Seems like a missed opportunity. Unless you have an immediate need or have the money to upgrade in four months, it seems better to wait for a Broadwell + 16GB + 970M combination or at least 16GB + 970M. Also, the markup going from 128GB to 512GB is more expensive than MSRP on a 1TB SSD... I expect some margin in the price when buying pre-built, but that's just excessive to me. Otherwise, it's a great looking machine!
Technically our review was delayed, as the updated Blade launched a few months back. Razer hasn't announced a 970M release yet, but I expect that will come soon enough.
Funny, I didn't even realize. I just assume that everything you folks review is brand new. Looks like it came out in June/July, so that makes more sense then. Let me restate my above comment as though it were July 1:
Wow, this notebook is amazing! I can't wait to buy one! ;-)
I think the next Razer should be a Broadwell + 970M + 16 GB RAM. It should have a bare minimum 256GB drive for gaming.
I love this thing and was considering this last tax season against a rMBP and the Dell XPS15 with the high res display. A 750M was just too weak for me for gaming anything but Blizzard games. I ended up with an AMD R290 gpu for my desktop upgrade, which was a more sensible choice when discussing the non-sensible cost of gaming products.
You either can't count or you are trolling, because this laptop is 5 months old and didn't even retail until June 15th.
We will probably be able to pick these up at a huge price cut after the Maxwell model is released, a lot like how GTX 770's were going for $350 before Maxwell and are now selling for <$200 on eBay (used)
I've always though this was a beautiful machine, and the Maxwell edition will be an amazing boon to battery life and cooling...but that doesn't make this unit irrelevant.
Love mine so far. Wishlist for the 2015 model would be a 970m, 16GB of RAM, DisplayPort and/or HDMI 2.0. If they throw in a Broadwell CPU in there too, I can't imagine that this wouldn't be the perfect laptop for 95% of use case scenarios.
I agree, I've been using it as my primary computer for everything from work to play and it's been great. The only thing I can complain about is that they put the air intakes at the bottom; would have much preferred them on the sides so that they don't get block when sitting on my lap.
I don't think that's going to change in future iterations, even with more efficient CPU/GPU combos. With the amoutn of power this draws, I don't see how a side intake could suck in enough air to cool all the components. I also don't mind the look. Very clean looking on all the visible surfaces.
The 2014 Blade was released back in May. How do you propose they integrate Maxwell when the parts didn't exist yet? Razer is on a 1 year release cycle so I'd expect a Maxwell/Broadwell machine to come out April/May 2015.
Nice review but wasn't this machine released like, over six months ago??
I know you take your time to get the most through reviews out there, but not much point reviewing it now. Especially as 970M notebooks are changing the whole purchasing decision all over again.
By that rationale you should also be getting your Galaxy S5 review up soon, right? :-p
Why even list this machine? It's got a vastly inferior graphics card, screen and CPU. I'd understand if you're comparing value vs. build quality (although I think that's still a dumb comparison), but these two machines don't even share the same internals.
I just paid $1340 for an Acer VN7 Aspire Black Edition. Its just a hair less than 1/3" thicker, weighs about 2/5 of a lb more, has an IPS screen, 16gb Ram, 860m Maxwell, so it runs nice and cool and quiet. 256gb SSD, and is almost as good build quality. Now, before you go off, yes, Acer's traditionally had crap build quality, but go read the reviews, this thing is really well made. I can open the screen from the corner and it flexes maybe 1/3". Its very solid. The keyboard is amazing. Oh, and its literally half the price.
He didn't retire. You could say he left, he moved on, he departed, he resigned, he stopped working at Anandtech, he quit, he's following a new career path, he's pursuing other interests, following other pursuits, etc. I realize that you don't want to say that the review was shelved due to conflict of interest because he works at Apple, but you can be discreet without being deceptive. He and Brian are about as retired as Dustin and Vivek.
Wowza, didn't know the Surface Pro 3 was that efficient per milliwatt. What magic is going on there? Lower wattage, but doesn't the Yoga Pro 2 also have a ULV?
I can tell you from experience that replacing the SSD in this specific laptop is significantly easier than you think. The bottom must be taken off since it is one piece, and a ribbon cable over the drive must be removed. Takes less than 5 minutes, even with being very careful, to get access to the drive.
