Razer Blade 2016 (October Refresh)

[Ruuke]

Haven't seen a thread about one yet so figured I'd throw this up here. I just ordered my Razer Blade QHD+ 512GB with 1060 today. Looking forward to having a laptop be my daily-driver again. If anyone is interested, I will post some benchmarks once I get it next week

 

[Slug]

Yes please.

 

[zamardii12]

Haven't seen a thread about one yet so figured I'd throw this up here. I just ordered my Razer Blade QHD+ 512GB with 1060 today. Looking forward to having a laptop be my daily-driver again. If anyone is interested, I will post some benchmarks once I get it next week

Have you gotten yours yet OP? Would love some benchmarks. I have a Razer Core on order and have a GTX 1080 ready to go for it. I am going to buy either the Razer Blade or Stealth this weekend. Haven't decided yet.

 

[MotionBlur]

Been tempted to upgrade from my 2014 Blade (QHD+ 512gb), but am holding off until next year for the inevitable Kaby Lake refresh.

 

[zamardii12]

Haven't seen a thread about one yet so figured I'd throw this up here. I just ordered my Razer Blade QHD+ 512GB with 1060 today. Looking forward to having a laptop be my daily-driver again. If anyone is interested, I will post some benchmarks once I get it next week

Yes please.

Been tempted to upgrade from my 2014 Blade (QHD+ 512gb), but am holding off until next year for the inevitable Kaby Lake refresh.

Hey everyone. So, I decided on the 2016 Razer Blade instead of the Stealth. Bought it at the Microsoft Store on Thursday and with my Student Discount I got $200 off in-store so it ended up being $1,799 instead of $1,999. I also added on the Microsoft Complete which is a great value. $89 (for me) for 2 years of accidental damage coverage.

Word to the wise. DO NOT buy directly from Razer. Their customer service is the worse i've ever had to deal with any company ever, but I decided to get a Razer anyway because you simply can't buy a computer like this anywhere with this build quality (better than any Macbook Pro i've ever had) and with these specs. I did order a dbrand Matte black skin for the lid as well as a carbon fiber one so I can hide the glowing Razer logo so it's a little more professional looking.

Anyway, here's the preliminary; I tested a couple games yesterday on the built-in screen. Every single one of these games I was able to max out completely on Ultra settings at the native 1080p resolution of the screen. Was a little concerned with the resolution since most laptops of this price are going QHD and 4K, but let me tell you that this screen is the most beautiful looking laptop screen i've ever seen even if it is 1080p. It's gorgeous as well as the colors.

Anyway, the games I tested were MGS 5, Doom, Skyrim Special Edition, Just Cause 3, and Fallout 4. I don't have any FPS figures right now but I will tell you I played them without any hitches at all. They all played at what felt like 60FPS MAXED OUT. I have to tell you guys I don't think i'll ever build a PC again. I am truly shocked how well this laptop plays these games. Yes I understand it's a 1080p screen but it doesn't matter. It looks fantastic, and these games' in-game graphics settings are MAXED OUT. I've never bought a gaming laptop and the way this thing is built doesn't feel like a gaming laptop. It's thin, with stunningly beautiful build quality.

One issue I ran into was only visible in Doom even with V-Sync on was that there was a terrible horizontal tear from the top left down to the center of the screen. Was thinking of RMAing the laptop or returning it to Microsoft but on the Nvidia forums this is happening to a lot of people with a lot of different laptops. This isn't my screenshot below, but it's exactly what i'm seeing but interestingly enough only in the newest Doom. Here is the Nvidia thread following this issue with a LOT of people pissed at Nvidia for not addressing this yet: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...issues-on-gtx-860m-870m-960m-965m-970m-980m-/

I just got shipping confirmation this morning (merry Xmas to me) that my Razer Core will arrive on Tuesday so I will come back and let you guys know what that's like. I already have a GTX 1080 ready to go to put in it. I have read a lot of mixed reviews in terms of a couple things on the Razer forums mainly that the USB ports on the back of the Core constantly disconnect and that the LAN port is not very reliable. But the graphics component of the Core works fantastic otherwise. Hopefully the USB and LAN issues will get worked out with a patch soon, but I will also report back with my experience with it as soon as I get it.

I was originally going to get a Stealth for the 9 hour battery life and portability, but with the want of me also to use it for gaming, I was worried the dual-core i7 in it would bottleneck performance hence why I went with the Quad Core Blade instead. The verdict is out for battery life so far but people are reporting around 4 to 6 hours on batter depending on usage.

I would say after 3 days of ownership I am happy overall with it. The only worrying things are three things since getting it:

1. Coil whine. This is something I notice when it's quiet around me and worries me. Reports indicate it's the SSD making the noise and not sure if I should swap it out.
2. Twice in 2 days Windows 10 crashed on me while doing nothing but configuring the laptop. Little worrying.
3. The diagonal screen tearing I see in the above screenshot.

But beyond that the laptop is amazing, and I think it has convinced me to never buy or build another desktop PC. As the Thunderbolt eGPU solutions mature from here on out it will only get better and I think this is the perfect solution for people who want the portability of a laptop, but also want to do some serious gaming.

 

[noacess]

Whats the heat like on the bottom of it? One of the issues I had with my old MBP was if I used anything that used the GPU, my lap get pretty hot after about 10 minutes of use. I'm considering getting one of these or maybe a refreshed thinkpad (T or P).

 

[zamardii12]

Whats the heat like on the bottom of it? One of the issues I had with my old MBP was if I used anything that used the GPU, my lap get pretty hot after about 10 minutes of use. I'm considering getting one of these or maybe a refreshed thinkpad (T or P).

It really depends what you are doing I guess. I actually usually don't use the laptop on my lap, but to humor this idea after I read your question I decided to try it and I have been watching Die Hard while browsing the web among other things with the Blade on my lap and I can barely feel it. When I raise it up and feel underneath it doesn't feel hot at all. I think it'll be fine. I've been quite happy with the battery life as well.

 

[BiH115]

Well this answers my question on your other thread where you had pictures of the setup - I'm definitely really interested in the Blade now. I definitely relate on your impressions of using the built-in screen on the laptop - I bragged to people when I had the 4K Alienware 15 a while back, and they just didn't really get it, until they saw it in person. I'm not sure why, but I definitely prefer being huddled over a laptop than sitting back in a chair. Call me wacky, but it's just what I'm used to (daily laptop use and just coding for a living are to blame I suppose).