Razer Blade Stealth: A rMB/MBA competitor?

[saintforlife]

Razer released their first ultra book recently at CES. Here are the specs:

Skylake i7 U processor, QHD, 8 GB RAM, 0.52 inch thick, Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 HDMI port, 8 hours battery, full aluminum case.

The laptop starts at $999. Looks like a compelling device that could compete with both the retina MacBook and the MacBook Air. Anybody looking at this for their next laptop purchase?

Selected reviews:
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2016/...basically-a-macbook-air-made-for-gamers/#gref

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/6/10719182/razer-blade-stealth-ultrabook-specs-price-ces-2016

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2497529,00.asp

 

[Hastings101]

I don't think it really competes with the same market as the Macbook/Air. The desktop add-on sounds cool if it's done well, just for the enthusiast/gaming crowd. Having a portable laptop and "desktop" gaming PC in one is something I've always wanted, though not sure if the relatively weak 6500U would be a bottleneck. Looking forward to reviews for sure

 

[Algus]

I don't really like razer but the whole releasing an actual ultrabook and doing the GPU as an external attachment pretty interesting to me. I think they've hit on something since their ultrabooks with the GPU built in kind of sucked

The idea of docking my laptop and getting a more robust desktop option is very cool.

 

[The Clark]

I picked the wrong time to sell my 760. That's seriously a nice laptop, though I don't think it directly competes with Macbooks since most Mac users don't game.

 

[mi7chy]

One is a full fledged gaming laptop while the other is not so they're not competitors.

 

[Truefan31]

This is impressive. Especially getting the core too for desktop gaming performance. Although I'm curious how much the core will be.

Asus will be releasing a similar setup through their rog line.

 

[Algus]

Oh, so I ended up putting in a pre-order for this thing. The 1440p/256 GB unit.

This machine actually makes a lot of sense for gamers on OS X! That thunderbolt 3 port is going to let me use my thunderbolt display and I can always set my Mini to target disc mode to get access to 1.5 GB worth of stuff. Depending on how it runs my stuff (should be better than 2.5 ghz Mini with HD 4000 IGP) I can probably get rid of my Bootcamp partition and salvage some 300 GB for OS X.

I don't see it replacing my Macbook though, more like supplementing it. Be a secondary device for Windows when I need it (which is basically just for gaming these days).

I bought the machine on its strength as an ultrabook rather than because of the Core. If the core is a good price, I'll toss some basic 4 GB video card in there and should have plenty of juice for the MMOs I like to play.

The spec sheet compares very favorably to my 13'' Macbook Pro. I'm eager to do some benchmarks on it and see how it holds up.

 

[lowendlinux]

One is a full fledged gaming laptop while the other is not so they're not competitors.

It's a gaming laptop only in the sense that it's made by Razor, really it's just a HiRes ultrabook with a tacky keyboard