Razer's 14" Blade Gaming Notebook Won't Break the Bank

[Steven Bogos]

Razer's 14" Blade Gaming Notebook Won't Break the Bank

Razer are touting the new version of its Blade gaming notebooks as "the world's thinnest gaming laptop," and will set you back $1799.

Several years ago, Razer announced the switchblade [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112611-Razer-Unsheathes-the-Blade] interface (basically a fancy little touch-screen LCD and programmable keyboard). While quite a cool concept, the incredibly steep price was a bit too rich for a lot of people's blood. Razer has now announced a 14" version of its Blade notebook, coming in at an ultra-thin 1.7cm (closed), and costing a slightly more reasonable $1799.

The 14" blade packs a GeForce GTX 765M GPU and a 2.2GHz Intel i7 quad-core CPU (Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz). It also features 8GB of onboard DDR3 memory and a 256GB SSD. That's quite a lot for such a small package, and should get you a decent amount of gaming mileage. The notebook has a 1600×900 HD screen, and should get you around six hours of battery life. It of course still comes with the programmable switchblade interface, though seems to be lacking the fancy LCD touch screen.

The laptop runs on Windows 8 and has several USB 3.0 ports. Curiously, it is lacking a touchscreen, which seems standard for notebooks in its class (especially those on Windows 8), but this was probably a conscious decision to keep costs down.

Razer has assembled the new Blade with bespoke parts and a custom engineered thermal system to prevent the notebook from melting during demanding titles. This is a reassuring point to someone who recently lost a gaming laptop due to poor ventilation...

Source: Razer [http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade]

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[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Pretty fancy specs. I don't like gaming laptops, but if I did I would probably get this one.

 

[Kahani]

Does it come with asbestos pants? Because I'm not sure I'd fancy putting one of those on my lap.

 

[Maerx]

It looks cool. The problem for me is that it has Windows 8 and I can get a similar if not more powerful laptop for less than that. Well, when you consider that the selling point is "the world's thinnest gaming laptop" on top of being Razer, that kind of justifies the price tag.

 

[Athinira]

Pretty fancy specs. I don't like gaming laptops, but if I did I would probably get this one.

For a gaming laptop at that price, this isn't really that fancy. I'll hand it to them that they've managed to make a very compact gamer-laptop (which makes me worry a bit about the cooling), but you can definitely get much better at the same price point.

Not to mention that the GTX 7XXM series is right around the corner, so why you would buy a gamer-laptop with a 6XXM card is beyond me, especially when it isn't that strong. Gamer-laptops can't really be upgraded, and this one is rather expensive, so buying one now makes little sense.

I'm personally going for a bigger one. My next gaming laptop later this year will feature a GTX 780M (which performs at twice the capacity of the card in this machine), 4th gen Haswell i7 CPU, a 17.3" Full HD screen, two hard drives (one being an SSD, the other a 750 GB 5400 RPM), 16 gigs of RAM and it's going for the same price as this one. It might not have switchblade, but i don't want or need it.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Meh, still too expensive. Can we get a refresh of Acer's TimelineX series?

 

[Vie]

Impressive, but it's still costs £1200.

The only way they are going to sell something like this in big numbers, which seems to be their aim, is to get it under £800.

 

[Strazdas]

Those looking at specks got to remember than same model number for laptop variant is not as powerful as the desktop varian because it uses low power mode which while allows it not to create a fireplace out of the laptop will not handle as much calculation.
Still, this is too expensive for a gaming laptop.

 

[Doclector]

Impressive, but it's still costs £1200.

The only way they are going to sell something like this in big numbers, which seems to be their aim, is to get it under £800.

True, but honestly, I'd really consider saving for one of these if I managed to get a steady job. And that's coming from someone who almost gave up on PC gaming altogether.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

It looks interesting. Part of the appeal is that the laptop that's actually portable and you can still game on it, even if its not at the ultra high settings. Desktop replacements are handy, but not when you need to carry them around. Most of its price is probably due to that and the SSD

Pretty fancy specs. I don't like gaming laptops, but if I did I would probably get this one.

For a gaming laptop at that price, this isn't really that fancy. I'll hand it to them that they've managed to make a very compact gamer-laptop (which makes me worry a bit about the cooling), but you can definitely get much better at the same price point.

Not to mention that the GTX 7XXM series is right around the corner, so why you would buy a gamer-laptop with a 6XXM card is beyond me, especially when it isn't that strong. Gamer-laptops can't really be upgraded, and this one is rather expensive, so buying one now makes little sense.

