New Razer Blade & Razer Blade Pro

Was out most of the day. By the time I realized it had shipped, Fedex had already came and went. BTW, signature is required, shipped from Ontario, CA.

 

Sorry for terrible lighting guys. Some high quality production....

 

No. Honestly, your videos were great. The keyboard one was informative, and your unboxing had some nice discussion! Thank you very much. Hopefully soon you'll have the time and patience to do a video about the viewing angles/screen/other things. I'm likely just going to be placing my order in a moment though. I hope you are right and I am not too picky! I personally have never been one to pay much attention to viewing angles/color and stuff, but when it is brought up by a majority of others it just ends up getting on my mind I guess. Any way, thank you johnnobts!

 

A laptop is intended to be a single user device. Viewing angles are not that important, and like someone just said a few pages back, small viewing angles help keep things private. TN vs. IPS? I don't really care - a good TN display is better than a poor IPS display; there is considerable overlap.

What has me worried are the reports of washed out colours and poor contrast in the official reviews. Users here say its fine, though. I'd like to hear about color gamut, brightness levels, contrast levels, etc.

I guess I've been spoiled by my VAIO VPCZ1 which has an excellent 1600x900 TN screen. Compared to that, all the other laptops I've seen my family and friends and colleagues use are terrible. My niece's Asus has a ghastly bluish tint that makes me shudder every time I see it.

 

Where can I see your video?

Nevermind, found it. Brilliant, John!

 

I think I'm gonna buy one as soon a good review surfaces. If it's positive, I'm sold. Comon Cnet, you have had your grubby hands on one for a couple of weeks now.

 

Same with me. I'm actually close to buying it, but I want to see some reviews first.

Also, does anyone know tax system in Alberta, Canada?

 

Currently doing a battery drain test.
Balanced Power Plan
Screen brightness @ 50% and KB lighting at "Normal" (64)
Surfing the internet, chatting, VoIP calling/video chatting over skype, YouTube video watching.
Have steam and adobe premiere running in the background.
It has been 1 hour and 36 minutes and I have about 58% battery life left.
So I'm expecting a bit over 3 hours of usage at my pace. I pretty much watched all of the most popular video list on youtube @ hd quality if they had it. Had a 15 minute video chat with the gf.

 

I would prefer Anandtech to be the first . BTW i was already sold. By the time the R2 was released, i was more than satisfied but didnt buy because of $.

One can safely assume that R3 >= R2 in every aspect, and R3 > R2 for performance and some aesthetics johnbots has pointed out (full matte exterior even for the plastic band, better keys).

@Johnbots. do you see any improvement on the screen quality when you look side by side at your R2 and your blade 14"?

 

Standard tax on everything is only 5% GST

 

Great!

Thanks a lot, fellow Calgarian.

 

My Cooler Master U3 just arrived today, ordered it two days ago and was surprised that it came in fairly quick.

Still trying to get used to it, but was looking for ways to measure my temperatures properly. I'm not exactly sure what I should be looking at (later on for my Blade as well). Just for future reference, I'm assuming I look for my CPU, GPU, and HDD temperatures right? What are some good figures to be at while idle/gaming? Any suggestions on programs to monitor these?

Razer's Gamebooster seems to have a temperature reading on my CPU/HDD, but for some reason my CPU temperature is always fluctuating between 39-45 degrees and 45-49 degrees, harddisk is at a constant 43 degrees. I have a feeling the CPU reading is inaccurate if it's fluctuating that much.

Would appreciate any help, not too familiar with this area!

 

Strongly disagree. A screen with poor viewing angles can cause color shift across the screen, even for a single user. To see what I mean, check this link for a test (scroll down so it fills your screen):

Viewing angle - Lagom LCD test

Ideally, all the words should be the same color across the screen. If the viewing angles aren't great, you will see a color gradient across the screen. Also, I don't think bad viewing angles help privacy at all. All it does is shift the colors, instead of dimming the screen like a real privacy overlay filter.

 

I'm worried about the screen too. I've been spoiled by my Dell U3011. My Alienware M14x had a horrible display color gamut/contrast wise. (1600x900 14" display). I hope the 14" blade doesn't disappoint. Currently using a macbook pro 15" non-retina and as long as the display is as good as this one or better I'll be satisfied. If not, hopefully a calibration helps a bit.

