Razer Blade 15.6" (GTX 1060/1070, 2018 edition) Owner's Lounge

Can you elaborate? Did you have problems getting the warranty or using it?

 

You may have just had bad luck, getting the warranty was trivial for me at the Tysons Corner Mall in McLean, Va location.

 

The only time I ever got the warranty was by bringing my laptop into the store and I bought it to attach to my laptop. I bought the Blade from Razer. When I bought my second Blade.. I went into the store and they said they could not add the warranty since I did not buy the laptop from them. I literally showed them my old warranty and they still said "oh I don't know how you did that and we can't do that". I called support while in the store and while I was sitting right there the rep over the phone said it WAS possible... yet they still refused to add it in store. The person over the phone said it had to be done in store for proof of purchase but both reps were disagreeing with each other. I was in the store for 3 hours trying to get it sorted out and still nothing so I left. When I got my third Blade I called support directly and they said they could add it for me over the phone. So the rep took 45 mins to pull up the information he needed only to say "I can't add it". I had a supervisor come on the line and he told me that it can't be done over the phone I have to take it in the store since I did not purchase it from Microsoft direct. It was literally story after story back and forth over and over. So I will never deal with them again. I would rather get geek squad warranty/square etc over having to go through all that again. Worst customer support ever.

 

Did you buy both the laptop and warranty in store? Are you able to see on your account profile that it has a warranty?

 

I did some searching and found a reddit thread stating they no longer offer 3rd party warranty. Only laptops bought through them.

 

Honestly if they were upfront with me and said that before I drove an hour to their store only to waste another 3 I probably wouldn't have blasted them. Not to mention customer service to this day telling me it can still be done.

 

My Blade arrived today. It's very nice. Certainly the best 1080p panel I've seen. The build quality seems fantastic. This is the first Razer I've ever owned so I'm coming from the perspective of never having had any trouble previously. First impressions are very good. I've been working on it all day (all business no play!!!) and coming over from an X1 Carbon G6 (i7)... man...... the performance difference is astounding. This thing is very powerful. So far, so good...

Time to establish some baseline performance...

 

This is what I would expect - wanting them to sell you a warranty for a laptop you bought elsewhere seems odd to me - they would be very limited in their ability to support that device if they don't know its whole history (as in, they procured it from the manufacturer and then sold to you).

That is like going to a Ford dealership and complaining they wont sell you a warranty on your Honda

 

Yeah I’m kinda surprised they ever did this. It’s just asking for fraud.

So I called Microsoft today about the warranty I ourchased and it not showing anywhere that it’s tied to my account. They said I just need the email receipt for the laptop and paper receipt for the warranty in store to file a claim. Not as slick as beatbuy where it shows in the system but $250 for 4 years is pretty good considering.

 

$250 for 4 years is outstanding! That is accidental coverage too if I remember correctly

 

Anyone figure out how to set the colours on the Windows lock screen? They always seem to revert to cycling through the different colours. I assume that's stored in the firmware. Despite trying to set 'everything I could' in Chroma, nothing worked. Perhaps I'm missing something.

Also, just a nice little surprise, was playing Overwatch and noticed that Synapse configured the keyboard backlighting for me. What was really cool (prolly old news to some) was that the keys lighting changes in game, like when a weapon is powering up the E key would flash and then when the weapon would finish powering up the E key on keyboard would change to a solid colour. I was blown away, that's so awesome. I’d never seen that before. Sometimes it’s those little details that can make a great impression.

 

Your synapse lightning profile would be loaded after log in to window, yes it’s somehow from synapse before log in it would show some previous lightning effects, there’s way to keep your profile before log in but it’s complicated and I forgot the thread about it, somewhere on Razer forum.
There’s also other games that supported chroma like rise of the Tomb Raider, elex, FFXV etc, you can find other here, and it’s also not only for Blade Keyboard but also other peripherals that supported chroma.

 

Notebookcheck just posted a review of 144hz / 1060 MQ version earlier today.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Razer-Blade-15-i7-8750H-GTX-1060-Max-Q-FHD-Laptop-Review.314146.0.html

Below is a snippet from their verdict.

"The result is a configuration that actually runs longer, cooler, and quieter by noticeable margins. It is therefore arguable that the GTX 1060 Max-Q SKU offers a more balanced experience for mainstream gamers and on-the-go students while the powerful GTX 1070 Max-Q SKU can be seen as the "performance at all cost" enthusiast option."

After reading the review, specifically the section on CPU, I'm wondering if the i5-8300H would have been a better pairing for the 1060 MQ version (perhaps even the 1070 MQ version).

