Razer Blade 14" Haswell Gaming Notebook & Atrox Arcade Stick - Computex 2013
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,244 words · ~6 min read
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Linus Tech tips coverage of computex 2013 is powered by Western Digital our
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trusted gaming gear partner is Corsair Vengeance and our trusted retail partner
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is nc.com welcome to the Razer suite at
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computex 2013 this is the thing that
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everyone's excited about this is the razor blade 14-inch gaming laptop this
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features an Intel Core i7 fourth generation Haswell processor so that
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means yes guys we are benefiting in a big way
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from the improved performances has well okay yeah a little bit but mainly from
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the improved power consumption so it's finally getting to the point now where
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there's so little heat output and so little power consumption that a Haswell
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gaming notebook with a GTX 765m can be crammed into a 66 in form
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factor so it has 8 gigs of memory it's got a 128 gig SSD although it's
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upgradeable to 256 it's got a 14in 1600x
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900 screen which is going to be a good resolution for a GTX 765m there's a pro
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version that's 17in as well but we don't have that one here so you can see
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ventilation on the bottom is provided by a couple of fans there are two rubber
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strips on the bottom of the chassis so I'm just going to go ahead and put this
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down fully aluminum chassis man it's beautiful razor gaming systems look so
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good so these right here are rubber so that it's not going to move around in
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terms of IO it's pretty straightforward so you've got power in right here as
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well as two usb3 super speed ports and your headphone microphone combo Jack
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along the back there's absolutely nothing it's very very clean looking
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you've got that illuminated razor logo on the top that we showed you before and
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then here on the other side you've got a Kensington lock HDMI out as well as an
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additional usb3 port on the front there's nothing but a hinge and we're
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going to go ahead and open that up and I'm going to give you guys another look at of course it's going to be instant on
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because it's got an SSD but check out that illuminated keyboard man that's
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gorgeous so you've got the usual gaming keyboard functionality so you can turn
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down the brightness of the screen you can turn down the brightness of the
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gaming keyboard itself so you can decide whether you want that Razor's backl
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keyboards particularly stuff like their black widow 2013 edition Black Widow
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ultimate are so bright and so vibrant
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man they look good they're claiming about 6 hours of battery life which I
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actually find more impressive than the just the general slimness and spec and
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all of that stuff nice big touchpad uh Left Right Mouse buttons right here
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exactly where they should be we saw one notebook here at the show that had the
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that had the touchpad above the keyboard so they haven't really done anything
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sort of outlandish in terms of the overall layout speakers are left and
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right mounted honestly if you want a nice clean slim notebook that is not
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only going to look good but also perform well this is the first razor blade that
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I can say like yeah if I was buying a laptop this is this is definitely in my
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in my top list the one thing that I
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still uh have a bit of a problem with is that this is a TN panel so it is not an
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IPS panel I'll be interested to see if the pro version has an IPS panel but
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unfortunately we don't have one of those here the power brick itself isn't that
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huge so I can go ahead and do my phone size comparison right there so not bad
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at all remember guys this is an HTC1 so that could should give you some idea
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what your looking at in terms of sizing and if 66 in doesn't mean anything to
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you I should Pro probably also do my trademark phone size comparison with The
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Notebook itself so that gives you some idea how slim this thing is it's
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incredibly well constructed speaking of well constructed that leads us
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to razor fight stick so this is the
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first time they've really gotten into this and they're trying to address that
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market in a very meaningful way this is the Atrix which they're calling the most
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customizable fight stick available on the market so okay by you know we'll
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start on the outside we'll start on the outside so on the outside it looks like a fight stick so you got a joystick you
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got some buttons that you can press you got some more buttons you can press on
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the side there's your start and your back button on the bottom you've got a nice rubberized finish that's not going
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to slip anywhere whether you're holding it on your lap or putting on a table or
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wherever else and on the other side you find not a whole lot of anything so when
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we open it up these are genuine Sano
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switches which apparently is a big deal not only that but they're completely
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replaceable easily accessible So speaking of easily accessible you've got
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an alternate head for the joystick right here that is in a nice little storage
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compartment you've got a tool for making adjustments so that's a flathead and
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Phillips head screwdriver you've also got the cord nice little place to store
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that uh it's only compatible with PC and Xbox 360 but check this out you want to
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make modifications to this thing they've got a honeycomb structure on the entire
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bottom of the casing so you can use all this for storage or you can use it to
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easily screw out any kinds of modifications that you might make to the
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device so the idea is you can carry around different switches if you find
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that optimal for a particular playing style or whatever else you want to do
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you can carry around any little tools and any kind of gear that you need to
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take with you to a tournament or whether it's just to keep it in one place so you
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don't lose it when you're using it at home so this is this is a very very
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customized very special piece of gaming equipment I'm really looking forward to
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checking it out in more detail because it's no secret that fight stick owners
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are some of the fussiest guys out there when it comes to having just the right
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thing and looks are another thing that uh that are a factor and of course you
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can replace the razor Graphics that are on the top of it with anything you
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choose simply by swapping it out that's just a Plexi plate holding it down guys
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don't miss any of our computex 2013 coverage here at the show we're powered
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by Western Digital as well as Corsair Vengeance gaming peripherals and nci.com
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and as always don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech tips