New Razer Blade & Razer Blade Pro

simple, is the win 7 install EFI enabled? it appears not

 

The anger is beginning to spread...articles about preorders being changed to backorders...Razer really isn't prepared for the demand. I mean sheesh, they're so backordered that the only place with any stock of the other two sizes is Razer...and they have no idea when they'll be able to ship regularly. I'm hearing horror stories of people being straight up IGNORED. I've been ignored several times myself at this point...this is horrible. Can someone who is in touch with Min express how horrible this service is to him?

Kojaku

 

I've had the opposite experience. I got responses pretty quickly and was told I'd get mine within 6 days. (Wasn't specified if it was business days but I'd assume as such) Where are these articles btw? I haven't seen anything new yet.

They did say that the preorders are now being prioritized though.

 

I agree the main problem of this laptop is the screen but maybe next year update will have igzo display , 8gb is a little bottleneck.

 

Have you seen his recent post in his Facebook about the issue? I posted the response here a few pages back as well.

 

Take it easy - they've literally only been shipping pre-orders for five business days, and the CEO has already posted a pretty reasonable response to shipping/distribution concerns. The CEO. After a few days of complaints. That's actually a pretty great level of response, all things considered.

It's worth noting that when you say you've "been ignored several times... at this point", I believe you mean that your question about whether or not Amazon will carry the 512 version of the 14" has been ignored (you've repeated it multiple times now on this thread). I'm not sure if "not getting an answer to a relatively unimportant question" is equal to horrible customer service. You aren't even a customer yet. Give it time; new product roll-outs always have a few bumps, and we're still within the 2-4 week shipping estimates originally provided by both Razer and Mr. Tan. If you literally can't wait to spend your Amazon gift card, you're always free to get another laptop; no need to get mad.

I'm getting impatient as much as the next person (ordered the 256 GB Blade on Amazon on the 11th), but I'm not sure we're into pitchfork territory yet given the fairly typical rigors of early adoption and the level of responsiveness we've seen so far.

 

What do you mean exactly? I have an unused OEM Windows 7 sp1 DVD that I used to create the bootable jump drive

 

I'm honestly at the point where I reeeeally can't afford the blade until it hits Amazon anyway. I just want to know it's gonna be there so I don't sit on $300 amazon for like two months and end up waiting for no reason.

Kojakuu

 

I'm hoping this is the case for most of us too. Like any product for any brand really, that initial surge in demand is extremely difficult to cope with even if its anticipated and expected, which I'm sure Min has due to the experience in the past few years. I'd give it a month, at most, for inventory to catch up and stabilize to a point that you can order from them quite quickly.

As for resellers, no idea though, since as much as Razer would probably want to deliver them to resellers, half of the work has to come from the reseller as well. I'm hopeful for a good month still for US resellers, and another month for other regional resellers.

 

Is demand really that high or does Razer just suck at product launches? Almost every single recent Razer release has had supply problems. Just look at the Razer Edge, or the Edge gamepad/dock, or the Ouroboros, or the Sabertooth, or the Onza, or the Tiamat 7.1, or the Blade R1.................you get the idea.

 

Amazon has the 256 14" up for pre order... I don't see the 512gb version though. And they don't give any indication when they will get the 256gb version either

 

In my opinion, I'd say a bit of both. From the way the brand has been growing and expanding, I'd safely assume that demands for their products consistently grow and spike at every revision. I'm sure they know that. But knowing Min, especially after watching one of his interviews which shows how much of a perfectionist he is, it's probably difficult to secure a manufacturer that can live up to his standards, make them fast, and keep the cost manageable. Should be either of the two, but I wouldn't really know unless I get inside info =P Clearly it's not Cheap-Fast, since they're really high quality products.

Basically, Fast - High Quality - Cheap. You can choose two. From my perspective as a consumer, I wouldn't really know if they're opting for a HQ-Fast or HQ-Cheap manufacturing combo. I'd like to say HQ-Fast which justifies the premium tag, but it's possible that they're also doing a HQ-Cheap to really increase their profit margins, which could explain the delays in their products.

I've found that their distribution has improved over the years though. From the first Blade up to now.

 

In the interest of sharing "both sides of the coin", I wanted to pass along the positive aspects of my time so far with the 14" Blade. The design itself (form factor, etc) is outstanding. The keyboard is great to type/play on and I especially love the trackpad! It's large and sensitive and the mechanical buttons feel great. The speakers are incredible, fans are whisper quiet and heat barely noticeable. The fans are in fact so quiet that more than once I wondered if they were even working. They are of course but even playing games like Far Cry 3, Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light you can barely hear them. Additionally, the system is truly a power house for gaming. Granted it isn't a GTX 780m or anything but I've yet to find a game that isn't smooth and playable. For example, I'm getting ~33fps on Metro LL on high quality at native res. If NVidia would get on the ball and release a set of 765m drivers which contain all their optimizations for these new games I'm sure performance would be even better. Naturally it blows away older games.

