
2016 Razer Blade Pro Review - jseliger
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10922/the-2016-razer-blade-pro-review
======
snarfy
I bought a Razer mechanical keyboard. To use the macro keys, you have to
create an account with Razer and login before they work.

~~~
Slackwise
I bought a Ducky keyboard: [http://www.duckychannel.com.tw/page-en/One-TKL-
RGB-version/](http://www.duckychannel.com.tw/page-en/One-TKL-RGB-version/)

It has an on-board ARM chip and firmware that handles 100% of function through
simple Fn key combos:
[http://www.duckychannel.net/download/user_manual/DuckyOneRGB...](http://www.duckychannel.net/download/user_manual/DuckyOneRGB_usermanual.pdf)

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joshgel
I recently got an alienware 15 R3 which has almost the same specs (1070
instead of 1080 and 16 instead of 32 gb RAM, but a higher resolution screen
4K) for $1400. Its thicker and heavier, but if your objection is cost, you can
get the roughly the same for much cheaper. Just won't be as thin and light.

~~~
neverminder
3840x2160 is 4K.

~~~
slezyr
17 inch VS 15 inch

~~~
croon
That's higher DPI, not resolution.

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marak830
The specs are nice. . . .until I saw the price. Holy Jesus, 4500 for a laptop!

I can't justify that as a chef, what about you devs?

~~~
ebbv
Nope. Not remotely worth it. The off center keyboard would be a deal breaker
even if it were $1k less.

~~~
Benjamin_Dobell
I'm not sure why the off-centre keyboard is a deal breaker.

I use a Microsoft semi-split ergonomic keyboard, and a Razer Naga mouse (heaps
of bindings for dev stuff). Prior to getting the ergonomic keyboard (and a
decent mouse) I had pretty extreme RSI.

However, if I look at my keyboard setup right now, whilst the keyboard as a
whole looks fairly centred, ever so slightly to my left due to the mouse. The
keys I actually type on (i.e. not the arrow keys or numpad) are all farther
off centre, to my left. I'd assume this to be the case for most devs,
excluding perhaps vi/emacs aficionados whom don't ever use their mouse.

It's hard to tell without touching the laptop, but I doubt having the keyboard
off centre is going to cause problems. If anything I find using the trackpad
on my Macbook below the keyboard gives me _extreme_ RSI pain (I don't do it
except when travelling).

The price tag is fairly extreme, but it's roughly on par with a high-end
Macbook Pro (which many devs, including myself, use), however unlike a Macbook
Pro it has the hardware to back-up the price tag.

~~~
ebbv
My 15" rMBP was "only" $3k. The Razer is 50% more! It's a 2012 and still doing
great. The Razer is closer to desktop performance, but that also means the
battery life is abysmal.

~~~
Benjamin_Dobell
True, my top-end rMBP from Late 2013 was around the same price and still doing
reasonably well.

However, the _current_ top-end rMBP is $4,299.00, whilst the top-end Razer
Blade Pro is $4499.99. They're certainly both in the same (insanely expensive)
ballpark, with the Razer Blade Pro having:

* a significantly higher resolution display * twice the RAM * a touch display * a higher resolution webcam * a _significantly_ better GPU.

In favour of the rMBP:

* 15", instead of 17" (although that's my personal preference) * Faster CPU (I think, I'm not up to date on which model beats which)

I'm by no means suggesting go out and buy a Razer Blade Pro. Just that, whilst
expensive, it's no worse value for money than other high-end market laptops
that are presently available.

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routelastresort
Ah, Anandtech 20 page reviews... like it was 1999.

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bluedino
>> The issues with the display calibration and lack of an sRGB color mode make
it unusable for much of the work I do. On top of that, product decisions like
using two SSDs in RAID0, using Intel's slowest Core i7 H series quad core
part, and using Killer's networking chips just don't make sense

