New Razer Blade 14 (970M)....am I the only one that is disappointed?

Hey guys,

Pretty sure you all hear about the new Blade 14 http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

It brings the 970m and 16GB of RAM, but everything else....well...meh...it's the same

I am a proud owner of the first version of the Blade 14 (2013) with the 765m and was very much looking forward for the new one so I can get a nice upgrade.

However, seeing this, I am now VERY disappointed in the fact that, well...it's nothing spectacular we are all expecting...same old design as well

 

The 2014 model is a huge step up from the 2013 model in terms of performance and screen, but loses 2hrs of battery life and access to a second SSD slot. 4hrs of battery run time non-gaming wasn't a huge problem for me.

The 2015 model being limited to only one 512GB SSD again is my biggest problem with it. I won't be buying one unless it is confirmed it has two m.2 slots or compatible 1TB m.2 drives ship.

 

It just came out today, so it's brand spanking new news.

But yeah, I'm disappointed with the reveal.
Pros:
1) Yes, I'm glad they added 16GB of RAM. It didn't need it, but that is the gaming standard nowadays.
2) I'm glad they went with the 970m. That's a great graphics card for the system.
3) I'm also glad they added the option for either the QHD screen or the HD screen

Cons:
1) No TB hard drive. This system really needed it if you wanted this computer to be your main computer. If this was like your gaming only computer or just a traveling computer... maybe it's ok. But with games being 20+ gb, and storage getting cheaper all the time, they should not have skimped (again!) on the storage. Especially for the cost.
2) No mini-display port. Why is this important? Due to the current output limitations of HDMI. If you want to output this to anything greater than HD and running at higher framerates, this will hamper it. Sure there are work arounds and the like, but you can't output to a myriad of resolutions (like the ultrawide 1440p resolution) at higher than 30 - 50fps. Of course you may not need it, but still
3) They really downgraded the HD version of the laptop. A 1080p screen means, only 8GB of RAM, only 256GB of space, but it does come at a much lower cost, so there is that.
4) No SD card storage. Really? Limited storage options and no SD card storage? But... but...

These are just the things impacted me immediately upon just viewing the site. There may be more positives and negatives there, but those were the things I was hoping to see.

No Razer Blade Pro inside which is the one I was looking for, but that probably won't come out for a few more months based on passed releases. Overall though, I'm disappointed. I was hoping that the new Razer Blade would have a bigger jump in features. I don't mind the look because it's still great, but was hoping for better specs.

 

I hope the razer blade pro will improve more than last year. At least add a mini display port, improve the cooling system and start with 256gb ssd with same price as 128gb ssd

 

at least HDMI 2.0 so you can do 4k @ 60hz... it still has the same hdmi 1.4 like on my 2 yr old blade

 

Seems like they're doing a tick-tock cycle, like most other tech companies. I would suspect that since the release of last year's Blade they're overhauling the design to at minimum improve the thermal performance, so hopefully next year's release has some nice improvements, not just a spec bump.

 

Yeah.. I'm definitely standing pat for the 2016 Blade...

This isn't enough of a bump, 8GB is still fine for me as my gaming/fun machine as I do all my real development work with VM's on my 13" MBPR w/16GB RAM. And 8GB is more than enough if I'm using Unity to do some tinkering. The 870M has plenty of power still, I'd like the 970M as it should run a bit cooler but it's not a huge deal. Did they switch to PCIe over SATA as I had hoped? (EDIT: NO! I see on the spec table that it's still SATA, bummer..) That'll definitely happen in 2016 if they didn't do it this time around but I see no hard spec on that one. The write speeds on the SSD in the 2014 Blade are a little low, granted read speed is all you really care about to play some games, and that's thankfully sitting around 500MB/s. My MBRP 13 on the other hand hits 720MB/s read and 644MB/s write. Would be nice if they would just move to PCIe and leave SATA behind.

Can't wait to see what they do for the 2016 model.

