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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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...