Razor Blade Stealth - 12.5", i7-6500U, $999

It probably doesn't exhibit undue drain, it's just the size of the battery plus the screen. I still think those screens are such a huge miscalculation. Razer will never admit it, but saying they chose those bezel screen because it was the highest quality was compete horse ****. The qhd is just as inaccurate as any other display and the response times on BOTH panels are apparently terrible, according to notebookcheck. So what are these high-res screens they have good for?

 

The 4k panel is wide gamut. NBC measured 85% aRGB, which is really good. I'm assuming that 4k panel was a little bigger than the others.

 

$140 discount at the moment for the UHD models via the Microsoft Store.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...ure-Edition-Gaming-Laptop/productID.332451500

still holding off for the core review.

 

shows as full price for me. You sure it's not a student discount you're seeing?

 

Well lets do some quick math here....
10% student discount: 0.1 * 1399 = 139.9 ~ 140$

So I'm gonna assume it's the student discount.

 

Picked one up at the Microsoft Store... (because the new Razer store in SF isn't open yet!)

I'll do a write up in a while. But here's my take. The Chroma keyboard is awesomely silly. The 4K screen is gorgeous, but also a little silly. The battery isn't as good as the dell XPS13, and the bezel is lots bigger...

And its sleek and beautiful, the battery is far better than my old laptop (a 13" 7330 sager, that now manages 1 hour and just had its hinge shear off at long last). Its nice and light, its powerful enough for my day-to-day work so far (I do a decent amount of CAD and similar stuff), not as fast as my Sager with its GTX735m, but the core will cover that when i finally put the sager to sleep (its now taking the role of work desktop). I'm also not expecting the RBS to be used for gaming, I have a desktop for that, the Core will be nice for CAD and multiple screens.

But as much as anything, I got this because I believe in Razer's engineering. I work in product development, I know how hard it is to do this stuff. The vast majority of my colleagues have Mac's, and I now have a laptop that I can proudly put down on the table without ever expecting to explain why I bought it.

And frankly, Dell doesn't need my money. Razer does, and they deserve it.

 

it was. sorry. it's still a better price than on the razer store. that and a 30 day return policy so i bought one.

 

Read an article today that the core might cost $500. Yikes...

 

Razer Core Pre-orders up now at Razer, $499 alone, or $399 when ordered with a Stealth. (Buy - top of page
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth#ultrabook-desktop

Fresh look at the Razer Core graphics enclosure at GDC 2016


Pre-orders Start Today for The Razer Core - The World's First Plug and Play Thunderbolt 3 External Graphics Enclosure
http://www.razerzone.com/press/deta...lay-thunderbolt-3-external-graphics-enclosure

Hands on with the New Razer Blade at GDC 2016

 

Please tell me nobody is considering buying the core for $500 (+ the cost of a graphics card)! I would much rather spend the same amount or less on a dedicated gaming PC at home!

Stealth has poor battery life? Yeah this was to be expected. I actually tried to warn you guys about this earlier in the thread. Besides the poor battery life and huge bezel, I think the stealth is a cool machine!

 

Yes!, and that would be the real innovation that has been missed. Don't just create a new external peripheral bus to connect external GPU, USB, Ethernet (10gbit/s), also include a CPU to control all of it to make it self sufficient with stand-alone functionality - and turn it into a multi-node shared resource.

Making a peripheral sharing box is nice, but with all that $ investment it's worthless without the controlling CPU - so build it with a CPU included, then allow the laptop to be plugged in to control it all if you like.

 

Yes, you could build an average computer for $500 but the Core appeals to me because I don't want to have two machines. I'd rather pay a slight premium to have one machine that can do everything.

 

We aren't talking about building an "average" computer, we are talking about $500 for an otherwise empty box, until you plug in your $650-$850 high end GPU.

So that is $1150-$1350, in addition to the hugely overpriced Stealth Laptop $999-$1599, for total system price of $2250-$2950!!

With a Dual Core Ultra Low Power 15w TDP CPU trying to fully drive a High End GPU...

 

I am but I'm only buying it with the intent to use it for 3 laptops and eliminate my desktop. Currently we all use laptops standalone and use the desktop for dual monitor tasks. I have dual 120Hz QHD monitors that have dual link DVI so hooking them up to a laptop directly isn't an option. So hopefully we will all be able to just hook up and use the GPU when we need it and never have to have a completely separate OS.

As for the cost, I agree it's a lot more than I was expecting. I'm getting it for $400 but that's still $100 too much imho. But considering the competition has absolutely nothing to offer, I don't know what to say... Everything else is either proprietary or non-existent. On top of that, some of the stuff coming soon looks just plain cheap. Certainly not anything I want to put on my desk for the next couple years. So I'm paying an extra $100 for something that is black, made of good materials and currently exists. I can kind of justify that - especially since I'm an early adopter.

 

Can you use the internal laptop display with the core or does it require an external monitor? I could see that being beneficial if I could set it next to my living room recliner.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

I was told yes but I'm very skeptical of how well it will perform. That's a lot of two way communication over the TB3 channel. But apparently a lot of people have been doing it with DIY thunderbolt 2 docks for a while now, with great success.

 

If it's been successful with thunderbolt 2 I would imagine the increased bandwidth of thunderbolt 3 would mean zero issues. That's interesting.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

I thought I'd chime in to this conversation as there is a lot of discussion about target audience and pricing information being thrown around. I would consider myself part of the desired demographic and would happily spend 999 for the stealth. It's the closest thing to my wife's MacBook air (which I love using for day to day tasks) but running windows OS. The only reason I hadn't purchased a zenbook in the past is the desire for this to replace my desktop with one machine. I feel like the CORE is a bit high, but I'd still buy it, was considering throwing down nearly $2,000 for the Blade 14" and I'm hoping this would perform better with a desktop GPU. My biggest point of contention with the discussion was about 650+ for the desktop GPU. I'd never do that, my desktop right now just has a 970 that cost about $300 bucks and I'd venture to say that the razer is trying to get you to take the card from your desktop and put it in the core, which I'd do. In the end I look at this as about $1,600 to get exactly what I've been looking for. The only reason I'm not buying it was the keyboard, I tried it out at a local store and just couldn't get used to it.

