Razer Blade 14-inch late-2016 refresh first impressions

By Chris Burns/Sept. 2, 2016 8:00 am EST

Razer has revealed their newest iteration of their hero gaming laptop, the Razer Blade, this time with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics inside. As we detailed in mid-August, NVIDIA's GTX 10 line of GPUs aren't coming to laptops like Blade with "M" versions (read: lesser) of GPUs made for desktops – they're made with the same chips. This new Razer Blade is so powerful – in a big way due to the GTX 1060 – that it's able to run a full-powered virtual reality headset like Oculus Rift and/or HTC VIVE.

We had a bit of time with this machine – or an early iteration of it – earlier this year at an NVIDIA event showing off the capabilities of the graphics technology therein. There, inside this newest edition of the 2016 Razer Blade, the form factor remained largely the same, but the power inside was increased by one whole heck of a lot.

There's little to say about this machine that wasn't already said before – it's one of the best – if not the best – gaming notebook in the world. Sure, there are fatter gaming notebooks out there with, for instance, bigger batteries – but the balance between power and size on this machine is just about as ideal as it gets.

The laptop you see above – again – wasn't necessarily running final software and didn't necessarily have all of the final hardware an end-consumer would be working with. BUT, since this new Razer Blade has basically the same chassis that the last one did, it makes little difference in this demo.

Below you'll see the full specifications of this notebook. Bold specs have been updated since the last time we saw this machine updated.

• Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad-Core Processor (2.6GHz / 3.5GHz)

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5 VRAM)

• 16GB System Memory (DDR4, 2133 MHz)

• Windows 10 64-bit

• 256GB / 512GB / 1TB SSD (PCIe M.2) options

• 14.0-in. IGZO QHD+, 3200x1800, capacitive multi-touch / 14.0-in. Full HD Matte, 1920x1080 options

• Anti-ghosting keyboard with per-key lighting powered by Razer Chroma

• Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth® 4.1)

• Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)

• USB 3.0 port x3 (SuperSpeed)

• HDMI 2.0 video and audio output

• 3.5 mm headphone/microphone combo port

• Built-in webcam (2.0 MP)

• Built-in stereo speakers

• Array microphone

• Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater Edition

• 7.1 Codec support (via HDMI)

• Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) security chip embedded

• Razer Synapse enabled with programmable keyboard, trackpad, backlighting, and fan control

• Kensington security slot

• Compact 165W power adapter

• Built-in 70 Wh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery

• Approx. Size: 0.70 in. / 17.9 mm (Height) x 13.6 in. / 345 mm (Width) x 9.3 in. / 235 mm (Depth)

• Approx. Weight: 4.25 lbs. / 1.93 kg

UPDATE: Models aplenty:

Pricing on this next-generation notebook will begin in the United States at $1799 USD. Pre-orders for this notebook will begin on September 2nd, 2016 through RazerZone online and pre-orders will ship in October. This new Razer Blade will ship to stores worldwide in November.