New Razer Blade & Razer Blade Pro

Yeah, I had that. I asked them about it and they said it's because of inadequate lighting (worsened by flourecents). It worked fine outside.

 

If you just read the thread, it's full of posts regarding delayed shipments and at times even multiple package statuses at once. There were times when Razer sent out several units on the day of ordering, back when they showed a 5-7 day wait, all while backorders from the month before still remained unfilled. There were times when it wasn't even the demand, but just poor shipping and logistics choices that led Razer to make such awful mistakes (like the aforementioned shipping out new orders on the same day while still backordered).

My point in calling it a lie is that if they know that they can't ship on the same business day, which they have not been able to, then they should keep a notification on the order page. "Ships next business day" or something like that. I only push them because, as I mentioned before, I grew up using Razer products and holding them to higher standard. It severely disappoints me when I see that they behave like a much more fledgling company than they actually are. It takes 2 seconds to update the page. If the same day estimate is unrealistic, then don't leave the page looking like it is. Rather than leaving us up in the air, saying, "uhm, sometimes...uh...we don't ship on the same business day even when you follow the rules we laid out...sorry", just say "it will always ship out same business day (when ordered before 11am CDT) unless the product page says otherwise". Then, simply make the product page say otherwise when necessary. Tada!

So no, I won't let Razer off easy going all amateur hour on us. They're better than that.

Kojaku

 

I can understand your frustration, and I've seen pretty much the entire thread (I actually just opened an account on the forum to participate in this thread). At the same time, I might say that flaming Razer and its CEO on Twitter, FB, etc. is not the same as holding them to a higher standard. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and method of expression, I'm just not sure what you expect to happen because you tweeted angry memes at Min-Liang Tan. If you have some ideas that you think might help them with customer communication/engagement, there are channels for that - and if they don't instantly respond to your feedback, I wouldn't interpret that as 'amateur hour' or them giving up on their customers.

There is an enormous amount of complexity that goes into operating a multinational company on a day-to-day basis, let alone during a series of new product releases (I mean, this quarter alone they've released two lines of laptops, a new audio software tool, two new mice - a pretty busy few months by any measure). Razer is absolutely (and financially) incented to get laptops out there faster, and to make their customers as happy as possible. How many other CEOs do you think would respond to your posts as frequently and reasonably as Tan has? I can promise his level of responsiveness is a rarity.

Tl;dr: Razer wants to sell you products and make you happy; when they are unsuccessful it's not because they're falling apart as a company or grossly incompetent. I hope you get your machine soon and when you do I think you'll really like it.

 

After using the Razer 14 512 GB for 2 weeks. I must say I'm pretty happy with it. The reason I'm not VERY happy with it is probably because I haven't had time to install and play any games on it yet. But for everyday business use, it's been great. No issues thus far save for the flashing green/blue background when using video conferencing indoors. Haven't tried it outdoors like yhyoon12 said yet. But it's probably a driver update away from being fixed and I seldom video conference.

One little happy surprise was that the front USB port on the left hand side (next to the headset jack) is a charging port. So I can charge my phone even when the Razer is powered off (connected to the outlet though). I don't recall seeing this on the specs but was delighted when I discovered this convenient feature.

The HDMI port is kind of tight, or it could just be my connector. But it requires a good amount of force to unplug. The screen does suck for a 2K+ laptop, but it's not a deal breaker for me. While the screen is annoyingly mediocre, it is quite usable and really bright. I'm hoping that Razr will listen to its demographics and upgrade the display in the next version and maybe even include WiDi.

 

@Shanya
@Ellyidol

Shout out to all Oceanic/South East Asian Users
I got some news from the inside of the company that laptops would be available to order from the Singaporean website starting from August 1st and true enough they're here: Razer Blade: The World's Thinnest Gaming Laptop - Razer Singapore

There's a little bit of a markup but completely worth it if you can get GST back. Currently they're only shipping to Singapore but I'm sure you can find a way if you're desperate enough Hopefully this also means that Singapore can now act as a hub for all repairs/ RMA services this side of the world but who knows? (Probably Tan Min Liang..)

