat as you. I asked CS when my expected ship date should be last week, and they told me last weekend (4/25), and of course, it wasn't going to ship.

My priority for a laptop is pretty high, and I very much expected it before May. Do you guys think I should go with the Razer Blade Pro or the Razer Blade 14 (2013)?

 

I am having this dilemma as well. I really like the Razer Blade Pro, but the 14" Razer Blade has those extra things that I wanted (hi res screen, powerful GPU, 14" form factor). I would hold off from the 2013 Razer Blade though, heard some pretty bad things about the screen on it.

I'll probably just suck it up and wait for my 512GB Razer Blade to ship. Just sucks it keeps getting delayed, with absolutely no communication from Razer at all.

 

Yes I guess they are if you assume they are selling a lot more of them.

But the point was made that - at the margin - they make more money on a 512GB. When the likes of John566 cancels his 512gb order because he has got bored of waiting it costs Razer a lot more money than if they had shipped the 512Gbs and JoeBlogg cancelled his 128Gb order because he was bored of waiting.

 

I would totally jump ship to the Blade Pro if it had a better GPU. I'm not against a slightly larger machine, but I really want to have the best available, as it will extend the life of it in terms of technology.

The Blade Pro is just in such an awkward place now, as it's billed as the "gaming laptop", but doesn't feature the same GPU. I have friends who do editing that also don't want the SwitchbladeUI or the 17" screen, so they're also waiting on the Blade 14.

The number of reviews for the Blade Pro are also quite rare (I think I've only seen one), given that they shipped sooner than the Blade 14. It doesn't mean anything in particular, but it kind of speaks to how little demand there is for it.

 

What's the phone number for Razer's customer support?

 

true. no reviews whatsoever...
and min says insane demand...haahah

 

a few cancelled orders won't affect Razer. I actually think if all the 512 pre-orders cancelled today, it still won't affect them that badly; they likely have more than enough 128 and 256 orders to fill the gap.

The 512 orders need to hit a "critical mass" before they ship, otherwise it's not profitable enough for Razer to buy those 512 HD. Until that critical mass is hit, I won't expect the laptop any time soon. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if all the 512 orders got a nice email saying that their orders have been cancelled due to "unforeseen supply issues".

 

Again, what you're missing is quantity. If you're comparing a batch of 1000 512 GBs and a batch of 1000 128GBs, then they make a higher margin off the 512s. However, only producing 200 512s could cut their margin enough that it's more profitable to continue making larger batches of the 128s. As the batch size increases (up to a limit), so will their margin.

 

Just get replied from CS this morning, they said, "We will be getting another fulfillment sometime this week, and since you are one of the early pre-orders, hopefully yours will be shipped out soon." They still didn't give any exactly date, but it could be a good sign to me since my order is on 17th in March. Hopefully mine can be shipped this week,

 

More bait.