Looks like my laptop is coming Tuesday not Monday =/

 

actually the temps wil vary, for example macs dont engage the fans until they reach around 80c on the cpu (saves battery life and reduces noise)

Hwinfo and throttlestop do that, relatively accurately.

 

This is some Bull@#$@#$

Thank you for ordering from us. One or more of the products you ordered is currently unavailable and cannot be shipped. You will receive an email notification when your order has been shipped.

Estimated shipping period:
Razer Blade 14” Gaming Laptop - 512GB - Ships in 2-3 weeks


Ships to US and Canada only. We do not ship to APO/FPO addresses.

Limited to one unit per customer or shipping destination.

The item(s) in your order will only ship once all item(s) are ready for shipment.

If you chose to pay by credit card, your credit card has been pre-authorized for payment but you will not be charged until your order actually ships. If you pre-paid using an alternate payment method, we will hold your funds until your order ships.

If you do not wish to wait, you may cancel your order at any time by contacting our customer service department at [email protected].
You may also check the status of your order at: http://store.razerzone.com/findmyorderus

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Order Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order Number: xxxxxxxxx
Order Date: June 3, 2013

Product Name Qty Ordered Backorder Quantity Est. Shipping Date Amount
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Razer Blade 14” Gami 1 1 Ships in 2-3 weeks

US$2,299.99


Best regards,
The RazerStore Team

 

I see, thanks! I'm using this program called RealTemp for my CPU and GPU Temp for my GPU. So far, max on my CPUs have been 79c and GPU was roughly 63c. From what I've been reading, these temperatures are actually still pretty good?

 

I just got the same thing and I ordered within minutes of the preorder opening.

 

I know right? That's just wrong.

I told them if they can't ship the laptop within a week before I leave the states for a month to cancel my order.

 

I have never used that app, so I cant comment if its reading rights or not (example is the rmbp 15, when it came out, and till now, the apps were reading the wrong sensors, thus giving you wrong info, so it varied from extremely cool to the opposite)

those are good temps, if you are under load

 

I see, thanks! I'd think that Razer's Gamebooster could be a more accurate program (I don't think so though) since temperature monitoring is one of the important things for gamers, from what I gather.

They're actually gaming temperatures, playing Tera Rising on full screen window mode, got iTunes and browser open.

 

great now please run shogun2, Im a nutjob for the series, and this is mainly the reason that I want to get this unit, next year

 

Is that a game? Not familiar with it =/ This is still my current laptop! Not the Blade yet =P

Just preparing what info I should be looking at when I do get my Blade in roughly a week's time, hopefully.

 

Ah, bummer. I also received a backorder notification despite having ordered the day preorders opened. Since I need a laptop within a fixed (and known) timeframe, I'll be canceling my order and sitting this round out.

Enjoy the new machines, folks! They look great.

 

oh, they are. battlefield 3 running like butter here. solid 60 frames with ultra textures and everything on medium. changing shadows and terrain and other fx to high still nets me in the 50s. most impressive. Its 130AM out here in MS, and I'm still boxing all my junk for our big move. If I have the time I really would do a thorough review of the blade 14. May not be able to for several days.

 

have my blade r2 boxed up in original boxing ready to load it in the uhaul tomorrow morning. gonna keep the blade 14 out to play... slightly tempted to sell my blade r2...

 

How do I purchase this laptop if my billing address is in Australia, the laptop is $500 more on the Australian website and will likely be delayed for at least a few months, thanks.

 

I'm in Australia too. Well, for now, until the semester ends and I head back home.

I pretty much had to course through relatives to purchase it for me from the US and pay for shipping it back to home (Philippines). I've also got another friend who's doing the same. I would check with JB here before trying to order from Razer, since chances are JB may also have pre ordered or do the same thing I'm doing, except for their stores.

 

To the ones who have it already: Which version did you get? It seems like a lot of the backordered ones are the 512gb version?

 

Finally placed my order on a 512GB Blade! So excited, I hope I get lucky and mine ships somewhat soon.. looking forward to this laptop very much! Like I said, it will be my first

 

Does anyone know if Amazon will get the 512GB version? I got $300 in amazon credit for my college graduation and I wanted to pick a Razer blade 14-inch for work/gaming. They only have the 256gb version on amazon. Have they historically carried all sizes of Razer products? I reeeeally want one...

