Razer Blade Owner's Lounge

With the Synapse, all windows updates, and latest nVidia drivers my BF3 seems great, 3dMark 11 scores of P1571. youtube plays fine too, used ninite.com to install flash and all my usual apps.

I'm an FPS gamer and use the switchblade to do my Internets while gaming.

 

I have been using mine for awhile now with no issues, Maybe the problem is something your doing to it?

 

Maybe or maybe mine was defective hard to say. But at end of day I don't care for the switchblade even if it was working properly. It's a tad too gimmicky. I have an iPad so watching videos on it is kinda silly.

 

Actually, HD 3000 on its own scores higher, 6,2. WEI just hates Optimus, especially with newer drivers. I can get the graphics scores 'right' with the stock ASUS drivers fo my system, however, these are now really old, and can't indicate when NVIDIA is active..

 

my switchblade has never crashed at all. dunno what you are doing to cause that to happen but whatever. i've made a custom profile with dozens of shortcuts, keyboard and mouse mappings, links to new profiles, etc, and haven't had any issues. need to make mass effect 3 icons now.

 

I have had mine for 2 days now.

I purchased because I had a very large and powerful laptop that weighed a ton.

This machine is light and sexy. I always have an external mouse and love the location of the switchblade (which has not crashed for me). The keyboard is one of the best keyboards I have used.

The thing can get damn hot when gaming but it doesn't struggle with it at all.

The screen is one of the best I have ever used. I don't even turn the brightness all the way up. The viewing angles with the matte screen are very impressive.

You get what you pay for and since it is sold out the demand is higher then the price so if you want it you have to pay for it. 3000 is a lot but the choice is yours for performance/style and quality. It fits my needs so the features make it easier to justify the price.

Switchblade could catch on or could flop that is just a gamble. I like it and prefer the positioning better then a touchpad below the space bar.

 

No one has any idea what the actual demand is for this product. If Razer has taken 100 orders but is only shipping 25 units at a time, then they can easily repeat the "sold out" mantra.

It would have a much greater chance of catching on if it were accessible to more people.

 

The difference is that Macbooks actually work as they claim to. My UI crashed again last night. Looking at some other laptops coming out like the new ultrabooks with better gpus and much better battery life, the Blade would have been hot for this price a year ago IF the UI worked flawlessly. In 2012 though, this laptop should be about half the price given its flaws and the fact its made by an unproven company.

 

Agree completely. If it had a better warranty or cheaper warranty extension I might have even stuck with it but $300 for one extra year? Eh. I shipped mine back yesterday.

Did you call? How did that go?

 

I didnt get a chance to, I absolutely have to today though because my 14 days are nearing the end. I am so torn. I really want to keep it but I have this nagging feeling it will be a 3k paper weight in 12 months time. Also, anyone know how warranty repairs work? Do we have to pay to ship it to them?

If I return mine for a refund, due to the grime factor and semi working UI, and they expect me to foot the shipping cost, I am going to propose that they let me keep that cruddy mouse so I can sell it on ebay and recoop my losses. No way I should be expected to pay return shipping on a grimey, semi functional item.

 

Yeah I was torn too. I really hated having to return it because it so slick and cool. Like you I had this nagging feeling it's going to overheat or something is going to go wrong due to their inexperience and I'm going to be screwed.

Not sure anyone has needed warranty repairs yet. In theory they should pay for a technician to fix it for you. However I suspect they will just RMA it, expect you to ship it back to them and then send you a replacement. I doubt they have the network or spare parts built up to repair-in-place.

 

Seriously? $300 for a mere 1-year extension? That's what I'd expect to pay Dell or HP for an extension of a warranty that's already expired. You can get AppleCare on a 17-inch MacBook Pro, which extends the warranty by 2 additional years for as little as $244 with just a couple minutes of searching online.

Heh. If it did overheat, Razer would probably find some way to blame you and either refuse to or charge an arm and a leg to fix it.

 

Agreed it's crazy. The techs on the phone didn't even know when/if it was available yet but I found it here: Razer Blade Extended Warranty | Razer Online Store

+1

 

Another thing - you would have to buy that within 90 days. With a Mac, you get an entire year to add AppleCare.

 

I really like looking at the Blade lol. Not so much with the lid closed, imo the razer logo looks cheap and tacky. But it looks so slick just sitting there chillin with the lid up.