 

Sorry I havent been keeping up, but is this the same cpu? I assume they aren't using the newest gen? Battery life was one of my top wants for a gaming laptop (for when not gaming as well).

 

CPU got a slight bump in speed, not much else. Still Haswell as the high end Broadwell's aren't out yet. Don't expect any battery life improvements. http://ark.intel.com/compare/75118,78934

 

I agree with HFM 100%.

 

Call me crazy but coming from a Blade 2013, I went with the full HD model. I don't need 16GB of RAM and hated the glossy, high res touch screen from last year (not to mention cost). Should be a nice jump in performance. I'm very excited.

 

Did the 2014 version not have Optimus? I thought most laptops have Optimus but they are touting it for the 2015 version like its a new feature.

 

Anyone know for sure if the RAM and SSD are replaceable?

I'm tempted to get the 1080p version and upgrade myself to 16GB RAM and 512GB for half the price Razer is charging

 

I think RAM is soldered.

 

Also a little disappointed by lack of miniDP and that they only offered 8GB of RAM on the 1080p model. Would have been great for battery life.

 

disappointed? what is there to expect in the first place lol?

 

People have different needs

 

no one reads/write sequential normally these days anyways, and if even you do, the time saved from that extra 200mb/s R/W is too minimal to matter. current PCIe ssds' 4k speeds are about the same if not worse than normal sata ssds. the ones in macbooks are so crappy that they can barely match half of sata ssds's 4k R/W. you have to at least for this year's newer PCIe ssds to come out with NVMx for realistic performance gains

 

Several things.

- Chroma keyboard/rear LED enhancement
- two m.2 slots or a return to two mSATA slots (the Aorus X3 Plus v3 did just that)
- Higher resolution screen (4k) just to make 1920x1080 exactly 1/2 the resolution instead of off by a bit.
- HDMI 2.0 or mini-DP

All of the above would have been welcome/expected given what Razer and the industry have exhibited since the 2014 model was released. As it stands, the only thing we have left to hope for is a second m.2 slot. Without that, I don't see a reason to upgrade to the 2015 model from my 2014.

 

Lack of mini displayport means I may stay put with my MBP15, even though it has an old NV 750m in it. I know this is a quick chip swap and memory increase only, so hopefully 2016 brings miniDP.

I may consider getting the 2015 if anyone can point me to an HDMI > DisplayPort adapter.

 

they probably couldn't fit a chroma keyboard or they would've done it since last gen.

two m.2 slots, sure, but what is razer's attitude towards user upgrades again?

there are no 4k 14" screen on the market

mDP, like I said, if they really wanted to they could've done it way before rather than now lol

 

I'm a little disappointed as well. I had the 2014 model for a short period of time and juggled a couple other options before I eventually went with the 970M GS60-3k. I was really having high hopes for this but it falls just a little short. I was really hoping for dual m.2 and a FHD or QHD config(2560x1440 would have been perfect). The 970M plays games in 2880x1620 decently but it's far from stellar, so the RB will perform a little worse at the slightly higher res. I like the FHD config except for the 8GB of RAM... btw, is the FHD version a matte screen without touch? - the graphic they used looks different from the QHD+ model.

There's still no confirmation there isn't dual M.2 but I highly doubt they redesigned their mobo. It'll probably be like the GS60 where the GPU and CPU were just swapped.

 

Alienware's been doing it for years. Razer only added Chroma to their keyboards in August, 2014, so I'm not sure why you think they would've added it to the 2014 model of laptop that was announced mid-March of the same year.

I don't particularly care about their attitude. I care about functionality for myself.

Doesn't mean I cannot "expect" it on the refresh. There's no hard and fast timeline on refreshes. Razer's release schedule for laptops is all over the place.

You haven't expressed those sentiments in this thread.

While they could have added miniDP in 2014, it wasn't until the Maxwell lineup that HDMI 2.0 became an option, though it appears 4k with HDCP is a no-go according to notebookcheck.