 

Yeah, it's a tough one to get used to. It took me a couple days of heavy use to swallow it.

 

You need to consider the cost of replacing that 970 in your desktop too, as otherwise it's unusable.

$999 + $399 + $300 = $1700 minimum cost of Razer+Core+GPU

The Razer goes up to $1599 in configuration, and if you are spending that much, I would imagine a $650 980ti wouldn't be out of the question.

$1599 + $399 + $650 = $2650

So does it seem fair to call it a $1700-$2650 system?

The Pascal releases might change the total pricing higher too.

And, unless your desktop CPU is weaker than a Dual Core ULV 15w TDP CPU, you would be better off getting that $650 980ti into your current desktop, and putting a nice new monitor on it, rather than investing in the Stealth+Core system.

 

I get what you're saying but the point I'm trying to make is that they aren't trying to get hardcore gamers to buy a new $650+ gpu to dock AND still have a desktop. They're looking for people like me that only have a desktop for gaming, it's literally the only reason I have it. I don't need to play on Ultra settings with 60+fps, and if I bought the Core I'd be looking to get rid of the desktop, that's why I subsidize the price of the gpu.

I think the real thing to look at is the lack of competition. I'll give you that the core is a bit high in price, but they are the first company to truly push the product. I think the best option is probably a combination of different manufacturers but until we get there I would expect them to enjoy being first to the table.

 

The thing I don't understand is, why get rid of your gaming desktop if it is already working for you, only to replace it with another enclosure to house the same 970?

Your current CPU will be way better than that Dual Core 6500U in the Stealth, so your FPS will drop when driving that 970 with the Stealth.

You can still get the Stealth to use as a laptop, and keep the desktop for gaming to drive the 970 and external monitor.

There is no net gain by substituting the Razer Core for your Desktop, you are going to lose FPS.

That Stealth Core money would be money better invested in improving your desktop gaming performance.

 

I can't speak for Ribido but I have been actively trying to rid myself of a desktop for 2 years. I almost never use it now but I still keep it around because of multi-monitor support and that rare occasion I need a higher end GPU. This will rid me of it for good. It's also one less OS to maintain and I'll gladly give up some CPU power to get rid of it.

I agree with you to a point though - some people will not be able to handle the CPU hit. But I'm willing to bet there are a lot of people who are casual gamers and won't really care for minor fps loss when they gain having 1 less device to maintain and have a really lightweight laptop. The good thing is the more hardcore gamers can just get a quad-core laptop with thunderbolt 3 and it fills the gap.

 

That's the transition point coming soon with a number of laptops.

It would be nice to have a 960m/965m/Pascalm + Quad Core CPU 6700HQ for mobile with a full bandwidth TB3 connection as a minimum.

I still can't see leaving a nice external monitor(s) + eGPU box + 980ti level GPU sit unusable without a CPU.

I can't believe I am going to say this, but maybe an eGPU CPU box would make sense.

You could hook up a keyboard / mouse to it, connect it into the TB3 bus, and have it control the "Base Station" while the laptop is disconnected.

Hmmmm.....

 

Quick question guys if I may. Anyone who owns the qhd model, it does appear that my screen when viewing white backgrounds, there is a slight graininess. Its mostly visible on white and lighter backgrounds.
thanks!

 

Yeah, that's a side effect if the igzo screens. No way around it.

 

thank you for the reply!

 

Unfortunately the igzo panel in the blade is an anti-glare panel under a glass cover. Side effect is a slight grainy effect that's most noticed under certain colors. I personally use both a rMBP 13 and my Blade pretty much daily and I don't notice it anymore unless I'm actually looking for it.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Same opinion,same boat. I am willing to pay extra for what it offers me. Have a MSI 980 ti waiting to be put in the Core when it ships. Love the design and look. For 1268.00 $ I got a 1440p Stealth with Samsung 950 Pro NVMe 512Gb installed.

Feels Much faster then my GS60.

 

Any word on the Stealth Core release date, benchmarks, updates?

 

Shipping from the 23rd, so they claim.

 

What has the battery life on the RB Stealth been like? 6 hours too much of a reach?

Thanks!

 

6 hours with battery saving mode on, keyboard on dim, and using edge, yes.

 

My qhd stealth with 256ssd keeps booting to bios , pressed f12 and nothing shows up in the boot menu.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Your ssd is probably dead, happened to me on a zenbook too.

 

is the ram upgradeable on these or are they all soldered. 8gb on some of them is simply not enough

 

Soldered on. Not upgradeable.

And yes 8GB is low. But it's not unusable. 8GB is actually enough for most of what people do on a computer. If you run a single game, or use multiple 10's on tabs on a web browser, you're not going to even use all 8GB, let alone come close to needing 16GB.

8GB of RAM only becomes an issue when you do either do unnecessarily heavy multitasking (e.g. keep 50 Chrome tabs open, while also running a game), or start running programs that don't belong on a low-power dual core mobile CPU (e.g. virtual machines, large databases, RAM disks).

So if you aren't a power user, or if this isn't your primary computer where you will be running power-user jobs, then you can probably get by with 8GB of RAM. But if you really think 8GB will become a problem, then I'd consider a Dell XPS 14, Dell XPS 15, or Razer Blade 14.



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