What Users Want In The Next Razer Blade

I figured I'd start this thread to see what people want in the refresh of the Razer Blade. I'll post it to their Facebook wall as responses come because the CEO does in fact read the posts on it.
I'm separating my wants in 2 categories. The logical and Pie In the sky.
Logical:
Thunderbolt port for adding external gpu this would be absolutely amazing! The Thunderbolt port also carries a Displayport signal. Razer would just need to wire that as an input into the LCD. Then we could use HDMI to output to a larger display and then we can have it portable if we want it and powerful when we need it. This feature alone if implemented correctly would destroy any real competition in the gaming laptop market.
Vt-x. The only reason this laptop hasn't replaced my work laptop is because of this. But according to Ming-Liang Tan there is an update for the original coming soon to fix this.
Fn key moved to the left side of the keyboard.
A better speaker. The one it currently has is kinda weak.
Obviously an Ivy Bridge+Kepler combo.
512gb SSD.
And 16gb of ram since Windows 8 supposedly can take advantage of higher ram systems. Either way I could turn 8gb into a ramdisk for super fast storage.
Pie-In-The-Sky:
A 1200p RGBLED matte screen.
A liquid assisted cooling system similar to the one here.
An unlocked bios for overclocking.
An Intel Core i7 Extreme.

And that's it for me!

 

13" or 14" version with Thunder eGPU.

 

Toss in a 1600x900 matte screen and the Switchblade as an external peripheral, and I'd be set.

 

I'm going to add the thunderbolt port to my list. I'd love to be able to dock it on my desk with a GTX 690 and a big external monitor. It would replace my desktop as well

 

a more reasonable price. 2500 alone would be OP for this current gen, let alone 2800...

If they did everything in the OP and also upgraded the vid card to a 670 I think the price would be much more justified.

 

The form factor does justify the price IMHO. For example a similarly specced mac prices around 3500 and thats with a weaker gpu but stronger cpu. Anyways I cant wait to see the next gen system has to offer. I'm saving up already. Probably give my little bro my current rig. He has been begging for one since I got it.

 

One thing that needs to change for sure is the half height arrow keys. Full size arrow keys on the refresh would be very nice.

 

Not a current owner, but here's my ideas, and if offered I might just buy one:

14" 1600x900 (1080p would be awesome though) MATTE LCD
45W Quad Core Ivy Bridge support
GT 660m with GDDR5
256GB SSD is already good, keep it, maybe Samsung though
Switchblade UI is useless to me on right side, make it USB, as an optional peripheral.
Keep backlit keyboard, looks nice
6 hours of "USEFUL" battery life.
Four speakers + Sub
Thunderbolt. This would differentiate it for certain and offer an optional external device for housing a desktop GPU.
USER ACCESSIBLE COMPONENTS, at least RAM and SSD for crying out loud.

Thin is good, but not when performance is significantly sacrificed. Stop comparing with Mac. Apple has been in computer business for decades. This is Razer's first foray into the field. It's supposed to be a "gaming" machine too, which is NOT a MAC. I'd say competition and comparison should be to Alienware than anything else. If you want to compare with Mac then offer OSX.

Cost should be less than $2000 WITH switchblade UI USB peripheral.

If they offer any less than the above then they are falling way behind. Heck my little Clevo is less than an inch thick and houses pretty much all the guts listed above, and weighs less than 4 lbs. Only reason it's not thinner is the form factor, the heatpipes have to cross over each other. A more refined design in a larger form factor could easily be 0.75" thick. This would put the M14x to shame too.