In case anyone is taking notes, I have not had the UI crash while playing games (which consists of Left 4 Dead and Killing Floor, nothing which utilize the special keys). In theory I have surfed the web and done some facebooking on the trackpad while the game was paused but its nearly impossible to click links so I prefer my phone.

My problems arise when the laptop is coming out of idle. Sometimes it's as if the Switchblade UI forgets that it's time to wake up and the keys are dark and non responsive, I assume a driver has crashed or something. Only fix was to restart the Blade. I think I read about this in a review, naturally AFTER I made my purchase lol.

I dont know what to do. I kinda want to keep it/chance it and I'm scared if I call Razer to ask about my concerns their bs answers will tick me off and force me to return it. I really do know better. I knew better than to throw 3 grand at a company that specializes in mice and cant even do that well lol. Decisions decisions. Maybe I should return it, keep my cruddy Hp for oldish games and drop a couple grand on a sick desktop rig with 120hz monitor. I'd probably still have cash to spare for a cheapy Macbook Air or something.

 

I had the same feelings myself and in some selfish way I'm thankful they are shared. The software issues I believe will be solved in time. However then again if the laptop does not succeed in the market we could find ourselves with an abandoned product with no support - impossible to say.

Their support will be as helpful as you can expect them to be. They will process the refund if that's what you choose to do. I suspect they will not be so forgiving after the 14 days. So despite loving the machine and how it looks just sitting there - I knew in my heart I was not completely happy with it.

$3000 exceeds my tolerance for things don't make me completely happy. Only you can decide if it makes you happy. I'm curious what you decide.

I'm also thankful for the others posting who are enjoying it. It is a pretty nice device - especially for the person who said they primarily use an external mouse. That's not how I intended to use it so a reliable trackpad is essential.

 

let me say this. any tech issues or simple questions I've had concernig my blade have been replied to within the next business day, even had follow up personal phonce calls to make sure the matter was resolved. concerning the switchblade ui, you realize you can customize the lighting, to disable the timeout and what not, right? sorry to hear some of you are having issues with synapse. I'm loving it personally. and I also think you can easily see the custom keys from a reasonable angle, you do not have to be looking down directly over the laptop to see them or use them by any means.

I've been super busy but I'm contemplating putting a video of me using some of my custom profiles for you guys. give you a sense of what the switchblade is capable of, even by a rank amateur such as myself.

 

That's really the bottom line here. Those who have a Blade and love it, terrific.

If I may put my marketing cap on again, Razer should go farther with sales, service, and support. The return policy should be absolutely no questions asked, restock-fee free (which it might be already and that's good), and be for 21-30 days from the day you took delivery. Tech support should be local, available 24/7, and have minimal holding times if by phone and same-business day or less for response by e-mail. Treat customers like they're buying a Lexus, not a Toyota. Razer should take a lesson from Sager/Clevo resellers (XoticPC, Mythlogic, MALIBAL, Powernotebooks, et al).

 

Hey John, would LOVE to see some vids!

 

will work on that when I have a little more free time guys.

 

Anyone else have this happen..when Windows first starts up I hear a shwish sound and see a window pop up for a split second then it goes away. Is this normal? The only thing I have installed is Steam and it is set to not start with windows. Im thinking what I see/hear is the Synapse stuff logging me in? Or maybe the MSE anti virus doing something?

 

I think that is the Blade OSD for volume/brightness popping up when loading, and the swish is the Blade login sound. Razer Blade - The World's First True Gaming Laptop | Razer™ | For Gamers. By Gamers.™ has the sound too.

 

That is normal.

 

need to find all the skyrim icons i put together again, dunno what happened to all my custom icons but think i deleted that profile, so made another one for skyrim real quick just to show what it can do. in the video i'm uploading currently, show off first my default profile, which has program links to programs i use the most: Word, Powerpoint, Bibleworks (I preach for a living), Amazon Kindle, Skype, etc, and also a separate button with a gamepad icon. tap the gamepad and it switches to my game list profile, which then shows a list of some of my games. You can three finger swipe to the right to see more. Pressing the Skyrim icon starts skyrim naturally, and b/c skyrim is linked to yet another third profile, as soon as the game starts, all my gaming icons specifically for skyrim pop up. again, you aren't limited to just 10 keys per profile, you can three finder swipe horizontally and it will bring up more icons. neat stuff. the trackpad is by no means as responsive as a macbook pro, but i will say it has more features and is easier to use than any other windows pad i've ever owned.

