1:01 p.m. | Updated This post was updated to correctly describe the Razer’s screen resolution.
How is the performance of Razer’s 14-inch Blade gaming laptop? Impressive enough that a dedicated console player shelved his Xbox in favor of the Blade. Considering that console players and computer gamers feud over format supremacy, that’s a considerable endorsement.
Gaming devices need fast processors and good screens to make the most of the complex graphics that go into creations like Crysis 3, Metro Last Light and Bioshock Infinite. That usually means the machines are pretty big, run hot and have noisy cooling fans.
The new Blade is small, not quite 14 inches wide, about 9 inches deep and only two-thirds of an inch thick, weighing four pounds. It runs nearly silently, and as for heat, well, two out of three ain’t bad. You won’t want it in your lap during extended play.
I lent the computer to my neighbor Mark, an Xbox devotee, who showed me the last 30 games he had played, then remembered he had another drawer full as well. He said he had been a console player for years.
He tested the Blade using Bioshock Infinity, the latest version, which puts the greatest demand on the system. Running the graphics at the highest quality, there were no freezes (after updating the drivers), no crashes and the motion was smooth. Looking straight on, he said, the graphics topped those of his Xbox playing on a 60-inch 1080p Sony Bravia.
The graphics are powered by a fourth-generation Intel Core “Haswell” chip with an integrated HD6400 graphics processor that works with an Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics card to keep motion fluid. It comes configured with eight gigabytes of RAM and a solid-state hard drive of either 128 gigabytes ($1,800), 256 gigs ($2,000), or 512 gigs ($2,300).
That kind of power is good for graphic editing, too, so it might be a machine photographers and videographers would consider, although they will probably need to add an off-board or external hard drive to augment the Blade’s scant memory.
With the Blade, you are seeing HD+ (900 lines of resolution horizontally, not 1080). That was a conscious decision by Razer, said a spokesman, because a Windows 8 desktop won’t scale to 1080 – it would
make lettering tiny. That’s a problem, assuming people will not dedicate the laptop solely to games.
Although the Blade has built-in speakers, they are weak. You’ll want a headset or accessory set.
An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the screen definition of the Razer. It is not 720p. It is HD+.