 

Lol I second that +1

 

14" AMOLED full HD display with pen and multitouch
ivy bridge cpu 45W capable
upgradable mxm slot with several gpu options
switchable gpu system like nvidia optimus
3x mini pci-e slots
4xusb 3.0
expresscard slot
media card reader with CFast and XQD support
displayport
thunderbolt
external pci-e 3.0 16x port and egpu option
2x SATA 2.5" III slots
backlit keyboard with several layouts options
smartbay with secondary battery/ODD/HDD options
6x ram slots
several battery sizes
built-in solar charger
small secondary screen
touchpad with lcd
integrated gps/glonass/galileo receiver
integrated 4G 150mbps capable
integrated dvb-t tuner
connectors for external 4g, wifi, tv and gps/glonass/galileo antennas
sub 1kg
custom notebook cooler and docking station
android dual boot with fully functioning components like 4g and gps
fingerprint reader
webcam with facial recognition
microphone with voice recognition
hotswap battery capable
integrated bluetooth 4.0
integrated irda with remote control
wireless display
carbon fibre chassi
rugged like panasonic thoughbooks
waterproof up to 10meters
dustproof
sub 500$

can't remember more right now but I'm sure I'm missing some features I would love to have.

 

Gotta find the right response to this...

We have a winner:

 

I like the rumors I've been reading about the 2.0 sporting Ivy Bridge and Kepler. IMHO I think keeping the same price for the 2.0, adding the Ivy Bridge and Kepler and including the Orochi Blade Edition and Custom Laptop Case, I believe I saw on their site, would be perfect. (as long as the drivers are updated on time LOL)

Possible upgrade to 16 gb ram or at least the option to have it for more money would be nice.

I'm planning on buying myself a rig that will last a while just as my current laptop has. (Dell XPS m1730 4gb ram, 17.3 in (I believe) screen, NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT, Intel Core 2 Duo. I've had this baby for 4.5 years now.)
Right now I can't even play minecraft because the CPU can't handle it. I can play StarCraft II at medium at 30 fps, same with WoW. SW:ToR needed to be on Low to run well and Diablo 3 needed to be at low as well. I'm not picky about hardware as much but this would REALLY entice me to buy it, along with its sexy looks of course.

I was gonna go Desktop but then saw the blade. I just hope 2.0 comes out soon otherwise I'd buy the first one due to my patience wearing thin. I NEED A NEW RIG SOON!

 

a 14 or 15 inch version
ivy bridge
keplar
get rid of optical drive so it can accomodate a 660gtx - epu dock can also contain a disc drive
the thunderbolt egpu would be awesome - an incredible idea
all usb 3.0 ports (at least 3)
blade interface as an addon - bluetooth, usb, small amount of ram to remember profiles
sub 1500$ price. sell the dock, blade interface seperately or all as a package for 2k +

 

I think all the people interested in a sub 1500 model will be interested in the razer fiona project. If they can pack what they are promising into that tablet, and you can use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with it, at the sub 1k price they say it will be... oh lawd...

 

If they can put a decent GPU into the next model and price it accordingly, then it might seem feasible to most gamers out there.

 

Razer Fiona is a pipe dream, and it's a completely different customer base than a laptop. A 14-15" Razer without the Razer UI, with some mean specs at less than $1500 would appeal to a lot of users, and make it more affordable to a lot more users.

 

I don't know... I have been interested in possibly getting a tablet at some point, and I would rather pay a grand for what will be the most powerful consumer tablet in existence than 832 bucks for an ipad... Especially if it will be able to play skyrim on high...

They say it will have the lapdock. If they can pull it off like Asus did wit the transformer prime, it just might work.

razer ui as a side thing could be useful on both the blade and the fiona.

 

Well users looking/needing/wanting for a 14-15" screen won't be happy with a 10" screen. 11.6" is as small as I'm willing to go as well, and actually much prefer 13".

 

it would be great it when the handles were attacked/or you had a keyboard dock attacked it would be 11.6, then if you were holding it without the controllers the screen's edge would become a bezel and it would be downsized to 10.1.

 

I'd like a 17" laptop with a high end GPU that doesn't look like toy and tacky (alienware) or look like a laptop from the 1990's (sager). I realize it would need to be thicker to accommodate larger fans but keep the current design in spirit. IB quad core and Kelper 680M would be perfect. Throw in a very high quality panel and you would have a winner.

