P150EM Vs Razer Blade R2 Comparison

Folks, I know I am going to get flamed like crazy for this thread. Still I wanted to post an honest comparison of both the P150EM and Razer Blade R2.

Background:

I am the original owner of a P150EM with the 7970m purchased in 2012. I loved the machine as a professional who likes to game while on the road, the P150EM really served it's purpose. The only downsides of the machine was the 7970m "Piece of Garbage" and slight wireless issues.

Not to go into too much detail but I do make a lot of money at my job in which my laptop is my primary tool, therefore I justify switching up units annually when I get bored. I was going to sell my P150EM for a sager 9370 but decided against it as I really don't do enough "hardcore" gaming to justify the sli cards these days.

Than I decided to get the most portable machine I could find which I could also game on, I landed on the Razer Blade R2 despite the advice of many on these forums. Below is my review and pros/cons versus both non-biased.

My Review


Razer Blade

Pros

I really enjoy the track pad placement, and the ability to have a picture of my son as the background image.
660m performs extremely well given the size of the laptop.
Very nice 17 inch display
Very attractive design
Great build quality (Feels much more solid & durable versus the P150EM)
Great Keyboard (HUGE step up from a P150EM)
Great Sound (HUGE setup up from the P150EM)
Portability (Carrying this around with the extra small power-brick is a breeze compared to the P150EM)
Power Brick (Sounds lame but one of my most favorite thing about this laptop)
Fan Noise (Extremely quiet compared to the P150EM)


Cons

Overpriced (Although they produce a product unlike anyone else, I still feel they need to deliver more for the price rang. Bigger SSD, Better video card, Retina screen)
Switch Blade UI is tacky (Although it is the best track pad I have ever used it, it's a gimmicky feature not useful for gaming except for strategy games like total war or star craft)
Heat (Unit does get quite hot when gaming for hours)
Performance (7970m is literally twice as fast)
Tacky Look (I use my laptop for work, the flashy razer logo is not necessary!)


P150EM

Pros

Amazing power for it's size (Nothing beats a P150EM for having a practical laptop that also performs like the best)
Great Screen ( Matte 95%)
Tons of Storage (256 SSD + 750 gyg Hard Drive in CD Bay)
Stealth Look (I love the Clevo Look)



Cons

Malibal customer service is awful (may not be fair to mention it but it truly was)
Enduro Graphics (7970m is a pile of garbage, I have had NOTHING but issues with this card. If your like me and expect above all reliability if you spend lots of $$$ on a laptop take it from me and stick to NVDIA)
Track Pad is awful
Sound was HORRIBLE
Consistent Wireless issues
Annoying Driver Installation


Conclusion

Although a lot argue the Razer Blade R2 is overpriced, just like Apple it offers a product that nobody truly can compete with. However it still has a long way to go and wont satisfy most "hardcore" Gamers. I would also recommend to Razer that they either abandon or rethink the whole switchblade ui idea.

However for normal gamers like myself the 660m will run all the current games at 1080p with at least medium graphics "including Crysis 3" .

I would buy a Clevo again without a doubt, next time however I would insist on Nvidia. The 7970m truly has forever left a bad taste in my mouth, I will never buy another ATI product despite the price difference......

The Clevo P150EM is still the best bang for buck, portable gaming machine, but the Razer Blade R2 is the best PORTABLE gaming machine.

 

That's not a problem of the P150EM. There are plenty of resellers, just because Malibal is bad does not make the P150 any worse.

 

Which is why I said it may not be fair to mention.... I am basically giving you guys a pros / cons of both of my experiences.

 

Thanks for taking the time to type this up, I"m sure some will find it helpful!

 

From what I can gather, you like the razer because if offers you things the p150em did not. Basically a little stability and slightly flashier looks(and perhaps a slightly more expensive looking shell).

You admit your next purchase will be a clevo.

your main gripe seems to be with the 7970m and for good reason. It has annoyed you for the better part of last year. However, how would you rate the 7970 now with the current drivers?

 

Hasn't improved that much. All the issues that discussed still exist. AMD just doesn't seem to care. Some games they do well with, but the games they don't, it's really bad.

 

Could you elaborate a bit on this? I just ordered one and its on its way. I know I'm stuck with it no matter what you say now but I would still prefer to know what I'll be dealing with.

From what I've seen, most new games are working alright now. The problem seems to be more profound in old Dx9 games. However, I say all this based on what I have read online on forums and such. You have direct experience with the card. How would you explain the situation?

 

Poor performance, and weird crap, including DX11. WarFrame DX11 is terrible. Far Cry 3 has DX11 corruptions and just poor performance in many games. DX11 included, like Crysis 2.

 

hmm. I guess I'll just have to see for myself when I get it in about a month

 

op have you considered going for the 680m and a different wireless card, also a different reseller? almost all your cons wouldn't exist then.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

I don't know if it's just my experience, but Far Cry 3 in DX11 is extremely sluggish and unplayable on my 680M as well, so I'm not so sure it is the fault of the 7970M.

 

I think I get like 50 fps or so on High settings at 1080p. I can take a measurement later.

Also, I agree. OP seemed to pick a bad combination of components and reseller. Try the 675mx or 680m and one of the other resellers. If I'm not mistaken Malibal has had bad reviews for quite some time.

 

Still not acceptable, I always had the most up to date Beta drivers. Both the installation of the drivers & the drivers themselves gave me nothing but grief. It was almost like you needed to download the latest driver or the card was certain to not be utilized efficiently in the most current games. Along with utilization issues there is screen tearing "even with Vsync", random crashing, and other bugs which I just could not live with any longer.

