Razer Blade (2014) Owner's Lounge

Will this work to decide if the machine is PCIe M.2 compatible?
M.2 (NGFF) SSD Compatibility List

 

Yeah. I agree the Razer sleeve is pretty meh. I would have preferred the neoprene sleeves you see pretty much anywhere that stretch to cover the laptop. This one is pretty much a sack with sharp corners and hard textures. I guess the possible benefit is that it may be waterproof or something.

Eh. That pretty much tells us that it could be... But it still depends if it is compatible. Even more confusing it makes it look like every socket type can be SATA, so if true we REALLY just have to wait until someone buys and tries.


FYI, my Orochi email came.



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Speaking of backpacks and laptop cases, I use a Targus backpack that doubles as a schoolbag... And it says 'Designed for Dell'. Haha. About your Orochi email, when did you order your Blade?

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4/4, 128GB. I also never even received an email until I emailed their support about the delays. Their first and only response email said "sorry bro, we'll give you a free mouse". I'm not sure I would have even gotten one if I hadn't said something.

PS. I actually just completed my squaretrade insurance application yesterday as well. Total came out to $359 for 3 years warranty + accidental. I travel a lot, have cats, etc. So accidental is a pretty big deal for me.

PSS. I played some hearthstone yesterday using the touchscreen. Fun but messy. Can't imagine I'll actually use the touchscreen all that much. Still kind of scratching my head as to a was MS thinking. Tablets, yes, laptops/desktops, bye bye clean screens.

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It's not so bad once you get used to it. I was against it at first, but after a year I kind of like it. I don't use it all that much except for showing people pictures, scrolling while using it in bed and the occasional touch enabled game(especially if Android IA works, which I'm hopeful for). I keep a lint free cloth in my bag in case it gets out of hand. In the end, I'm glad they did it because that was the main reason I bought the UX302LG - it had dedicated graphics+touch.

 

It looks like the transition kid (Razer 2013 Review) is back! This time with a 2014 model? Hopefully next time he can finish the recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs_YKAlrTDQ

 

This guy is awesome... lots of fun

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Looking at the screen quality and the bezel it looks like the 2013 still doesn't it?

Looks like IGN got theirs so we should have official reviews soon.

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@xentar... yeah he just uploaded a 2013 unboxing a week ago, which seemed like it was a parody, (I hope) so I assume this is more of the same, and it looks like 2013 still to me as well.

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Does anyone know if the Blade has a TPM ("Trusted Platform Module")?

 

Agreed, the screen should not look like that from that angle if it was the 2014. I'd bet money it's the 2013 still.

 

I received my email to get my free Razer Orochi mouse this morning.

 

For the ones that got their blade already, are we able to out of the box create custom fans profiles, or maybe with an EC tweak? What about the gpu voltage, can we lower it, or maybe with a custom vbios? Over on the msi forum they could lower the gpu voltage quite a bit and still use the turbo clocks full time.

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CES 2014: Kingston Predator PCIe SSD, M.2 SSDs, 1TB V-Series Phison Powered SSD, 480GB mSATA SSD - YouTube
Do we know what length the M.2 card is? Kingston is coming out with a 1tb card in june its length is going to be a 110mm. He talks about it at the 3:15 mark of the CES 2014 video.

 

It should be 80mm. If they include the screw mount at the 80mm point the 110mm should still fit. It could also be taped down. These are pcie though which aren't confirmed to work with the motherboard yet.

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He's BACK!!! Directly from India, that wild and crazy transition boy, Mr Razer Blade Himself, Remixed and in yo face!

He is going to be the poster boy for Razer. Sorry Razer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pTPeIUtGuc

 

Just wanted to throw my hat in the ring here and give a quick review after having the unit for just under a day.

Build quality is unreal. It is genuinely unlike any machine I've ever held before.

The Keyboard is perfect, has nearly 0 key wobble and not even a slight flex.

The trackpad is silky smooth and the buttons have just the right amount of "click" (not the slightest bit smushy). Some reports i've read in this forum have stated that its a bit loud, but I find it to be a bit quieter than any of the clicky trackpads that i've used.

Battery life from browsing and light gaming seems to be on par with what was advertised, ~6 hours. But im only guessing here.

Gaming performance is great for the few games I've installed so far. I am DLing TESO now so hopefully that can push it a bit.

Also, this baby is SILENT. Granted i havent run anything too taxing yet, but general browsing and installing some things have almost led me to think that this thing is watercooled or something. Not even the regular ultrabook "humm" that i've become accustomed too. Along with the fan noise the heat management so far is great (once again just using the laptop as i would a work pc).

Oh and the screen.... its pretty damn incredible. Deep beautiful blacks with minimal (if any) light bleed. The screens lowest brightness setting is about on par with other laptops brightest setting which just blows my mind.
I only wish it would go a bit dimmer for times where i will be trying to best optimize battery life. (p.s. this is the only true criticism i have so far)


Anyways, thats pretty much all i've got so far. Definitely not regretting my purchase.I apologize for the crappy formatting here, been a long day at work and just wanted to throw some thoughts on here.