 

too many bad reviews on the screen, ill pass on razer.. maybe next time, not paying $2000 for a crappy screen lmafo

 

FYI for people waiting on their pre-orders. I just got an email stating mine would be fulfilled on the 25th so they really are working on the pre-orders.

 

Ended up cancelling my pre-order.. figured it's better to be safe than sorry no matter what ends up being the case! If reviews say the screen in nice, I'll re-buy!

 

@mario64,

What are your load and idle CPU/GPU temps?

 

This is EXACTLY what I was talking about! The inconsistency and lack of info is super frustrating.

Kojaku

 

Thanks for the update. But did you get an email last week that it was on back order? Or is this the first email you received re: order from razer?

 

win 7 had a way to make either bios or EFI boot, the default was bios. Since the system is EFI based it wont load the bootloader

Installing Windows to an EFI-Based Computer

Installing Windows 7 in native EFI mode from USB - bit-tech.net Forums

for win 8 the default is EFI, so to support secure boot

most drivers are forward and backward compatible. Simply put I would deal with win 8 and use something like those give start button back, its a superior OS, no questions about it.

 

My response from Razer on Amazon:

Thank you for contacting RazerStore.
I wish we have the answer to your question but unfortunately there is none.
We don't have any information as to when Amazon will receive their units.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Thank you for your time and support.


And this was an escalated issue.

I get the fact that they are overloaded, but they do need to have better communication with customers on these issues.

 

Yes. I did get an email last week that it was on back order. This was just the latest email I got from Razer regarding the ticket with order support. I emailed them asking why it was back ordered.
They've been keeping up with regular responses since then.

 

Did you write to them about the 512gb model, or about when they'll receive the 256gb units? I stupidly preordered on Amazon thinking I'd get it faster because of Prime, but now I'm trying to figure out if it's worth just canceling that one and switching over to the Razer Store. Still waiting on a response from Razer Orders support.

 

My guess is that there will be no updates from Amazon until Razer has its backorders cleared.... gives us time to look at the reviews. I am honestly not complaining heh.

 

I ordered on 6/3 and I am still in "Order Submitted". Should I have gotten it by now?

How is the supply of the 17" Blade Pro? Is that on Back Order as well, or would it be quicker to upgrade my order to that model? I've been seeing alot of negative posts about the 14" screen and am wondering if I should sacrifice the portability and price savings and just go to the 17 inch. Is it that much better?

I have been perusing this forum and some say that they have received theirs and others say they are in "Order In Process" and others have received an email saying they are in "back order". I have not gotten any such email.

 

I just got this, basically the same as what Litigator said--although this suggests that Amazon is dealing with its own preorders independently of whether Razer fulfills their backorders or not:

 

@hoofhearted,

Personally if you were to change your order to the 17'' you may get put on the bottom of the queue. Even if you were to call them, the representative might just be saying it won't just to get a sale or something. I'd just wait it out a like 2 weeks and see what happens. Is not having a laptop stopping you from completing work?

 

@Nivaku
More, just trying to see if the screen on the Pro is that much better and worth changing over for. And I was also thinking that the queue for the Pro would be shorter.

 

I don't understand why anyone that wanted the 14 would suddenly go 17 for an unknown reason based on a few sparse reports. They are so different from each other. 2lb weight difference, the Razer touchscreen thing on the pro, different resolutions so gaming will perform differently.

 

Portablity, thin and light, 14" is good, but I also don't want a hoopdie screen. The screen on the 17" is IPS and people seem to love it.

 

I don't understand this. The CEO finally responded to me and said he can't comment on whether external vendors will get any items. I feel like there have been enough requests for the 512gb version just from this thread to justify selling them on the largest online vendor possible (cough cough amazon). Why are they so timid about committing to selling it?

Kojaku

 

As far as I can tell, you're the only one getting worked up about it. Just get a 256 and a nice 1tb notebook size external drive if Amazon is so important, or wait a couple of months. Either way, nobody in this thread is in a position to help you.

 

We're working on getting them in stock asap and will let you know soon as they are in.

Well, I just got the above response from Razer's Facebook. I suppose they're starting to get ahold of things

Kojaku

 

It's a shame that both options come with (for me) significant trade offs:
1. The 14" seems to have taken the cheap option of a TN panel when we know there is a ~14" IPS panel in the Alienware (from TheVerge: 300-nit 1080p IPS panel that Alienware offers as a $150 upgrade). When you are already spending up to $2000 the $150 option sounds less unreasonable. Just look at this posts first picture and you can see massive washout: - and then they quote 'specifically chose this TN panel for its color reproduction abilities and its wide viewing angle'. Then 'an IPS panel would have increased the thickness of the Blade' - does anyone really care about an extra maybe 0.04-0.10(?) of an inch to handle the 'thicker' IPS panel?

