Razer Blade (2014) Owner's Lounge

In all things, a calm heart must prevail.

 

Hi everyone,

New to the forum and have been reading up on gaming laptops for the past 5 months or so and decided to preorder The New Razer Blade 256gb version. This was mainly due to some unwanted aspects of the MSI gs60 ghost to which I ultimately felt that Razer just simply had the upper hand in regards to aesthetics, screen, and overall better build quality. Although I'm still anxiously waiting to see reviews and for me to get my hand on the Blade I'm overall quite excited about the upcoming product

 

Hi Celius, i'm currently in a dilemma, unsure of whether should i go for the ms60 ghost or the new razer blade. What are some on the unwated aspects of the gs 60 ghost to you??

 

Personally, I currently own a MSI GS70 and an Alienware M17x R3 3D... By just the looks of both laptops, you can tell how cheap MSI looks... It does not look premium at all. And the screen isn't that good; it is way too "greeny" (as in, green colors shine bright and other colors are somewhat dull). Performance wise, I am not very sure if it is good or not. My 580M Alienware blows MSI's 765M out of water, even though, I read that 765 should be slightly better than 580M. Maybe MSI underclocked the 765 because it's incredibly thin? The thing I liked most about MSI is how thin and light it is compared to other gaming laptops.

 

For me the various problems the GS60 ghost had were in Aesthetics, build quality, & Screen.

-In regards to Aesthetics, the GS60 Ghost looked beautiful with its brushed aluminum but came short in various factors that I found decreased its value/appeal just a bit. For one the Logo on the lid reads "Gaming G Series." Personally, that kind of thing needs to be removed and otherwise makes the laptop blatantly seem like a toy rather than a premium laptop. If they just had the words "Msi" on the dragon seal and removed the MSI silver branding above the seal on the lid it'd be perfect. No real need to blatantly advertise it as a gaming laptop, anyone who knows about gaming laptops will know what its for

-The 2nd aesthetic thing I didn't like about the ghost was that the Dynaudio speakers are located at the bottom of the laptop and according to Linus from LinusTechTips: demeaned the sound by quite a bit in his review of the Ghost which was disappointing because I've heard the Dynaudio speakers on the previous models (GT60 & 70) from Msi were excellent.

-Onto the build quality I didn't like how the screen flexed on Linus's video review of the laptop and although its a minor thing and wouldn't be an issue it seemed quite not so premium, but again Msi is using a matte screen where the new Razer Blade is using a glass touchscreen which I really would prefer. Glossy > Matte (but that's personal preference). I did like how Msi used the Mg-Li allow for the bottom of the laptop to reduce weight though. I feel that the New Blade is alot better in construction and it's in its 3rd iteration of a similair body where Msi is just starting its 1st iteration of the GS60 ghost.

-Lastly, and most importantly is the screen. I'm currently using a TN panel HD quality (720p) screen and really wanted to see a difference in screen quality when I updated to a current generation laptop. The GS60 ghost isn't available in 3k in the U.S so far but 3k isn't an even multiple of a supported resolution so I was a bit sketchy on that part. Overall the screen on the Gs60 is IPS and I've heard that it looks great and has good viewing angles but the screen has a Big bezel around it and seemingly makes it look not as optimal whereas the Razer Blade has edge to edge glass and look amazing even on video. I do occasional photography work so those kinds of things matter when presenting and viewing photos with a client and I'm not much of a fan of OSX on Macbooks.

Overall the GS60 Ghost seems to be a great product for the buck with additonal HDD space along with an ssd and good screen but it all depends on your personal preference in regards to aesthetics and whether you care about screen quality. Some gamers just care about gaming and it won't matter that much to them but to each his own. If you don't care about the above things like I do feel free to go with the MSI and check out the Gs60 forum to which members are already reviewing and talking about their units. I personally went with Razer because they make such high quality products and care about aesthetics down to the color of the USB 3.0 ports . Overall both are great products but its down to both your usage for the laptops and what you care about/value more in each.

 

For those of you that ordered and have a different billing and shipping address, if you check the order status on their website is your billing and shipping set as the same address? I am having this issue even though on the email receipt they sent out the addresses are different.

Also would you guys recommend getting the sleeve or the armor case? I would prefer the sleeve as it seems nice and thin but I don't know how much protection it provides.

 

Same here. My email confirmation shows the two addresses, but the website only shows one.
It's funny because I sent it to the address where I am now, but at the end of the month I'm going to be at the billing address so I may need to contact razer to change it anyway!

 

Yes when I ordered it had a different shipping address but on the website it shows both billing and shipping are the same. I emailed support about it and they said it was going to ship to the correct shipping address and not to my billing address.

