My Dell M4400 is using a T9400 C2D + Quadro 1700M, about 75W total and kicks out a lot of heat due to lack of turbo modes. While already quite thick, I need the battery slice for a total of 130WH just to get a few decent hours of battery life while on travel, so no idea how they're going to manage here. The 900p TN panel is the main killer though; I got this M4400 because of the 19x12 screen (and the price). Moving out of this needs 1080p or 1440p like the KIRAbook.
It's time to start using new AMD Jaguar Kabinis 15-20 watts APUs that run cool and long instead of these overheating Haswell + Nvidia combos. That alone will cut the price by 50% and sell multi-millions instead of being a small selling "boutique" PC.
That would also cut the performance in half and force them to compete with HP, Dell, Asus, etc. It's the other way around. They wouldn't sell multi-millions....they would sell none. Their market is for those willing to pay for a laptop that can actually play high end games, something the AMD APUs cannot do.
The problem is, 765M isn't going to play high end games. It's going to play games on low to medium settings. You're paying over 2k to play games on medium settings.
That's a totally different class of performance. Such machines will exist and there's a large market for them - but that's totally unrelated to this Blade R3.
The GTX 765M will do a lot better with the lower resolution. Its not really that strong.
The GTX 680M in my M17x couldn't even hack max details in many of last year's games at 1080p. If you look at the mobile GPU charts at notebookcheck, you'll see this 765 isn't even close.
Very interested in that 14" Blade, you're right, nothing else out there really comes close to matching this much power in such a thin package. Hope it's a high quality 900P panel, looking forward to your hands on.
The GTX 765M appears to have roughly twice the rendering horsepower but the exact same amount of memory bandwidth as the outgoing GTX 660M. Is that right?
I'm looking at 768 cores @ 850+ MHz for the 765M vs 384 cores @ 835 MHz for the 660M, or twice the cores at roughly the same clock speed. The numbers are from the 700M article. How did you arrive at the 50% faster estimate?
I agree, although I wouldn't buy one, I'm quite interested in how that fares. That much battery life, that thin, with that much power packed it? It sounds too good to be true.
It also makes me wonder why even a basic discreet GPU can't be shoved into the 13" rMBP.
Honestly, I don't see why people want 1080p on that small of a screen. IMO, the resolution's too low to scale well, but too high to be used unscaled. I think the 1600x900p screen is fine, though I'd rather see a 16:10 aspect ratio. I agree with the IPS and the 256GB SSD, but not 1080p. I appear to be in the minority on that, though.
You mister are a gentleman and a scholar, until windows learns how to use correctly the high PPI panels (the way iOS and Android does) I would happily keep de 1600x900 resolution at this size of display, also totally agree with both Vivek and you IPS and a larger SSD is a must in this price point.
The only other thing that bothers me is the weight, I've been spoiled by sub-4 pound systems too long to take a step back, maybe next generation :D
I'm a proud user of a Vaio S13 Premium (2012, core i5 IVB, GT 640M LE) and I couldn't agree more about how sad is that ultrabook effectively killed the real powerfull AND portable machines, thanks for giving me hope again Razer :-)
Having used a 1080P screen on my Z (SVZ) and a 900P on my wife's Z (Z2), I'd be perfectly happy with 900P as long as it's a GOOD panel. Would put less strain on the GPU gaming at native resolution as well, seeing as though it's a solid mobile chip, it's still lacking compared to the desktop siblings. Scaling resolution never looks good if it was 1080P and had to drop for performance reasons. 900P with AF/AA on a 14" screen, sounds good to me.
The only thing that has me worried is if Razer decided to build the perfect notebook for me only to crush me with a sub-par panel. Eagerly awaiting Anandtech's hands on!
Speak for yourself. I happily use 1920x1200 on a 15" laptop with no scaling and would love an unscaled 14" 1080p screen (although would prefer 16:10 ratio).
I don't see where I was speaking for someone else or implying what other people think besides what appears to be correct, in saying that most people want to see 1080p on a 14" panel...
I just might buy that 14" Blade. It's certainly powerful enough for an on-the-go laptop for gaming. Only things that worry me are: A) Possiblity of a glossy screen -- can't stand glossy screens. B) Windows 8 -- This is easily remedied, but just the thought worries me. You can go on and on about how windows 8 isn't so bad without a touchscreen, but you probably won't change my mind (as if I'd listen to some random person's thoughts on the internet anyways).
