The Razer Blade Review
by Vivek Gowri & Jarred Walton on March 15, 2012 3:01 AM ESTOur Enthusiast tests, which run at 1080p with maximum settings and 4xAA enabled, makes the GT 555M look pretty bad—Portal is the only result over 30fps, though overall the results weren’t too much worse than the GTX 560. Even low amounts of anti-aliasing seem to really kill the framerates and overall smoothness of gameplay, so I’d definitely recommend disabling it.
Razer Blade, Enthusiast Settings
The Blade wasn’t meant to be a GPU monster, only to offer adequate gaming performance in a portable package. And the GT 555M holds up the adequate side of that bargain, with reasonable performance in mid-level gaming modes . I’d liked to have seen a GTX 560 instead to provide more consistent performance at 1080p, but it’s likely that a higher end GPU wouldn’t have fit within Razer’s thermal design constraints.
It's also worth mentioning Kepler here. Though much of the new 28nm GPU is still under wraps, we did benchmark the GT 640M earlier in the Acer TimelineU M3. It's about 5-10% slower than the Blade's GT 555M but that's with DDR3 vs. GDDR5. Without being able to share more details about the graphics core, clock speeds, or anything else, it's not a comparison that we can shed too much light on. Kepler is the next generation of NVIDIA's GPUs, so as such, performance and efficiency are expected to improve. I'd like to see a midlife refresh of the Blade with a Kepler-based GPU inside; it would go a long way towards quelling the fears about GPU performance especially in the long run.
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Swirlser - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
Looks pretty, but really any "gamer" that drops several grand on a laptop on the eve of both a gpu and cpu shrink has far more money than sense.Didnt read full article - but if its available now, order it *immediately*, coz if you wait a few weeks its going to be officially past its sell by date on its very first boot up ;-p (not a great start for the "World's first true gaming laptop" o.O)
DelicateThunder - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
On the first page, "6.4 lbs 1.36kg". Seems more like 2.9kg for me.Death666Angel - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
A lot of gimmicks that are not necessarily wanted by gamers, mediocre hardware for the money and for gaming, a price tag that has to compete with more powerful offers and a thinness that I don't think gamers really need.... So who is this thing for?Xuvial - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
So basically this is aimed at people who are willing to shell out stupid amounts of money just so they can get their hands on something that LOOKS different.Got it.
bryanlarsen - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
Lots of haters here in the comments, but I think it's a fabulous design.What I'm looking for:
- good portability
- great screen
- excellent CPU performance for work
- nice design that's not exactly the same as every other laptop in the coffee shop
- enough performance to adequately play the occasional game of Skyrim or Civ5.
That trackpad design is absolutely brilliant. Trackpad on the right makes so much more sense than below the keyboard. Topped with a bunch of macro keys in a very convenient location (when your right hand is using the trackpad: most of the time, in other words).
What's turning me off:
- crappy keyboard for work
- irritating fan noise
- lack of Linux support (assumption, but probably a safe one)
looking forward to the ivy bridge / kepler refresh
aferox - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
I do like some of the things Razer has done with this, especially the weight. However, the Razer Blade was obviously designed by right-handed individuals for right-handed individuals. As a leftie, I would consider this design impossible to use. My mouse would be on the left, where all of those ports and that hot air come out. That touchpad on the right? Exactly where I don't want it. Most designs do not really cater to left handers, but they can be used without too much fuss. Not this.snide23 - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
I'm with you. I know quite of few of us leftie gamers who wouldn't consider this setup. But apparently we are a minority.KaRRiLLioN - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
I'm a leftie, but I've always moused with my right hand.pyrthas - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
I understand the complaint, but for gaming, I'd much rather have it on the right, so that I have the extra key under my left hand.piroroadkill - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
Yes, exactly. I think the Fn placement is no cause for concern at all.