The issue is the price of M.2 SSD's and the actual offerings for SATA M.2 drives. It was cheaper to buy the 512GB model with the student discount from the microsoft store (10% off) than to buy the 128GB model without discount and replace the drive with a 512GB M550 M.2 drive.
Indeed, as a new buy, the unit with Kepler-based GTX 870M became instantly obsolete at the day of release of Maxwell-based GTX 970M. Only an uninformed buyer will buy this now. Or, alternatively, a large discount may help.
Would be great to see a comparison to the Lenovo Y50 - I know it's 1080p screen is terrible, but I'm wondering how the 4k screen holds up to this IGZO panel.
I'm fine with my current laptop (Asus UX51), but in a year or two I could see myself upgrading to this. Nvidia's Maxwell will probably make a significant difference on battery life and heat on a machine like this, so I'm excited to see the 2015 refresh.
For the gaming performance section, would it be possible to get the rMBP in there as well? Perhaps not OS X, since there is a lot not available on the OS X side. But certainly running Windows 8.1 would be doable and nice to know.
I just don't get the fascination with these higher than 1080p displays on a gaming notebook when the hardware just doesn't support that resolution with playable frame rates in newer games. At minimum if you are going to benchmark at 1080p, we need some kind of analysis on how the display handles scaling down to the lower resolution. 14 inches to me is the best size for a portable gaming laptop, but I can't help but think that something like the W230ss is just a better value for the money by far with its still nice 1080p IPS screen.. You can get a decent configuration of that for $1200-$1400 with a nice sized SSD and since the SS version is there 2nd gen version of that laptop, they have included some nice power optimization improvements. I think 2k-4k gaming is great, on a desktop that might stand a chance at actually providing decent frame rates at high detail settings.
I'll tell you from personal experience that I have played games accidentally set to 1080p and did not realize I was not at native resolution. A more thorough analysis of scaling would be nice, but I have no complaints.
I raised this point myself but I noticed the non-standard resolution of 3200x1800. That's exactly four times 1600x900, which *is* a standard resolution. The performance figures at 1080p suggest that this laptop would run most games extremely well at 1600x900 and since the resolution is divisible four times into the native resolution, it shouldn't have any fuzziness or loss of sharpness from interpolation.
Brett, thanks for the review. I love their form factor and hope they have more models in the pipeline. It would be great if you could update this review with some info on how they obviously must switch to 970 or 980 extremely soon, since 870 was formally discontinued when 9xx was released. It would also be great if you could get their thoughts on adding models that are more directly competitive with the rMBA line: provide models with more memory and CPU and a bit less graphics capability. In other words, a more general purpose desktop replacement in a similar form factor to their current models. Thanks for considering these suggestions!
When you're priced at the top of the market, you shouldn't have any compromises. Only 8GB of ram and no Maxwell GPU is ridiculous for a laptop at this price point.
As has been stated multiple times already, this laptop came out months before the Maxwell mobile GPUs came out. 8GB on the other hand, you have a point.
You really should be comparing this with the Gigabyte P34G v2. 14", 3.85 lbs, i7-4710HQ, 860m, mSATA + HDD, ~$1450 base. They just announced a 970m version (P34W v3) as well for $1650. The build quality is not as good, but for $800 less...
I'm glad these exist for people with feeble arms and who want a Macbook Air that's made for games...but I'd still never pick one over an Alienware. They're priced like, or even more expensive than, Alienware systems with far better cooling, far better GPUs, user replaceable storage and dual drive bays.
My M17x-R4 is just as portable as a Macbook Air. It's irrelevant that one is twice as thick and heavy when either way they just go in my bag. I'm not giving up a ton of power and user accessible drives just for alleged "style".
I read these kinds of comments a lot regarding the thin + light form factor. Here's the thing: I have never seen an adult over the age of 21 carry around an Alienware/DTR Rig in public. Never. Not in a coffee shop, not on airplanes, trains or hotels. It's meant to sit in one place and occasionally be moved if you're moving houses/apartments or going to a LAN party (who the hell does that anymore?). It's great if you have limited space in your apartment/dorm and don't want a full desktop. Things that it's NOT great for: 1) Carrying around on casual trips 2) Watching videos/internet surfing for more than 2 hours on battery 3) Solving back pain. 9LB weight PLUS Giant Power Brick 3) LOOKING LIKE A GROWN ADULT MALE IN PUBLIC INSTEAD OF A PIMPLY COLLEGE STUDENT
Now I understand I'm generalizing and I'm sure there are some that don't care about how they look in public but I contend that these are also many people who don't care about the brand or fit of clothes they wear as long as they're cheap, stay on and keep them warm. Apples to Oranges comparison.