Edit: Just ordered mine shipping 1-2 Weeks according to the site

 

Thanks! I'll try tweeting him and see if he responds. Going to be extremely convenient for us, and I don't see why they can't make use of the SG center as a repair hub. Unless there's an extremely low amount of people there to handle the workload, I guess.

 

I'm happy to say my 512GB Blade is now with FedEx... and it should be delivered today. I'm perfectly happy with the amount of time it took. I ordered it priority delivery on Tuesday and it should be here today (Thursday). If that doesn't happen, it'll be FedEx's fault at this point. I have to say that while I only called RazerZone a few times, someone answered quickly and spoke clearly. I'm still not thrilled with the order process itself. Based on the significant ranges in reported delivery times, I was already a little nervous. However, I have never received a single email. I would have thought that I should have gotten something to at least confirm my order. I don't think I've ever ordered something online (and I'm talking over the past ten years or so) and not gotten an email confirmation of the order. Fortunately, you can track your status on their site. Although, there was even a problem there on the night I had ordered it. I had been watching the status the day I ordered hoping to see the status change to "shipped". When I got home from work that night, I went to check, and the system was saying there was no record of my order. I tried a few times (as I knew I was monitoring it earlier) and just kept getting the same result. At that point I was thinking something went wrong with my order (especially since I had not gotten a confirmation). When I checked again in the morning, it was working again.

So basically, the purchasing experience itself could be vastly improved if they would improve their communications and provide a more meaningful status.

Going back to the confirmation email part... One of the reasons I was worried was that I had seen quite a few posts from folks who indicated they got a confirmation email after placed their order. Did you all get a confirmation either immediately or shortly after placing your order? I've checked my spam filters, etc. just to be sure. I can understand not getting the shipment notice yet as it just went out yesterday evening.

Looking forward to getting my new toy. Now I just have to figure out how to sneak it into the house. I'm addicted to laptops. I can usually justify getting a new one to myself... but I do all sorts of twisty-turny logic for that. It typically doesn't fly as an explanation to someone else. I'll usually get stuff shipped to my office then put it in a generic local drugstore bag (Duane Reade, Walgreens, etc)... then maybe lay a shirt over the top along with a few things I may have been meaning to bring home but just never got around to. This way when I walk in the door and get asked (and I "will" get asked) "What's in the bag?"... My response is usually "Oh, just some stuff from work I've been meaning to bring home".

 

A general question to fellow Blade owners here. My dorm just installed a WiFi network across the area. My roommates/dormmates say that the speed is fine for surfing/Skyping, but on my Pro it's absolutely not fine.

My Skype can't even connect because of how 'slow' it is. It's making me think that there's something wrong with my wireless drivers? It has connected fine to other networks though, only in my dorm has it been this slow. Any tips?

Edit:

Sitting at consistent 4-5 WiFi bars, yet Speedtests are fluctuating so much that I can't even provide a remotely accurate average. Lol.

 

Glad it sounds like things worked out - had the same situation where the order went in on Day 1, it physically shipped on Day 2, and I got the actual shipping notification on Day 3 (when it actually arrived). I am intrigued by your last paragraph; is there someone at your house that would be upset you bought another laptop? I'm imagining you have a secret room filled to the brim with premium laptops or something. Like some kind of high-tech Hoarders episode.

 

Well... maybe not "filled to the brim"... I guess the Razer (which was just delivered by the way) makes it 8. I typically cycle through them pretty fast and will usually give one away when I get a new one. I'm pretty anal about how I keep my stuff. I keep all the original boxes including wrappers, etc. That way when I give it away, I can pack it up and it will typically look like new. I try to find someone who probably wouldn't be able to afford something similar and who will give it a nice home. I certainly don't need 8 (or 5 or probably even 3) laptops... so it's basically a waste of $$ (especially since most of them are two years old or newer). Although, in all fairness, I was going through an ultrabook phase. This is my first machine with a dedicated GPU in quite a few years.

But... to answer your question "is there someone at your house that would be upset you bought another laptop"... Yes, there is My other half would probably prefer I'd make more practical purchases. It's not a jump up and down yelling kinda thing... but it's just easier if I can avoid it.

 

I have heard that people have got better results with the stock Intel drivers (not the Killer drivers that come with the Razer).

 

Intel drivers won't work with a Killer card. Totally different chipsets

 

I'm unsure if I should start a new thread for this, but id figure id start here other then clutter up the main page.



