Razer Blade 14 Unboxing & Review (2014 Edition)

[Ericde95]

Razer Blade 14 (2014 Edition) Unboxing and Review

Overview and Perspective:

I am not one to regularly post reviews on products, but with the vast demand and interest in this product (as well as my fortunate story of how I got my hands on one) I thought it obligatory to write up a review for everyone. This review will be on my opinion of the Razer Blade 14, 2014 edition(referred to as the RB), as well as my customer experience with Razer and the Microsoft Store.

 

The Background Story:

I am leaving for an internship on Wall Street this summer, then off to college in the Fall to Georgetown University, and needed to get myself a portable, powerful, and entertaining system to use for the next four years. I debated between the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro and the Razer Blade 14 (2014 edition) for a while before I ultimately settled upon the Razer Blade because of its uni-body design, build quality, touchscreen, and size (14 inch vs 15.6 inch).

 

I placed an order several weeks ago on Razerzone.com and joined the viciously long line of customers waiting for Razer to ship them their system. I was foolish enough to go directly to the manufacturer (Razer) with my order the first time. Their pre-order fulfillment has been an absolute nightmare for the customers and the Razer Customer Service, with pre-orders from months ago remaining unfulfilled while random customers that ordered recently receiving their units within a few days. It was very hit-or-miss, with only a tiny fraction of the orders receiving their units (and not even the earliest pre-orders either!). Razer gave very little or no information to me or the other customers throughout this process. My order was pushed back to a "late-June" shipping date, which was going to be a nightmare for this summer. You can read the nightmare that has been/currently is going on with the Razer Blade shipping/fulfillment/preorders over on Notebookreview.com here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/razer/749913-2014-razer-blade-14-ship-date-thread.html

 

Eventually, I received word on notebookreview.com from a fellow forum member that the Microsoft Store had published their RB 2014 order page. You could not access this page without knowing the direct link to it, and I am still amazed that I found it (from another user's post). I called up Razer and Microsoft and confirmed their availability of the product. Microsoft said they could ship it out in 2 days (compared to the two months+ that Razer stated), so I quickly cancelled my order from Razer and placed one through Microsoft. I used my new .edu email from Georgetown and was able to also get 10% off the Razer Blade 14 (2014 edition) saving me roughly $240!!! Within 24 hours the Microsoft Store had sold through all of its Razer Blade's and had taken down their product page. I received an order confirmation within 8 hours of my order, and the product shipped with 2 days of my order. My experience with the Microsoft Store, at that point, had been an absolute please.

 

Currently, I am trying to add Microsoft Complete ($200) to my RB in order to protect it from me breaking it (especially the screen). During this process, however, the MS Support has been a pain in the ass and has read off a script the whole time, not understanding what I am trying to do. I'm sure I will figure it out, but for now, I am still on hold as I type this. EDIT: I just finished talking to CS and I was able to use my educational discount and get a 3-year extended warranty for 180$.

 

Unboxing:

The RB came in a box in a box in a box (boxception). Ths shipping box was discretely labeled. The next box was the "Made by gamers for gamers" brown box with black Razer logos across the top and sides. Within that box, surrounded by foam, was the legit black/green Razer box. This box contained the power-brick, laptop, and paperwork. Here are the photos that I took immediately after opening the unit:

 

 

 

Please excuse these photos. I didn't realize how bad my HTC One M8s camera was.... :'( Just got it...

 

As you can see in the last photo, the screen is reflecting an image of the unit it is replacing (my desktop)!

