Razer Blade Review (2013)

Unprecedented portability.

With an all-aluminum enclosure and measuring at just over half an inch thick, the new 14-inch Razer Blade is the thinnest, sleekest gaming laptop on the market. Like its 17.3-inch sibling — the now redubbed Blade Pro — the Blade blends the stylings of Apple's MacBook Pro line with the power of Nvidia's latest GTX graphics processors and Intel's Haswell CPUs. The Blade offers unprecedented portability and style in a category otherwise dominated by hefty desktop replacements. But with a starting MSRP of $1,799.99, the privilege comes at a premium and a few glaring issues keep it from achieving "must-have" status.

The new 14-inch Blade is roughly 33-percent thinner and 60-percent lighter than the original 17.3-inch model, measuring at just 0.66-inches thick and weighing 4.1 pounds. The Blade's design lifts heavily from Apple's aesthetic, sporting a unibody-style aluminum enclosure with rounded edges and a recessed chiclet keyboard. The black finish and neon green accents are distinctly Razer, but aren't overtly gaming-centric. The Blade could easily pass for a work machine or a college companion.

The hardware is well-designed and constructed, but there are a few clear drawbacks. For one, the black finish highlights accumulated dust and grease from your hands and fingers. After little more than a week of use, the Blade looked more worn than my several month-old MacBook Air, whose silver finish masks wear-and-tear. Fortunately, dust and tarnishes can be easily wiped away with a microfiber cloth — assuming you don't mind doing it every day or so.

Like I found with the first Blade, however, the new model struggles with heat dissipation and high temperatures. With such a tight metal-based enclosure, the heat generated by the Blade's discrete GPU and CPU during gaming sessions can be felt all along the base. While the palm rests remain reasonably cool, other areas of the casing can be painful to the touch and resting the Blade in your lap often becomes uncomfortable. Although high surface temperatures are common for gaming laptops, the Blade is particularly susceptible.

Under the hood, the Blade is powered by an Nvidia GTX 765M GPU with 2GB of VRAM and a 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 Haswell processor with 8GB of memory. Paired with the its 1600x900 display, the Blade is capable of running most games on the market at high or maxed-out settings at framerates at or well-above 30 frames-per-second, including:

• Battlefield 3 (Ultra Settings) - 40 FPS
• Metro: Last Light (Normal Settings) - 43 FPS
• Tomb Raider (High Settings) - 43 FPS
• BioShock Infinite (Very High Settings) - 36 FPS

For a product of its size, the Blade delivers considerable punch and should have no problem delivering stable performance for next-gen games — although in the case of more taxing examples, at lower settings. There are higher performance products out there, but where the Blade sacrifices in top-end performance, it makes up for in portability.
For my testing, I took the Blade on a cross-country flight from San Francisco to New York, gaming in economy class with ease. For games like XCOM or FTL, I was able to play comfortably with the trackpad and keyboard. The chiclet keyboard is surprisingly springy and responsive — albeit a bit cramped — but it's more than sufficient for most game types. For other titles, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 or Metro: Last Light, I plugged in an Xbox 360 controller in absence of space for a traditional mouse. While certainly not the most elegant of setups, the Blade allowed me to play comfortably and unobtrusively for hours, whereas other gaming laptops would have been too large.
The Blade's built-in battery affords three hours of battery life with intense gaming, but more casual applications can extend usage by an extra two hours or so. Though hardly record-breaking, the Blade's battery life is above average for the gaming category.

What's also striking about gaming on the Blade is how quietly it runs. Many gaming laptops operate at a dull roar whenever you load up a game, but the Blade is near-silent. Not only does it make for a superior user experience, it's pleasing to those around you.
For those that want to play loud, the Blade comes with built-in stereo speakers that deliver some of the loudest volumes I've encountered on a laptop. Of course, the drivers are small and lack low-end response, but for an integrated solution, sound pretty good. The system also comes with three USB 3.0 ports and a full-sized HDMI output for accessories and video.
But for all of its focus on top-of-the-line processors and premium design, Razer has surprisingly skimped on the Blade's display. While the 1600x900 resolution is decent for the screen size, the display itself often appears washed out and has an extremely narrow viewing angle. Black tones can be tough to discern and, save for over-saturated titles like BioShock Infinite, colors are muted. The display certainly isn't the worst I've seen, but with a price of $1,799.99 or more, I'd expect much higher quality.

And, really, that's the other issue: cost.

For $1,799.99, consumers get the Blade with 128GB of SSD storage, which is certain to fill up fast with some games like Battlefield 3 exceeding 20GB — all expansions included. Bumping up to the 256GB or 512GB models will bring the price up to $1,999.99 or $2,299.99, respectively. While the cost may be justified due to the Blade's custom design, premium materials, and powerful specs, it's likely to be out of reach for all but a small market of consumers. And even for those with the necessary funds and interest, the Blade's low-quality display is tough to overlook.