 

I thought about it, but I really wanted to try something new. Soo far I am really enjoying the Razer Blade as it gives me a new experience for gaming. When Haswell comes out (2014) I will be looking likely at another P150EM with an Nvidia card, Intel Advanced Wireless, and top of the line processor this time around.

In the mean time the Razer Blade R2 actually is giving me a better gaming experience than my P150EM with the 7970m. Far Cry 3 for example plays better at the SAME graphics setting used on the 7970m due to the utilization problems "Sure Maxed out graphics 7970m will give better fps but I had artifact errors and was not able to gain FPS by turning down settings".

The only thing I will say the way technology is evolving, I would like to see a 15 inch version of the Razer Blade with no switch blade UI and the ability to use top tier mobile graphics card. Despite the price if that laptop existed in the near future I would buy it in a heart beat!!

 

corrected that for ya

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Oh? Are you sure you're running farcry3_d3d11.exe and get that results? With stock clocks? On what graphical settings?

I tried it and lowered everything I could think of and all I got was a pretty slideshow. Maybe I should try it again, now that the drivers have been updated.

Edit: Cool, I just started it up on directx 11 mode and everything is..smooth? I didn't know drivers could be THAT effective.

 

Aside from recent Ubisoft games and Crysis 2, I really haven't had many problems with my 7970 lately, especially with utilization. Just about every game I've played lately gets me 60FPS or 99% GPU load.

Forcing vsync through CCC only seems to work on opengl games, and it's been that way for literally years. Not really a problem with this laptop. Just use in-game vsync options. I don't get screen tearing doing that.

 

I didn't see it said, so I want to ask and simultaneously point it out... OP did your P150EM have a bigfoot networks killer wireless card? Those are notorious for having high rates of badly-performing cards. If that's what you got, I don't believe you can fault the P150EM for it. I know it's still being offered which means it could be considered part of the machine, but the intel chips usually have absolutely no problems. Hell, my nearly 4-year old intel 5300 in my D900F still performs perfectly.

Also, far cry 3 loves AMD cards. A ton. So much so that an AMD APU + 7660M performs nearly as well as a GTX 560Ti for that game. It's also based on the cryengine, so it's unoptimized. The day I see an optimized cryengine game... but that's off topic. If you wanna see good DX11 games to test stuff for, check MoH Warfighter, Black Ops 2, Bioshock Infinite, etc. As for DX9 games, I did hear there were a lot of problems for it with AMD's current cards and nVidia's last-gen cards.

 

I had the base wireless card from Malibal which is made by Realtek I believe? I had weird issues where the card would not turn on randomly after reboots....

Regarding your comment about "not being the fault of the P150EM". Please do not take any of my feedback as negative towards the P150EM or Razer Blade I actually really liked both machines. I just providing some feedback from my experience with both machines, knowing full well that not everyone is going to have the same experience I did.

Also for what its worth I actually get better performance using the Directx 11 Far Cry 3 on my 660m vs my 7970m.... I had a lot of problems with that game in Direct X 11 mode.

My biggest learning from owning both machines is the "little things" do matter. "track pad, sound, build quality, keyboard, track pad, etc.". Like many of you I was attracted to Sager/Clevo for the bang for buck performance, but have come to realize it's the whole package that makes the laptop. Something Razer has pulled off extremely well, there isn't one component that is not high quality on the machine.

 

Hardware is only half the story, you really do need the drivers to get anything out of hardware and HUGE gains can be made when fixing problems.

 

Oh I didn't think you had any problems with the P150EM directly, I was just providing a possible reason for a "con" you had. The built in realtek I know nothing about, you may have just gotten a bad one. But then again you did get from Malibal so warranty and replacements... well... yeah. I feel for you man.

As for the 660M vs 7970M on FC3 DX11 mode... uhh... that should NOT happen. I really feel you got a lemon for a laptop there, OP. My best wishes go out to you.

Also I think a lot of clevo-buyers also prefer the sleek, unassuming look of the laptops too, not just bang/for/buck. THere is also a good amount of customization options offered with most resellers for them too, which is a plus. It's not JUST bang-for-buck that we like XD. I personally believe function should supersede form, but I will say a nice keyboard/trackpad/palmrest etc all have weight in a laptop's appeal.

 

I will say that I do like where Razer is going with their products, it makes for an interesting option at least. That being said I think it's highly likely that user error or faulty hardware is involved if your Rz2 is competing with a 7970 equipped 150EM, I have zero problems running FC3 on max settings at ~45fps, a number which the 660m cannot even hope to touch.

 

Let me explain:

On Direct X 9 mode with Far Cary 3 my 7970 could max he game out at 60 Fps + On Direct X 11 mode I got artifact and other weird errors.

With my 660m I get around 35-40 fps with High Settings in Directx 11 no AA

I realize the 7970m is way more powerful never disputed that for a minute, I am just saying for as a non "Hardcore" gamer I am getting a better experience with the 660m.

I realize people have widely different results with the 7970m, believe me my card was no more "Defective" than the rest. Some games played great, others has tons of problems.

 

What are you smoking? Just because Apple and Razer add a couple of gimmicky marketing ( that's all retina display is, a cheap IPS panel with purely marketing purpose high resolution nobody uses because it's on a screen too small to use it ) parts and nobody can compete with them?

150EM is better than either one, and 150EM is just the best bang for your buck. If you are willing to pay there are better laptops out there with real IPS screens, not cheap garbage IPS that Apple sells.

 

lol easy there =P. I think he understands all this. He even admits he will return to the clevo once he has had his 'fling' =P.

Thing is, sometimes all one needs is a little change.

 

Notebooks are so much a personal item, there are niches for everyone, as a non gamer the P150EM makes very little sense as you pay a cost and weight penalty for the graphics chip.