Ditto that - My M18x's glossy screen bothers me on a very sunny day.
And as for Windows 8, there is some things to like, (I virtualize, to test Linux Distros & configs, so as not to upset live networks systems with a possible non-working config, and Hyper-V is now my favorite for this).
But in the end, as a gamer, I didn't like all those extra open network-sockets, due to tiles accessing the network, that I never cared for to be on my system in the first place. And despite the hype on the performance benefits, I noticed a 10% decline is single-threaded performance when using my SuperPi as a quick & dirty benchmark. So no, Win 8 had to go.
Win 7 is my favourite, and that is that.
As for this Blade Pro, if I didn't play my games in all their max details, and expect ridiculously-high frame rates all the time, OR, if I gave up gaming (which I should do, far too much time wasted, ha ha), I'd buy this computer in a heart beat. No joke. So come on, make with a matt screen option, and some cool new resoultions, and I might even buy one for my mom. I reckon she'd love it.
If the only difference between the 14 and 17 is the screen resolution and the 17 isn't more than 1080P, I would say the 14 is the better deal even though the res. is to low.
that´s alot of power, maybe a bit to much. ideally they would have gone with a 37w quad core and a gtx760m, but if they went with the overclocked versions, im sure tests have shown to be possible and safe, it´s going to be an interesting review
I don't need a gaming laptop, just one powerful enough to easily run Cisco, VMware and Microsoft labs. If the 14" was actually a 15.5" with an IPS touch panel, and I could put 16GB RAM in it, I would seriously consider it.
If they also optioned it with GT4 graphics on a higher spec'd CPU and removed the dedicated graphics, I reckon they would be able to cater for a whole other market. Might have to see what DELL bring out in Haswell.
"Based on the marketing materials and videos provided, it seems like the intended market for the 17” Blade Pro has shifted towards creative professionals – game designers, filmmakers and video producers, graphic artists, even musicians. The change makes sense, given the similarities the Blade Pro has to another favorite of creative professionals, the dearly departed 17” MacBook Pro. Razer has also added Switchblade apps for Photoshop, Premiere, Maya, GIMP, and other popular photo, video, and audio creation programs to leverage the unique abilities of the SBUI panel."
And they're trying to sell a laptop with a TN panel to artists and people using photoshop professionally? Really? Are they stupid?
Given how lame of a deal it is already (given that they could even just lift the board from the 14 inch and drop it in the 17) the TN panel should be a dealbreaker.
So many macusers have been using macbooks for PS for a long time before Apple recently introduced IPS in their recent "retina" gear(the only macbooks with IPS). So no, they are not stupid. These kits being aimed more at gamers first, TN is desirable over IPS.
Is it too much to ask for a Windows laptop that isn't a Mac clone? Sheesh, it is as if original designs are impossible to come up with. To be clear, I hate Apple.
Look at the thermal envelope, look at the size of the chassis, that tells you all you need to know. This is innovation in engineering, the panel is just a spec (and 1080p IPS 14" LCD panels actually don't exist). You can do 1080p TN or 900p IPS, but not both unless you either upsize to 15.6" or downsize to 13.3".
You know what would make this the killer notebook and instant buy? IGZO display, high quality 3200*1800 panel Thunderbolt, so I can dock this babe and get all the ports and more when Im at home or work 16GB wont be unpleasant at all as well.
In the end I think it will really shine next year with maxwell, broadwell, DDR4, thunderbolt 2.0 and more IGZO panels availability
Thunderbolt port? Will they please put a Thunderbolt port on the 14 inch model so I can give them my money? (in case you're wondering why I want a Thunderbolt port, if you want to live stream video into a computer, you still only have one option: Firewire...which no one puts on computers anymore...but you can get a Firewire/Thunderbolt adapter)
Can you buy the 17" with 16GB of RAM? As I recall they void the warranty on the older R2 blade if you open it up to add more RAM. 8GB isn't really enough for Premiere Pro etc.
was planning to get the Retina MBP 15" but am now considering the 14" Razer Blade though it has a number of drawbacks IMO...