Kojakuu

 

Roughly how much did you pay for shipping and did you pay customs duty?, already stretching my budget!

 

I'll assume this one's for me?

I'm not exactly sure how much it'd be, since I'm shipping from NY to Manila (my relatives are in NY, ship address in Manila), and I have yet to hear from them how much the actual shipping is.

I did try to go to the FedEx site to calculate the time and rate from NY to Sydney though, since I wanted to know roughly how much and how long it'd take. I don't think I did the customs duty correctly, but it came out to roughly $300 for the shipping, and roughly 5 business days. I could be very wrong though, that calculator was quite confusing.

But I still highly suggest that you check with JB first. Chances are, even if it's marked up way more, that you'll be paying only slightly more than ordering from Razer + shipping here + customs. Biggest benefit would be time too, assuming JB has already (probably) made some orders for themselves.

I remember the Blade R2 was in JB fairly soon after its release, so they might have the new Blades pretty soon too.

 

Anyone know how I can get this in the UK?

 

From what I've gathered (and what was my second option), is getting them from a reseller like Amazon who offers international shipping.

 

is it possible to purchase it from amazon and use comgateway.com to have it ship to my country ?

 

I ordered mine a few days ago, Razer 14 512gb and it shipped the day it was released here. Time to ship doesn't seem to be very related to when you order.

 

I have no idea, I'd be quite skeptical actually. Last thing you'd want is your Blade to get 'lost' in transition =/

Edit:

It looks pretty credible and legit, but I'd double check with other sources first before actually using that service.

 

Well there goes my theory. That kinda makes the whole preorder thing pointless though. :X

 

just received my blade 14" 512GB temporarily out of stock email. they promise 2-3 weeks. :-(

 

I preordered the 512GB on 6/3, and yesterday received a backorder notification with an ETA 2-3 weeks. I cancelled my order in part because Razer doesn't appear have it together enough to honor the preorder queue.

I knew Razer has historically been known for subpar logistics, but to bypass the preorder queue on their highest-profile release of the year is a bit much.

That said, these look great and I'm sure you'll all enjoy your new laptops.

 

Same for me I even set my alarm clock to order soon as it went on sale. I got the same email this morning about backorder.

So I agree with you on your decision.

 

Sadly, I have to agree. This would have pushed me away from any brand. I'm hoping that Razer somewhat addresses this issue, or at least makes a statement on it explaining what happened or what could have happened.

I would urge you to wait it out, but I also understand your timeframe. Is it too late to cancel that cancellation? An email explaining to support when you ordered should, in my opinion, put you up to the top of the list.

 

I stayed up to order it as soon as the page changed to allow the preorders. Looks like that was in vain.

 

What shipping method did you guys order, to be backordered as a day 1 purchaser?

 

Did nobody see my question? I was just wondering if anyone knew...

Kojakuu

 

I just went with the standard shipping so I guess the slowest. Didn't think it would matter this much.

 

Can you link to some of these official reviews? All I've seen are hands on from E3 which is far from a proper review.

 

Not sure; whatever the default was.

I don't think that this is any way related to shipping method. It's a problem with Razer's order fulfillment logistics.

I added some context and even linked to this thread in the email where I requested that my order be cancelled. I'm eager to hear what the reply is.

 

I picked next day and i got that same email... Fu*ck them

I sent this email to their CEO:
i kinda hate how hard is to get support from you guys... Student discount sucks. i applied for it and called support was told just to wait, i spent a bit in your website trying to find you guys support number, i had to google to find it since it wasnt there. I pre-ordered my laptop.. I called support today asking for the status, they told me that they dont know. I asked question on whats cover on the warranty they said they didnt know, i asked here/on the razer FB page if adding a second drive would void the warranty and i just got ignored.. Asked support if u guys will release a 14 bag and was told that they dont know... I asked about the difference between the razer orichi blade edition vs the 2013 and they didnt know... Sooo yes u guys have one of the best laptops around but u have probably the worth support team i have ever deal with...

Never got a response.