If anyone has any questions lemme know and i'll try to answer stuff for ya.

 

That's great news for someone like me - wanting the machine only for development, video, photos and surfing. Thank you!

 

Great overview, thanks very much. Just makes me look forward to the delivery of mine even more.

I think Apple should take some cues from Razer, in terms of their notebook cooling, design and pricing. If Razer can price a notebook with a 3200x1800 display and a GTX 870M at US$2100, I don't see why an rMBP with just an Iris Pro should cost the same. I chose the Blade over waiting for this year's rMBP because I was positive Apple wouldn't include a decent GPU (Maxwell GTX 860M) for a halfway decent price.

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What is the difference between ordering from amazon and razerzone.com? Which arrives at your home faster? I dont need to worry about shipping prices because i have amazon prime. And for razer blade 2014 owners how long did you have to wait before your laptop arrived at your house?

 

The difference is that Amazon will likely not be shipping a single unit until Razer works through all their own pre-orders.

 

Apple will never change. If I had to guess, I'd sayover 95 percent of their customers are not heavy gamers and iris graphics are good enough. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually phased out the dedicated graphics cards in their MBP altogether. Especially if Intel keeps improving their integrated graphics to handle photo and video rendering.

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Indeed. The Iris Pro approaches graphics performance of the GT 740M, give or take. But then they might as well remove the Pro from MacBook Pro.

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Glad to hear you're enjoying it! I do wonder if there is any screen or text blurring when you change the resolution from native to 1080p or 900p. Is the screen still crystal clear at these resolutions or can you notice any degree of blurriness in either standard comp usage or gaming?

 

Im noticing no text blurring or motion blur at all when using the pc for browsing/work. I'll report back later with some gaming reactions, TESO is taking its time on the DL.

This is the first laptop (ive been through about 6 in the past 2 years) where i can use a black BG and use a black color theme for my toolbars/taskbar and see absolutely no color bleed on the top and bottom. It is genuinely gorgeous imho haha.

The keyboard takes some getting used to with the island keys spread a bit more apart than im used to. But once again, the keys have no wobble which is something that usually bothers me a bit.

The speakers are definitely above average for a laptop this size. Doesnt really compare to my monster M18x but thats to be expected. Basing this on memory the sound is about as good as on the Yoga 2 Pro. That lappy had surprisingly good sound as well.

Oh, and i've installed a few apps that cause the ridiculous screen resolution to cause some issue... not major, but you definitely have to squint lol

 

Thanks for the reply!

Just to make sure, are you saying its still crystal clear when you downgrade your desktop/game resolution to 1900x1080 or 1600x900?

 

It is for me. At this point I'm assuming the guy who saw blurriness must just have overly sensitive eyes or a defective display. Played several games now. No issue.

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I am sure that Apple could easily sell their products cheaper but I dont think they will. Their gross margin is 38% which is far higher than all the other PC manufacturers who report their figures (although Razer obviously doesnt.)

 

Has anyone found out what resolutions hdmi will support with the new Blade 2014?

 

So here's my new desk setup. Looking at it I think I'm going to have to tweak some of the brightness/contrast to bring them all in line. Just got the arms from monoprice to setup the dual side monitors. Have an HDMI switch to alternate between my Razer and Desktop. USB hub too for keyboard/mouse/headphone connection. Just thought I'd share! Gonna try some gaming tomorrow, both on laptop screen, and 1440 monoprice shown there. Will do some more photos/vids.

 

Cant you find it on the graphics card teardown?

 

HDMI can be limited depending on the type used. The graphics card is plenty capable of displaying 3k(obviously). I'm just going it can at least output to 1440p.

@Zee - do you have the razer plugged into the monoprice? It work at 1440?


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Current owners, can you find out if the new Blade display is connected via LVDS or eDP? Apparently it matters for hackintosh purposes...

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Lots of screenshots but the text is translated quite hilariously. Google Translate

 

QUESTIONS THAT EVERY POTENTIAL 2014 RAZER BLADE BUYER PROBABLY WANTS TO KNOW:

(or at least I do, if anyone could assist :thumbsup

VIDEO:

• What is the refresh rate of the laptop's screen?
• What kind of refresh rates can the HDMI output support? (For instance: If we hook it up to a 120Hz monitor like the SynxMaster SA700 or a 240Hz TV, can it output those refresh rates?)
• Since the 870m GPU supports G-SYNC, will there be any way to output a G-SYNC video signal to a G-SYNC monitor? (I hear it only works with Display Port, which the Razer Blade doesn't have... and I wonder if HDMI will eventually support G-SYNC because perhaps it's just a licensing issue rather than a technology issue? Or maybe there's another way to output G-SYNC with an adapter?)
• What 3D options are there for the laptop screen or external displays?

AUDIO:

• The HDMI 4.1a port supports "7.1 audio out", but in the crazy world of audio codecs, audio hardware, and PC audio sources that doesn't tell us much. Does the laptop use "Dolby Digital Live" or "DTS Connect" to live encode any and all of the laptop's multi-channel audio (such as video games) into a live bitstream output so that a receiver can decode the lossless signal? (This is the prefect choice for PC digital audio output to a receiver with good DACs, as it covers all sources in the best quality and keeps the channels as they should be... stereo as stereo, 5.1 as 5.1, etc.)