You making condescending remarks about what people should and shouldn't be buying based on your likes doesn't really make sense. Some people like the Alienware because it has the most powerful internals you can squeeze into something that's "portable" and it's comparably affordable, appearances be damned. Some people like Razers because they're actually portable, have a great build quality, can still play a ton of games, and wouldn't be out of place in a gathering of post-college humans.
You nailed it. Lots of married gamers with good jobs would NEVER be caught using an Alienware laptop because of its immature looks. Razer and Apple have a lock on the market for gaming laptops for grownups until Alienware grows up in their design department.
There's one point missing - The (not really) comparably sized alienware 14 will throttle under some conditions, while I have yet to be able to cause my RB14 to throttle no matter how hard I try. Thickness does not mean cooling efficiency.
I am a VERY frequent traveller, and I've seen a few Alienware backpacks as I go through airports.
I carry my M18x R2 with me everywhere I go, and yes it is heavy, but they are made for adults, right?
Every customer I meet is fascinated to meet my Alienware machine, and it is a great talking point when meeting new customers.
And what is with your 2hrs of battery life? Are you not aware we have integrated graphics, on a 96whr 12-cell battery? Imagine how long that lasts...
If you think there is an image problem associated with these machines, I'd quite enjoy you expressing that opinion to my face... whilst demonstraiting what machine you carry around.
I thought it's fairly obvious I carry around a Razer Blade 2014. Listen, I'm not here to get into a laptop beat down contest and I'm a little confused as to why you want me to say anything to your face. I'm not insulting your family, merely your commentary on why people shouldn't be buying these machines. The markets for the two types of machine are very different. Alienware is marketed to and has the reputation of being a college gamers machine; it's always been this way. Their design language and form factor scream "Look at me! I'm sparkly and huge and look like a sci-fi tank!" I used to build systems like that back in college which had LED's with cases that had crazy angles. As I aged, my tastes changed and I preferred something that looks more subtle and slimmer. My wife would make endless fun of me if I carried that monster around.
If you're comfortable toting around 15lbs total of computer parts (laptop + power brick) and using an 18" screen on an airplane tray or on your lap, more power to you. I prefer something I can tuck under my arm. Not to mention that I frequently have to also carry around my work laptop and the use case for a slim, lightweight gaming system makes a lot of sense.
Realized this is not new. Stop reviewing 'old hardware' or at least put a spoiler that you're reviewing something that came out months ago. Bit confusing since I was here thinking "wtf is razer doing"
It sure looks nicer than MSI GS60, but is that alone worth the extra cost? Especially when new version of the MSI is just about to come out with GTX 970M...
Love the review but I feel that these notebook reviews need for the games and CPU benchmark sections the CPU and GPU name beside the name of the notebook for quick and easy comparison.
i wonder how a gaming laptop would be if it used Broadwell Core M for very low power dual core performance at 5-10 watt, and devote the rest of the TDP to GPU. This would prevent throttling whene on battery so long as total system draw is under 100W. 100W is about the peak of what laptop batteries can put out.
i'd like to see that too a core m 5yxx would run easy at constant full dual core turbo in a notebook chassis even with a very weak cooling, would give enough cpu power and would let the gpu a lot of tdp room !!!! Under 100W with a premium class gpu would be great.
But sadly i don't think core m 5yxx are intended to be paired with discrete gpus, only for convertibles tablets and such but we'll see. Later Broadwell cpus it will be.
But as a gamer concerned mostly by cooling and noise and not caring for a premium cpu as long as there is no major cpu limiting i'm definitely for devoting the power to gpus !!!
ULV and lower power Intel mobile CPUs (including the new Core-M series) are limited to PCie 2.0 x4 while M/Q CPUs have the a full PCie 3.0 x16 available to them.