 

Review of Laptop:

Build Quality:

(9.99/10) This laptop is easily the best built piece of technology I have used to date, including MBPs and self-built desktops. The unit is heavier than a MBP but promotes a sense of quality/thickness rather than the frailty of a laptop like the MBP. The uni-body design is cool to the touch but has absolutely no flex on the keyboard/screen, which is a huge gripe of mine with many laptops. Overall, the build quality is top notch. The downsides: the buttons are indeed rather audible/clicky, and the black steel design attracts finger prints very quickly (although they include a cloth, so that remedies it a bit). However, I only deducted 0.01 points for these two things, so obviously I dont mind them much! The logo on the rear of the screen doesnt bother me at all (it has been a complaint over on notebookreview.com) and I will have no qualms whipping this out on a Wall Street board room (which should tell you about the subdued/minimalistic design). That is something that is important to me since I wouldn't want to walk in with some light-show like the GS60 or Alienwares. Not really the type of computer to show off to an important client.

 

Screen:

(8/10) While I don't have experience with the 900p mess of the 2013 edition, the screen on the 2014 does not disappoint at all. I prefer the glossy screen to the matte scree, the all-glass bezel looks sharp, and the pixelage of 3k vs 900p is overall a great attribute(more on that later). The touchscreen feature promotes messy fingerprints and I really don't use it that much, probably just an added unnecessary cost. Th quality of the panel/image is incredible, but not too terribly different from a MBP. The resolution of the screen is rather interesting. It provides extremely sharp images when the program is properly set up the utilize 3k, and then provides messy/blurriness when it is not. I had to switch from Winamp to Spotify to manage my music library since Winamp does not scale to 3k at all. I also had to switch from Chrome to IE since Chrome/Firefox were not working great. So, the 3k screen is a love/hate relationship. I would definitely prefer to have it than not, but its definitely not a perfect solution (yet). With improved scaling, it will be perfect.

 

Keyboard:

(9/10) The keyboard feels absolutely amazing, very responsive, perfect keystroke-length, and back lighting is neat. This is the best laptop keyboard I have used to date and I definitely enjoy it over the SteelSeries keyboards on units like the MSI GS60. The keyboard loses 1 point only due to the combination of the up/down

 

Performance:

(9/10) This can be divided into two different categories: gaming and productivity. As far as productivity goes, this laptop's processor blows all of my applications out of the water. This allows the laptop to sip power and return acceptable results. As far as gaming goes, I have very limited experience. I downloaded The Elder Scrolls Online and ran it at 1800p on high with acceptable frame rates. I will be running it at 1080p on high to conserve battery/performance. The machine got excessively hot after only 10 minutes or so on 1800p and I no longer could game with the unit on my lap. I will report back with more gaming performance later on. I will breakdown my review statistics on the many facets of "performance" below:

• Battery: (8/10) Has performed above my expectations for productivity purposes. It doesn't last very long on battery, but I expected that and really dont care. I hope I am not gaming in public very often anyways lol
• Cooling: (5/10) The laptop doesnt get hot when using productivity/daily life apps (Windwos Office, Netflix, browsing, etc) but excessively hot when gaming on demanding settings. I would not be comfortable with the heat stress on the laptop while gaming on 1800p unless I dumbed down the graphics a lot to reduce stress/heat.
• Graphics: (9/10) The performance is surprising well and not too much different from my GTX 670 WF3 in my desktop at 1080p.
• CPU: (10/10) Best of the best. Really you have no other options.

 

 

Summary

Overall, I love the Razer Blade 14 (2014 edition) and highly recommend it to anyone seeking an ultra-portable, sleek, and powerful rig that will blaze through your daily tasks and still provide an appropriate/usable high-end gaming environment. I wont touch on the price of the unit versus its performance simply because it doesn't compare very well to desktops and I dont have experience with its cheaper competitors (Ghost Pro/Lenovo y50). I can guarantee you, however, that if you can swing the price tag, you will not be disappointed.

 

 

I am looking forward to your questions and will update this thread as I use the RB more.

Ericde95

[Anthony10]

Meh, the thin and lightness still doesn't make me want to buy it instead of a sager or msi notebook for that price...

[Ericde95]

Meh, the thin and lightness still doesn't make me want to buy it instead of a sager or msi notebook for that price...

