The Razer Blade Review
by Vivek Gowri & Jarred Walton on March 15, 2012 3:01 AM ESTThe matte display is beautiful. Razer specced the Blade with an AU Optronics B173HW01 V.5, one of the higher-end 17.3” display panels found in gaming notebooks today. The contrast ratio is pretty stellar at 806:1, trailing only the ASUS G74SX, and the maximum brightness of 250nits is decent. The color gamut is also excellent, exceeding the sRGB color space at 84.6% of the AdobeRGB 1998 color space. The one issue we found in our testing was the color accuracy, which was slightly poorer than average.
The decision to spec the Blade with a matte display is one that should be commended highly—the matte screen finish trend is slowly but surely re-emerging in notebooks, and it's a change that can’t start happening quickly enough. My only real complaint is that in a notebook of this caliber, it would have been nice to see an IPS display. We’re seeing a lot of tablets get IPS panels, as well as some of the smaller thin and lights or ultraportables, but other than relatively specialized models (the Sony SE16, HP Envy 15, etc.) and workstation models, we haven’t seen the kind of widespread shift to IPS technology that we would like to.
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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.