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The saying, "You get what you pay for" gets tossed around a lot, but sometimes this proverb doesn't always ring true. At $2,500, the new 17.3" Razer Blade gaming laptop certainly is expensive, but is it worth it?
Click the play button to check out our hands-on impressions of the Razer Blade laptop
Specs
The Razer Blade features Intel's newly revealed Intel Core i7 3632QM Quad Core CPU, which features a base block of 2.2GHz and overclocks up to 3.2GHz with turbo boost. In terms of discrete graphics, the gaming laptop features Nvidia's GeForce GTX 660m GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory. Tying the CPU and GPU together is Optimus Technology, which allows the laptop to switch between NVIDIA's discrete graphics and Intel's integrated graphics on the fly. For memory, the Razer Blade features 8GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM.
Storage side, the laptop comes with a 64GB SSD along with a 500GB 7,200rpm mechanical hard drive. This combination gave us impressive boot times, allowing the Blade to boot to Windows within 25 seconds.
In terms of laptop features, the Blade supports up to three 3.0 USB ports, an HDMI port, and comes with a built-in HD webcam.
Design
Aesthetically, the Razer Blade looks a lot like a large, black MacBook. Adding some edge to the layout are green-back lit LED keys which complement the simple and elegant design well.
The chassis features a matte aluminum body that looks sleek. One problem we did encounter, however, was that the surface was a sucker for finger prints. This is a shame considering we really liked placing our hands on the quiet and responsive keyboard.
For the screen, the Blade features an LED-backlit 1080p monitor. Though the monitor looks great head-on, there is a bit of that TN-monitor shimmer when you view it at off angles
Because the 17.3 inch monitor is so massive, the laptop can be cumbersome to use in areas where table space is limited, but at only .88 inches, the Razer Blade is impressively thin. Weighing in around 6 lbs 11 oz, the laptop is by no means light, but it is lighter than similar competitors.
The big feature Razer is touting with the Blade is the multi-touch LCD pad with 10 programmable keys. This will allow you to bind custom gaming commands and to open up programs with a single keystroke. In addition, Razer says it will allow owners to download pre-made settings whenever new, popular games come out. While most laptop touchpads are situated below the keyboard, Razer has opted to place it on the right to act as a gaming mouse replacement. Even though gaming with the touchpad worked better than we expected (about on par with an Xbox 360 controller for shooters), most gamers will want to plug in a USB mouse which would neglect Razer's efforts here. Furthermore, considering we have been conditioned to using touchpads below the keyboard for so long, forcing ourselves to keep our hands to the right felt extremely counterintuitive and downright frustrating at points.
Comments are closed on this article
Ninjawithagun
October 02, 2012 at 8:22am
Waaaayyyyyyyyy overpriced and underpowered. This laptop should cost no more than $2000...NUFF SAID!
dakishimesan
October 01, 2012 at 3:50pm
With Macs, what you were really paying a premium for is the build quality; so if the razor blade has that kind of premium build, there are some customers out there who might justifiably pay the premium.
But I have to say that, in comparison, the retina MacBook Pro which is 2 pounds lighter, has seven hour battery life, 256gb SSD, geforce 650m (only downgrade), and the same processor is a better deal at $2199.
15-inch: 2.3 GHz Retina display
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage 500mb/s read/ 475 write
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
Built-in battery (7 hours)
In Stock
Free Shipping
$2,199.00
Nimrod
October 04, 2012 at 6:09pm
LMFAO no you are not paying for build quality. It is a special tax just for being stupid.
bobthegoat2001
October 02, 2012 at 1:00pm
A couple other downgrades you forgot to mention is the screen size (15" vs 17") and the mouse screen. Just sayin'.
prince_david
October 01, 2012 at 7:25pm
So pay another hundred bucks for Windows to dual boot and it's still less than this and of a higher build quality.
HeartBurnKid
October 01, 2012 at 2:32pm
I really, desperately want to like the Blade. I love the styling, and I love that special trackpad. And if money were no object, I'd own one. But unfortunately, money is an object, and even if I could afford it, there's far more bang to be had for the buck elsewhere.
Still, I guess I should be glad that somebody's at least trying to do something different in the laptop space.
djhicks1
October 01, 2012 at 2:16pm
The ad before the video wasn't skippable and too long to wait through.
Nimrod
October 04, 2012 at 6:11pm
Ad Block Plus. The only site that still has ads in front of the video is Hulu. Theres no fucking way in hell i would ever sit thru a dumb fuck video commercial on the mother fucking internet.
Ad Block Plus
Pyrophorics05
October 01, 2012 at 12:49pm
Between tech used and software/drives, Razer has made some of the worst products in my experience. Maybe building their own machine will allow their own devices to work flawlessly, however I would never trust that amount of money with this company.
Stick with their mouse pads.
RaptorJohnson
October 01, 2012 at 9:41am
I'm curious how well these will sell. It seems like the high end PC gaming customer is pretty well informed about how much hardware should cost.
The people who are willing to spend premiums on their computers without premium performance already have bought Macs.
This seems like a PC that comes with the "Mac Tax" but not the "I've just bought a new apple product and now feel better about myself" thing that makes people camp out in front of stores for yearly incremental upgrades.
tekknyne
October 01, 2012 at 1:50pm
LOL well said. You get what you pay for except in post mortgage-crisis, post oil-futures fail sauce USA, where companies try to charge what they want and if the market isn't aware, snowball people and call it "good business" or "maximizing shareholder value" aka fucking people.
Fortunately for us Razer is hardly the only player in town. Supply-side sounds nice except when people go " $2500? HAH" and move on.
TommM
October 01, 2012 at 9:25am
The term "gaming laptop" is an oxymoron.
Unless you are one of those that has more money than sense, paying that much money to play games on a laptop is just plain dumb.
prince_david
October 01, 2012 at 7:27pm
I've been happy to have a portable gaming laptop for over 4 years now, still runs what I need it to run, and I can take it with me on the road. If you are a person who enjoys games but travels a lot, it's very valuable.
Electrik
October 01, 2012 at 8:32am
You can build a helluva desktop for that much money...in fact, I just did.
TheMissingPiece
September 30, 2012 at 9:17pm
Hey, good job with putting up videos, Jimmy! Look forward to similar posts in the future. It's nice to see the website post videos again.