I wouldn't want to whip out an Alienware or MSI light-show when presenting in a Wall Street board room. I turn off the back-light of the keyboard and it looks like a black MacBook Pro. That was a huge factor to me since gaming is NOT my first priority, but just a hobby. A three-prong green leaf/snake thing is better than a glowing Dragon or neon-lighted Alienware in my opinion. Plus the thinnness/lightness is easy to carry in a messenger bag without putting strain on my back while traveling through subways/elevators/etc.

 

Oh and girls think its just a dark MBP since they don't know any better.

[AlexStriz]

Awesome review! This may just push me to buy this compared to the gs60. Also, do you know about how many hours you got just browsing/light usage? My MBP gets around 6-7 hours and was wondering how this compares. Again, thanks for the review!

[Ericde95]

Awesome review! This may just push me to buy this compared to the gs60. Also, do you know about how many hours you got just browsing/light usage? My MBP gets around 6-7 hours and was wondering how this compares. Again, thanks for the review!

I will be honest and say that I do not have a solid number of hours. But extrapolating the time I did use it, I would say it is about equal. I wouldnt be surprised to get 5 hours or more out of the battery with just emailing/Facebook/etc.

 

Another thing to consider is the flex of the computer. I have huge gripes when it comes to the flex of the screen/keyboard/body of laptops. I like them to be solid bricks like the MBP and not have any flex. The Razer Blade does this even better than the MBP simply because it is a litter thicker and stronger. I love the body of the laptop.

[The Crazed Child]

I wish I could afford this. It looks so beautiful.

[Ericde95]

I wish I could afford this. It looks so beautiful.

It is indeed a beautiful machine. I will try to get better photos now and upload them for you guys!

 

EDIT: Added some photos for you! They are horrible photos because I didnt realize how bad my HTC One M8s camera was....

[Anthony10]

I wouldn't want to whip out an Alienware or MSI light-show when presenting in a Wall Street board room. I turn off the back-light of the keyboard and it looks like a black MacBook Pro. That was a huge factor to me since gaming is NOT my first priority, but just a hobby. A three-prong green leaf/snake thing is better than a glowing Dragon or neon-lighted Alienware in my opinion. Plus the thinnness/lightness is easy to carry in a messenger bag without putting strain on my back while traveling through subways/elevators/etc.

 

Oh and girls think its just a dark MBP since they don't know any better.

Sager is very suttle, even more so than the razer, I can see how the msi notebooks could be flashy depending on the model.

Alienware? Never.. ever... EVER.. say that word again..

[JoshuaTjandra]

Sager is very suttle, even more so than the razer, I can see how the msi notebooks could be flashy depending on the model.

Alienware? Never.. ever... EVER.. say that word again..

 

Sager is bulky and heavy. can be loud too.

[Hobox]

How hard is it to read things without scaling the UI? Is it like, impossibly small or just difficult without good eyesight?

 

Also your comments about the heat pretty much ensure I won't be getting this... Is Razer really that stupid? I hope MSI isn't as stupid too.

[Nickolas47]

Nice review bro

[atrash]

I've read somewhere (I forgot where) that the Razer Blade is actually made by MSI..They kinda do look and have specs almost the same with MSI's own GS series.

[ShadowCaptain]

Want to replace my Alienware m18x with something like this

[Scionyde]

I wouldn't want to whip out an Alienware or MSI light-show when presenting in a Wall Street board room. I turn off the back-light of the keyboard and it looks like a black MacBook Pro. That was a huge factor to me since gaming is NOT my first priority, but just a hobby. A three-prong green leaf/snake thing is better than a glowing Dragon or neon-lighted Alienware in my opinion. Plus the thinnness/lightness is easy to carry in a messenger bag without putting strain on my back while traveling through subways/elevators/etc.

 

Oh and girls think its just a dark MBP since they don't know any better.