The only GTX x60m+ class laptop I'm aware of that pairs with a non M/Q CPU was the announced (but not yet released) Alienware 13 with a Haswell-U + GTX 860m. However there was, I believe, some uncertainty regarding whether that will be the actual CPU configuration.
How well does the screen deal with gaming at non-native resolutions. A major advantage of high-dpi displays is obviously the fact it brings us closer to the way a CRT screens behave with fixed resolution all. With such high pixel density and a normal viewing distance of >60 cm I would expect also odd resolutions to look great in their own right.
I only ran it at 1600x900 which is a perfect 2:1 interpolation, and it looked fine. Hard to say if it would be as good as a native 1600x900 panel but to my eyes, it looks good enough if you do need to run it at that resolution. Gaming at 3200x1800 was absolutely fantastic though it was an amazing experience. Everything is just so sharp.
What's funny is how the previous model used a 1600x900 TN panel screen and at the time the excuse Razer's CEO gave for using it vs using a superior IPS panel was; "this is a gaming laptop and we wanted to use the best screen for gaming."
Now they're using a panel that for modern games, you'll never be able to push at anywhere near native resolutions with the included graphics card. Marketing doublespeak.
The reasoning for the new QHD+ display was to prove a point of what Razer is actually capable of. The logic behind last year's screen resolution was that if they used a screen that could not outpace their GPU, that the computer would have great performance. They answered the cry of the people with the new display.
Best laptop I've ever owned. But Razer made one glaring oversight - they didn't provide a way to disable the trackpad. It's pretty aggravating when a stray thumb triggers it when gaming. Razer support recommended disabling it via the device manager. Unbelievable. Hey Razer, how about an option in Synapse to disable the trackpad when an external mouse is detected?
Crazy expensive. You can get the CyberPowerPC thin-and-light with an 870m for $1100, and even has a slightly better CPU. This is ungodly expensive, for lower gaming performance.
What's the point of that absurd resolution if the GPU can't even push games at 1920x1080 to a decent framerate? You're just going to have to play the games in 1600x900 anyway to get any kind of decent performance, so why bother with the super-high resolution panel if it's not even going to get used?
The only logic I can detect behind this decision is that the resolution is exactly four times that of 1600x900 and would scale down to that resolution without interpolation.
Seeing as how you compared the 2014 Blade to an rMBP on weight, build, battery etc... can you include the gaming scores for the rMBP as well? Obviously under bootcamp... curious as to how far behind the rMBP's 750M performance is
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tekeffect - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Hopefully they don't wait a whole year before updating to a 970m and 16gb ramnathanddrews - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Seems like a missed opportunity. Unless you have an immediate need or have the money to upgrade in four months, it seems better to wait for a Broadwell + 16GB + 970M combination or at least 16GB + 970M. Also, the markup going from 128GB to 512GB is more expensive than MSRP on a 1TB SSD... I expect some margin in the price when buying pre-built, but that's just excessive to me. Otherwise, it's a great looking machine!hammer256 - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
This. The timing is a tad strange, frankly.JarredWalton - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Technically our review was delayed, as the updated Blade launched a few months back. Razer hasn't announced a 970M release yet, but I expect that will come soon enough.nathanddrews - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Funny, I didn't even realize. I just assume that everything you folks review is brand new. Looks like it came out in June/July, so that makes more sense then. Let me restate my above comment as though it were July 1:Wow, this notebook is amazing! I can't wait to buy one! ;-)
spencer_richter - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
As for gaming, it is nowhere close to the ASUS ROG G750JM-DS71 (I recommend seeing https://tr.im/d3342 for example).eanazag - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
I think the next Razer should be a Broadwell + 970M + 16 GB RAM. It should have a bare minimum 256GB drive for gaming.I love this thing and was considering this last tax season against a rMBP and the Dell XPS15 with the high res display. A 750M was just too weak for me for gaming anything but Blizzard games. I ended up with an AMD R290 gpu for my desktop upgrade, which was a more sensible choice when discussing the non-sensible cost of gaming products.