This is to those who own the first and second revisions of the Razer Blade (Pro now) and have or plan to open them up. I am trying to find a connector for the R3 Razer Blade Pro to connect a 2.5" drive as there is still space for one even with the upgraded battery. I am simply asking for a picture of the SATA connector the next time you open your Razer Blade R1 R2 or Pro. Mainly the connector that plugs into the motherboard along with the one on the motherboard. I am searching threw old laptops of mine looking for one that are comparable to the ones in the photos, but I cannot see the mother board connector. This would be great and help me out a lot. Don't feel inclined to open your laptop if you don't already plan to.

 

Is anyone having problems with DX10/11? Any game I try to load using either DX10 or 11 immediately crashes, but DX9 works just fine. I've re-installed all the drivers off of the razer website, but no joy.

 

did they reply to ur tweets so far ?

 

It seems my phone has problems connecting to the Wifi too, and I've found other people experiencing the same, so it's probably not my Blade =D

No, sadly. I'm not sure if it's because he can't, he won't, or the answer is fairly clear that it's not possible to use the SG service center when I actually read the warranty terms again

If i understand correctly, we could have used the SG center if we had international warranty, right? However we have a limited US warranty.. I could be wrong, hopefully.

 

Sorry, my bad. Maybe a better driver from the killer website will work better.

A search on this forum shows up these posts:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/raz...474.html?highlight=killer+drivers#post9263474

http://forum.notebookreview.com/raz...049.html?highlight=killer+drivers#post9271049

 

Razer game booster is pretty cool. I used it today and it lets you display FPS, record videos, optimize computer and kill background processes all in one program.

Also, is there any possible way to move the recovery partition to an external USB and possible boot from that in case of failure?

 

Never mind, in "recovery" you can create a USB flash drive. It says "the drive must be able to hold at least 16GB, and everything on the drive will be deleted."

Does this mean a simple Sandisk 16GB USB 2.0 won't work, since after formatting its probably around 14.9ish gigs? Do I need to get a 32GB flash drive instead??

 

I've read the past 30 pages or so and the shipping times are a bit disconcerting.

I'm personally going to opt for a RBP 17" 256 or 512 and I was curious if anyone here knows if these are in stock or in "less" demand then the RB 14's which seem to be mostly being discussed in this thread.

I know no one knows exactly what Razer's inventory is (even if they tell you lol...) but are the shipping/fulfillment issues as bad with the 17" as they are with the 14"?

 

Having some difficulty deciding between the 17" Blade Pro or buying a 14" Blade and 1080p external display.

Any suggestions? I'm a bit more accustomed to laptops with 15" display, never used a 17" or 14" before. The pricing is not really an issue, just trying to decide which model I'd enjoy owning more. If the 14" had a 1080p display it would be an easier choice.

 

Gamerfanatic and I both ordered our 256 gig Pro on the 8th of July and it still hasn't shipped to
us. I've read of a few Blade 14's being shipped out and delivered in around a week.

 

I suppose it all boils down to portability. The 17" is better, but it is also bigger and heavier. Check the battery life as well - the last 17" I had my hands on guzzled power like a Humvee. The 14" has a smaller screen, and has limited viewing angles, yada, yada, but big LCD displays are not hard to find - even my maybe 'no star hotel' room has a TV with HDMI in.

 

I would like to think that the RBPs come at a faster rate, since Razer has been producing 17' Blades longer than the new 14' Blades. Just guessing, but this would be my best guess. The way that the RBP is positioned now might have even pushed away a small population of gamers, since when I've asked a few friends whether they liked the Pro, they responded with a "Isn't it for work/design now?", where I'm still using it to play games primarily.

I had a similar question before, but I found that I wouldn't be maximising my Blade if I ended up getting an external display. If I did get an external display however, I'd be getting a keyboard as well since I can't function with a laptop in front of me, and a display right behind it, I preferred them side by side, essentially making the Blade just a desktop replacement - literally. So I opted with the Blade Pro 17" and am currently very happy with its screen size.

The portability isn't that huge either, imo, unless you are very constrained on both the amount of weight you can afford to carry around or space you have.

