New Razer Blade & Razer Blade Pro

Screen is perfect res for the GPU that's in it, going a much higher res will cripple performance.Remember we are talking about a gaming laptop.

 

So excited about this laptop! Cant wait for mine to arrive!

 

Would love to hear some input on temps during gaming and some comments about how loud the fans get with extended gaming marathons

 

Yeah but consider gaming at native resolution of 1600x900 or 1920x1080 vs 3200x1800. That higher resolution display also drives down battery life which the blade needs to retain considering it has the 765m inside. The next mb pro retina will probably be a haswell and a 1 or 2 GB 750m (underclocked I expect to claim a 7 hour battery or something). Still I bet Razer may offer an IPS higher res display in the future. Always room to improve next year (or sooner) .

 

Reliable as in high heat, throttling, and no graphic switching supported so poor battery life because the 650M is never turned off in Windows? You and I have different definitions of reliable.

 

you just do as all people do with the rmbp, divide by 2 and thats your res for gaming, i.e. 900p

still, they wouldnt do that. I understand the appeal for gamers HDMI, but I cant miss the docking opportunities that were lost due to the lack of TB, which still aint a big deal for gamers and goes against the design philosophy of the blade, i.e. gaming on the go

15" didnt go out of favor at all, they are still the most purchased notebook class, however I prefer smaller sizes, its easier to carry

 

John, have you had a chance to do any benchmarks on Crysis 3 or Metro Last Light? Also, any indications that GPU or CPU are throttling under load?

 

I check this thread every hour... Hurry up Razer! lol

 

thanks once again for your perseverance, does the performance take a notable hit on battery or at high heats after extended gaming sessions? thx

 

Haven't run any tests gaming while unplugged or anything. Been busy playing BioShock infinite. Will get back to you guys.

 

Well, at least it sounds like you're occupied and distracted having fun! That's good. :thumbsup: Hope the machine is great, I am looking forward to purchasing one.

 

its a true gaming ultrabook gang. I did sneak it into church this morning and played in my office for a few minutes. I think like the original blade its a low key enough laptop for one to use in an office environment and still be thought of as a professional (maybe not so much with an MSI dragon edition paint job 15 pound laptop)... My Best Buy Geek Squad buddies drooled a little bit as well. side by side against an Alienware 14 was pretty funny. forgot to take pics. I mentioned the Samsung 15" leather sleeve fits this thing like a glove? will take a pic of that as well. trying the witcher 2 now.

 

Hey guys,

First off: Congrats johnnobts to your new Laptop.
I've been following this thread since the reveal of the Razer Blade, but didn't see the need to actually sign up. Since I'm still using my old M15x with a GTX 260m its also time for me to consider getting a new laptop.
I still can't decide between the new Alienware 14, the Razer Blade and the Gigabyte P35K.
Apparently they all have their pros and cons. Since it seems that you're the only one who has a Blade yet, I'm curious how you like the screen of it. I read that the viewing angles aren't that great. What do you think? How are the colors and the overall brightness? Could you please take some pictures of the screen? I don't really mind having a 1600 X 900 resolution (My M15x has the same), but Its pretty important for me to have bright , vibrant colors.

 

Next MBP will likely have one of the Intel CPU's with the HD 5200 (GT3e). But yes, absolutely the larger res can suck more power. Anticipating your input on heat and power draw from this little guy. Thanks and sounds like you're having fun with it already.

 

not sure if screen photos from my camera would be of much help to anyone. viewing angles are pretty limited but once you find the right brightness setting for whatever room you are in and have the screen adjusted to your eyes its very pleasant. i'd say the screen is plenty bright for a non-ips, really too bright in my opinion. I have kept it around 70 percent while plugged in for indoor use. also feel like a 1600x900 display is just the right resolution for actual work purposes and browsing the web and what not. I don't have to adjust the dpi or anything.

played Witcher for 25 minutes or so, fans only became noticeably loud after about 10 minutes when running a cinematic scene (witcher uses the in-game engine for scenes and for some reason my frames per second would dip to 9-20 frames during these scenes). my gpu temp maxed out at 85 degrees during that game session and the bottom middle rear of the blade got pretty hot. again I keep the blade on my bare legs (knees) on the outer edges and those got warm too but not uncomfortable. Average framerate for the Witcher 2 (at native res and high settings) was 33-49 fps in-game.

someone mentioned the gigabyte laptop coming out. It looks like a nice and possibly affordable laptop. Will have to check them out.

