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  • WithoutWeakness - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    That looks like a pretty heavy anti-glare coating on the display from the photo of the sub-pixel arrangement. Have you noticed a negative impact on clarity compared to other matte displays that you've used?
  • JoshHo - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    It looks about the same as any matte display I've used. I suspect I would've preferred a glossy display with a good AR coating though.
  • Drumsticks - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    This makes a good case for the race to QHD or 4k not necessarily being worth it, at least in smartphones. While the physics/particulars of smaller, 5-6" displays would certainly be different, could we not expect a similar outcome anyways? If that's the case, I'd definitely prefer a 1080p display over QHD or 4k on my 5.5" device, if only for even 10% more screen on time.
  • ImSpartacus - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    Definitely. We've always known that high resolution damns your performance & battery life, but this is a very good demonstration of "pure" look on the effect.

    I love the shit out of this article.
  • Brett Howse - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    Just wanted to point out we've specifically covered this exact scenario before in the Dell XPS 13 review here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8983/dell-xps-13-rev...

    It's an even more drastic difference though because Dell is using Ultrabook parts and the display is Sharp IGZO for both the FHD and QHD+ models.
  • michaelhouston12 - Saturday, November 14, 2015 - link

    Lenovo ThinkPad T450s is the one I'm using for my business. Specs are better than other laptops. It can handle multiple open browser page, quickbooks and other apps at the same time. Got from: http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-laptops/
  • kspirit - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    Well. Part of the appeal of thin and light notebooks with high power efficiency is being able to work when you're mobile for an extended amount of time. In which case the matte display wins out for simply being more readable outdoors, which is a huge plus for many (myself included). The 1080p panel is a total win-win for people who aren't always working indoors.
  • ImSpartacus - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    And besides, it's a gaming laptop and you're not really going to be able to game past 1080p, you know?

    So the native res oughta match what you'll be gaming at. If it's more, then you're just wasting battery life.
  • BMNify - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    Razer Blade 1080p vs QHD version choice will ultimately depend on price as many will be satisfied with 1080p screen+ 8GB ram and save $400 in the process.

    As for Matte vs Glossy, this totally depends on usage conditions, someone like me who doesn't use my laptop outdoors much, Glossy is a must have due to better clarity and no graininess but for some of my friends who need to use laptops outdoors a lot, matte display is the only option and i hope there is always a matte option for such people.
  • dragonsqrrl - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    The 8GB limit on the 1080p version is unnecessary and a complete deal breaker for me.
  • BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    Price and specifications probably play a much bigger role in the display resolution choice than does battery life for those people that are planning to use their Blade for gaming as they'll very likely be plugged into a wall outlet in those situations. However, if this difference is similar in smartphones and non-gaming laptops (or gaming laptops that end up getting used frequently for non-gaming chores or spend a lot of time away from outlets), I can see some pretty significant arguments in favor of lower resolution screens.

    It's great you guys took the time to analyze this. I'm actually surprised there's that much of a difference. 20% is absolutely not insignificant.
  • Jon Tseng - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    1080p is actually a better fit for the GPU. After all if you're going for a Blade it's for the gaming right otherwise you may as well just get a MacBook.

    Fitting the screen resolution to the (inevitably) limited GPU is the secret to a good gaming laptop - the old Alienware m11x is a case in point by going for 1366x768 they made a careful trade-off between a lower resolution panel which could run games natively given the GPU which fit in the thermal envelope.

    The downer however is that lower res panel isn't touch which is a sine qua non in a Windows 8/10 world. To be that's a deal breaker otherwise it would be 1080p all the way!
  • ImSpartacus - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    It's a much better fit, no doubt about that.

    I love the m11x reference. It was a very well balanced machine for what it tried to do. The 1080p blade has more than a few similarities.
  • kgh00007 - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    You guys need to get in the Alienware 15 for review!
  • geniekid - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    I'm glad you guys revisited this. The reviews for the 1080p version are very sparse even though I think there's a strong argument to be made in favor of the 1080p model if your primary use is gaming (heck, the majority of gaming benchmarks in the original AT review are done at 1080p). I guess everyone assumes performance is unchanged between the QHD+ and 1080p models but one or two benchmarks to validate this would be welcome.

    I also note that the original review used a single game running in 3200x1800 for the noise and temperature benchmarks. It would be nice to see comparable benchmarks.
  • JoshHo - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    Noise and temperature will be comparable if you run at the same display resolution. The difference in power consumption will be minute at best, and effectively non-existent when running at maximum TDP.
  • geniekid - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link

    Noise and temperature in the original review were measured while running Tomb Raider at 3200x1800. There is no data in either review on noise/temperature after gaming in 1080p.

    I guess we must assume the heat/noise/power characteristics are all the same as long as one is running a game.
  • JoshHo - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - link

    It will be similar as power consumption in intense scenarios is such that the extra power budget given by the 1080p display is used up by the GPU/CPU.

    In my experience with these laptops it is necessary to keep fanspeed at maximum in any gaming/intense compute scenario. Both the Blade 2014 and 2015 in all variants will maintain at least nominal clock speeds in these scenarios if the fans are spinning at maximum, with turbo if load remains below 90-100% on average.
  • TypeZer0 - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link

    I'm curious, was the same battery used in both laptops when testing? Could some of the longer run times be attributed to the newer battery on the 1080p laptop?
  • TrackSmart - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link

    I think that both cases are unlikely. I'm guessing that the previous laptop was given back a long time ago, so both laptops were tested using the batteries they came (i.e. new batteries). It would be time consuming to run all of the same tests again on a laptop that has already been tested, unless there was a strong reason to do so (i.e. a major bios update that improves performance or battery life). Besides, if they reran the tests on the previous laptop and got considerably lower battery life results this time around, it would be an obvious giveaway that something was wrong.

    Just my 2 cents.
  • AnnonymousCoward - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link

    I've heard there's a DisplayPort feature that can greatly reduce video data transfers by only updating pixels (or rows, etc) that changed from the previous frame. Has that ever been implemented?
  • roneil.sister - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link

    Hi @Josh - Thanks for this informative article. For web development and casual gaming, Would you recommend the FHD over the QHD+? Thank you very much!

    Regards,
    Mark

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