new razers have been announced

This is one of the main reasons I'm waiting until a bunch of reviews are posted. The 2013 model did a good job of keeping heat up by the top while the fans were relatively quiet compared to other notebooks. I hope this continues. I can't deal with loud fans.

 

Since these are the 2014 models I assume there will be no more updates this year?

 

Great question and one we all would like to know, I just hope RAZER does not gimp this card in anyway.

Same here, for what this costs it pretty much has to be perfect. I love the fact that RAZER put a 870M in it just wish it was Maxwell based. To tell you the truth I would have liked to see the Maxwell 860M and a much improved 1080p panel and I would have been happy.

 

yeah, the 4k screen and 870m maybe is to legit for 14 inch machine. for me is enough the new razer 14 have 860m and the ips 1080p and 2k/3k screen. I'll wait for further information bout the final unit review. if the main issue is heat and loud noise, maybe I'll pull the bomb to MSI GS60.
but let's hope the razer will not disappointing us. we know the razer build
quality is top class, maybe we don't know something that razer RnD know.

 

That would be a weak assumption. A number of people ignored the rather obvious fact that a new Razer was about to come out now based on faulty assumptions as well.

The next Razer Blade will come out when the next generation of intel processors (based on broadwell chips) and a more complete offering of next generation Nvidia (maxwell) cards are out. That will likely happen at in late Q3 early Q4 of this year. I know everyone is thrilled by the screen upgrade (hey I might even jump on the bandwagon and buy a blade). But those upgrades from intel and Nvidia will drastically increase the efficiency of the blade--and its overall performance as well.

 

I was thinking about another iteration coming out when the mobile Broadwell processors become available. I just wasn't sure if they (Razer) would hold off until the beginning of next year since these are considered by some to be the 3rd generation 2014 models. It would make sense to have the next models available for the 2014 Holiday season.

What I am curious about will someone be producing 17" QHD panels or 2k or 4K. I actually don't know the difference between QHD, 2K, 3K. I guess 4K would be the highest level?

Also, could they make them Thinner/Slimmer then they are now?

 

The New Razer 14 is technically QHD+ or WQXGA+ (3200x1800). 4K (or UHD) is 3840x2160, so it's not a huge improvement on a 14" or even 17" screen. I have never heard of 2K.

I can't speak to how slim things can get, but I imagine the 17" blade isn't going to be the focus of Razer moving forward. As others have mentioned, it just doesn't seem to be selling as well. If you are willing to go 17" (which is basically a desktop replacement) you are usually not going to value the Blade's compact form factor too highly. So you'll likely be looking elsewhere.

 

Saw this on Wired. Probably explains the extra 0.04 inch height and extra 0.4 lb weight on this year's model. Razer's Slim Yet Crazy-Powerful Laptop Inches Closer to Perfection | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

“We’ve completely reengineered again the thermal system around the Blade, and we’re now using a GTX 870M,” says Tan. “It was all about making sure we optimized the thermals in this. We really made as much space as possible to put the battery in there. We’ve got a 70 Wh battery. We’ve also worked with Nvidia to do a battery boost.”

 

why does the 17 inch have a worse GPU than the 14?!?!! Seriously, I know the 14 needs that extra power for the screen, but the physically larger model should ALWAYS have more, or at least the same amount going on under the hood.

 

And why does the larger model have a lower resolution screen right?

Seriously though, not a problem for me as it makes it a really easy choice.

 

my guess would be that they are thinking of a redesign of the 17, the new positioning is probably going to intensify as well.

 

There are no HiDPI 17" panels that Razer would use in a gaming notebook.. Most likely the ones that exist (I've never even seen one) have slow response times.

 

I am having trouble deciding which new razer blade to get- I love the idea of switchblade and also larger screen but the lower resolution/gpu really are making me question getting the pro. I had a chance to play with the razer blade and it's a really nice laptop. Just wished they could get rid of the wonky font and allow more lighting options for the backlight keyboard. Also it's so unbelievably compact. I do travel a lot and it would fit really well anywhere. I have been using an alienware m18xr2 and want something more portable.

Anyone else in this quandary? I wish they had been fair and stuck with the same resolution for both models. I don't even mind the gpu issue. But the resolution is a big part of my daily use- I love having more pixels to read or watch stuff online. I can always use a lower resolution to play games.

Any razer blade pro users want to comment about the screen display? are you happy with the display? thanks!

 

Would you keep the 2013 Blade Pro with a $560 discount or return it and pay full price for the 2014 Blade Pro?