- the lack of an IPS screen, TN screen sure has better refresh but marginally so, most gamers would not be able to notice the difference and those who does, wouldn't be gaming on a 14" laptop
- 128GB SSD for the price they're asking for. - relatively short battery life, battery life will most likely be int he 4hr mark in practical real world usage. - lack of a SD card reader - fingerprints prone casing - large bright green razer logo on outer shell makes it unsuitable for professional use (a black tape over it solves that problem though) - green backlit keyboard illumination is uneven and the colour makes it all the more obvious
I take no issue with the 1600x900 display at 14 inches. I think that's a well chosen resolution for the size and even more so for the GTX 765M, which is a bit short on power for 1080p in many games.
1600x900 will make for a very useful improvement in fps and / or less heat and noise.
A TN panel doesn't sound great, as you mention. What I keep trying to find out is the refresh and if it can render 3D.
Further, the interior shot looks a lot like the thing uses 2x mSATA SSDs.. any comment on that? did you open it yourself?
Are you kidding me? - Shipping only US and Canada. What the hell. I can't buy it neither in Moscow nor in Paris. This is crazy. A company like razer can't open 2 retailer stores in the biggest cities of the world. Oh come on - fire your marketing managers immediately. Stupid stupid stupid stupid
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IanCutress - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
My Dell M4400 is using a T9400 C2D + Quadro 1700M, about 75W total and kicks out a lot of heat due to lack of turbo modes. While already quite thick, I need the battery slice for a total of 130WH just to get a few decent hours of battery life while on travel, so no idea how they're going to manage here. The 900p TN panel is the main killer though; I got this M4400 because of the 19x12 screen (and the price). Moving out of this needs 1080p or 1440p like the KIRAbook.axien86 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
It's time to start using new AMD Jaguar Kabinis 15-20 watts APUs that run cool and long instead of these overheating Haswell + Nvidia combos. That alone will cut the price by 50% and sell multi-millions instead of being a small selling "boutique" PC.Jaybus - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
That would also cut the performance in half and force them to compete with HP, Dell, Asus, etc. It's the other way around. They wouldn't sell multi-millions....they would sell none. Their market is for those willing to pay for a laptop that can actually play high end games, something the AMD APUs cannot do.RAWRscary - Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - link
The problem is, 765M isn't going to play high end games. It's going to play games on low to medium settings. You're paying over 2k to play games on medium settings.MrSpadge - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
That's a totally different class of performance. Such machines will exist and there's a large market for them - but that's totally unrelated to this Blade R3.n13L5 - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
The GTX 765M will do a lot better with the lower resolution. Its not really that strong.The GTX 680M in my M17x couldn't even hack max details in many of last year's games at 1080p.
If you look at the mobile GPU charts at notebookcheck, you'll see this 765 isn't even close.
QwaarJet - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Very interested in that 14" Blade, you're right, nothing else out there really comes close to matching this much power in such a thin package. Hope it's a high quality 900P panel, looking forward to your hands on.QwaarJet - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Just realized it's as thin as my Vaio Z (SVZ), very impressive.ViperV990 - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
The GTX 765M appears to have roughly twice the rendering horsepower but the exact same amount of memory bandwidth as the outgoing GTX 660M. Is that right?JarredWalton - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Not quite twice the compute thanks to higher clocks on the 660M -- it's more like 50% faster GPU, same bandwidth.Meaker10 - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
But get's back up to 2x with the boost clock ;)Performance is on a level with the outgoing 670MX.
Also the GTX660M and GT750M are both GK107 based with the 760M being GK106.
ViperV990 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
I'm looking at 768 cores @ 850+ MHz for the 765M vs 384 cores @ 835 MHz for the 660M, or twice the cores at roughly the same clock speed. The numbers are from the 700M article. How did you arrive at the 50% faster estimate?JarredWalton - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Sorry -- was thinking 760M vs. 660M, not 765M. Doh! Too many numbers.ViperV990 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
No worries.I do remember the DDR3 variants of GK107 being severely bandwidth-limited. Hopefully it won't be as bad with the 765M.