the ui is not perfect by any means, could use some further tweaks. for example, while you can link a program to a specific ui profile, once the program has ended (stop playing skyrim), it would be nice if the UI would switch back automatically to the default profile. Instead I have to manually switch back by pressing fn+1, or better yet, I made a razer-logo key in the top right corner I can press that will always bring me back to my default profile. may sound confusing, but for blade owners, hope this gives you a basic idea of what you can do. i think the sky's the limit with custom icons toggling between profiles. fun stuff. now when i really have free time i will start actually making my own icons rather than downloading them and editing them with the synapse software.

link to my video. Please note the icons are hard to make out with my camera phone and lighting, they look washed out. In person they are very crisp and clear. May do another later with the key brightness turned down a little which may help in shooting footage.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y234/johnnobts/?action=view&current=20120308_125811.mp4

 

gripe about skyrim for a moment, assigning hotkeys to favorite items, weapons, spells or whatever, has to be redone every time you play the game. can someone just make a mod for that already?

 

Had my Blade for a few days now. Still trying to decide if I'm going to keep it. It's nice, but I'm not sure it's $3k nice. Also, I had the fingerprints on the inside of the switchblade keys as well. If I do keep the blade, will have to consider if that's worth sending it in to fix. I can only see them when the laptop is turned off.

Anyone have any questions they need answered?

Some questions for the other Blade owners:
1. A couple of you have opened it up. Are there any pictures out there? I'm most interested in if the RAM is soldered and in the tamper-evident seal.

2. Any other good community forums/etc. for Blade info?

Thanks!

 

Here are some pics that John took on Pg. 4 of this thread.(don't think it shows the sticker)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/oth...-razer-blade-owners-lounge-4.html#post8294766

Not that I am aware of. Google search showed up with nothing as well.(except here)

 

Thanks for the link!

A little birdy told me that the RAM is not soldered in, and is in 2 DIMMS, which means I may try to buy myself an upgrade.

Lack of pgdown/pgup/home/end bothers me a bit. I know that I can switch to numpad mode to get them, but then I lose the touchpad. Anyone worked out if you can keep the touchpad up but use the buttons for pgup, etc?

 

hey its your toy. tamper with the innards at your own risk. i could barely afford buying this thing, and IMHO, 8GB is plenty as of now. If you saw the photo you also noticed the only easily accessible components are the wireless adapter and the SSD. You would have to remove the system board to get at the memory or cpu as its on the reverse side. really not recommending it to anybody by the way.

 

you can add custom icons for each of those functions i believe and even have them standing by as your default profile. i haven't done that, its not a bad idea. i use numpad mode when using my mouse most frequently.

 

I think I fixed the crashing Switchblade UI by re-installing Synapse for a third time. I recall I had to install my Deathadder and Tron mouse drivers multiple times as well before they worked without a hitch.

What do you guys think of this:
Roccat demos Power-Grid iPhone companion app for PC gaming (video) | The Verge

You can sign up to be a beta tester here, if you have an iphone

Roccat Power Grid Turns Smartphones Into Gaming PC Sidekick: Razer Blade Who? - Technabob

Sure, the tactile buttons on the Switchblade UI are nicer than tapping on glass but this Roccat product looks like it might take off and leave the Switchblade UI in the dust.

 

Switchblade does nothing special for The Old Republic. They have merely provided some default icons for some of the abilities for the classes.

 

Agreed I was in same boat and chose to return mine.

 

Hey guys, wondering if anyone else is having a problem with the WIFI on the Blade. I got mine yesterday, unboxed it, updated all the drivers right from Razer's website. And immediately installed SWTOR.

Had a buddying playing next to me on his ASUS notebook. We were both wireless.

His latency was no more than 100ms at any time. However, I was getting lag spikes of more than 24s!! It was worse when we PVP'd! I also have a wired computer and that was absolutely fine.

I downloaded all the Windows7 updates today to see if that makes a difference. I would say the Blade runs pretty hot. And it's freaking LOUD! I own two MBPs and they are silent compared to the Blade.

Anyone else experiencing this problem and have a fix? I'm going to call Razer today to see what they can do.

 

In my tests with the Blade and Star Wars The Old Republic I was clocking anywhere from 70-100 degrees celsius on CPU cores and video card cores. That's generally much higher than I expect and the fan was LOUD LOUD. I called Razer about it and they said their max temperature is 120 celsius for those components.