I'm personally going for a bigger one. My next gaming laptop later this year will feature a GTX 780M (which performs at twice the capacity of the card in this machine), 4th gen Haswell i7 CPU, a 17.3" Full HD screen, two hard drives (one being an SSD, the other a 750 GB 5400 RPM), 16 gigs of RAM and it's going for the same price as this one. It might not have switchblade, but i don't want or need it.

Can you tell me what that laptop is? I've been looking for one for a friend. Of course, if its a 10 pound (5kg) behemoth then never mind. Laptop buying is hard :/

 

[ThreeName]

Razer can't even make fucking mice that last, why in God's name would I buy a laptop?

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

$1800 for a notebook?! Fancy specs they may be, but if you consider that to be 'not breaking the bank', then I'd hate to see what you'd think was too expensive.

 

[SecondPrize]

That's a little more than I'd want to spend on a 'gaming' laptop. I've got a $600 Acer with a quad core processor that's also 2.4ghz and jumps up to 3.0. It's got a graphics card with 2 gig of VRAM, whatever that is. The only problem was the ram was a little light at 4 gigs so I ordered two 4gb RAMS (ram cards? I dunno) and replaced it myself with a fair bit of cursing and terror. This, which again cost $600, plays anything I've thrown at it at medium to high specs.
If I wanted more performance, I'd build a desktop with the same specs, two monitors and easier access to components for upgrading while still having money left over.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Pretty fancy specs. I don't like gaming laptops, but if I did I would probably get this one.

It has windows 8 in it.

What's wrong with you.

 

[Athinira]

Can you tell me what that laptop is? I've been looking for one for a friend. Of course, if its a 10 pound (5kg) behemoth then never mind. Laptop buying is hard :/

The laptop doesn't 'exist' yet, but i know the different aims that manufacturers strive for, so one with the above specs will come around, and costwise it will probably be in the same ballpark as the Razer one (just below $2000). And it's an 8.5 pound, so it's heavy yes.

If i had to buy a laptop now rather than wait, I'd probably take this Medion machine [http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+ERAZER%C2%AE+X7821+%28MD98244%29/30014968A1]. It has all the specs listed in my last post except it's Ivy Bridge and has a GTX 680M (which is still 60% faster than the one in the Razer). In the UK it costs the equivalent of $2050, which would probably be around $1800 in the US due to lower tax.

You want any better than that (lower weight with same specs or better specs with same weight) you're note gonna get below $2000 any time soon. Laptops are that range are typically at $2500 at least.

 

[Athinira]

Impressive, but it's still costs £1200.

The only way they are going to sell something like this in big numbers, which seems to be their aim, is to get it under £800.

Not by a long shot. There is a actually a high demand for Gamer Laptops. The reason is that desktops are still fewer and far between, and that the people who buys gamer laptop knows that they can't upgrade it in the same way as a desktop machine. That's why they're willing to spend great sums to get a laptop that can last them for several years.

If you look at the market, there is actually a great lineup of gamer laptops, from many different manufacturers. The demand isn't fictional

 

[antidonkey]

1.8k for the privilege of lowering my sperm count? What a bargain!

I'm sure it'll be a pretty good machine but I cannot justify that price tag when you can find other machines for 30 - 50% less that will game plenty well. With that being said....I wouldn't turn away a free one and would like to play around with one for a bit if there's ever a demo model in a store.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Can you tell me what that laptop is? I've been looking for one for a friend. Of course, if its a 10 pound (5kg) behemoth then never mind. Laptop buying is hard :/

The laptop doesn't 'exist' yet, but i know the different aims that manufacturers strive for, so one with the above specs will come around, and costwise it will probably be in the same ballpark as the Razer one (just below $2000). And it's an 8.5 pound, so it's heavy yes.

If i had to buy a laptop now rather than wait, I'd probably take this Medion machine [http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+ERAZER%C2%AE+X7821+%28MD98244%29/30014968A1]. It has all the specs listed in my last post except it's Ivy Bridge and has a GTX 680M (which is still 60% faster than the one in the Razer). In the UK it costs the equivalent of $2050, which would probably be around $1800 in the US due to lower tax.

You want any better than that (lower weight with same specs or better specs with same weight) you're note gonna get below $2000 any time soon. Laptops are that range are typically at $2500 at least.

Interesting. Thanks for the link. Its a little bit out of my friend's budget. I think he'd rather have a smaller laptop that can game rather than one built to replace a desktop. I actually found one with better specs than this razor's previous model (the 15 inch version I believe). But its at half the price ($1300 vs $2000+) and has the ability to hot swap a second graphics card in place of the DVD drive. Its not the most powerful gaming laptop, but it'll make a good student notebook that can game without trouble

 

[MrWunderful]

I think it looks pretty slick. Thats too far out of my range, however. I would much rather build a new desktop for that price. Its too bad laptops cannot be built in the same way as desktops.