I don't care how much you would charge for it, I'd buy it.

 

looks like the new razer will be announced/released in the next 3 months. and the 680 is months away still...

Im expecting either a 670 or a 675. A 120 Hz screen would be great though.

 

They likely will have a 660m at best, and would be silly to use a 670/675m since it's the old Fermi architecture. 660m is Kepler and supposedly at least as fast as 670m. But if they maintain the same chassis, it will have to be a 650m at most for heat dissipation. And LOL @ Sager looking like from 1990's. They're definitely plain, but far from a 1990's look. It's all a matter of personal preference. I personally find the look of the Razer a bit tacky, but like the idea in a 14" form factor because there's literally no thin and light but powerful 13, 14" machines out there.

If they went thicker it would take away from their entire intent of having a thin and light 17" gaming machine.

 

Different color schemes(silver, metallic) and smaller sizes. It'd be nice to finally have a real lightweight/thin pc alternative to the macbook pro's that doesn't have a "dark and edgy" teenager-esque look to them

 

I need an optical drive. Hopefully they can add it...

Bigger hard drive is a must for me. Because I will use it for multimedia a lot, not just for games alone.

 

Id rather not see an optical drive, if you need one buy an external optical drive (USB 3 or Thunderbolt if the blade 2.0 supports it). No optical drive mean more room for internal components (bigger battery, better cooling components) and a thinner profile. I would love to see Ivy plus a 680m for a great gaming experience on the go. If they can give it an all around upgrade and keep it thin I will defiantly be owning one in the near future!

 

I'd like to see a more integrated motherboard. I can perhaps understand not reaching the levels that Apple has, but when you look inside the Razer Blade, you can see that the PCB takes up far, far too much space relative to the size of the battery.

With an increased battery size, fix the BIOS so that the nVidia GPU runs full speed even when on battery. I'd like to see a 90 minute gaming time on battery.

If you're going to make the SSD unservicable, go small form factor instead of off the shelf PCB. Put in a 512GB model using the same form factor that Apple uses.

The air vents on the bottom are a problem if you want to put the laptop down on a soft surface or a lap. Having the intakes on the sides would be better.

Steal the fan that Apple put into the new MacBook Pro to cut down on the noise. Even at low RPM, they're loud.

Leave the screen alone. Matte, 1920x1080. We do not need the power-sucking properties of a Retina display. We do not need gloss. I wouldn't mind a 1920x1200, but I understand that it's probably not feasible to still get one for a laptop.

Add something to make the switchblade mouse buttons more pronounced. Little hard to click them as they are.

That's what I'd like to see, anyway.

 

That machine will be sucking 75-80W with gaming, you'd need a 120WHr battery to game that long, not realistic. Just use a frame limiter with nVidia Inspector, lock it to 30FPS and you'd be surprised how much less power your system will draw.

 

Assuming they don't somehow get their hands on a Retine-level display, with the new MBP $2800 is no longer a viable price for it if it's going to remain as thin as it is.

So for let's say, $2500 I want it to be the same thickness with the same weight with:

At least a 1920x1080 display with 95% Gamut
At least a i7-3720QM
At least a GT 660M with GDDR5 (670M would make it an insta-buy)
At least 8Gb of 1600MHz Ram
At least 5 hours minimum of real-world battery usage
At least a two-year warranty with accidental protection
A 512Gb SSD
A Thunderbolt port
IC Diamond Paste along with an excellent cooling system
An actual trackpad with multi-touch (they can keep the LCD where it is)

Seeing the price, size, and power of the new MBPR and the price, size, and power of the Alienware M17x, I actually think this is pretty reasonable.

 

If the Razerblade is supposed to truly be a laptop for gamers I would have to disagree. If Razer followed the above advice they would be make the typical mistake of trying to one-up Apple.