 

No one can answer that but yourself. If you need the money, keep the old one. If you've got some change to spare, upgrade. Personally, I'd probably keep it if you're only going for the Pro. If it was the Blade 14 though, I'd upgrade. But that's just me.

 

A 17 inch QHD+ IPS panel(with good response time) would increases costs to an insane amount and require a better GPU to perform as intended. The screen on the RBP is more than adequate.

 

I understand that increasing the resolution to 4K would be unlikely but at least try to go at least do an incremental increase of the graphics card or minor improvement to the quality of screen. I feel Razer has been kinda like Apple in that respect; they will do stepwise improvements in their products. Not constantly reinventing the wheel each time. I like that they listened to the reviews and got rid of the razer blade terrible screen and replaced that. But what I feel would've made RBP more attractive was at least a better graphics card and screen. I don't even mind paying a little more. Why can't they add in as an add on option like other PC manufactures- like if you want to up the resolution or add in touch screen capabilty- you can pay extra. the only thing customizable is the size of the SSD.

 

When might we start seeing hands on reviews?

 

Probably beginning of April for the 14, seems the 17 is already shipping so very soon there.

 

Do we know anything about battery life on the 14 inch model?

 

Razer claims about the same. It has a larger battery but a more power-hungry GPU. Having used another IZGO display, I'd bet that it's very efficient, so we'll probably have moderately better battery life at idle and worse battery life on load.

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Wouldn't having only a 150w power adapter be a concern with an 870m? I know that MSI models were sometimes struggling with a 170w adapter which is why they needed to introduce the battery assistance boost... isn't 150w cutting it pretty close?

 

I was thinking the same thing. My thought is that the 870m will be restricted in some way, possibly by limiting or eliminating boost. I would think a fully loaded 870m + 4702MQ would easily consume > 150W. Then again, from my 680m Clevo test a couple years ago, except for most extreme circumstances, the 680m would draw less than 150W. The 870m is essentially the 680m, but with 192-bit memory bus vs 256-bit, 1GHz vs 720MHz, and 2500 vs 2000MHz vRAM. So if anything it should consume slightly more power due to faster core speed and vRAM. Granted the Razer is probably much more power efficient than the Clevo, but it certainly will be marginal. Honestly though I'm mostly concerned about thermals over power consumption. Unless nVidia made some great strides with reducing TDP for this Kepler refresh.

 

I'm with you harmattan and HT!
I was thinking the same thing the other day, hopefully the 870M/4702MQ is not gimped in anyway and most importantly temps and fan noise are kept under control.This is just about my dream build for a thin and powerful laptop and everything better be just about perfect considering the price.
If everything works as it it should, I will most likely get one soon after reviews are out.

 

I dunno why Razer had to make it so complicated with the Kepler 870m and an 1800p screen when all they had to do was to put a higher quality IPS 1080p panel paired with a more power efficient but still powerful gtx 860m Maxwell.

The excuse that Ming or Lin whatever his name is that they couldn't find a 1080p that meets their ms response time I think is bullcrap considering Alienware and the other 14" gaming laptops have 1080p screens. So this 1800p I think is another gimmick just so Razer can say they have 1800p in a gaming machine but it won't really help frames per sec unless you lower the resolution and I don't like playing games unless it is the natural native resolution.

 

Min-Liang Tan. It's on his Twitter.

If you believe he is lying, say you believe he is lying. Razer isn't a public company. They aren't beholden to any shareholders. If you think he is lying then why consider the product?

They also have thicker shells.

What, like a Retina iPad? High PPI panels move graphics from having to be run at native resolutions to supporting variable resolutions with excellent scaling. There's nothing gimmicky about high PPI.

That's because you're only used to low PPI panels, apparently.

 

Hi IceStorm how are you today? Yea high PPI works especially with Mac with their RMBP and their Ipad 3/4/Air since Mac OSX has better scaling than Windows 8. Have you seen the horror stories of the 1800p display on the yoga 2 pro where they have to manually zoom it or even use a magnifying thingy to see icon and text with some programs like EA Origin etc..? I say it is gimmicky because how many gaming laptops have you seen running a resolution higher than 1080p? Again I said pure gaming laptops marketed as gaming laptops? So far, only the up and coming Razer 14 and the Clevo W230SS unless there's a gaming laptop I missed so please correct me if i'm wrong.

I am both use to high and low ppi panels but again, this has nothing to do with what is being talked about here. I understand the need for higher res displays for productivity work like coding etc... but for a laptop being marketed as a gaming laptop with higher than 1080p is redundant imo but it doesn't mean it is useless since this is still a much better display and a huge upgrade than the panel on the 1st gen Razer 14.