What is the market like for gamers who are going to drop nearly $5,000 on a
laptop to play games on? A couple thousand units?

~~~
croon
I can envision it as a demo computer for on-the-road VR projects. But not as a
"gaming machine", no.

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Sephr
> The Blade Pro has a 99Wh battery which is the biggest battery Razer could
> ship while complying with airline regulations

Can't they go up to 160Wh? See
[https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/as...](https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ash/ash_programs/hazmat/passenger_info/media/Airline_passengers_and_batteries.pdf)

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dagw
It says "With airline approval" you can go up to 160. I have no idea what that
means in practice. If nothing else, calling ahead to get approval to bring
your laptop along before every flight would be kind of annoying.

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z0d
This BGA abomination which uses flawed technology of mating of the Die to the
Heatsink and god awful pricing - Read more here
[http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/razer-ceo-
covering-u...](http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/razer-ceo-covering-up-
cheap-poor-design-of-razer-notebooks.801443/)

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msimpson
I'm writing this comment on a Q4 14" Razer Blade and there's only two things
that could make me happier:

1\. An upgrade to a Samsung 2TB 960 PRO M.2 (which I will do soon).

2\. A fucking Intel HD 530 driver which doesn't cause intermittent flickering.
Note: this is absolutely an Intel borne issue. I have tested, at length.

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mrweasel
Does it come in two versions? One for right handed and one for left handed
people?

I look that the stupid trackpad placement and then promptly lose all interest
in the laptop, the specs become completely irrelevant.

~~~
Benjamin_Dobell
I doubt it. That is one thing Razer are notoriously bad at supporting, left
handers. I don't think they've released left handed models of any of their
mice for years. They have "ambidextrous" models, but all that really
translates to is "poor ergonomics" models.

EDIT: To clarify they do sell left handed mice, but to my knowledge they're
all models from years ago. For example, I'm unaware of any left handed models
with Chroma lighting.

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godmodus
X220 + egpu (rx470)

Plays games fine. 400eu in total.

Dafok are these people thinking.

Give us better battery life plz. I'd pay 4500 for a laptop that can go a week
on a single charge and weigh/have the size of my x220.

~~~
rafadc
Which egpu are you using?

I was looking at one but the egpu only is over 400.

Thanks a lot!

~~~
godmodus
[http://m.ebay.com/itm/exp-
gdc-v8-0-/252766646268?nav=SEARCH](http://m.ebay.com/itm/exp-
gdc-v8-0-/252766646268?nav=SEARCH)

Ud need an external power supply to feed it, and u gotta see if it runs as a
1x or 2x on your machine to see if it's upgrade worthy -

It's won't run the newest, heaviest games at max, but I'm Happy to get my
60fps on darksouls 3!

It's a dyi project, not a ready made bundle, do some research, itsreally well
documented!

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Fredej
I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. If they work out as I expect
them to I could see my company buying several 100 of these a year.

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koolba
I honestly thought this was an article reviewing razor ("o") blades. The
domain was a bit confusing but given how in depth their tech reviews, was
looking forward to a scientific comparison of various shaving systems.

I'm kind of disappointed it's really about a ( _very_ ) expensive gaming
laptop.

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kev009
This looks pretty silly, a Lenovo P51 beats the specs aside from GPU but
supports ECC RAM for half the cost.

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mastazi
I'm on the market for a laptop with a good GPU so I went to check it out. I
see 2 problems with the P51:

1- Lenovo's website says it is not available yet
[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/p51/](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/p51/)

2- The GPU is a 4GB Maxwell, i.e. 2 generations behind and with relatively
small memory. The type of person who might buy a Blade Pro (I am that kind of
person) clearly has very different requirements.

PS. At least in my case, support for ECC memory, while nice-to-have, doesn't
make up for the above.

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bsder
Um, a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a pretty damn good laptop.

How does this justify the _MASSIVE_ price increase?

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sundvor
Uh, the ludicrously powerful (for a laptop) 980 GPU, full _quad_ (as opposed
to _dual_) core CPU, full 32GB memory (vs 16) - just for starters.

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mastazi
> the ludicrously powerful [..] 980 GPU

Actually, it is the even-more-ludicrously-so 1080.

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sundvor
Thanks for the correction, that's completely what I meant to write yet typed
out the 980 for some reason.

I'm thinking of upgrading my own desktop 980 SLI to the 1080TI, that must have
upset my keyboard buffer somehow.

Considering how much stronger the 1080 mobile is to its desktop equivalent
(within 90%, iirc) is than what was the case on the 9xx series, it is rather
remarkable how much power the Razer packs.

~~~
mastazi
Yes I agree, with the Pascal architecture we have a really solid mobile GPU
offering.

For example a thin laptop like the new Dell XPS 15" sports a 4GB 1050 Ti, just
2 years ago a card with that power could be had only by buying some really
heavy gaming laptop.

~~~
sundvor
Yep! It doesn't get the TI though, just the plain 1050 for power reasons.
Nevertheless this is a laptop on my wish list.