 

Regarding the MSI logo, I really dislike the logo, but Razer screams gamer too with the bright green glowing pattern. With any screen you will need to do a calibration, so how good colors look from the factory is luck of the draw. 3K is twice 1600x900 resolution, so 1600x900 probably would look great on a 3k screen. The edge to edge glass is only because of touch screen, and that doesn't mean the screen goes to the edge, there will still be a bezel around it, just that it's covered with glass.

No doubt the Razer 14 has a good build quality and well engineered, just bothers me that they haven't released a couple review units into the wild yet. Even if they're ramping up production, they're sure to have dozens of production ready laptops out there.

 

I am not too worried about the quality of the laptop. The reason is the Razer Blade Pro. They barely even bothered the upgrade that thing and the Razer Blade 14 has better specs than the Pro. This basically means that Razer is betting everything on the 14 inch Razer Blade. So they probably directed a majority of their R&D to the Razer, thus they have a LOT riding on this laptop doing well.

 

I actually ordered one as well. Like other people mentioned, it also says the same for me in terms of shipping (both addresses the same) and ship date (ships after release date of 4/16).

But i have to say I can't wait! I'm coming from an original m15x (from before the Dell days) and can't wait for this upgrade!

 

Just ordered the 512gb version for myself as of a few days ago and i am stoked! Only concern is if it will have the same common problems as the first version they had just last year....

 

Did anyone else get billed to their card right away after placing the preorder???

 

1) DId they give you an estimated ship date? I was bumped until the 30th for the 256gb version, and I was debating upgrading to the 512gb if it meant a sooner release, since I was on the fence about which one I wanted anyways.

2) What were the common problems from last year?

Thanks!

 

The date that was given to me (for the 512gb) is April 16th. Which from my knowledge of pre-ordering from razer, is highly subject to change due to demand and production rate. I wouldn't hold my breath on dates given to us just yet.

Some of the problems that i have had and that i have read from other forms on the original razer blade are:
integration issues with pre installed software
fan malfunctions
and that odd clicking noise from around the fan area (I have called and spoken to razer support and the guy i spoke to said it is a common problem from factory set up and can damage the system if left un repaired. For which my current razer is in California for as we speak)


I ordered the 512gb version because i have a strong feeling that this model that they have configured might not have that second SSD slot that was provided in the original. I did not want to lose out storage space on potential lack of increasable storage.

But on the plus side, if it does have the second SSD slot....i will have a 1TB beast of a storage system.

 

are you sure they gave you a ship date? i ordered my 256 on the 2nd, and the ONLY shipping info i have is "after the release date of April 16". I have yet to hear anything further...

 

It's more of a credit check. It won't actually charge until the blade is shipped. Same thing happened to me.

 

yeah the same for me as well. I have not received a ship date on anything I have received yet.

 

Only thing that early preorders got was an email delaying our shipping. For example, I got an email saying this "Due to overwhelming demand, your order placed on 3/14/2014 for scheduled shipment on 4/11/2014 has been delayed to 4/16/2014.

For avoidance of doubt, if you have chosen to pay by credit card, it will only be charged upon shipment. Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause you and we look forward to shipping you your order soon."

I doubt you guys have a shipping date of 4/16/14 because that seems to be the first wave.

 

Got another email from Razer. They said that the initial target for all shipments was the 16th, but some are being delayed due to demand. They said that some orders placed before mine were being delayed, but mine was not because I ordered the 128GB version. So, it seems like most, if not all, 128s are set to go for the 16th.

 

Sweet, that's what I ordered!

 

Talked to Zach at Razer. This only applies to the 256, but Razer's latest projections are that if you ordered after 27 March, expect the ship date to be extended to AT LEAST April 30. Sadly, I can't wait quite that long, so I cancelled mine, in the process of ordering a 2014 blade pro.

 

This is typical Razer. They will NEVER EVER meet release dates. Just have to be patient.

 

Heh, quite interesting that the regular and Pro are just interchangeable like that for you. Same aesthetic, virtually completely different machines.

 

I've have to say they are similar to me too, I don't care about the touchscreen and other than that they are both basically thin gaming laptops. I would prefer the smaller of the two but I'd still take the 17 over a thick and heavy 14" or 15" standard gaming laptop. Performance should be pretty close (within what about 50%?) in real world scenarios, you're not going to get 3x the FPS or be running the same game on one on low compared to ultra at the same resolution or anything like that.

 

You wanted the 14 and can't wait 3 more weeks to ship? Aside from the brand and color the 14 and 17 couldn't be more different. You can't wait 3 weeks? In the grand scheme of things that's a blink of an eye.

 

Today I learned that a 50% difference in performance is considered "pretty close"

 

Very much so, it's not going to take a game from unplayable to playable for me. There is a difference yes, I never said they were the same, just pretty close. Especially when you consider Maxwell vs kepler changes, and probably less heating issues for the pro and also the possibility of higher overclock in the 17". All of that is just speculation of course but that's the best we can do at this point.