Anyway, if the 14" Blade somehow manages to keep thermals in check, the next Edge will be very exciting.
tipoo - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
I agree, although I wouldn't buy one, I'm quite interested in how that fares. That much battery life, that thin, with that much power packed it? It sounds too good to be true.It also makes me wonder why even a basic discreet GPU can't be shoved into the 13" rMBP.
nevertell - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Because then it could be worth the price.Spunjji - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
It could be, they just don't wanna. ;)DigitalFreak - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
For that price, the base model should be shipping with a 1080p IPS screen and 256GB SSD.Inteli - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Honestly, I don't see why people want 1080p on that small of a screen. IMO, the resolution's too low to scale well, but too high to be used unscaled. I think the 1600x900p screen is fine, though I'd rather see a 16:10 aspect ratio. I agree with the IPS and the 256GB SSD, but not 1080p. I appear to be in the minority on that, though.Winterblade - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
You mister are a gentleman and a scholar, until windows learns how to use correctly the high PPI panels (the way iOS and Android does) I would happily keep de 1600x900 resolution at this size of display, also totally agree with both Vivek and you IPS and a larger SSD is a must in this price point.The only other thing that bothers me is the weight, I've been spoiled by sub-4 pound systems too long to take a step back, maybe next generation :D
I'm a proud user of a Vaio S13 Premium (2012, core i5 IVB, GT 640M LE) and I couldn't agree more about how sad is that ultrabook effectively killed the real powerfull AND portable machines, thanks for giving me hope again Razer :-)
QwaarJet - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Having used a 1080P screen on my Z (SVZ) and a 900P on my wife's Z (Z2), I'd be perfectly happy with 900P as long as it's a GOOD panel. Would put less strain on the GPU gaming at native resolution as well, seeing as though it's a solid mobile chip, it's still lacking compared to the desktop siblings. Scaling resolution never looks good if it was 1080P and had to drop for performance reasons. 900P with AF/AA on a 14" screen, sounds good to me.The only thing that has me worried is if Razer decided to build the perfect notebook for me only to crush me with a sub-par panel. Eagerly awaiting Anandtech's hands on!
Gigaplex - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Speak for yourself. I happily use 1920x1200 on a 15" laptop with no scaling and would love an unscaled 14" 1080p screen (although would prefer 16:10 ratio).Inteli - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
I don't see where I was speaking for someone else or implying what other people think besides what appears to be correct, in saying that most people want to see 1080p on a 14" panel...rwei - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Dang, blast from the past. I still have an A8Jp sitting in my closet.Inteli - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
I just might buy that 14" Blade. It's certainly powerful enough for an on-the-go laptop for gaming. Only things that worry me are:A) Possiblity of a glossy screen -- can't stand glossy screens.
B) Windows 8 -- This is easily remedied, but just the thought worries me. You can go on and on about how windows 8 isn't so bad without a touchscreen, but you probably won't change my mind (as if I'd listen to some random person's thoughts on the internet anyways).
Notmyusualid - Sunday, June 2, 2013 - link
Ditto that - My M18x's glossy screen bothers me on a very sunny day.And as for Windows 8, there is some things to like, (I virtualize, to test Linux Distros & configs, so as not to upset live networks systems with a possible non-working config, and Hyper-V is now my favorite for this).
But in the end, as a gamer, I didn't like all those extra open network-sockets, due to tiles accessing the network, that I never cared for to be on my system in the first place. And despite the hype on the performance benefits, I noticed a 10% decline is single-threaded performance when using my SuperPi as a quick & dirty benchmark. So no, Win 8 had to go.
Win 7 is my favourite, and that is that.
As for this Blade Pro, if I didn't play my games in all their max details, and expect ridiculously-high frame rates all the time, OR, if I gave up gaming (which I should do, far too much time wasted, ha ha), I'd buy this computer in a heart beat. No joke. So come on, make with a matt screen option, and some cool new resoultions, and I might even buy one for my mom. I reckon she'd love it.
Spunjji - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
Start8 is the best investment I have made in a long time.warezme - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
If the only difference between the 14 and 17 is the screen resolution and the 17 isn't more than 1080P, I would say the 14 is the better deal even though the res. is to low.nunomoreira10 - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
that´s alot of power, maybe a bit to much.ideally they would have gone with a 37w quad core and a gtx760m, but if they went with the overclocked versions, im sure tests have shown to be possible and safe, it´s going to be an interesting review
VivekGowri - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
It was a 37W quad, I corrected myself on Twitter but not on here. My bad.gxtoast - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
I don't need a gaming laptop, just one powerful enough to easily run Cisco, VMware and Microsoft labs. If the 14" was actually a 15.5" with an IPS touch panel, and I could put 16GB RAM in it, I would seriously consider it.If they also optioned it with GT4 graphics on a higher spec'd CPU and removed the dedicated graphics, I reckon they would be able to cater for a whole other market. Might have to see what DELL bring out in Haswell.