 

Well, to be fair, you can turn off the backlight on Alienware and MSI keyboards as well. I can see how the Alienware alien head might not be appealing, but I think MSI got rid of their huge red dragon like they had on the dragon addition of the GT70 (now it's just their tiny little badge which I think is a lot more acceptable). Asus and Sager/Clevo are pretty subtle too. A lot of the gaming laptops we see these days have gotten better about not being too ‘gamerish’ in appearance.

 

Anyway, that’s not to say I don’t think the Razer Blade isn’t a legit purchase – for somebody who wants a gaming ultrabook, it’s a pretty good choice. (Although I personally am not a fan of paying a small premium for going thin, especially when it can have heat issues.)

 

Still, good review! Just out of curiosity, when it was under load, how loud were the fans?

[Ericde95]

How hard is it to read things without scaling the UI? Is it like, impossibly small or just difficult without good eyesight?

 

Also your comments about the heat pretty much ensure I won't be getting this... Is Razer really that stupid? I hope MSI isn't as stupid too.

 No, it's not impossible, just uncomfortable at times. I havent found it to be much of an issue yet since a lot of my programs will automatically adjust or offer an option to have larger font/UI. With the MBP pushing a similar pixel density, programmers are forced to consider alternative panel sizes higher than 1080p when making programs. The MBP is such a huge player in the industry and nobody can ignore it. I feel in a year or two the whole scaling/UI differences will not be an issue. I realize this is more of a Windows 8 thing, but the same concept applies.

 

& the heat isnt bad at all when running 1080p on high. It is only when pumping out 1800p at High/Ultra that the heat comes on and you feel it.

[Ericde95]

 

Well, to be fair, you can turn off the backlight on Alienware and MSI keyboards as well. I can see how the Alienware alien head might not be appealing, but I think MSI got rid of their huge red dragon like they had on the dragon addition of the GT70 (now it's just their tiny little badge which I think is a lot more acceptable). Asus and Sager/Clevo are pretty subtle too. A lot of the gaming laptops we see these days have gotten better about not being too ‘gamerish’ in appearance.

 

Anyway, that’s not to say I don’t think the Razer Blade isn’t a legit purchase – for somebody who wants a gaming ultrabook, it’s a pretty good choice. (Although I personally am not a fan of paying a small premium for going thin, especially when it can have heat issues.)

 

Still, good review! Just out of curiosity, when it was under load, how loud were the fans?

 

I agree, a lot of notebooks have realized that gaudy isnt necessarily a good thing. The fan's were noticeable at 1800p and not as bad at 1080p. It depends what you are doing, but the only time I heard them was when I was gaming and more so at 1800p. I don't find the laptop's fan profile to be too annoying or aggressive, I have no complaints there.

 

 

 

Sager is very suttle, even more so than the razer, I can see how the msi notebooks could be flashy depending on the model.

Alienware? Never.. ever... EVER.. say that word again..

I agree Sager is a good option that would probably include better thermals/GPU for a similar cost. However, it is much thicker and heavier. I guess at this point it is more of which qualities you find the most attractive.

[Hobox]

 No, it's not impossible, just uncomfortable at times. I havent found it to be much of an issue yet since a lot of my programs will automatically adjust or offer an option to have larger font/UI. With the MBP pushing a similar pixel density, programmers are forced to consider alternative panel sizes higher than 1080p when making programs. The MBP is such a huge player in the industry and nobody can ignore it. I feel in a year or two the whole scaling/UI differences will not be an issue. I realize this is more of a Windows 8 thing, but the same concept applies.

 

& the heat isnt bad at all when running 1080p on high. It is only when pumping out 1800p at High/Ultra that the heat comes on and you feel it.

Cool, thanks for the info. What I can't stand is what kind of gaming laptop, marketed as a gaming device, can't run games as high as it can stand. I don't want to have to worry about heat... It's ridiculous. It looks like I'll be going with the G750JZ, I just wish ASUS had enough sense to offer at least a 1440p panel in that thing. Then I would have the perfect balance.