When you start approaching 100% difference (double) then it gets big enough it will make a large difference during gaming. Then at the same settings you could go from 30 to 60 fps and be more noticeable. All of this is only my opinion of course, yours may be different and that's ok by me

 

The 870M vs 860M does a lot for that, there's actually a significant gap, but I see your point.

 

50% difference in performance is huge.

 

Uhg, I wasn't trying to get into an argument about this. I am just tired of seeing new GPU benchmarks say 10-25% improvements are huge. Honestly, when was the last time you played a game at 20fps, which gets increased to 25fps and you went "wow, look at the performance difference!" or from 48 to 60 the same thing. It's not even perceivable without measuring it with an fps meter.

50% increase would be barely noticeable, going from 20 to 30 would be better yes, but not huge by any means. Same as from 40-60. Its better but far from huge.

I'm talking real work performance here, not some benchmark. Also keep in mind if the GPU is 50% faster, that rarely nets a full 50% improvement anyway, probably more like 30-40% realistically as not everything is faster just the GPU.

Speed increases are small, incremental and that's just the way technology works, but that doesn't that they are huge differences. I think people have just gotten used to it and see what reviews or benchmarks say and repeat it. Anyway, it's just one mans opinion, so no worries.

 

Actually they're not. As I sat and thought about it, i realized that, no matter how beautiful that 3800 x 1800 screen is and no matter how powerful that 870m are, I need something I can park in a hotel and game on for those multi week business trips. It's not worth it to me to wait for the 14" because the performance difference between the two is PROBABLY going to be negligible at native resolutions, ESPECIALLY as I struggle with the realization that that high a resolution on a screen that small would probably drive me nuts in about a week. I've used a blade pro, I enjoy SBUI, and while I won't have an 870m, I *WILL* have a machine that has a lower power draw due to maxwell. Ok, I'm not going to be pulling this thing out on the plane, but I have a Surface Pro 2 for that ^^

But no, I couldn't wait a month when I needed it in no later than 2.5 weeks. It happens that way sometimes.

+/-5% native resolution to resolution I'm betting

I know exactly what you're saying, and I agree with it. ESPECIALLY if you're already getting above, say 30 FPS [some say 60 FPS, etc] If the game is at max settings and runs smooth, it doesn't matter if it's at 30FPS or 300FPS (unless you get screen tearing, of course)

 

There is a large difference between gaming at 30, 60, and 120/144 FPS. You may personally not care (which is fine), but the difference is substantial.

 

50% increase in performance is not trivial, that's substantial.

 

most console games cap @ 30 FPS. It's said that the human eye cannot perceive anything above 60 FPS. It's not that I don't care, it's a very subjective [and some would argue purely psychological] difference. I aim for 60 because once you start dropping UNDER 30, the chance to experience graphics lag increases. Above 60, you'll NEVER convince me there is any perceptible difference. I'm not saying *YOU* don't see it, but *I* don't see it (and believe me, I've TRIED) More to the point, the vast majority of gamers either don't see it, or will never be exposed to it to know the difference. As such, I will let my statement above stand on it's own, and let the subjective audience determine it's validity on their own.

Which was still kinda outside the context of the original article. . unless you think a 5-10% increase in performance is going to magically transform ANY experience of ANY game ANY day. If it goes from being unplayable to being playable, I'll agree. If it's ALREADY playable, I fail to see how that kind of incremental improvement would make THAT much of a difference.

Yes. . . and no. By itself, 50% increase in performance is HUGE. At issue here is what all that power is designed to DO. With the 870m, it's not designed to blow games into outer space, it's designed to power a very densely pixelated screen. The blade NEEDS that power just to push those kinds of pixels. While the 860m isn't as powerful, it's driving a much less densely pixelated screen. As a result, driving games on native resolution on the 14" blade SHOULD result in similar or even slightly to somewhat degraded performance compared to the same games on the 17". Add to that the increased heat output and dissipation required of the 870m, and it's not hard to see how it could end up falling behind (especially if my hunch that it uses dynamic clocking to maintain thermal spec is correct)

I guess we'll all find out for sure in a month or two as we finally start getting detailed comparisons and comprehensive bookmarks.

 

The human eye cannot perceive anything above 60 FPS on a 60Hz monitor. You can definitely see a difference between 60 FPS and 120 FPS on a 120Hz monitor, and it is beautiful.

But for the Blade 14, anything over 60 FPS will not be noticeable.

 

Check out blur busters blog on a 120hz monitor. I have never shown someone that website on my 120hz monitor and not have them see a difference. It's quite obvious.

But agreed, some report they can't tell a difference above 60hz, but one really has to wonder. I can tell immediately while playing fast twitchy games.