 

As caeg said in the other thread, both him and I had ordered on July 8th and they were estimated to ship in2-3 weeks from then. When it was time for them to ship they sent an email delaying shipment for another week. Our laptops are supposed to ship Monday, if they do that might be the best time to order, but don't take my word for it, Razer's shipping times have been all over the place.

 

Just tried with a 16GB flash drive and worked fine (with 5.60GB free remaining). Just a heads up for people who want to clear off 16GB on their SSD (makes free space for garbage collection)

 

Does anyone know how to boot GParted live USB? I keep getting fatal server error - no screen found. Tried all sorts of graphics settings with no luck. Trying to combine the 16GB recovery drive with my boot C: drive...

 

Just an update to those who have been experiencing buzzing noises coming from the blade... I have been experiencing this as well during heavy GPU sessions (i.e. gaming). Here is the email I sent to Razer Support:

I am experiencing some system electronic noise during heavy GPU usage (i.e.) gaming. I am trying to discern if this is something I should be worry about or is normal. The noise sounds like an electronic buzzing that is non-existent during non-gaming usage, but picks up to audible levels during gaming sessions.

It has not affected the performance of my system at this time. Please advise if this is normal experience for the blade 14 or if I have a defective unit of some sort.

Here is the response I received:

Thank you for contacting the Razer Systems Support Center. I am glad to hear your interest in the Razer brand.

Yes, it's normal for the Blade to produce some electronic buzzing during heavy GPU/CPU activity.

If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to reply directly to this email. I hope you have a great day!

It sounds like this shouldn't be too concerning... I think the reason I have noticed it too is that the system runs so much quieter then my other systems I've had, particularly my most recent Alienware m11x r3.

 

For those interested in looking for a cleaning kit for the Blade series, I actually bought this pack from an Apple reseller when I was there with my sister. iKlean cleaning pack for macs and idevices. Works really well, been using it the past few days. Comes with several pieces of cloth with different material and size, solution friendly for the Blade body and screen.

 

Is there any room for overclocking the GPU on the RB 14"?

EDIT : Also should we be downloading drivers from the Nvidia site rather than the Razer site?

 

The RB 14" is already running hot, really hot, especially under load. I don't think is wise to over lock it, even if its possible.

 

Yeah, unless you had a cooling pad maybe I wouldn't think there is much thermal headroom here

 

If it helps, this is a recording of the sound my fan was making (right side of unit) that led to my support request and eventually my replacement unit. This noise would occur at idle/low usage; when it revved up during high load, it sounded normal (i.e. it would get audible/louder, but the clicking went away).

https://soundcloud.com/pkchoo/fan-noise-case-00141158

As an additional data point, my replacement unit (Blade 14" 256 GB) arrived yesterday (Thursday 8/1). I sent it back last Saturday (7/27), so the total turnaround time was actually only 4-5 days, though of course YMMV. My unit shipped from Chicago to Razer in California, and my replacement unit came from a DC in Ontario (back to Chicago).

Not sure how the timelines are shaping up for new orders, or for different unit variants, and there may be a different order priority for replacement units.

 

Finally was able to merge the recovery partition (16GB, after copying it to a USB) with my boot C drive. 238GB total, am probably going to leave ~60GB free after installing games. Re-aligned the partition after using AOMEI to merge and these are the AS scores. Pretty fast read is all I'm looking for honestly in my boot drive

 

Thanks for sharing. This is not the same sound I am hearing and I was getting the opposite effect (silence during non-load, buzzing during load). Again the fans are so quiet on this unit that it's easier to hear, and I normally game w/ head-phones anyways. Glad you shared though so at least I'm aware it's not the same issue.

 

you dont leave free space, you should have created unnallocated space, thats what the SSD needs

 

I've read many conflicting reports regarding that and generally found that in 2013, people say free space is sufficient (compared to creating an unallocated partition of 7-10%) for efficient garbage collection especially since all OS/SSD controllers support TRIM commands now

 

Are you hearing this with or without headsets/earphones?

 

its not the same, unallocated and assigned free space are quite different and treated very differently from the OS and firmware side of business

 

Hmmm well for regular use it seems fine to not need to OP. If it isn't too much trouble, would you be able to give a quick description of why it's needed for efficient SSD? If I'm keeping 60ish GB free at all times it doesn't make much sense of free space vs in allocated but some people (including people on overclock.net) tell me different while others swear by over-provisioning.