Morawka - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
this laptop they are reviewing is almost a year old. It came out 8 months ago. Razer will no doubt release a 2015 model in febSamus - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
You either can't count or you are trolling, because this laptop is 5 months old and didn't even retail until June 15th.We will probably be able to pick these up at a huge price cut after the Maxwell model is released, a lot like how GTX 770's were going for $350 before Maxwell and are now selling for <$200 on eBay (used)
I've always though this was a beautiful machine, and the Maxwell edition will be an amazing boon to battery life and cooling...but that doesn't make this unit irrelevant.
Connoisseur - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Love mine so far. Wishlist for the 2015 model would be a 970m, 16GB of RAM, DisplayPort and/or HDMI 2.0. If they throw in a Broadwell CPU in there too, I can't imagine that this wouldn't be the perfect laptop for 95% of use case scenarios.heybrandons - Monday, October 13, 2014 - link
I agree, I've been using it as my primary computer for everything from work to play and it's been great. The only thing I can complain about is that they put the air intakes at the bottom; would have much preferred them on the sides so that they don't get block when sitting on my lap.Connoisseur - Monday, October 13, 2014 - link
I don't think that's going to change in future iterations, even with more efficient CPU/GPU combos. With the amoutn of power this draws, I don't see how a side intake could suck in enough air to cool all the components. I also don't mind the look. Very clean looking on all the visible surfaces.kallogan - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
no maxwell in slim chassis = failConnoisseur - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
The 2014 Blade was released back in May. How do you propose they integrate Maxwell when the parts didn't exist yet? Razer is on a 1 year release cycle so I'd expect a Maxwell/Broadwell machine to come out April/May 2015.Jon Tseng - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Nice review but wasn't this machine released like, over six months ago??I know you take your time to get the most through reviews out there, but not much point reviewing it now. Especially as 970M notebooks are changing the whole purchasing decision all over again.
By that rationale you should also be getting your Galaxy S5 review up soon, right? :-p
Yorgos - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I bought a Y410p Lenovo 6 months ago:i7-4700 qm
14" 900p
replaced the 1TB hdd with a 150 CHF 840 PRO 256 GB
w/ 3 years warranty
somewhere 70 Wh battery
Total price: 898.0 $ + 150 chf = 1050 $ (1 $ is nearly 1 chf)
Connoisseur - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Why even list this machine? It's got a vastly inferior graphics card, screen and CPU. I'd understand if you're comparing value vs. build quality (although I think that's still a dumb comparison), but these two machines don't even share the same internals.Kutark - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
I just paid $1340 for an Acer VN7 Aspire Black Edition. Its just a hair less than 1/3" thicker, weighs about 2/5 of a lb more, has an IPS screen, 16gb Ram, 860m Maxwell, so it runs nice and cool and quiet. 256gb SSD, and is almost as good build quality. Now, before you go off, yes, Acer's traditionally had crap build quality, but go read the reviews, this thing is really well made. I can open the screen from the corner and it flexes maybe 1/3". Its very solid. The keyboard is amazing. Oh, and its literally half the price.tipoo - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
There wasn't yet a full review of that Haswell 15" rMBP you had for comparison, was there?Ryan Smith - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
No, there wasn't. That review was unfortunately canceled when Anand retired.wrkingclass_hero - Monday, October 13, 2014 - link
He didn't retire. You could say he left, he moved on, he departed, he resigned, he stopped working at Anandtech, he quit, he's following a new career path, he's pursuing other interests, following other pursuits, etc. I realize that you don't want to say that the review was shelved due to conflict of interest because he works at Apple, but you can be discreet without being deceptive.He and Brian are about as retired as Dustin and Vivek.
fabarati - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Here retired means retired from Anandtech. Perfectly valid language.invinciblegod - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
So I guess they gave up on the Razer Edge?tipoo - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Wowza, didn't know the Surface Pro 3 was that efficient per milliwatt. What magic is going on there? Lower wattage, but doesn't the Yoga Pro 2 also have a ULV?Waveblade - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Probably one of the better binned CPUs? Or less turbo boostingtipoo - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
They perform pretty close I think. Could also be the display panel.Walkop - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
It's the display. It's stupidly efficient.Something like 3w. The iPad Air (10") uses 6w. Much bigger yet half the power. Normalized for brightness it's still twice as power efficient.
