The 2014 Razer Blade Review
by Brett Howse on October 10, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Gaming
- Laptops
- Razer Blade
Final Words
The 2013 Razer Blade was a fantastic notebook computer with an abysmal display. For 2014, Razer has put one of the best displays we have ever tested in a laptop into the Blade, and it truly completes the experience. Razer’s slogan is “For Gamers, by Gamers” and we have to first evaluate the Razer Blade as a gaming laptop. Here it succeeds almost completely.
With a quad-core Intel Core i7 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, there is a lot of processing power. The 14 inch Blade runs with larger gaming systems in our benchmarks, and it does all of this without throttling under load. It does get hot, but for the most part it is not hot where you will be touching it.
The high PPI display also looks fantastic when gaming at the native resolution, but the 3200x1800 resolution certainly taxes the available GPU power, and in order to push almost 6 million pixels some of the effects in games will need to be turned down. Luckily this is generally a very easy process for a lot of games due to the GeForce Experience software. If the game you want to play is not in the NVIDIA database though, expect some trial and error to find a frame rate and graphical quality that works for you. Perhaps a 2015 refresh of the system with the GTX 970M will be the solution to this.
If you are looking for a powerful, portable, well-built gaming laptop, you would be hard pressed to find something more pleasing for the task. There are faster systems out there, but they are generally larger and heavier, so you would lose the portability of a 14 inch system. In the past, gaming laptops were meant to move from one table to another, but the Razer Blade has shown that this does not need to be the case.
Portability is one of the biggest aspects of the 2014 Razer Blade. The CNC aluminum body is thin and light. Yet inside is a 70 Wh battery that allows the Blade to be used unplugged from the mains for a reasonable amount of time. Battery life is not record setting, but considering the amount of performance inside and the high PPI display, it is generally adequate.
When you have a system of this quality and price, you have to assume no one is going to buy it just as a system to game on. As a general purpose PC, the Razer Blade is also very good. Performance is very quick due to the Samsung SSD, and the display once again is the star of the show with fantastic color reproduction and great viewing angles. The Blade looks and feels a lot like a 15 inch MacBook Pro, and likely by design.
The two machines both have high resolution displays, strong aluminum bodies, and the size and weight are so close the comparisons are unavoidable. But as a general use laptop, the rMBP does edge the Razer in some key areas. It has a faster CPU, it comes with a default of 512GB PCI-e based SSD, and most importantly it comes with 16GB of memory. The GPU is a much less potent GT 750M though, but for applications that is generally not such a big deal. I would have liked to see Razer bump the memory to 16GB, which would allow the Razer Blade to be used for many more tasks, especially running Virtual Machines.
While I would like to see the 16GB of memory, that does not detract from what is already there. Overall the Razer Blade is a fantastic laptop, with excellent build quality, great acoustics, a powerful CPU and GPU, and now, finally, an amazing display. The 2013 model was well reviewed despite the horrible display, due to the thin and light design. You can see the effort put into the 2014 model to ensure that the mistakes of the last model are rectified, and they certainly are.
The price has crept up a bit over last year though, with the base cost now at $2200 USD. But that is only with 128GB of storage, which really isn't sufficient , so most users will have to jump up to the $2400 USD 256GB model. That's expensive to be sure, but for the money you get one of the best notebooks with one of the best displays money can buy, even several months after launch.
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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.