HisDivineOrder - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
"Based on the marketing materials and videos provided, it seems like the intended market for the 17” Blade Pro has shifted towards creative professionals – game designers, filmmakers and video producers, graphic artists, even musicians. The change makes sense, given the similarities the Blade Pro has to another favorite of creative professionals, the dearly departed 17” MacBook Pro. Razer has also added Switchblade apps for Photoshop, Premiere, Maya, GIMP, and other popular photo, video, and audio creation programs to leverage the unique abilities of the SBUI panel."And they're trying to sell a laptop with a TN panel to artists and people using photoshop professionally? Really? Are they stupid?
lmcd - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Given how lame of a deal it is already (given that they could even just lift the board from the 14 inch and drop it in the 17) the TN panel should be a dealbreaker.ananduser - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
So many macusers have been using macbooks for PS for a long time before Apple recently introduced IPS in their recent "retina" gear(the only macbooks with IPS). So no, they are not stupid. These kits being aimed more at gamers first, TN is desirable over IPS.WaitingForNehalem - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
Is it too much to ask for a Windows laptop that isn't a Mac clone? Sheesh, it is as if original designs are impossible to come up with. To be clear, I hate Apple.dsumanik - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Not all bad, but definatley not all good.shit rez.
TN panel.
Yes, fps will be higher for gaming at this rez but hey you can always turn rez down...can't turn it up.
apple had the same laptop years ago....wheres the innovation?
(no im not a fanboy apple sucks and they are finally going down thank god)
As a sonsumer im not buying anything low DPI anymore. Its old tech sold at next gen prices.
Love the black chassis, love msata standard (upgradeable) disk, badass trackpad.
VivekGowri - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Look at the thermal envelope, look at the size of the chassis, that tells you all you need to know. This is innovation in engineering, the panel is just a spec (and 1080p IPS 14" LCD panels actually don't exist). You can do 1080p TN or 900p IPS, but not both unless you either upsize to 15.6" or downsize to 13.3".Xinn3r - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Price aside, this is seriously one drool-worthy machine,I mean, for those specs, in a body that thin and light, who wouldn't want one?
Karamazovmm1 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
You know what would make this the killer notebook and instant buy?IGZO display, high quality 3200*1800 panel
Thunderbolt, so I can dock this babe and get all the ports and more when Im at home or work
16GB wont be unpleasant at all as well.
In the end I think it will really shine next year with maxwell, broadwell, DDR4, thunderbolt 2.0 and more IGZO panels availability
Krafty1 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Thunderbolt port? Will they please put a Thunderbolt port on the 14 inch model so I can give them my money?(in case you're wondering why I want a Thunderbolt port, if you want to live stream video into a computer, you still only have one option: Firewire...which no one puts on computers anymore...but you can get a Firewire/Thunderbolt adapter)
uzun - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Can you buy the 17" with 16GB of RAM? As I recall they void the warranty on the older R2 blade if you open it up to add more RAM. 8GB isn't really enough for Premiere Pro etc.ReiszRie - Sunday, June 2, 2013 - link
was planning to get the Retina MBP 15" but am now considering the 14" Razer Blade though it has a number of drawbacks IMO...- the lack of an IPS screen, TN screen sure has better refresh but marginally so, most gamers would not be able to notice the difference and those who does, wouldn't be gaming on a 14" laptop
- 128GB SSD for the price they're asking for.
- relatively short battery life, battery life will most likely be int he 4hr mark in practical real world usage.
- lack of a SD card reader
- fingerprints prone casing
- large bright green razer logo on outer shell makes it unsuitable for professional use (a black tape over it solves that problem though)
- green backlit keyboard illumination is uneven and the colour makes it all the more obvious
n13L5 - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
I take no issue with the 1600x900 display at 14 inches. I think that's a well chosen resolution for the size and even more so for the GTX 765M, which is a bit short on power for 1080p in many games.1600x900 will make for a very useful improvement in fps and / or less heat and noise.
A TN panel doesn't sound great, as you mention. What I keep trying to find out is the refresh and if it can render 3D.
Further, the interior shot looks a lot like the thing uses 2x mSATA SSDs.. any comment on that? did you open it yourself?
timurus - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Are you kidding me? - Shipping only US and Canada. What the hell. I can't buy it neither in Moscow nor in Paris. This is crazy. A company like razer can't open 2 retailer stores in the biggest cities of the world. Oh come on - fire your marketing managers immediately. Stupid stupid stupid stupid