[MCLJN]

How does this look at 1600x900? I was thinking it would look pretty good since that is exactly half of the native resolution and the pixel overlay would be perfect, causing less blurriness.

[AlexStriz]

Another question on the laptop. How is the trackpad? I am coming off my MBP which has one of the best trackpads I've ever used. I've used a couple pc's and their trackpads were awful, just wondering how the Blade compares.

[Psykomantis00]

I really want to get a razer blade but that price is just too much for a laptop I don't think I'll use all the time. Amazon has the first gen for 1500 which I might go for. Would you recommend the first gen for the price difference?

[Izaya Orihara]

I want this so bad. It's not avaible in Germany... FML. 

[Scionyde]

I really want to get a razer blade but that price is just too much for a laptop I don't think I'll use all the time. Amazon has the first gen for 1500 which I might go for. Would you recommend the first gen for the price difference?

 

I don't believe the first generation of Razer Blade was as good; according to some people, it was pretty crappy. (I think Linus thought it had a bunch of problems too)

 

There are also ultrabook options from MSI(GS-60 and GS-70) and Gigabyte, I believe. I haven't checked to be sure, but I'd imagine they're a little cheaper.

[AlexStriz]

I don't believe the first generation of Razer Blade was as good; according to some people, it was pretty crappy. (I think Linus thought it had a bunch of problems too)

 

There are also ultrabook options from MSI(GS-60 and GS-70) and Gigabyte, I believe. I haven't checked to be sure, but I'd imagine they're a little cheaper.

 

I don't believe the first generation of Razer Blade was as good; according to some people, it was pretty crappy. (I think Linus thought it had a bunch of problems too)

 

There are also ultrabook options from MSI(GS-60 and GS-70) and Gigabyte, I believe. I haven't checked to be sure, but I'd imagine they're a little cheaper.

+1. The first gen blade was not what it was made up to be. Sure the build quality was great, but the screen was horrid and thermals are a problem with many thin laptops. If you can live with a low resolution, then go for it. However, for $1500 there are some better options. 

[Ericde95]

I really want to get a razer blade but that price is just too much for a laptop I don't think I'll use all the time. Amazon has the first gen for 1500 which I might go for. Would you recommend the first gen for the price difference?

I personally would pop the extra $ for the newer generation. It really depends on how tight your budget is too. I would rather have an MSI GS60 for the price of the older version with only 900p. The touchscreen is not worth the difference, IMO, and is not a factor to consider. The edge-to-edge glass, 1800p panel, processor/GPU are all big upgrades and I wouldn't trade them off for $500 or so.

 

 

How does this look at 1600x900? I was thinking it would look pretty good since that is exactly half of the native resolution and the pixel overlay would be perfect, causing less blurriness.

 

To be honest, I am not terribly sure. It looks pretty good (not fantastic) when gaming, and that's the only time I have used it. But that's because going from 1800p to 900p is such a downgrade and the FPS is not too bad at 1800p. My optimal settings  right now are 1800p for productivity and 1080p for gaming with the settings on high (or medium depending upon the game). I honestly haven't put this laptop through the ringer with gaming and you shouldn't take my input on gaming performance too seriously. I am by no means an avid/constant gamer.

 

Another question on the laptop. How is the trackpad? I am coming off my MBP which has one of the best trackpads I've ever used. I've used a couple pc's and their trackpads were awful, just wondering how the Blade compares.

The trackpad is fantastic and very similar to the MBP I often use. The only thing different is the inclusion of tertiary/tactile buttons rather than ones embedded in the trackpad. I think I like having these physical buttons better, though. My only complaint is that I sometimes zoom in when I am trying to scroll down.

[Psykomantis00]

Well that settles it. Thanks! I really like the gs60 too and will probably go with that if I get another gaming laptop. I'm so undecided.