I haven't had an issue with the wireless but keep in mind it is an aluminum chassis - not sure where the antenna's are located. Conceivably on the plastic piece under the lid? Anyway try a wired a connection and see if it improves.

 

Thanks, man. Yeah, I bought a cheap switch today so I'll see that turns out. I would hate having to send it back when I just got it!

I'm going to call them in a few minutes and see if there is a fix that I'm not aware of.

I also need to figure out the SWTOR Switchblade UI. Do you have make the profile yourself? I guess so but seems awfully lazy on Razer's part. I remember the ZBoard/SteelSeries days and you could download a few hundred keyboard profiles within the app itself. Get your sh#t together, Synpase!

Everyone I show the Blade to remarks how damn sexy it is! Aesthetically, they hit a home run.

 

Yeah the Blade is awesome looking that's for sure. And yes you will have to create all the profiles your self. It's a bit time consuming but seems to be worth it.

FYI to others following my return - just got an email they approved my return so should be refunded within a week. They were cool about it.

 

Just in case anyone else was having the Wi-Fi problem, I wanted to post the below as I spoke to Razer Blade tech support (1.855.872.5233) and they advised the following:
__________________________________________________
Please let me know the results, once you are able to test your Blade on an alternative network, at your earliest convenience.

Here are the specific steps in which we recommend you recover your Razer Blade to factory default settings:

Launch the recovery by pressing F9

Follow the prompts to recover the system

Once back into the system, You must perform all Microsoft updates before logging into Synapse.

Make sure to install IE 9

Make sure to install Flash Player and all other relevant Run Times.. Use the following link to run them with an automated installer: Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once

Download the latest version of Synapse

Razer Blade - Razer Synapse 2.0

Now Log in to Synapse, Allow it to do its updates.
Install the latest NVIDIA driver

GRAPHICS - Nvidia GeForce GT 555M

Enjoy gaming on the Razer Blade
___________________________________________________

So my wi-fi problem could be due to the fact that the order of install/updates was not correct. I didn't think the order of install mattered!!

After a clean recovery, I first installed ALL (Important & Optional) Windows 7 Updates and then followed their instructions.

Hope this helps anyone else out there.

 

So your issues are resolved? That's great!

 

@paperbagprince

I have been having wifi issues also. Did you do extensive testing after performing the restore? Is it really fixed?

 

Hey Quad,

I brought it to work and the wi-fi seems to be working fine - it's downloading over my work wifi at max speed.

I'd suggest following the instructions exactly as I copy'd and pasted. Do the Windows updates first. The tech I spoke to said if I could reproduce the error at work, we'd take the next step.

I plan on playing SWTOR tonight and seeing how it goes as that will be the real litmus test and the reason I bought it in the first place! Will keep you posted.

 

Awesome thanks! Looking forward to hearing your results tonight.

 

Bad news, QuadX.

Exact same problem. I got 150 kb/s downloading on the wireless.

I went wired and that shot up to 1.2Mbp/s.

Looks like I'm calling Razer again and soon!

 

What about using another laptop wirelessly? Wired data rate is always faster than wireless. I'm more interested in comparison with other wireless laptops.

 

Ok, I think I figured it out.

Operating at 2.4Ghz, my WRTN320 Linksys just does not work well with the Intel Centrino wifi adapter which supports both 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz.

I'm getting double the speeds when I set the router to 5.0Ghz. But it looks like I need a new router that is simultaneous dual band. And not either/or like my current router.

 

I can recommend the linksys E4200 V1 if you can find it, an ASUS black Diamond, or a Netgear N750

 

IIRC, the Blade has the Intel 6230 802.11/Bluetooth combo card. If that's the case, can you try disabling Bluetooth and seeing if that helps?

 

I disabled the bluetooth and same result.

For some reason, the Intel wireless adapter just doesn't seem to work well on the 2.4Ghz. The max I get is 6Mbps while I'm close to 20Mbps wired. I'm averaging 3-4Mbps. If I switch the router to 5.0Ghz, i get up to 10Mbps.

By comparison, my ASUS G73Jw did 10-12 Mbps consistently on the same 2.4Ghz wireless network. So i can only assume the Intel wifi card is not working properly on 2.4Ghz.

Time for a new router!

 

You might want to try the blade on a friends router or something. Make sure it's not just a bad wifi card before getting another router and having the same issues all over again.