I don't think they should attempt to make the laptop any thinner. They need to release a laptop aimed for Q4 2012 or Q1 2013 with the 680M. Ideally the goal would be able to accomplish this without significantly increasing the laptops dimensions.

In my opinion there are several laptops on the market right now that are thin and use the 650M. The switchblade UI is a nice feature but really not much more than a gimmick for gamers. At the end of the day gamers care about performance, and we have approached a time were we expect portability without sacrificing performance.

Blow us away Razer .........

 

In order to run a 680m you will have to be at least 1.5 inches thick. No way around it. The cooling requirements for a 100W TDP card dictate a huge thick heatsink. 660m may be a possibility, it's a 75W card, but could likely get away with a 1 inch thick chassis, but that would take some serious engineering.

 

MBP with Retina has a 95Whr battery. I'm good with 60min of gaming!

 

Fair enough point, I don't have all the answers. What I do know however if Razer releases the Razer Blade 2.0 with Ivy Bridge and a GTX 650 for $2700 dollars. You have to ask yourself why in Hell would I buy this over a Macbook Pro? Also keep in mind by the time 2.0 is available the next reiteration of the Macbook Pro will likely be released within months.

I am just trying to illustrate the fact that they either need to go big or go home. If they can't bring a product performing similar to what i described to the market, they are better of just scrapping the blade all together.

 

You are right. I was just surprised when they released the Razer Blade when they did too with Kepler and Ivy Bridge around the corner. And yeah at $2800 with 650m and Ivy Quad would really be direct competition with MBP.

I still personally think they'd be better off going with a 13 or 14 inch with the 650m and Ivy Bridge to make a statement. That is a market severely lacking at the moment. If they could offer that for under $1500 with a quality 1080p screen, backlit keyboard, quality chassis, I'd probably strongly consider it.

 

External GPU could be the way to go... That way you have a portable laptop for gaming, and normal stuff. You just throw the mobile GPU in your bag with the comp when you want to game on the go, and hook it up to the laptop with a 3.0 usb or thunder bolt port.

 

That is exactly the point I was making...

 

^^^ If its stil 2800$, unless its packing a 680 with 512 gb of SSD, 8-16 GB of ram, a powerful ivy bridge i7, and decent battery life, there is no reason not to go with the MBP unless you absolutely cant stand apple...

 

Eh, I do not like the ergonomics of having a touchpad under my hand while gaming. That's part of why I bought a Blade in the first place.

 

make that gtx680 sli

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

 

LOL not possible in a laptop with the form factor of the blade. A single 680 would be pretty hot as is. There is a reason only the AW m18x and a few specialized sagers/clevo's can do dual graphics card setups. They have to be big with beefy cooling or else the laptop will melt. Unless your willing to shell out like 100 grand for some IBM people to personally build you a personal future machine, your not going to get your hands on a thin consumer laptop wth that type of graphics power for another 5+ years.

 

I'm currently thinking about the rMBP, but if the Razer Blade 2.0 comes out with these specs I would be sold:

15.6" 1080p IPS Display
Same thickness and design(I wouldn't mind them using carbon fiber either)
Switchblade as a wireless peripheral
Internal GT650m or GTX660M w/ 15GB GDDR5
Thunderbolt with external GTX680 or 670 and Optical Drive(Like the Vaio Z)
512GB Small form factor SSD(should be a fast one too)
Quad core i7
Fans like the rMBP(They really are quiet) and better cooling in general
FPS locked at 45FPS default
8GB 1600MHz RAM
At least 1.5hr of heavy gaming, at least 5hr of lighter tasks(word, movies, web)
At least 3 USB 3.0 ports, ethernet, headphone+mic combination
If they come out with something like this by the end of July for under $2600 I will buy it.

 

...Do you mean 1.5?

 

15gb of video memory FTW

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF300T using Tapatalk 2

 

Lol of course that's what I meant, although 15 really wouldn't be too bad if they could make it work.

 

What are you going to do with a 15GB GPU LOL? Play on 20 monitors simultaneously?

