Razer's Second-Generation Blade Notebook Review: Focusing On The Z

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Wow, this is a very thorough review! Great work!

This notebook has looked into almost every possible detail. I was particularly impressed that in the heat run, the "WASD" key area was cooler than the rest. This bespeaks extreme attention to details.
 
This is an amazing system. Great job by Razer! I won't be buying it due to the steep price tag, but definitely going to recommend it to those who are willing to pay for the best.
 
[citation][nom]g-unit1111[/nom]I very badly need to get a new laptop but this one is way too rich for my blood. I would definitely consider this if it were about $1K less.[/citation]
Lenovo Y580/Y500 GT650m SLI
 
[citation][nom]xpeh[/nom]While the price is steep, this laptop is definitely one of the best looking gaming laptops I've ever seen.[/citation]
IMO having a $1000 gaming desktop and spending $500-600 on a laptop when Haswell comes out is probably much more economical for the occasional gaming on a laptop paired with a sold desktop to enjoy the higher quality graphics. Even at $2500, this laptop can't even keep up with the $500 budget gaming build from last month.
 
Gaming laptops have never been priced in a range that makes them worth buying for me. They don't really have enough battery life to really take advantage of portability, and the price/performance is in a whole other league if you compare it to any desktop build.

Even buying a cheap laptop for travel use alongside a gaming desktop is likely to come in cheaper than many of these.
 
This laptop is not for me. I care more about performance than style.

The Lenovo Y580 WAS a great affordable option (a third to half the cost of Razer's model) with similar performance to this system. Sadly is was recently discontinued and replaced by the inferior Y500.
 

i think it's because the bf3 bench was the single player campaign which is gpu bound - the 7970m gpu performs less restricted by the apu.. irc tom's cod bop ii review didn't have cpu benchmarks. i didn't know that it was more cpu bound. that's why the msi gx60's performance looks so pathetic - which in turn gives the impression of bf3 performing better than cod bop ii.
 
[citation][nom]slomo4sho[/nom]IMO having a $1000 gaming desktop and spending $500-600 on a laptop when Haswell comes out is probably much more economical for the occasional gaming on a laptop paired with a sold desktop to enjoy the higher quality graphics. Even at $2500, this laptop can't even keep up with the $500 budget gaming build from last month.[/citation]

Although I agree with what you say about the costs, to be fair, you can get $1500 or so laptops that compete with the last low-end SBM system (which was $600, not $500) in gaming performance. For example, a $1450 configuration of one of Clevo's laptops get's a quad-core i7 3640QM (a little better than the one in this Razer) and a Radeon 7970M (much, much faster than GTX 660M).
 
Nifty, but yes you can get a MSI with a bit more power
The GT60 comes with the same CPU but with 660m, 670mx, 675x and 680m/mx for 1500 - 1900 range. For gaming laptops those are my fav. Now the size/weight are not comparable LOL

Wife is running a GT60 with the 670mx and it takes everything beautifully. Very surprised at how cool it runs even after a few hours in GW2 lol
 
The Razor has come a long way. When the first version came out I was going to buy but it had tooo many limitations for the price. Much of this has been cleared up. Unfortunately, I probably won't be shopping for another game laptop for a while since I bought the M17X and while huge compared to this, it is still performance wise a superior machine and highly expandable with more ports than the Razor can offer.
 
I just spend less than half that much on a 15" 1080P MSI GT60 with a GTX 675M video card and same CPU, yea it's thicker but as awesome as this thing is, it's not worth the price tag.
 
Um, couldn't I get a Lenovo Y580 for the same hardware config? Or a Sager NP 9130 for around $1300 with less weight?
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Both the Lenovo and Sager have 15.6" displays and are much more traditional designs. The Blade is Razer's statement on how a gaming notebook can be engineered and built. You get a lot of features and much more style than the Lenovo or Sager. There is nothing wrong with choosing any of those 3 machines if they suit your needs and budget. What computer you ultimately choose will depend on what matters to you. My goal is not to help sell a system. My goal is to help the readers of Tom's Hardware make well informed decisions.

If there is something out there that you want to see reviewed, feel free to send me a PM.
 
Razer positions the Blade R2 as a closed system with no user-serviceable parts. The company only offers one configuration, and your only choice is between Windows 7 or 8.
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Wow.. quite impressive for the most part, but, A $2500 beast of a laptop.. all the right looks, all the right hardware... Except for that 500GB mechanical hdd. And your telling me it can NEVER have an SSD or more than 8GB of RAM?? What a serious, serious deal breaker. I can't believe a company would ask you to shell out that kind of money on such a super high end machine with no option available to have a full sized SSD or any more RAM than the 8GB they offer. Unacceptable.
 
Nice engineering feat, but I'm not touching another gaming laptop for a very long time. Tom's temperature readings in this article did nothing to assuage my concerns.

Just wait until the average user clogs that thing up with dust -- and oh yeah, you void your warranty if you open it up to clean it.
 
This whole Warranty crap is BS. I have an MSI that theorycly voided my warranty when i opened the Laptop. I called MSI and you know what they told me?
Dont worry about details, as longa s you didnt unscrew things and placed them back togheter badly, we will fix it.

Then after that, since it was my screen (the plastic parts had separated from the screen, probably due to a hit in my travels), they didint bother with cheap ass solutions, they replaced the whole screen and i had my laptop 3 days after i sent it (thou they did say i was lucky to have it solved so fast).

I really dont like it when you spend a huge amount of cash on a electronic device and you can void your waranty even if you are an expert user and know that you are actually doing the company a favour (like replacing the thermal paste for some higher end and cleaning the Vents).
 
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