 

Dissapointed?
No way, my 2014 RB is no slouch and but I would love to have 970M.
Saying that is still running great and the 870M still handles pretty much every game I've tried when lowering the res a bit.
If I didn't have the 2014 model the 2015 RB with 1080P would be very tempting.

 

1. when I say fit, I mean the thinness. it's common knowledge that mono lit keyboards can be thinner than RGB backlit keyboards. if razer is going for a brick then yeah I see no reason why not, but are they?

2. and voiding warranty on a almost fully integrated over $2000 machine is a good idea?

3. I can "expect" the next gen mxm module to be smaller than an msata ssd, how realistic is my expectation?

4. I did, with my first point

 

disappointed in the fact that, compare to the 2014 model...it's just a spec bump...nothing new/radical/razer...

 

I'd buy it if they actually sold to Europe (or at least shipped to from the US site) and offered warranty there (which they don't) :-(

 

What exactly did you expect?
It maybe just a spec bump but it's a very good spec bump.

 

No 1TB M2 SATA drives have been announced. Only thing announced were M2 PCIe =/

 

i cant see whats there to really be upset about besides a lack of DP. at least you can get your hands on one since they are not globally sold. but generally there not going to much changes. unless you want the body colour to be silver and then it can be just a carbon copy of a macbook or something. id be happy with this even if i owned the last one although i would agree nothing else has changed besides spec bump. but usually owners of this are very happy in the 1st place so better graphics and cooling is all that is really need from razerblade imo.

 

The lack of the DP is what's bothering people the most. Storage is also a little disappointing because it's a gaming laptop. How many games can you store of a 512 drive? GTA is 60GB. Doesn't bother me too much because it wouldn't be my main machine but still. The third thing that Razer assumed is that only people on a tight budget want a 1080p screen and that's not true. The 970m cannot truly handle games at 1800p, windows scaling is a pain and the lower res screen would have helped battery life.

 

Yep, really disappointed in the specs. I need a 980M with 8GB VRAM, not 970M 3GB. If I was going to get a laptop with 970M 3GB, I would instead get the Clevo P650SE starting from $1,200, around half the price of the Blade.

So far, Gigabyte P35x is the only option for slim laptop with 980M 8GB. It is even cheaper than the Blade with 970M 3GB and only slightly larger (0.8" vs 0.7").

 

i get the dp thing as i mentioned it. the storage is the thing that is most annoying about the machine. but the way they build the machine with its slimmest laptop etc is the problem. if they redisgned the battery smaller in size then it could free up more space. but redesigning that would mean redsigning EVERYTHING on the inside. and that would cost to much money spent on R&D. i think they see it as they got the perfect machine already going by user response. just keep it all same save money.
as for the 1800p thing. if 8gb ram is fine as opposed to 16gb but you could upgrade the storage even if it is only 512gb max. i think razer is really smart in sales sense. to have the 16gb version you buy the more expensive model. because people would only buy the 1080p version if it had 16gb killing their sales. and of course for those that want bigger storage that wont upgrade it themselves. and the fact that its m.2 rather than msata because its harder to get a hold of . thats probably why they didnt add 2.5 drive bacause profit is bigger that way and then if you opted for a just 2.5 version they could only sell it for around $1799.

im forced to buy a p34w. because its cheaper and well because they uk sells it...by the end of the month or sooner i hope. shame because although the p34w has everything internally besides a dp port that razer blade users want. i would like the priviledge of owning one and at the price would want valid warranty for importing it puts me off importing one as they arent free from defects.

 

This doesn't stop people from being disappointed. We buy machines to fit our needs first, not to boost Razer's sales.

 

The Razer fits my needs fine. I can have an over abundance of games installed and still have 100GB free, I don't have an issue with 512GB. How many games do we really need installed at one time?

 

That's fine, we all have different needs. Personally 512 GB is way too little. I don't just have games on the machine. I have a lot of programs installed and I dual boot Linux. You may also want to keep some movies on your device. 512 is not enough for a lot of people. If you're buying this machine solely for on the go gaming you'll be fine but for that price tag , I expect it to do more than gaming.

