Im having doubts...

I have had a Blade 14" (2013) for 2 years now with no problems at all, except a faulty charger that I got replaced. I want to upgrade to the Blade 2014 and I have a buyer lined up for my old Blade. I will pay virtually nothing for the upgrade since I will buy the refurbished 2014 model. I am just reading so many problems where the Blade needs to be send back to Razer and in my situation (outside the US) I cannot send the laptop back without paying 200$ in shipping costs. I would like to avoid it. I just want to know if you had any problems with your Blade where you HAD to send it back to get it to work at all. Things such as dead pixels I can live with. Thank you very much guys!

 

Do not do it. I Have the 14 and it's been nothing but problems.

 

I love my 2014 Blade.

 

Today I am pulling the trigger. I will get the refurb 2014 blade, or should I get the new one for 300$ more? I don't see why it would be worth it. OR get the FHD 2015 version? I would really appreciate the input. If the QHD 2015 version is really worth it CAN get it, but Id rather now. Guys please help me decide.

 

It sounds like personal preference, what kind of help are you looking for?

 

In knowing if it is worth it to just get the newer 2015 model.

 

I have been looking at getting this over another MacBook. The only thing holding me back is the old CPU. I really want one with a Skylake CPU.

 

If you can wait for 4 more months or so I'd just wait for the new series of ultrabooks with USB C 3.1 so you can dock them to a GPU at home and still have the ultraportability and battery life of an ultrabook.

 

I would imagine we *MIGHT* see another Razer Blade in spring. Not sure they would bother releasing another one just for Skylake though. The Kepler->Maxwell jump I can understand, but a jump to Skylake isn't going to make that big of a difference for gamers.

If they do bother to update it with Skylake before nVidia releases something like a 1070M, I would at least hope it includes:

• PCIe SSD .. I still can't believe this wasn't on the 2015 model...
• At least one USB Type-C port, but leave one or two USB 3.1 ports for compatibility without having to buy adapters - This USB Type-C port will also shut people up that wanted a Display Port or Lightning connector. If they do just go all USB Type-C, It would be nice if they included at least one USB Type-C to USB 3.1 adapter in the box.
• Keep the HDMI port but make it the latest version, it'll be a while before TV's aren't using this.
• Include the USB recovery drive in the box, please.
• Maybe better-bigger battery to eek out a couple-few more non-gaming hours. Though I think this was the touch screen's fault.
• Now that pretty much everything I use scales to HiDPI swimmingly (this wasn't the case a year and a half ago), I'm glad they put a QHD+ display on the 2014. Keep the QHD+, or maybe even go for 4K. I'm sure whatever upgraded iGPU is in Skylake can handle it. People are going to probably continue to run all but the medium to low demanding games at less than native. I still run anything that's semi-demanding at 1600x900 or 1920x1080 and they look fantastic. Looking at you Wticher 3 and Elite, you beautiful things. GoG Galaxy just updated with HiDPI support.. looks great.. I'm in the alpha channel so not sure if it was alpha or not. The only thing left is that POS Origin.. They should just give up at this point, does anyone care about Origin? Really? Even Unity3D looks decent in HiDPI now with better support coming in December. COME ON EA IT'S LATE 2015. The HiDPI ship sailed for Windows like 2 years ago.
• I'm still confused as to why they install the Dolby software when Razer Surround exists. Maybe it's for movies and video that can only do virtual surround with Dolby? Shrug.

If they don't at least do the first 2 I don't even see why anyone would bother upgrading. New buyers would get a little bump, but I tend to like to leapfrog a generation to keep my costs down. Truthfully I don't see myself being unhappy with my 2014 Blade come Spring, so they're going to have to do something truly enticing.

 

The GPU in the 2015 model is a pretty significant percentage faster than the 2014 model. I would just forget the 2014 exists unless it's SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper.

What are all your use cases? What kind of things do you do outside of gaming? If it's strictly gaming, you could potentially get the Full HD model and be fine with the oddly strange 8GB memory they put in it. I still have yet to even get close to maxing the entire 8GB in my 2014 during gaming. If there's other memory intensive things you're doing that could cause problems, get the QHD+. Personally, I'd go for the 2015 QHD+, but that's my personal opinion for my own desires and needs. Probably not the right call for everyone.

QHD+ Model Pros

• 16GB RAM. If you need it for something non-gaming related, this is your only option. Plus it might future proof you for a couple-few years down the road when games might actually require it.
• The QHD+ display is super pretty when using desktop apps. Every app worth a damn that's maintained and current supports it now (Yes.. Origin is, in my opinion, is not maintained well..) You can also just run desktop at something like 1600x900 or 1920x1080 and kill scaling issues if some app that's super important to you gives you issues. But there's a slight quality hit, nothing massive but it's there.
• The touch screen is nice sometimes, but it's still ultimately a novelty you probably won't use. But it's awesome when you have a use for it.
• It's a glossy glass-covered display. I like this, but others don't. Depends on your environment.

Full HD Model Pros

• I1080p display will kill any DPI scaling issues at native resolution. Any but the most poorly optimized games will run at native resolution with high to ultra detail. Usually you can turn off one silly non-critical setting and get "ultra"
  
• Battery life is better out-of-the-box due to the display taking less power. I wonder how it is if both are set to 1920 desktop res, but no one's compared that yet I don't think. I've gotten 5 hrs out of my 2014, but I extremely rarely don't have power nearby. Like maybe once over a year. The Full HD should get 6 or 7 consistently I would imagine.
• It's cheaper.
• It's about 4.5 oz lighter than the QHD+. That would actually be really nice if the QHD+ had the same lower weight.
• It's a matte display. Some people love matte for the reflection reduction. Again, depends on your environment.

It's up to you really. No one can make this decision for you.

 

I really, honestly, really appreciate what you wrote up for me. I have bought the QHD+ 2015 model and I think it was the right choice, at the moment a PC is not an option and I don't want a bulky laptop like an alienware. I LOVE the form factor of this laptop. The only real doubt in my head is that the longebility might just not be there, I've had a 2013 blade, and its working perfectly, never had problems. But I would like this system to last me at least 4-5 years. I hope it does and I'm not saying with a good performance, just for it not to die. Also, I agree with you, I prefer the glossy display because it just makes screens look nicer in my opinion, colors look betters, dark colors. Oh and an added bonus for me I guess is that Ive used touch-enabled laptops and I really like using the touch interface. I guess I'm justifying the cost of the Blade with all this but I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated your help

 

I do a lot of reading and writing and I am very glad I have the touch. Yes, I wish it was FHD so it would save me headaches, but the touch functionality is great for going through documents and zooming with fingers.

 

Well I got an email from razer saying they declined my payments, weird. And im having trouble finding the razer blade at the microsoft website. Maybe from amazon. But do you guys think they will have a razer blade stocked at a microsoft store if I go there? I would really want to buy from the Microsoft website though, if anyone can link me it would be great.

 

Just call them up.