Also, just curious, but how do you guys let your Blade go to sleep? There's no sleep button combo (strange), and Win + L is different then sleeping so either I have to manually press standby using charms or set the lid to sleep when closed, which sucks when you want to watch a movie or connect an external monitor.

 

OP is a means of maintaining the performance over time for SSDs, much like HDDs when those guys are full the performance drops, much unlike HDDs you can leave some unnallocated space for that task.

In the end this is going to be a very technical post, so to avoid a lenghty one Im going to ask you to read stuff:

1) How file system works
2) how OS allocate files
3) what is a controller for storage


After that, you can read about the fluctuation of performance and how a SSD suddenly behaves like a HDD, because yes, they do sometimes have poor performance. And to avoid that variance in performance is why we do OP

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6433/intel-ssd-dc-s3700-200gb-review/3

this is a good article about that

here are some graphs on how the performance varies with and without OP

AnandTech | Strontium Hawk (240GB) Review

they are using the pro in there, so expect worse results for the 841, since the 841 is a msata 840

 

Welp...This bad boy is SLICK. Worth the wait? Hm...I'd say. Though not emphatically. Not because it's not a great laptop, but because the wait was so long xD. Anyway, about the one thing that everyone is complaining about: the screen. OH MY GOD THE SCREEN IS SO...fine. It's fine everyone, sheesh. It doesn't wash out THAT badly. The viewing angles aren't THAT bad. It's way better than any recent laptop I've owned. No, it isn't the most vibrant screen in the history of mankind, but even at this price, everything else about the laptop is well worth it. Crysis 3 was COMPLETELY playable at Very High FXAA. It was absolutely beautiful. Anyway, if anyone has anything they want me to test or anything like that before they make their purchase, just let me know. I'm just glad this whole waiting ordeal is over. Time to break out the old G700 lol. can't afford Razer mouse anymore xD...

Kojaku

 

Kojaku I'm seriously happy for you man lol.. I feel like this wait has been hardest for you out of everyone here
Did amazon finally get some in stock or did you just turn to razerzone?
I completely agree with you on pretty much all thoughts. The screen is simply usable, nothing extravagant.

 

Agree. Really glad that you've gotten your machine and enjoying it

 

No the sound does not come through with headphones. Only from the machine itself during heavy GPU usage.

 

That's better, at least that rules out possible grounding issues (like what mine had).

In other news, we all know about the intense rivalry between AW and Razer lately, and I came across this ad while watching a YT video.



Not exactly subtle. Lol.

 

@Elly not sure that I am understanding the alienware ad... was it a video?

Speaking of alienware, I just got my dad the 14 and he loves it. I have to say, the screen is much better. The antiglare is very nice and the 1080p is not bad either. That being said, it feels SO much bigger than the blade. It really feels closer to the m17x that I gave up for the blade, which wouldn't have been much of an upgrade for me. He loves it though, and he wanted an optical drive, which obviously ruled out the blade.

I haven't gotten to do any comparison on thermals yet, but I probably will just because I am curious. I have an ir thermogun after all!

 

I'm not really sure if it was a video since I didn't click on it or anything. The phrase was the one that caught my eye. Lol.

I saw the new models from AW as well earlier this week when I passed by a store, fully agree on the width. If I really didn't need a portable one, I think I definitely would have stuck with them.

 

Ended up buying an iPad mini with my amazon credit, selling it on eBay at a very slight loss and reordering through Razer. Amazon is still indefinitely delayed on stock. In fact, Razer is shipping units direct from the factory in some cases because the demand is STILL so high. They have a separate tracking utility for their warehouses and the factory. So, for example, mine hadn't shipped according to the warehouse tracker, but the factory tracker already had a tracking number. Also, apparently there is an order support phone line...but you can only TRANSFER to it. They don't list the number. Either way, I'm just glad this baby is in.

Kojaku

 

Anyone have a good way to wrap up the charger? I've been just wrapping it around the brick but it ends up being really messy and takes up unnecessary space.

Also, what's the best way to preserve battery longevity on the Blade? Is it ok to keep it plugged in even at 100% battery life?