 

don't have metro. have the older version of metro though. may install it tomorrow or something if I have the time. I have not noticed any throttling at all while gaming. My longest gaming session has been 45 minutes (keep having to do dad stuff today).

 

intel's new integrated gfx are very impressive, i'm sure that's what they will do with the MacBook pro 13 retina. Dunno, they may still go NVidia with the 15. who knows.

 

I wonder how soon they will release razer blade pro 2nd gen hmmm...

 

been reading up on the upcoming p35k, looks too big for what I'd want (happy with Blade R2). But I guess if you want lots of storage it may be a great item (quad storage with 2 ssds and 2 hdds in a 15" notebook? Crazy).

 

What is actually meant by viewing angles? I'm not quite sure I understand since wouldn't one be looking at the laptop screen at a straight angle? I don't remember when I've actually had to look at the laptop in different angles. Just curious, since I've never had to consider this trait when deciding on a new laptop.

John, good to hear on Witcher 2. I just got it over the sale weekend and it's great to hear that it runs well! I agree actually, the Blade has that sleek and sharp look, but not too casual or 'toy-ish' for professional use. For example, I can't picture bringing in one of the new Alienwares into a meeting.

Does the Razer logo on the back pulsate/illuminate?

 

I think you mean razer edge pro? Kind of hope for early Edge adopters not too terribly soon. But then again I'm excited about what Razer and even Microsoft can do with tablets with a Haswell chip. Thinner, faster, better battery life. Its going to be a good year for gamers and PC enthusiasts.

 

Thanks for all this great info. Can you run the Tomb Raider built in benchmark at native when you get a moment? Want to get a sense of how it performs at 900p vs 1080p on the 675M. I should not that if you are not running driver 320.18 this may not be accurate as that driver has a decent tomb raider boost.

 

I mean its not going to give multiple people the best picture looking from all different sides and/or heights. Looking at it head on with the lcd display tilted exactly how you want it is what I mean. yes, Witcher 2 runs better on this than my Blade 2. The logo does not pulsate but if you stare at it long enough I swear the snakes start to move having trouble with typos in this dark room without my backlit keys. Already been in contact with Razer since yesterday about it, they will take care of it pronto. Past customer service has proven this to be true. They were super-quick when my Edge Pro arrived with a faulty GPU to make it right.

Min-Liang Tan even tweeted me back about the problem: "Odd - Did you toggle Synapse? Or toggle the backlit keys? Hold on to it and do your testing first. I'll get another to you."

How cool is that? Never had Michael Dell tweet me when my Alienware M18X's crossfire didn't work. Great to buy from a company like this.

 

unfortunately the only compatible NVidia driver is pretty old, 311.54 actually. can't wait to see 320+ compatible drivers. Other laptops running the 765m are still waiting on NVidia too. BTW, I did my temp monitor for the integrated gfx not the Nvidia GPU, I will play some more games (DARN) and give more accurate temps. My bad.

 

Really good news, thanks for the updates John! Now more excited than ever.

 

That's some stellar support. Good show.

 

I suppose I should mention here to use high and ultra default settings.
Mine are 675M + 3610 @ 1920x1080
High: min 44.0 max 62.0 avg 53.1
Ultra: min 30.0 max 44.0 avg 36.5

If that thing can at least equal that performance at 900p I would consider a purchase, though I realize the display on the gamer 7 is in another league of quality..

 

Hey thanks John! I'm seriously considering getting the Razer! Quick question, can the blade's lid be closed when playing games while using a monitor? Does closing it cover the vents?

