Razer Blade -- Discuss

[Hedonist]

Originally Posted by Kevin_Jack2.0

If the Blade really has the 96-shader, 128-bit GDDR5 version, the Mac's 6750M is like 25% faster than that particular 555M.

I'd rather take the Apple and dual boot Windows.

And MAC looks cooler

I'd rather buy Sager or AW with that kind of price than Blade.

[Dakks]

Originally Posted by saturnotaku

Well, I was giving Razer the benefit of the doubt, but looking at the specs again, they claim it's the 2 GB 555M, which would most likely be the one you describe. In that case, yes, the Mac will outperform the Blade in graphics as well.

Razer is designing a supposed "gaming" laptop and is getting shown up by Apple in the hardware department.

Tremendous fail indeed.

But hey, it's the first real portable 17in sleek-looking with-a-cool-touchpad gaminglaptop to ever be released!

[HTWingNut]

Originally Posted by Dakks

Tremendous fail indeed.

But hey, it's the first real portable 17in sleek-looking with-a-cool-touchpad gaminglaptop to ever be released!

There's gotta be a cool acronym tucked in there somewhere!

[hteng]

Originally Posted by HisDivineShadow

I'm a fan of the Razer branding. I like their color scheme. I think this laptop looks slick. I also think that its price is absolutely betrayed by its DUAL core CPU and its GPU. Sure, it'll run most games, but it won't be "defining PC gaming" with high settings with those specs.

Thing is, a lot of games are coming with, "Quad core" recommended now. I disagree with Intel even calling anything DUAL CORE an i7, but that was the only way to make this thing look high end, right?

The price is way, way too much. I mean, wow. I have to wonder if this isn't an ad campaign to get everyone saying, "That's great, but it's way too expensive" and then they'll release it at a much lower price and cry, "We managed to make it cheaper because we're great!" And then everyone'll cheer as they buy the $2k laptop (instead of $2800) because they'll be able to say, "I'm SAVING money!"

If they had announced a $2k MSRP, there would have been complaints about that, too. But dropping the price down from $2800 isn't really that hard...

The other logic might be they're treating this like a high end video card. Get the Razer Blade name out there, then release a lower cost, lower featured option afterward that rides on the coat tails of the more expensive one. If that's so, they seriously miscalculated because I'm not sure how far the Dual Core+GF555 is going to carry them.

The gamer wants a cheaper option with reliable gaming hardware (great GPU, great CPU). Kinda like the Asus ROG used to be (back in the days of G50's with 9800GS or 260M, G73 with Radeon 5800, not like the crippled Best Buy laptops they make now) when you could get a great gaming laptop for $1k-ish easily and reliably.

Asus has pushed their uncrippled up to the $1500 point since Gateway's FX series faded from Best Buy and there are no competitors in the point to put emphasis on things.

Razer COULD have brought PC gaming down to the masses with a fully realized, integrated, great laptop for gaming that had a nice, modern black look with no silly frills in favor of solid specs. Instead, they give us a Macbook Air for gaming with a price higher even than Apple and specs that just don't justify the premium imo.

If it DOES in fact sell for $2800, I don't think they'll have to sell very many to make a profit at that price. I suspect they'll be making a profit on every laptop sold, especially as times goes on.

I think perhaps they jumped the gun when they should have released a laptop on this form factor and around this idea around the time of AMD Trinity using the APU (combined CPU+GPU) to do both, save money, produce less heat, and give us good-ish performance. Use the specialization to install insanely high speed DDR3 RAM to help boost the GPU performance. This would, of course, have to happen next year when AMD Trinity is scheduled to release and replace Llano.

In the meantime, they could have given us the Razer Disposable. A $500 all black laptop with the highest spec Llano, highspeed, quality 6-8GB DDR3 overclocked by the factory to improve memory subsystem performance with the integrated GPU, a thinner form factor, no lights or stupid touchpad LCD's, decent speakers, an average quality 15" screen, and a Deathadder mouse with option to upgrade to Mamba, Naga/Epic, or Orochi. Market it as, "Why buy a $2k laptop every two years when you can have a new gaming machine every year for $500?" Position it against the consoles. Include the option for an extra $100 for a specialized wireless HDMI kit and include an HDMI port.

Get gaming computers out on every street corner and use the opportunity to sell your specialized peripherals (like a N52te replacement that uses the Switchblade panel, Razer mice, headphones, etc.) to an insanely growing market already bound to the Razer brand. Razer worked with Valve/Steam on Portal 2 for Sixense. Do it again, make a custom UI for Steam (already possible), integrate drivers for the computer into Steam's driver update program, and make Steam the front end for the whole software experience for the laptop. Have Valve marketing your laptop FOR YOU by partnering with them and giving them that "bottom, baseline spec" they want to list as a great "min recommended." Toss in a free Portal 2. From there, you can take on console gaming itself. Branch out into offering HTPC's built like consoles for lower than console prices that integrate a Razer Onza and a "large Steam UI" for living room use. Steam already promised they're working on it. Use that.

Even if you knock the price up from $500 to $700 on the laptop, you're still in a market that few gaming computer companies target regularly or well. Do you do any of that? All of which would be great and get gamers back into PC gaming? Of course not. Instead you go high end pricing on a mid-range computer. It's like you have more money than sense. Or want to.

walll of text but i actually read all of that, good read and i agree

[dkillone]

Originally Posted by hteng

walll of text but i actually read all of that, good read and i agree

I agree with everything in that quote too. Great points, great ideas, too bad it will never happen. I'd be all for it though, sounds like Razer just needs to hire him, I'd think they could make much more money implementing his ideas, while also creating a whole new competitive market.

[Ridge747]

Originally Posted by GamingACU

I could actually seeing it being more useful for a lefty... It's much closer to the arrow keys than "wasd" (I assume that's how lefty's play, I could be wrong though). Unless they expect us right handers to take our hands off our mouse...which is a terrible idea.

i wud have to cross my hand to use it haha

[Oats04]

THe Razor Blade Laptop Ships with a 256 SSD!!!!

Razer's Combat Knife-Inspired Blade Gaming Laptop Will Be Home For Christmas

"After the announcement of the Razer Blade, they were floored with the response from the press and the community and we managed to negotiate a price down for the components. We were able to convince them to bring the cost down and with the cost savings; we decided to upgrade the 320GB HDD to a 256 SSD drive."

256 SSD and price stays same, so they reduced the price around 400$ give or take

If they just upgrade the 555m gpu to a mere 560m, I would buy it for 2800$, what do u guys think?

[ShinAkuma135]

i would at max pay like $1600-1700 for this...

[HTWingNut]

Throw in an SSD that probably scored at mass buy for $250 and they call it good? Even with a GTX 560m, still barely worth $1500.

Their markup is clearly quite high if they can go from a 320GB HDD to a 256GB SSD without worrying. Granted with the cost of hard drives skyrocketing, the difference is smaller but still a $150 difference. I can bet their markup is $1000.

If this launched 18 months ago, I could almost understand an $1800 price tag with 256GB SSD and GTX 560m. But now, no way.

[Star Forge]

It looks like the ridiculous price tag was due to in part by their bribes or erm... "Mark-ups" the vendors instated on Razer. In other words the vendors are laughing at Razer right now for their gullibility and are profiting from a flop lol.