Flunk - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
They really rake you over the coals with those storage prices, especially because you have to disassemble it to change the SSD.XabanakFanatik - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I can tell you from experience that replacing the SSD in this specific laptop is significantly easier than you think. The bottom must be taken off since it is one piece, and a ribbon cable over the drive must be removed. Takes less than 5 minutes, even with being very careful, to get access to the drive.XabanakFanatik - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
The issue is the price of M.2 SSD's and the actual offerings for SATA M.2 drives. It was cheaper to buy the 512GB model with the student discount from the microsoft store (10% off) than to buy the 128GB model without discount and replace the drive with a 512GB M550 M.2 drive.TiGr1982 - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Indeed, as a new buy, the unit with Kepler-based GTX 870M became instantly obsolete at the day of release of Maxwell-based GTX 970M.Only an uninformed buyer will buy this now. Or, alternatively, a large discount may help.
TiGr1982 - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
And 8 GB of RAM for this kind of pricing is not a good offer either.Niavlys77 - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Would be great to see a comparison to the Lenovo Y50 - I know it's 1080p screen is terrible, but I'm wondering how the 4k screen holds up to this IGZO panel.Friendly0Fire - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I'm fine with my current laptop (Asus UX51), but in a year or two I could see myself upgrading to this. Nvidia's Maxwell will probably make a significant difference on battery life and heat on a machine like this, so I'm excited to see the 2015 refresh.dmunsie - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
For the gaming performance section, would it be possible to get the rMBP in there as well? Perhaps not OS X, since there is a lot not available on the OS X side. But certainly running Windows 8.1 would be doable and nice to know.frostyfiredude - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
It has a GT750m, expect around 60% of the performance gotten by the 2013 Blade 14.aferox - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Would like to see this compared with the Gigabyte Aorus X3 Plus.frelledstl - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I just don't get the fascination with these higher than 1080p displays on a gaming notebook when the hardware just doesn't support that resolution with playable frame rates in newer games. At minimum if you are going to benchmark at 1080p, we need some kind of analysis on how the display handles scaling down to the lower resolution. 14 inches to me is the best size for a portable gaming laptop, but I can't help but think that something like the W230ss is just a better value for the money by far with its still nice 1080p IPS screen.. You can get a decent configuration of that for $1200-$1400 with a nice sized SSD and since the SS version is there 2nd gen version of that laptop, they have included some nice power optimization improvements. I think 2k-4k gaming is great, on a desktop that might stand a chance at actually providing decent frame rates at high detail settings.XabanakFanatik - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
I'll tell you from personal experience that I have played games accidentally set to 1080p and did not realize I was not at native resolution. A more thorough analysis of scaling would be nice, but I have no complaints.synaesthetic - Monday, October 20, 2014 - link
I raised this point myself but I noticed the non-standard resolution of 3200x1800. That's exactly four times 1600x900, which *is* a standard resolution. The performance figures at 1080p suggest that this laptop would run most games extremely well at 1600x900 and since the resolution is divisible four times into the native resolution, it shouldn't have any fuzziness or loss of sharpness from interpolation.isa - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Brett, thanks for the review. I love their form factor and hope they have more models in the pipeline. It would be great if you could update this review with some info on how they obviously must switch to 970 or 980 extremely soon, since 870 was formally discontinued when 9xx was released. It would also be great if you could get their thoughts on adding models that are more directly competitive with the rMBA line: provide models with more memory and CPU and a bit less graphics capability. In other words, a more general purpose desktop replacement in a similar form factor to their current models. Thanks for considering these suggestions!Fox5 - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
When you're priced at the top of the market, you shouldn't have any compromises. Only 8GB of ram and no Maxwell GPU is ridiculous for a laptop at this price point.Gigaplex - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
As has been stated multiple times already, this laptop came out months before the Maxwell mobile GPUs came out. 8GB on the other hand, you have a point.Solandri - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
You really should be comparing this with the Gigabyte P34G v2. 14", 3.85 lbs, i7-4710HQ, 860m, mSATA + HDD, ~$1450 base. They just announced a 970m version (P34W v3) as well for $1650. The build quality is not as good, but for $800 less...Brett Howse - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I did mention the P34G v2 but we have not had one to review so I couldn't use the numbers from it.madwolfa - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Now make it 1080p IPS with Maxwell and we will talk.Wolfpup - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I'm glad these exist for people with feeble arms and who want a Macbook Air that's made for games...but I'd still never pick one over an Alienware. They're priced like, or even more expensive than, Alienware systems with far better cooling, far better GPUs, user replaceable storage and dual drive bays.My M17x-R4 is just as portable as a Macbook Air. It's irrelevant that one is twice as thick and heavy when either way they just go in my bag. I'm not giving up a ton of power and user accessible drives just for alleged "style".