 

I echo the comments, on here I'd love to see a small screen i'd prefer 14 but 15 would do, and release it in the UK

 

17 inch
Better GPU
Better CPU
More RAM (16 gigs?)
Bigger SSD.

I want a razer blade so bad, but i cant pay $2800 for a computer that is only one step above the laptop that i paid $1800 for two years ago.

 

Exactly. After the new -very thin yet powerful- Macbook Pro was announced, I was really mad at Razer Blade. The next one needs to have a CPU+GPU combo that is AT LEAST as good as the one in the Macbook Pro (which is not a gaming machine), using Ivy Bridge and Kepler....

To make it more affordable, PLEASE drop the second screen, and make it a normal touchpad in the center of the lower part.

I don't care much for the Retina resolution, 1080p will suffice. MATTE IS A MUST.

Just make sure it's thin, matte black, with a nice 17" screen.

That is all.

 

Well, it seems they at least answered a few of our calls, we now know for sure that its:

still aluminum

still thin

still light

is lower priced

has MUCH better graphics card (not the best, but a 660 is still decent and at least its better than a MBP)

has an actual quad core i7 now

has a much larger hard drive

has more USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI

-----------------------------

What hasn't happened, hasn't been changed, or is negative:

keyboard is the same. A lot of people wanted to get rid of the gimmicky track pad, or have it as a USB accessory in favor of a normal track pad, larger keyboard, and lower price

no more full SSD, but i guess this had to be a trade off for more storage and a lower price (at least its a hybrid drive)

--------------------------------------

What hopefully has been improved upon or fixed but we won't know until people actually get their hands on the new ones:

better speakers

better battery life (it was already good, but more can't hurt)

better trackpad responsiveness (if were stuck with it, it might as well work good)

less noise

less heat
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I gotta say, Razer has really impressed me this time around. I am getting a gaming laptop next year and I was originally definitely going to go for an AW m17-18x, but if next years razer blade model improves as much upon the current one as this one has on the last, then I might just jump on the razer bandwagon!

 

Now the R2's out, what do people want from the R3? I mean, it won't be out til 7xx series gpu's and the next line of intel chips is out, but with power efficiency on the up and heat on the down I reckon we'll see a jump to a GTX770-775 GPU, 16Gb RAM, Hopefully 1Tb of storage and a non cached mSATA SSD for boot and storage. It would be really nice if they included a higher end display. 1080 is good, but if they were to put a 2560x1440 ips in it I reckon it would attract a lot more attention/

Personally I'm surprised they haven't expanded the line. I reckon next time round they should release a Blade with almost identical performance and specs as the current Blade, but in a 13"/15" form factor without the Switchblade. I reckon that'd really sell, as 13" is a better size for mobile gaming than 11" but more manageable than 15" or 17". Also why is it nobody has ever made a laptop with a touchpad on the right side with the right click towards the top right hand corner of it for easier fps playing. I get my blade in couple of weeks but I can see this line becoming as Dominant as the Alienwares if they expand the line, make it more mainstream by dropping the UI thing on lower models and releasing budget friendly options. Seriously considering in the near future buying a slab of aluminium and machining out the centre and taking the guts from a Clevo and building my own blade

 

I don't think Razer cares about budget friendly or increasing sales. They only care about promoting their own UI concept. I like what they have but it's just too expensive, and you'd only be able to get the touchpad on the right on a 17" machine otherwise you'd lose the numberpad on the 15", and not possible on anything smaller. In theory it's good but limited practicality. Most people don't game with the touchpad anyhow.

I think Gigabyte has hit a home run with their U2442 line, the upcoming U2442F even with 650m in a 14" form factor, aluminum build, backlit keyboard, i7 ULV CPU, < 0.8" thick, 3.5 lbs, 1600x900 screen ~ $1200US. The current U2442V has a 640m included, but still a good performer, great battery life, and overall very portable.