Razer Blade 14 (2014)

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Same price as a well-specced 15" MacBook Pro Retina. I damn well know which one I would choose. Thumbs up to Razer for helping bring the laptop market to the next level though.

[ManWithBeard1990]

Same price as a well-specced 15" MacBook Pro Retina. I damn well know which one I would choose. Thumbs up to Razer for helping bring the laptop market to the next level though.

Was about to say that. The price is about right.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Was about to say that. The price is about right.

 

Not sure if you misunderstood me, I would choose (and have chosen) the MacBook Pro Retina. I think both are greats machines and each with their strength though, I needed a laptop for Photoshop and Premiere Pro so the choice was obvious for me. Had I needed a laptop for gaming the Blade 14 would be the choice for me over any other laptop on the planet though, that's for sure. Superb design and build, with the right components (although I have to agree that 16GB ram is too little).

[ofr057]

did they improve on the thermals i remember the first one being quite hot and you said it was still blowing out the top?

[ManWithBeard1990]

Not sure if you misunderstood me, I would choose (and have chosen) the MacBook Pro Retina. I think both are greats machines and each with their strength though, I needed a laptop for Photoshop and Premiere Pro so the choice was obvious for me. Had I needed a laptop for gaming the Blade 14 would be the choice for me over any other laptop on the planet though, that's for sure. Superb design and build, with the right components (although I have to agree that 16GB ram is too little).

Not sure if I agree with you on that one but the extra RAM in a MacBook may indeed help.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Not sure if I agree with you on that one but the extra RAM in a MacBook may indeed help.

 

They are very necessary when you get into the more serious stuff. In reality the differences between the two (with exception of the screen) is that with the MacBook you get more RAM and thunderbolt, whereas with the Razer you get a better graphics card.

[IcyTexx]

Ok! So this thing looks just like a macbook..(except for the colours and the logo and and and..). The specs are WAY better, although I suppose you could get something similar for the same price BUT this thing looks awesome. I only have one TINY LITTLE question for Mr. Linus..How the hell would anyone afford 1 of these? (have you even seen the price?????)

 

For the same price as Macbook Pro this thing has only a better GPU and that's it.

 

MacBook Pro has way better screen (not to mention support for it without scaling problems), twice as much RAM, PCI-E SSD, better CPU, is inaudible most of the time and has a battery that lasts 2-4 hours longer, you know - that's important for a laptop.

 

This is not fanboyism, just adult reasoning. This Razer copycat is laughable at best. It's clearly a copy.

 

But well, it's the second best Windows machine, right after a MBP with Windows.

[vern021]

Great machine for video work on the road. Got myself one for a two week trip I'll be taking to NY in a couple weeks.  Also using it for a lil light gaming on while I'm out or steam in-home streaming while I'm home.

Is it worth it?

[vern021]

if you guys think Razer is expensive

 

how about paying $5508 SGD for a MacBook Pro with Retina 15" screen with 1TB SSD

 

that's what we are paying for in Singapore

I'll go with the blade thank you

[renze]

All electronics companies want to be Apple. This is a clear example of that. If it works, it works. Unfortunately, you seemed to have purposely sidestepped mentioning that the design is identical in many ways to a Macbook. I've come to expect impartiality and objectivity from you, Linus, so it was a big disappointment. Well, at least MKBHD is capable of being objective so all's not lost.

 

I disagree with you about some of the design elements, though. The Razer logo, green lighting, and keycap font make it, well, just plain hideous.

 

That's Razer's style, though, so it's not much of a change.

[Bansh33]

You may be right. I had a weird gut feeling I'd done it once before, but I couldn't find the video so I went ahead... Any idea what video it was?

I don't think it's a huge deal either way since for me the important thing is to not DEVALUE an editor's choice award. So many sites hand them out like candy, but I want to be different...

So if it's 1/2000 or 2/2000 products I can still hold my head high saying it's DAMN DIFFICULT to get one at Linus Tech Tips

Hence why LTT rules the world

[Bansh33]

Not as expensive as I thought it would be after Linus saying it cost more than his car.

That Mercedes must be a cheap model

[steffen_anywhere]

First off, good vid @LinusTech! This sure is a great machine...