Connoisseur - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
I read these kinds of comments a lot regarding the thin + light form factor. Here's the thing: I have never seen an adult over the age of 21 carry around an Alienware/DTR Rig in public. Never. Not in a coffee shop, not on airplanes, trains or hotels. It's meant to sit in one place and occasionally be moved if you're moving houses/apartments or going to a LAN party (who the hell does that anymore?). It's great if you have limited space in your apartment/dorm and don't want a full desktop. Things that it's NOT great for:1) Carrying around on casual trips
2) Watching videos/internet surfing for more than 2 hours on battery
3) Solving back pain. 9LB weight PLUS Giant Power Brick
3) LOOKING LIKE A GROWN ADULT MALE IN PUBLIC INSTEAD OF A PIMPLY COLLEGE STUDENT
Now I understand I'm generalizing and I'm sure there are some that don't care about how they look in public but I contend that these are also many people who don't care about the brand or fit of clothes they wear as long as they're cheap, stay on and keep them warm. Apples to Oranges comparison.
You making condescending remarks about what people should and shouldn't be buying based on your likes doesn't really make sense. Some people like the Alienware because it has the most powerful internals you can squeeze into something that's "portable" and it's comparably affordable, appearances be damned. Some people like Razers because they're actually portable, have a great build quality, can still play a ton of games, and wouldn't be out of place in a gathering of post-college humans.
isa - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
You nailed it. Lots of married gamers with good jobs would NEVER be caught using an Alienware laptop because of its immature looks. Razer and Apple have a lock on the market for gaming laptops for grownups until Alienware grows up in their design department.XabanakFanatik - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
There's one point missing - The (not really) comparably sized alienware 14 will throttle under some conditions, while I have yet to be able to cause my RB14 to throttle no matter how hard I try. Thickness does not mean cooling efficiency.Notmyusualid - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
I am a VERY frequent traveller, and I've seen a few Alienware backpacks as I go through airports.I carry my M18x R2 with me everywhere I go, and yes it is heavy, but they are made for adults, right?
Every customer I meet is fascinated to meet my Alienware machine, and it is a great talking point when meeting new customers.
And what is with your 2hrs of battery life? Are you not aware we have integrated graphics, on a 96whr 12-cell battery? Imagine how long that lasts...
If you think there is an image problem associated with these machines, I'd quite enjoy you expressing that opinion to my face... whilst demonstraiting what machine you carry around.
Connoisseur - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
I thought it's fairly obvious I carry around a Razer Blade 2014. Listen, I'm not here to get into a laptop beat down contest and I'm a little confused as to why you want me to say anything to your face. I'm not insulting your family, merely your commentary on why people shouldn't be buying these machines. The markets for the two types of machine are very different. Alienware is marketed to and has the reputation of being a college gamers machine; it's always been this way. Their design language and form factor scream "Look at me! I'm sparkly and huge and look like a sci-fi tank!" I used to build systems like that back in college which had LED's with cases that had crazy angles. As I aged, my tastes changed and I preferred something that looks more subtle and slimmer. My wife would make endless fun of me if I carried that monster around.If you're comfortable toting around 15lbs total of computer parts (laptop + power brick) and using an 18" screen on an airplane tray or on your lap, more power to you. I prefer something I can tuck under my arm. Not to mention that I frequently have to also carry around my work laptop and the use case for a slim, lightweight gaming system makes a lot of sense.
DPOverLord - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Doesn't seem that great. Did they need such a high res screen? For $2k that GPU may not run it well. Make it a 970/980 with the new refresh.Then upgrade the CPU... Also, weight should not go up.
