With the launch of Intel's Haswell processor, accessory maker-turned notebook vendor Razer announced a pretty slick machine, the Blade. Based on a quad-core, 37 watt Core i7 Haswell CPU and a GeForce GTX 765M GPU, the Razer Blade packs a lot of punch.
It also includes 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory, an mSATA SSD and integrates a 14-in 1600×900 display. The design of the unit looks very similar to that of the MacBook Pro but the black metal finish is really an attractive style change.
The embedded battery is fairly large at 70 Whr and Razer claims this will equate to a 6 hour battery life when operating non-gaming workloads. With a weight just barely creeping past 4 lbs, the Razer Blade is both portable and powerful it seems.
The price tag starts at $1799 so you won't be able to pick one of these up on the cheap, but for users like me that are willing to pay a bit more for performance and style in a slim chassis, the Blade seems like a very compelling option. There are a lot of questions left to answer on this notebook including the thermal concerns of packing that much high frequency silicon into a thin and light form factor. Does the unit get hot in bad places? Can the screen quality match the performance of Haswell + Kepler?
We are working with Razer to get a model in very soon to put it to the test and I am looking forward to answering if we have found the best gaming portable on the market.
I just could not imagine
I just could not imagine gaming on a lappy. Especially with that monitor rez. But all in all seems like a winner for the price for those who don’t mind doing mini gaming 🙂
it looks like a macbook pro
it looks like a macbook pro
The res seems kind of low for
The res seems kind of low for a high end laptop, especially one intended for gaming?
Gaming is the whole point
Gaming is the whole point behind why that 1600×900 panel is there. The 765M just doesn’t have the muscle to push 1920×1080 (33% more pixels) and keep the detail levels high. 1600×900 will show benefits as the laptop ages and it’s keeping framerates higher in games released in 2014-2015 and you are running those games at native resolution. As we all know taking your games outside native resolution is bad image quality move.
The whole point is GAMING. If you want to cram as much code/spreadsheet cells as possible on your display you either want something higher resolution with a beefier GPU (770, really 780M) and you are not going to find that in a package this small. At 14″ 900p is not bad density. Not sure why everyone is crying for 1080p on a GAMING notebook this small.
The screen res is low so that
The screen res is low so that the underpowered GPU can cope with the latest games. Consider the play ability, not the resolution
She’s a beauty, ain’t she?
She’s a beauty, ain’t she? Too bad she’s got a crappy TN panel.
Seriously, why it doesn’t
Seriously, why it doesn’t have a 1080p ips screen is beyond me. I get that games might run best on a 1600×900, but a premium laptop really needs a premium screen (is a 1080p 14″ even “premium”?).
Also since its Windows 8 a touch screen would be nice too, but that’s not nearly as important…
For that price, I’d rather
For that price, I’d rather get the Samsung Chronos with a I7 3635QM, and an AMD HD8870M which will still be $200 cheaper than this thing.
still with the ugly chiclet
still with the ugly chiclet keys…LAME.
Wise up manufacturers, chiclet keys suck.
Put in a mechanical keyboard.
Good keyboards on laptops are
Good keyboards on laptops are a thing of the past. Now everyone is addicted to thin & light and overall aesthetics. It was a sad day to see even the ThinkPad do away with it.
6 hours with non-gaming
6 hours with non-gaming workload? where are the advantages of haswell with energy efficiency?
Any word on how noisy it is
Any word on how noisy it is to cool that much power in that form factor?
I tend to play older games
I tend to play older games and MMO’s which don’t require heavy gpu usage. So I would’ve liked 1080p on this (and touch would be nice since it’s small enough).