 

How do these Witcher 2 benchmarks compare to say the 650m?

Seems like a crazy game if it can't hit 60 FPS at 900p with the GTX 765. We're the settings maxed or something?

Thanks!

 

Settings were almost fully maxed.

 

@johnnobts thanks for the feedback you are the boss!
I am glad that the system is working as promised i am looking forward for the blade pro, it will arrive to a friends house in USA in the next week. He will be a lucky guy

 

Not sure if his system is working as promised he said something about the back lights not working already that's pretty embarrassing.. Let's hope Razer can fix this issue ASAP


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

they will fix it. i'm just the lucky guy who gets lemons man. to be fair two of my alienware laptops were messed up, so was one of my asus rog laptops. I've dealt with dell, hp, and asus tech support, razer is by far the fastest in response time hands down.

 

Hey, John. I'm happy you take your time to give us some feedback on the Razer Blade 14"!

I am currently looking for a ultrabook/small laptop that works perfectly for gaming, and I'm really tempted to buy this. It's only the bad feedback on the screen and the price which scares me.

What do you think about the screen?
Do you think it's worth the money?

 

max temps after running 3dmark vantage three times in a row while unplugged for the gpu was 73 degrees.

 

I think the screen is just fine, has good colors and sharpness. and yes, I think its worth it. my two cents compare it to an alienware m14 loaded with similar specs pricewise or a MacBook pro 13 retina...

 

I've been doing some research on the viewing angles and its significance (also compared to my unit now). I don't think the viewing angles on the screen matter if you're using your laptop normally (no external displays, straight angle). I've read that bigger displays used for external purposes, like dual or more monitors, have a bigger need for better viewing angles. Afaik, the screen quality of the Blades are good.

Seems like Alienware's been trying to exploit that viewing angle edge their newer models have based on their recent facebook post.

 

nah viewing angles do matter, to avoid color shifting when you are working or doing stuff. Simply put you dont stay still, you are always tilting your head, shifting how you are seated...

 

So a good viewing angle means that it looks the same no matter what angle you're looking at it? Yeah I agree, my head tilts and my seating shifts, but I don't think it gets to the point that my viewing angle changes hugely. I mean, the most is when I sit up or slouch, where I just tilt the monitor up or down.

 

Could you please run Open Hardware Monitor and post the graphs of the temperatures?

 

Could you please run Open Hardware Monitor and post the graphs of the temperatures?

 

Tomorrow maybe

 

you see the problem is that color shifting occurs with just a few degrees in angle difference, in the end I keep myself tilting the monitor far too often, which for me is very annoying

then we are dealt with color distribution along the screen, which isnt uniformly lit, then we go for color accuracy, and so proceed to the gamut of the screen....

 

It probably the same screen as the Lenovo Carbon. 14" screens are not as common as 13".

Does device manager give you the name of the screen by chance?

 

yep thats my bet as well, its just an average screen, specially for 14, which are usually quite poor

 

I see, I'll try to notice more on my screen now.

Well, just for anyone who isn't too fussed about too much detail on your screen, viewing angles shouldn't be that much of a hinderance on your purchase, imo.

 

My Z that its replacing didint have great viewing angles either. However, it was 97% Adobe RGB gamut.

If its as good/average as the MacBook Air, then we should be good.

What I fearing is that it's more like the Sony S series. Now that screen is embarrassing.

 

what I remember from the x1c screen its on par with the mbas, which isnt actually good, but more in terms of average, the SA and S13 screens were very very poor, below average

dont think Im a screen elitist, I have never used for long screens like the dreamcolor 2 or the color edge, or other good screens out there. Im usually in the 60-70% aRGB gamut when i can and chose to buy the notebook, i.e. not gifted or company gave me one

 

I am a screen snob only because I have used some real nice ones in the past. This time around though, if the screen is as good as the Airs, I won't have to upgrade every freaking cycle.

I value the thin and light form factor more. I gave Razer my cash for making this a reality.

I personally think 900p was the right choice.

 

yep despite the screen drawback I think this is a solid choice