DPOverLord - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
Realized this is not new. Stop reviewing 'old hardware' or at least put a spoiler that you're reviewing something that came out months ago. Bit confusing since I was here thinking "wtf is razer doing"zepi - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
It sure looks nicer than MSI GS60, but is that alone worth the extra cost? Especially when new version of the MSI is just about to come out with GTX 970M...whyso - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
Love the review but I feel that these notebook reviews need for the games and CPU benchmark sections the CPU and GPU name beside the name of the notebook for quick and easy comparison.Awful - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
What use case are they actually targeting with that screen resolution? It sure isn't gaming...Morawka - Friday, October 10, 2014 - link
i wonder how a gaming laptop would be if it used Broadwell Core M for very low power dual core performance at 5-10 watt, and devote the rest of the TDP to GPU. This would prevent throttling whene on battery so long as total system draw is under 100W. 100W is about the peak of what laptop batteries can put out.kallogan - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
i'd like to see that too a core m 5yxx would run easy at constant full dual core turbo in a notebook chassis even with a very weak cooling, would give enough cpu power and would let the gpu a lot of tdp room !!!! Under 100W with a premium class gpu would be great.But sadly i don't think core m 5yxx are intended to be paired with discrete gpus, only for convertibles tablets and such but we'll see. Later Broadwell cpus it will be.
But as a gamer concerned mostly by cooling and noise and not caring for a premium cpu as long as there is no major cpu limiting i'm definitely for devoting the power to gpus !!!
limitedaccess - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
ULV and lower power Intel mobile CPUs (including the new Core-M series) are limited to PCie 2.0 x4 while M/Q CPUs have the a full PCie 3.0 x16 available to them.The only GTX x60m+ class laptop I'm aware of that pairs with a non M/Q CPU was the announced (but not yet released) Alienware 13 with a Haswell-U + GTX 860m. However there was, I believe, some uncertainty regarding whether that will be the actual CPU configuration.
lyeoh - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
What's the display and other IO latency? What tests did you use for your graphics ghosting test?Calista - Saturday, October 11, 2014 - link
Hi Brett!How well does the screen deal with gaming at non-native resolutions. A major advantage of high-dpi displays is obviously the fact it brings us closer to the way a CRT screens behave with fixed resolution all. With such high pixel density and a normal viewing distance of >60 cm I would expect also odd resolutions to look great in their own right.
Brett Howse - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
I only ran it at 1600x900 which is a perfect 2:1 interpolation, and it looked fine. Hard to say if it would be as good as a native 1600x900 panel but to my eyes, it looks good enough if you do need to run it at that resolution. Gaming at 3200x1800 was absolutely fantastic though it was an amazing experience. Everything is just so sharp.fancypr007 - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
What's funny is how the previous model used a 1600x900 TN panel screen and at the time the excuse Razer's CEO gave for using it vs using a superior IPS panel was; "this is a gaming laptop and we wanted to use the best screen for gaming."Now they're using a panel that for modern games, you'll never be able to push at anywhere near native resolutions with the included graphics card. Marketing doublespeak.
CaptainCupcakes - Thursday, October 30, 2014 - link
The reasoning for the new QHD+ display was to prove a point of what Razer is actually capable of. The logic behind last year's screen resolution was that if they used a screen that could not outpace their GPU, that the computer would have great performance. They answered the cry of the people with the new display.vol74 - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Best laptop I've ever owned. But Razer made one glaring oversight - they didn't provide a way to disable the trackpad. It's pretty aggravating when a stray thumb triggers it when gaming. Razer support recommended disabling it via the device manager. Unbelievable. Hey Razer, how about an option in Synapse to disable the trackpad when an external mouse is detected?HiTechObsessed - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Crazy expensive. You can get the CyberPowerPC thin-and-light with an 870m for $1100, and even has a slightly better CPU. This is ungodly expensive, for lower gaming performance.synaesthetic - Monday, October 20, 2014 - link
What's the point of that absurd resolution if the GPU can't even push games at 1920x1080 to a decent framerate? You're just going to have to play the games in 1600x900 anyway to get any kind of decent performance, so why bother with the super-high resolution panel if it's not even going to get used?The only logic I can detect behind this decision is that the resolution is exactly four times that of 1600x900 and would scale down to that resolution without interpolation.
ins1dious - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Seeing as how you compared the 2014 Blade to an rMBP on weight, build, battery etc... can you include the gaming scores for the rMBP as well? Obviously under bootcamp... curious as to how far behind the rMBP's 750M performance is