SWAPPIN' PARTS:

• Is the battery removable and replaceable such that we could order a new battery and replace it ourselves? (Because we all know that thing is going to degrade sooner rather than later.)
• Is the SSD removable and replaceable such that we could order a new one and replace it ourselves? (I'm wondering if it would make more sense to buy it with the 128GB SSD and buy a larger, and perhaps faster SSD for a decent price and swap out.)
• Does replacing items like the battery, SSD, or RAM void the warranty?

 

I'll add to this list. However, I am 99% sure I going to purchase a Blade I am just unsure as to whether I will be purchasing the 128 or 512GB version. So, the only things I want to know:

- Do those mSATA to M2 adaptors on ebay work and can a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB fit inside the new Blade.
- Are there any other ways to add more storage to the Blade? I remember reading somewhere that some people use their wifi M2 slots to attach BOTH WiFi AND SSDs (using an adaptor). Would this be possible?
- I am willing to bet M2 PCIe will not work, but I would still like to see someone try.

 

You guys all planning to buy a new m2 ssd with more storage later? Im trying to decide if im going to buy 128 gb and 512gb

 

Alright, I really want to get to the bottom of this. Can someone who currently has the Blade, open up the back cover and investigate the right-side battery cable? I just have a feeling something important may be hiding underneath that flappy brown thing that was mentioned some posts ago... please guys... Thanks.

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Mine hasn't even shipped yet and I've already ordered a 512GB Crucial M550 M.2 drive to put in it as soon as I get it (And make sure I'm keeping it). I wanted to get a Plextor M6e, but they do not currently sell the standalone M.2 drive and there is a warranty sticker you must remove to take it off the PCI-e card. Plextor assured me that would void the warranty without exception.

I feel the M550 is a solid and reliable performer. It's not the fastest SATA drive like an 840 EVO, but I'm not dying for 1 TB nor am I interested in using one of those M.2->mSATA adapters.

 

Well, if you want a standalone, you can get this: MZHPU512HCGL-00000 - Samsung XP941 512GB M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD (2280)

 

That's a PCI-e 4x M.2 drive, so it's keyed opposite of the port in the Blade. The blade has a B key port, which only supports PCI-e 2x (if designed). Also, the XP941 is not supported as a boot drive for windows. We're limited (again, if the port was designed for it) to PCI-e 2x B keyed drives.

EDIT: Unless all the literature online is wrong, which it appears to be. Further research required.

It appears the reference M.2 literature that's been passed around these forums has the connector images either mirrored or they are displaying them from an unintuitive point of view. It actually is an M keyed slot, potentially supporting PCI-e 4x and compatible with the XP941. Now getting the XP941 to function as a boot drive in Windows is a different story.

http://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/m.2-ngff-ssd-compatibility-list/53 <- All of those images are mirrored.

To top it off, in the picture of the drive supplied by Automattic, you can clearly see where the port is marked "M" next to the key.

http://i58.tinypic.com/29bc94y.jpg

Back on topic: I don't have any real use for the sequential speeds that PCI-e drives offer, and the other metrics of the drives are only marginally better than the fastest SATA drives like the M550 or Evo 840, definitely not worth double the price to me.

 

Sorry if I missed it, so does the bottom cover have warranty stickers on the screws?

 

Just pulled the trigger on a new Blade, 128GB.

 

Just got a 258GB blade

 

IGN unboxing..

Razer Blade (2014) Unboxing Video - IGN Video

 

Does anyone know if I can run dual monitors off of the Blade 14? I have two external 24" monitors that I need to run but the blade only has one HDMI port. Thoughts?

 

You're hosed? HDMI doesn't support daisy chaining like DisplayPort.

 

Yes just buy a product with displaylink technology that allows you to connect a monitor from your USB 3 port. Nearly all the products with their technology built in are listed here. Note that some of the products are limited to 1080p while others support 2560 x 1600. (Displaylink recently demoed a chip capable of 4k through usb 3.) You can basically link up to 6 external monitors from your Razer via usb 3.

DisplayLink Store

 

After struggling with the Orwellian billing system they use (Digital River) for 2 full weeks, I finally managed to place an order on April 6th. On April 25, I received an email from Razer, stating its on "backorder", providing instructions on how to cancel the order in case I ran out of patience.

Given the stated 3-4 weeks delivery time, it should be shipping out in 2 days...

So I'm wondering about other people's experiences in regards to delivery times:

When did you order it and when did you receive it?

Also, does the SSD size ordered have an influence on how fast you get it? Do they deliver more profitable orders with large SSDs faster than units with the baseline 128GB SSD, which I'd assume they make less money on?

Looking forward to fun times with Razer's Blade 14 and Star Citizen's DFM (dog fighting alpha module)...

 

Got mine )
Screen is outstanding! Build quality is top notch. It s a dark mbp. Can t wait to test my razer black sheep in thr middle of the white mbp here in Tokyo!