 

Only those two.. For now.. MSI is also launching some of their Gaming series with HiDPI panels. It's inevitable that all of them will be there soon. I can't wait to play D3 expansion at 1800p..

I would imagine if buy the blade 14, which it's at the top of my list pending in-depth reviews -- I'll be getting something in April.. That I will most likely be playing most games at 1080 or 900.. I've seen scaling on an rMBP.. It's fine.. The only thing I have a little worry about is some of my Windows apps.. But most of the apps I use are modern.

 

This is a flagship product for Razer and NVidia. Can we leave assertions of gimped GPU until we have units in reviewers' hands? :thumbsup:

 

Considering how well the 765m does (yes gets warm, but I've never had it overheat) I was hoping they just improved the fans/cooling a bit, maybe even better thermal paste or heatsink.

That being said, I would prefer they downclock it say 5-10% if they needed to, to avoid throttling. I hated throttling on laptops in the past. You'll get your game all setup and play for an hour then your framerate starts to drop if it gets too hot or uses too much power.

 

Considering the 765m uses a 120w brick. The 870m is 25W More bringing the total to 145w so i would think a 150w brick would be fine.

I'm mostly concerned about the temps. I personally don't think it can handle the temps. I expect throttling.


At any rate, i didn't have a laptop, then they announced this and i bought a used 2013 model on ebay for 1400. 1000 Cheaper than the 2014 model and it can still hold its own. I'm pleased with the purchase.

 

I thought the 2013 came with 150w supply? I was almost sure of it. I can't check now because I am at work but maybe someone can double check that.

 

The 2013 14" Blade comes with a larger 150w power adapter. It's around 50% thicker than the 120w model. It works with either, though I don't recall running the 14" at full bore off the 120w adapter.

 

Razer's site describes the 14 as having 8GB onboard memory. Is this expandable?

 

it can't be upgraded. because it's soldered on the motherboard.

 

Unless they've managed to change the laws of physics, then no.

 

What are you seeing for temps and performance on your 2014 unit?

 

As soon as Razer sends me my review unit, I will let you know...

 

I would love to see HT do a review of this laptop :thumbsup:

 

I'll be ticked if I shelled out this kind of cash for a throttled GPU with no mention of that in the specifications. Let's see what happens!

 

The previous one didn't throttle under gaming load, I doubt this one will. But I'm waiting for reviews of this, the gs60 and a few others..

 

Did they say when?

 

But @HTWingNut said that would defy the laws of physics!

 

There is no way to know until we see in depth reviews and analysis. Anyone who says otherwise is just guessing. Including me.

 

Getting through to the proper people there is like digging for gold in the ocean... sheesh. Aorus I just tweeted them and a review unit ended up on my doorstep. But I am looking forward to the flux capacitor and infinite improbability engine that will cool this thing.

 

They are probably using high quality heatsink compound OOTB to get the best possible cooling.

 

Thermal compound can only do so much. There's only a few deg C difference from the most exotic compounds and the more common ones like AS5 and ICD, and require some TLC when applying for best efficiency, no automated process will improve on that. Unless there's water cooling, or the heatsink is soldered directly to the GPU die, or nVidia made some significant improvements in their thermal technology, but based on the 880m they haven't, it will likely limit the performance or throttle. However, I will reserve further judgement until we see some in the wild. Hopefully we'll all be pleasantly surprised.

 

Yep. Just have to wait to see one. Can't wait. They did a fantastic job on the 2013, we shall see.

 

think notebook check said the 870m scored a 3dmark11 score of 7200 (putting it very close to the 2x765m Aorus you know I loved HTWingnut). But one of the hands-on articles for the Blade said 3dmark11 netted them about 6800 or so. I'm too lazy to check my sources, but about 90 percent sure that's what I read. so the Blade may be clocked a little lower than some of the other versions, or it throttles down due to temps. Of course Nvidia lets you overclock the core clock 135mhz so that may bring you back up. Overclocking the Aorus got me right at 8000. Please note I'm not an overclocking guy (with laptops anyway). 20 hours till Elderscolls Online....

 

Actually the information on your response is not correct, we pay for extended warranty on all
Products , consumer law in Australia extends the warranty on electrical products due to the fact of manufactures declining warranty after a week out of the warranty period, so by law now government put through warranty pro rada, but the price difference is still ridicules compared to every other country, all about buying power 25 million in AUS to 300+ million in the USA, the AUS government currently is doing a enquiry on this issue hopefully fixes this,


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