2. The 17" has the proprietary SwitchBlade touchscreen mouse/screen thing. This should have been an option if anything. I would go for it if it had IPS (I haven't found any definitive statement around this), put a proper keypad there and the 14" touchpad in the center and job done (maybe -$150 but then who would buy the SwitchBlade option?). How many developers will actually write code for such a small audience? and there is likely a usability decision on why trackpads are centered on almost every laptop in the world (here I am going to refer to Apple who we know does extensive usability testing).

I am also kind of surprised that nobody is mentioning that the 'Pro' model, which has the higher resolution screen, will either offer lower frame rates due to additional pixels or they must have under-clocked the 14" GPU due to chassis limitations. Seems kind of strange to have your 'flagship' product not at the top of the performance chart.

I am trying to replace my aging HP Envy 14 which at the time was reasonably powerful but until the options for a nicely built, high quality machine are very slim.

So close, Razer - please make these minor revisions and you will have awesome machines.

 

I think the blade pro (17") has a TN panel too. Can someone confirm this?

 

Agreed with the above.

I was about to just settle for a TN screens. Razer messing up the shipping of preorder might be a blessing in disguise. I can put money down their 3rd party vendor did not send out lappys to the folks who preorder them first.

So if the next rev upgrades to an Ips display with either the current resolution or higher, I look forward in purchasing this product.

Great job on the current form factor. Can't wait to see what the next razer 14 rev 2 will offer.

 

I badly wanted to get the Razer Blade 14 but the screen and limited ram has put me off. Looking at Gigebyte P34G(not as sexy) now and maybe seeing what Asus comes out with.

 

I am seriously impressed with the CPU. Scores much higher than my i5-2500 at stock on 3D Mark 11. Physics is 5600 vs 7400. The GPU isn't too shabby either, ~4k vs ~6.5k for my gtx580 and beats out the 650m sli. And I game at QHD (2560x1400) with my 580, so everything will probably run smoother on the 14" razer.

 

I finally bit the bullet and ordered the laptop last night from a third party vendor that can ship internationally. They told me that they'll be receiving stock on July 2nd to July 5th, they've ordered 8 units and only 5 people has ordered (I'm guessing I was the 6th), they aren't sure whether or not they'll receive all 8 units, but there could be a chance that could happen so I took the risk. Just information for the thread if anyone outside US wants to order it.

 

Hi fire2368, which model did you order and may I know where did you order the unit from? I am outside US and also interested to order it.

 

Hi your from which country ?

 

Interested as well which party you used? Is it an actual reseller since they've ordered 8? Last I checked, you could only order 1 per person. Could have changed though, or they found a way around it.

Best of luck! I hope you haven't really put down the cash yet just for precaution.

 

Is Razer Blade comes with soldered SSD?

 

This would give me ulcers of sadness. On that note, is anyone who's got one of these baby's ballsy enough to take some screws out and shoot us some pics of everything ?

Kojakuu

 

Razer blade pro review - YouTube

the 17inch screen definitely looks better but probably not IPS since it is not advertised.

 

Here are a few tests (part of a longer review I'm working on):

Blade 14 thermals using common stress test utilities

Utilities:
Core Temp 1.0 RC5
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
GPU-Z 0.7.2
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Prime95 27.9
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
Furmark 1.10.6
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Note that the results reflect worse case scenarios. Game engines rarely create sustained CPU/GPU loads at the levels of the Prime95 and Furmark utilities.

Ambient room temperature for tests was 26°C
Razer BIOS version 1.01 (05/20/2013)

CPU - Idle:


CPU - 5 minutes running Prime95 27.9:


The observed CPU thermostat set point is 85°C with a 5°C swing. At 85°C the CPU fan (left side) will run at high speed in an attempt to reduce core temperature to 80°C, at which the fan will resume low speed mode. Otherwise, the cooling system does a good job keeping CPU cores near or below the target temperature, the highest observed reading was 87°C.


GPU - Idle:


GPU - 5 minutes running Furmark 1.10.6


The observed GPU thermostat set point is 75°C with a 5°C swing. At 75°C the GPU fan (right side) will run at high speed in an attempt to reduce the temperature to 70°C, at which the fan will resume low speed mode. Otherwise, the cooling system does a good job keeping the GPU core near or below the target temperature, the highest observed reading was 76°C.

 

Those idle CPU temps are unbelievable. My alienware M17x (sandy bridge i7 2720QM )idles just below 50 with 19°C ambient after a repaste and clean. So you are saying the average CPU temp during a stress test would be low 80s? With those temps they may as well put a 47w processor in there.

 

17 doesnt have IPS, its TN, its an above average display

im also interested to know, which is the reseller, I know probably xoticpc is going to sell it

I dont like the cpu results, just means that it doesnt allow turbo to go all the way up.

 

^ maybe.

Could you please use HWinfo to monitor the CPU turbo state as well? Hwinfo does everything those 4 apps do in the one app, plus loads more.

HWiNFO64 Download

something like this white running prime 95 would be good.

 

^probably a good idea