 

I agree. I am between the new razer blade and the P34w mainly used for photo/video editing. The limited storage is a BIG concern. I can install 2TB of storage to the P34W.
Moreover I cannot understand why the 1080p MATTE screen is limited to 8GB ram. These glossy screens might have great contrast and allow for touch input but the reflections are very distracting to say the least.
As is, I might as well wait for the updated blade pro version.

 

That makes sense if it's your needs. I don't keep large video files on it. All my media is on my nas, I don't need it to be on the storage. Mostly music, I have very few video files laying around what with YouTube, Netflix, amazon prime and hulu around, among others. Literally the only thing that's on it is games that takes up any sizable room and I don't even need half of those installed, it's just my "I'll finish that sometime" mentality. I'm usually only playing 1 or 2 games for any decent stretch of time.

 

I really wish the bezel was smaller. It's ridiculously enormous. Razer please make the 2016 screen size larger or reduce the bezel.

 

They can't reduce the bezel without making the chassis smaller as well, which will mean they can't fit components into the chassis properly. The only answer is to have a bigger panel, which would mean 15.6"? Too big, not enough deviation from the Blade Pro, not to mention the chassis would need to be bigger then, and it would weigh more. It's pretty much where it needs to be.

 

Yeah you're right besides they can't fit a panel between 14 and 15.6 either as no such panel exists. But the bezels are not that large, I think. Unless you compare them to the bezels of a dell xps 13.

 

I agree. But like apple. People will still buy it to the point where it won't effect there sales and profit margin. Until that's the case they won't do major redesign internally to give you what you want.


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I believe you need an active adapter, some thing like this, I thin. Found it after my desktop's H100i went to an RMA, and I wanted to connect the Razer 14 to my ROG Swift, which only has DisplayPort because of Gsync. I didn't get it, tho, it's too expensive for something I might only need occasionally.

Actually, the lack of mini DP on the Blade is making me consider the Aorus :S

 

Thanks. I saw that in my searching, but the max resolution is 1920x1200. Seems that won't work, since my intended use is also to output to an ROG Swift (2560x1440). Oh, well!

 

All you have to do is compare the internals of the xps13 and blade 14 and see how Dell was able to keep that small bezel.

 

I wouldn't say that I am "disappointed". However, I don't feel like it's "perfect" yet.

1. The complete lack of displayport out is terribly frustrating. Theres only only one HDMI as well. A 970m is capable of powering like 4 monitors. A pair of mini displayports would put it in line with the MacBook Pro.

2. The MSI, Gigabyte and Aorus competitors have a gigabit ethernet port. I realize you can get a USB dongle... but for $9.99 you're getting what you pay for. Bargian bin electronics, when you have a premium NIC built into this laptop.

3. Continuing to charge a massive price premium for RAM and SSD shows a lack of respect for the intelligence of your consumers. Razer, please don't turn into Apple.

EDIT:
4. It seems like high DPI and more VRAM goes hand in hand. Why limit the VRAM to 3GB when there is 970m with 6GB available?

 

They aren't charging a massive premium for the SSD. M2 sata SSD's are terribly expensive. $500~ for 512gb. You honestly aren't paying too much for the SSD comparatively

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KLTPVV8/ref=pd_aw_sbs_pc_1?refRID=14AD8T4GVPZ0KJTHSW9K

 

There must have been a price drop. I had that in my Amazon cart and it was about $400-500 a few days ago lol

 

^ hit it right on the head. All very valid points. You can get the Gigabyte P34W V3 for 1699 with same hardware and room for upgrades. Or you can get the Aorus with more vram, storage and self future upgrade options. Also why only 3gb of vram. You have that beautiful screen real estate, more power to push better quality image >_> yet Razer stuffed it with 3gb :\

I'm waiting on Neptunes review of the Aorus after his trip to decide if I should pick up the Aorus or the P34W v3

"Continuing to charge a massive price premium for RAM and SSD shows a lack of respect for the intelligence of your consumers. Razer, please don't turn into Apple."

BINGO!