The Razer Blade Review
by Vivek Gowri & Jarred Walton on March 15, 2012 3:01 AM ESTRazer decided to go with a dual-core Core i7 instead of a quad, a decision that makes sense given not only the smaller power envelope, but also because of the higher frequencies of the dual-core parts, which should result in better gaming performance. The only configuration of the Blade comes with the fastest dual-core part that Intel ships, the i7-2640M, which has a base clock speed of 2.8GHz and turbo clocks of 3.5GHz and 3.3GHz on one and two cores, respectively.
At one point, Razer planned to ship the Blade with a 320GB 7200RPM drive. Thankfully they switched the platter out for the 256GB Lite-On SSD, because a system this expensive without a standard SSD would be a travesty. Razer has taken advantage of the fast SSD and tuned the Windows install for the fastest possible boot. And it’s pretty blazing—this is the only time I’ve ever seen a system finish booting Windows before the animation finishes. The quantitative representation of the word blazing? 15.6 seconds. It’s quick.
The general application performance is pretty solid and lands about where we expect—it won’t match the quad-core stuff in heavily mulithreaded workloads, but it’s faster than all the other dual-core parts. The SSD gives the Blade a huge boost in PCMark 7, though we’re not huge fans of putting a lot of weight on synthetic benchmarks like Futuremark’s various suites.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
95 Comments
View All Comments
will54 - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
This seems like its more suited for MMO gamers on the go. From the trackpad and programmable buttons to the specs this seems like it would be perfect for WOW , SW TOR or Guild Wars.Roland00Address - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
1) This laptop is for a person who has a lot of money2) Wants to play on ultra
3) Wants a big screen
4) While keeping the weight down
5) For other games this person does not care about, or is willing to play those games on mainstream settings even though this laptop costs over 2.5k
Or maybe I am wrong, maybe the laptop is for people who want to have a pure sexy laptop and don't care what is inside of it?
Roland00Address - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
(sigh, I would kill for an edit button)ShieTar - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
All the images in this article show the keyboard being backlit. Can this be switched off?I already hate that my current notebook has two LEDs that are always on, they really annoy me when I want to watch a movie on it, because they get really distracting at dark scenes.
I can not imagine watching anything on a notebook that has constantly backlit keys.
kevith - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
A 2800$ notebook, very expensive indeed.But what are these people thinking? You pull out this, almost sexy thing. It looks like a million dollars, unique, black, thin and simple, yet advanced.
And everybody goes "Wow" and envy you. And then, as you turn it on, it sounds like a f... hairdryer?!
We could forgive the lack of real gaming-power.
But this is simply not good enough at this pricepoint! Boooh, Razer.
Thanks for reviewing it, because it looks SO stunning, that I would be very tempted to buy it.
But not anymore.
Silma - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
The razer blade looks like a great laptop but not for true gaming. Or perhaps Sudoku or Angry Birds.I'm not buying a laptop to play at anything lower than 1080p and the blade can't do.
In my experience no thin laptop can adequately overcome the heat generated by hours of playing.
That's why I finally purchased an Alienware M17x R2. Yes it's big. Yes it's heavy. But I can play @1920x1200 for hours on end at truly decent fps (>30). It's been 2 years and I don't regret it. Nowadays I would either buy an Alienware or an Asus G but there are very few truly gamers laptop out there.
hotsacoman - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
How do I win this????jigglywiggly - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
lack of 120hz is dissapointingotherwise i wud care
also 17in too big for the weak gpu
silverblue - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Wasn't that Interplay's slogan back in the day?Notmyusualid - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
So many people here are right, Ivy Bridge & Kepler, and this thing is going to rock.I'm in the market for a new gaming laptop, so I'll be watching this one very closely.
Basically it is the most beautiful laptop I've seen...