 

Two things you said I found rather weird though. The design is hands down taken from Apple. No need for arguing against it. I personally think this is fine, but saying it is not is not being logical imho. Also, this is comparable to the 15" rMBP, not the 13". The 13" is quite a bit smaller and lighter. Because of this design, it has a U-class CPU with Iris integrated graphics (which are impressive for what they are I find, but no 870M by any stretch of the imagination). The TDP of both GPU and CPU combined is 28W. The Razer Blade is over 100W.

 

The 15" rMBP has the same TDP class of CPU like the Blade 14 and optionally (for the higher end, similarly priced model) a 750M (gonna receive its upgrade to most likely 850M in fall as usual). That, I think is more comparable as people have pointed out.

 

So since both machines cost the same, the choice is between much more GPU power, and better battery life, Thunderbolt 2, more, and faster SSD. The OS is obviously a personal preference.

 

Thanks Linus for reviewing it, it was interesting. Also one last question, why are you recently using Unigine Heaven more and more and not Valley?

[darwin006]

I'm thinking about buying one but I'm concerned how loud the fans will get.

[Phillyphries]

I really really hate the logo and the green accents. If there was a way to not have that ugly Razer logo and an ability to change the backlit keyboard colors, then it'd be way better to me.

[Biased Opinion]

Needs more IO. I would like to have seen dual thunderbolt at that price point, apple has it so why can't they. Other than that my complaints mirror that of the video, better screen, not enough ram as i also need at least 16gb. While the screen rez is nice I would have much preferred to have seen a 16:10 aspect raito and something that scales nicely into 1920x1200. Good laptop but I'm not going to buy one because my MBP 15inch does what i need it to do for now and im probably going to go sub 13inch next time i get a laptop.

 

EDIT: Also its green and i fucking hate green. FFS at this price point RGB leds would have been nice so that i could make them all purple and red.

[Le Lion de Barreras]

For the price that soldiered on 8gb ram is a big deal for me and a big con imo. If it was 16 or so then I wouldn't mind much.

[Umair]

[atrash]

I read somewhere that the previous Razer Blade 2013 was actually produced by MSI. ANd they do look awful lot like the MSI GS-series laptop. If you don't need that touchscreen, I think the MSI GS-sereis would be the better buy. Slightly cheaper and more powerful graphics.

[alrobles]

Is it worth it?

That's really up to you. I wanted something powerful enough to crank out videos quickly and for light gaming. I also wanted it to be as thin as possible. Last, it needed to look professional.  I didn't want it to look all flashy like some gaming laptops look. Besides a few green accents its fairly minimalistic. I feel comfortable pulling this out in front of a client. Now, I was not able to find  anything for the price that has the same performance, build quality, thinness, and that is as beautiful as the blade. Also for anyone that lives in the US and has a microsoft store near by (or . com store)  they have a student discount on the blade (10%).

[Guest Kloaked]

 

by friend bought one a few days ago

the gpu burned and died a day later .........

 

You and everyone else over on Youtube probably say the same thing.

[Hans Power]

So, because it's thinner it's better than all of the others? I think it's a pretty neglectable advantage. Keyboard seems nice as well but otherwise I don't see what's so outstanding about it overall. It even lacks a lot of very important connectivity and expandability options so I really don't understand what's so perfect about it and why it's so much better than anything else. I mean, the workmanship is definately nice and all but that doesn't hold a lot of practical advantage.

[qwertywarrior]

 

 

 

You and everyone else over on Youtube probably say the same thing.

 

ok give me a second ill  tell my friend if he has a pic

[sabrehawk]

This device costs a unbelievable 3500-3600 Euros in Germany (Amazon) = 4 897,206  US$

 

while in US Amazon it is listed for 2400$ (~1700 Euro)  which is a totally reasonable price for a device of this kind.

 

Im tempted to import this one if id really wanted to buy it. Would cost me around 2000€ incl. Import Tax / Shipping.

[JerryMcMaccy]

Looks very nice, but still wayyyyyy overpriced for my standpoint. If they would make a 1000$ laptop with decend specs, i would probably buy it.