Razer Blade or Macbook Pro

[MattWalton]

Hello,

I'm currently looking for a new laptop to replace my 7-year old clunky old one. This laptop is not going to be a desktop replacement, as I have a very powerful computer that I use for general daily use and gaming. However, when I'm out and about , or at collage I'm looking for something sleek and portable, which is why I started looking at the MacBook Pro (The retina 15" one (first model)) - I love the style of the device, but I am a little put off by the power, or lack of it to be more specific.

 

Then the new 14" Razer Blade was announced, and it's looking very good - However there are some flaws for me. It's not available in the UK and therefore i'd have to get one shipped in and pay import taxes + around $150 for shipping. Also I'm not too fond of the screen, as from Linus's overview I saw that it was not of great quality. 

 

I'm currently a web developer and also do some game related programming, so having OSX as it's native operating system sounds appealing for the web development side of me - And viewing web pages on that retina display is pure joy, However I would also like to play some very light games - such as Source Engine games (Garry's Mod, TF2, CSS, etc). Will the MacBook be fine at playing those kind of games, as I cannot see any benchmarks around. I will not be using the laptop to play games such as Battlefield or crysis, because that's what my PC is for.

 

So, which laptop do you think will be best for me?

[rustikles]

You probably COULD play those kinds of games on the Mac, but I personally wouldn't be happy with how it looks. It sounds to me like you would rather have something like a good ultrabook. Save yourself a bit of money. I wouldn't drop 2k on a Blade just for web development and some coding with light gaming sprinkled in.

[MrSuperb]

However I would also like to play some very light games - such as Source Engine games (Garry's Mod, TF2, CSS, etc). Will the MacBook be fine at playing those kind of games, as I cannot see any benchmarks around. I will not be using the laptop to play games such as Battlefield or crysis, because that's what my PC is for.

 

So, which laptop do you think will be best for me?

 

The 15" Macbook Pro will be more than cabaple of playing those mentioned games in high settings ;)

You might wait for the Haswell Update though.

[prolemur]

The 15" Macbook Pro will be more than cabaple of playing those mentioned games in high settings ;)

You might wait for the Haswell Update though.

definitely not at native retina resolution though :P

[SuperOwnJK]

If you look on MacRumours they don't recommend buying the MacBook Pros as they are so close to an upgrade due to previous dates that they upgrade them. If you are looking for benchmarks for games, the Pro has a Intel HD 4000 graphics as its the built in graphics from the CPU. MacBook Pro should get a Haswell upgrade soonish and maybe a battery upgrade.  http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

 

 

So if you need to laptop soon, get the Blade, if you can wait, then wait for the Pro to upgrade. 

[MrSuperb]

If you look on MacRumours they don't recommend buying the MacBook Pros as they are so close to an upgrade due to previous dates that they upgrade them. If you are looking for benchmarks for games, the Pro has a Intel HD 4000 graphics as its the built in graphics from the CPU. MacBook Pro should get a Haswell upgrade soonish and maybe a battery upgrade.  http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

 

The 15" MBPr has a Nvidia GT 650M ;)

[MrAlexOneill]

If those are your two options get the blade, but if it were me I would get a msi laptop.

[SuperOwnJK]

The 15" MBPr has a Nvidia GT 650M ;)

Ah so it does, my mistake. Thought that was an upgrade. It is Apple after all

[MrSuperb]

definitely not at native retina resolution though :P

 

You'd be suprised ....

Half Life 2 runs with max details 4xaa @ 2880x1800 with 42.4fps ;)

[MattWalton]

If those are your two options get the blade, but if it were me I would get a msi laptop.

 

Other gaming laptops are tempting, as the price point is a lot less than what I'm looking at paying. However, I'm looking for a light-weight, very well built, nice looking laptop - as I will be taking it to collage and carrying it around a lot with me.

And thanks for the replies guys.

[MrSuperb]

Linus said, that the new razer blade has a very bad quality tn panel - i wouldn't want that if the main purpose is of this laptop is working.

[TheRetiredSlave]

Of those two, I'd go with the MBPr if the most hardware-heavy task you'll do is just some light gaming.. The only real benefit of the Blade is the extra GPU power, but that would only help if you were planning on doing heavy gaming, which you said is what you have your desktop for.. Every reviewer (not just Linus) has said that the 14" Blade's screen is absolutely terrible for such a high-cost notebook, so if you want webpages to look nice it would be better to go with the model with the better screen.

[Glenwing]

If you're looking for portability I wouldn't go higher than 14".  Even my 14" was a bit on the heavy side when I was carrying it around campus with me.  13" is probably optimum, and if you're hoping to get any kind of decent battery life out of it I wouldn't be looking for a high powered GPU, especially since you've got your desktop for gaming anyway.  Once the 13" Retina MBP is updated to Haswell, that might be something worth looking at,

[MattWalton]

If you're looking for portability I wouldn't go higher than 14".  Even my 14" was a bit on the heavy side when I was carrying it around campus with me.  13" is probably optimum, and if you're hoping to get any kind of decent battery life out of it I wouldn't be looking for a high powered GPU, especially since you've got your desktop for gaming anyway.  Once the 13" Retina MBP is updated to Haswell, that might be something worth looking at,

 

Hmm, you make a good point. But I think I may need to sacrifice a little portability on the MBP side of things, as I do want to be doing light gaming at native resolution, and I believe that the integrated graphics solution in the 13" MBPs won't be powerful enough

[dklhs90]

My small brother has a Macbook Pro with Retina display 13" i think and we play League of Legends together sometimes. And sometimes I watch him play on his Mac and I saw that the game could not play on the Native resolution because the FPS becomes 1-8 and there is an input lag with the mouse even at lowest settings and a lower resolution. I'd suggest Razer Blade to be a better system to play even the lightest games.

[pcman2000]

ThinkPad W530 or T530 with 1080p screen upgrade.

 

Throw in a mSATA SSD and replace the ODD with a second HDD or SSD, and you will have a very nice portable 15" machine with a decent screen resolutions.

 

Keep in mind that these are TN panels, however they are wide colour gamet and are some of the best TN panels out there (not razer blade)

[Glenwing]

I would wait for Lenovo's Haswell refresh, buying from them now wouldn't be a good idea.