The New Razer Blade: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Vivek Gowri on October 3, 2012 5:40 PM ESTRazer Blade (late 2012) - Display
Razer stuck with the AUO B173HW01 V.5 panel for the updated Blade. The 17.3” 1080p display is a good one, and we had no real issues with it last time around. This one was brighter and more accurate than our original Blade’s display panel but also had a slightly poorer contrast ratio. These metrics are all based on relative quality of different manufacturing batches of the same display, so it’s all up to the panel lottery gods. As before, color gamut and viewing angles are stellar (by TN standards, at least).
I asked Min about the possibility of seeing an IPS panel somewhere down the road when I met him at PAX this year. He seemed relatively unenthusiastic about it, citing concerns about display response time (I imagine that cost, too, was a factor). The AUO panel being used is high quality enough that it’s not a strict necessity for Razer to go IPS yet, especially considering that workstation-grade machines are some of the few 17” systems to feature IPS displays at present. But as we go forward and IPS panels become commonplace in larger displays (they’ve already started popping up in midrange 15.6” notebooks like the Sony VAIO SE and Vizio CT15), Razer will want to make the jump.
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VivekGowri - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - link
rMBP + Windows?Flunk - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
I've considered it, a lot of people have told me that it has throttling and overheating issues while gaming in Windows. Also the native resolution is really inconvenient for running windows programs on.Imp@sse - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Why didnt you compare the MSI GT70 ONE?JarredWalton - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
You mean the iBUYPOWER CZ-17? Or are you talking about a different GT70 chassis?AppleRules123 - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
I can't believe how much this sucks. This laptop is a blatant rip-off of the MacBook Pro from Apple. This is exactly the same as the MacBook Pro 2010 model, and the 2010 model is more powerful than this load of garbage. Who the heck do Razer think they are? Stealing Apple's designs for their laptops and making them worse. I'm getting sick and tired of industry clowns stealing Apple's innovations. Apple should definately sue Razer for this joke of a laptop.piroroadkill - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
If you're not a shill, I feel pity for you.Still, great comment.
VivekGowri - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
That comment made my day.TareX - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
This laptop is exactly what I want: A portable, good looking 17" laptop with enough horsepower to play most my games at decent fps. That's it. Of course I know it's no 680M, but there are currently no laptops with the 680M that aren't as thick as bricks. I'm buying this as soon as I can afford it, which should be within the next two months. If a similarly (or comparably, at least) thin laptop with a 680M makes an appearance, I'll get that one. I'm not interested in Switchblade UI or the extra panel (unless you can use it for foreign letter input, which Razer hasn't implemented yet), so I'm really getting this because of the extremely unique blend of good looks and good specs. The price comes with the rarity of this blend.NeBlackCat - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Can we please have a 1920x1200 product please?AppleRules123 - Friday, October 5, 2012 - link
Get a retina MacBook. It's way better than this load of garbage.