 

First of all you don't have to play at native resolution. With the high PPI you can go half resolution and still look great. Plus 50% is significant improvement. If you've ever played a game running at 23-25 as minimum FPS and get 30-32 the difference is noticeable. As far as not being able to discern above 60FPS varies from person to person. If you've ever used a 120Hz monitor over a 60Hz one the difference is apparent.

 

Well huh... This is a conversation I never thought I'd see on this thread.

You're both right. I think this is definitely not the right machine for either of you. Honestly, based on your lax requirements, I'd argue that the Blade Pro is way overkill for what you'd need as well. If you're satisfied by 30-60 FPS on current games, and can easily substitute a surface pro for either gaming/work with no sweat on your brow, there are plenty of other cheaper and even more portable (at least over the pro) machines that I would suggest over either of Razer's devices.

I own a SP and in no way/shape/form would I ever consider it capable of matching an ultralight ultraportable 14" laptop for either work and especially gaming on the go. The blade and the pro are machines for enthusiasts. I would never recommend this machine to anyone who isn't spec chasing. I want that beautiful highres screen, and I do consider an additional 10FPS a big bonus. While it might not affect gameplay on the device itself, I plan on plugging it in to ridiculously powerful monitors/TVs (which any respectable enthusiast should have). More importantly, even incremental increases in performance can make a big difference in future games. In the future, if I'm achieving an average of 40 FPS in a game instead of 30 FPS, I will be VERY happy.

But if your not an enthusiast there are plenty of other devices you could easily purchase 2 of in the time you'd own one of either of these. In order to justify the purchase of either blade you have to be able to suspend logic to some degree. You are paying premium for devices with ridiculous power/specs in an extremely portable package from a company that is still relatively new at PC hardware.

I for one can't wait, but there are plenty of people I would never recommended this device to. I probably wouldn't have recommended this to myself except for the fact that I put in a ton of extra development hours for my brother and he's buying me this as a gift.

I think there are plenty of other options that give you better value as far as cost/performance goes, but if you're looking for a device with these ridiculously cool specs, then this is the buy for you and I would assume you wouldn't be second guessing.

Goodluck! I hope you find devices that fit your needs/desires!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

First of all, if I wanted to buy a 2013 Razer blade, I could've gotten one for $500 off at newegg. What's the point of a screen with resolution that high if you don't USE IT??? It's like buying a Ferarri and immediately locking it in a garage [in Chicago, in the 80s]

2nd, YOU can tell me it's apparent, HE can tell me it's apparent, you can get a petition together signed by EVERYONE IN THE WORLD that can see the difference, and I would *STILL* Disagree with you, because *I* can't really see a difference. I'm sorry, I just can't see the proverbial sailboat, as it were. /shrug

I'm more than willing to trade eyes with you for a day, but that could be painful, messy, and if your eyesight is better than mine, I might steal em'.

 

How does scaling down the resolution when gaming totally negate the resolution of the screen? 3800x1800 in 14" is way overkill for gaming, but it's great for text, photography or just screen real estate. And why are you arguing that a high framerate when gaming is unnecessary, but full resolution is a must?

 

@mindinversion

Hey if your satisfied with your purchase then that's all that matters , saying that I would still get 14" Razer Blade over the Razer Pro just for the extra portability and extra GPU power so it's not so obsolete as quickly.
But to each his own and if you can justify your purchase then good for you and congrats on your new Pro

 

No one is right or wrong for all, only right or wrong for themselves.

 

Because 99% of the time I'm using the notebook will not be gaming? There's not a lot of choice if you want build quality and an external GPU 'just in case'.

 

Let people buy whatever they want to buy! Jesus... it's their money! Who gives a ####?

Still waiting for 1st hand reviews of the new blade... come on Razer! Just need to confirm it's SSD slot & connection type, and it won't burn my hands off before pulling the trigger!

 

Let's see if you guys can handle 1800p resolution in a 14inch screen or less. We will find out soon enough. People are complaining about the Yoga 2 Pro and Samsung Ativ both 13inch laptops w/ 1800p screen and they are suffering the scaling horror issues because of super tiny icon and text and sometimes they even have to use a magnifying glass just to look at it.

I know that you will probably counter it with downscaling, but that's not really a solution since native resolution is still the way to go for perfect real non 100% pixelation. I also understand that you are going to justify your purchase but we'll find out once you get it.

I would still stick to my honest opinion that they should have went with a gtx 860m Maxwell paired with a high quality IPS 1080p display.

 

I swear, I can't wait for all these downer jockeys to leave after release. I swear, 50% of the people here just complain about a device they were probably never going to buy anyway...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

Very well said. Fully agree on everything :thumbsup:

 

Although I don't quite understand how you can't see the difference between 20 and 30 FPS, I do believe you that it really doesn't matter to you and can see your perspective. What I am absolutely racking my brain over is what the heck your Chicago analogy meant