 

No it’s same hot this 8th gen cpu, and it performs worse than previous Blade 14 with 7700HQ, and with 1060 it means downgrade. I prefer 8750 it’s damn faster over 30% over i5 8300 or i7 7700 , if could I want better 8850H. Of course user have to know how to handle the temperature without loosing the performance, this is what interesting to me. Here’s Dell 15 G5 cpu temperature on stress test from same notebookcheck review, my 8750 is better on default and hardcore and long period gaming only one or two cores hitting 90ish, and no thermal throttle with my personal setting.

 

Maybe a i3/1060 version would be a good cheaper option, I just don't think it should replace any of the current offering.

If we were talking about the stock machine then it's something that could be argued, definitely. But with proper undervolting (and even turbo speed adjustments) it's honestly very possible to keep the i7 under control. Also, while the Blade is a gaming laptop let's not forget many people (and Razer knows this) buy it for production work in general in which having the i7 and its 6 cores is a god send.

 

Well this came out...

https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/11/razer-blade-review/

are they just shipping the poorly made units to customers and providing the best ones for reviews...is this razer gate??

 

What do you mean? The results they're showing seem in line with what we're getting. They don't mention CPU temps (a shame, that's where the Blade struggles) but GPU temps being between 80 and 84C is nothing special, now that I undervolted the CPU my 1070MQ hits 79C maximum during sustained heavy gaming load (Witcher 3 for instance) and doesn't go over 75C when playing Overwatch. During short bursts like benchmarks I got 71C max.


EDIT: only thing that's surprising is the battery life, but battery life tests are not standardized at all making it difficult to judge how accurate they are.

 

Also most review sites have some bias towards the vendor and want to stay in their good graces so they keep receiving review kit - no review kit means no reviews means site dies. They are literally sent a page with suggestions on what tests to run and how and phrases or wordings they should include in their review. I also absolutely would not put it past Razer to seed review sites the highest bin'd units to appear better.

 

The only thing that looks out of sorts from what I've read up about is the battery life being better than the aero. The video mentions 8 hours and 50 minutes looping an HD video, which sounds really wrong.

 

Yeah that's the issue with battery tests, every reviewer has his own test that's more or less relevant. That's why when judging a laptop's battery life I just want to know the specs, the actual size in Wh of the battery and if Optimus is enabled. That will tell you the battery life you can expect with 90% accuracy.

 

Actually:
1) We generally receive review loaners from Razer. Razer does not send us idiot sheets telling us what to test. I have seen an occasional manufacturer suggest tests to run for those reviewers who aren't as aware as they should be of what to test. Razer however doesn't do this. In the US, no manufacturer would ever suggest phrases or wording- that would be considered something bordering on corrupt or at least offensive.

2) Razer was taking too long to get us a Blade 15 loaner, so I purchased the one used in our review. Thus it was not cherry picked by Razer PR and was from the very first retail batch. As an aside, I'm keeping it- great machine for the things I do such as 4K video editing, heavy photo editing with 3rd party PS filters and of course, gaming . I'm not thrilled by the light bleed along the bottom edge and the high SSD temps (I was the first to share the solution to use thermal pads, which fixes the issue), but otherwise it's been good.

3) There still seems to be paranoia and conspiracy theories about reviewers and review units. Oh well, maybe that's human nature... no idea.

4) Honestly, most of the big name products on the market these days are pretty darned solid (not saying perfect). That means reviews will lean toward the positive since these products are by no means failures or crap. I do think that quite a few reviewers have just a limited time to spend with review loaners, and might not see some of the long term warts that owners encounter if they test the machine and write/video a review after just 3-5 days. I'm independent (I don't have to answer to a big corporate boss), so I spend longer, but not every reviewer can.

5) Relating to point 4, there are generally enough positive points for a given good quality product that reviewers don't have to work to get on a manufacturer's good side. As long as a review is balanced and fair (manufacturers are already aware of their products' shortcomings and don't ding reviewers for calling them out), then all is good. I've given Razer a hard time on some of their products- particularly the Blade Pro 17", and they still work with me. Apple is the only company I've heard of that has pulled review sites out of their review program for negativity.

 

I had heard, from the review site, that idiot sheets were a thing and not uncommon - forgot if it was Tom's Hardware or Anandtech - they are my main two. It may have been for an Intel or Apple product, can't recall - but it DOES happen. I like when review sites buy a retail sample as that can be expected to be more representative of what a customer would get

It is good to know that smaller independent reviewers like your site are being supported well by manufacturers to get more reviews out there and generate a better informed public.

I also like that you take longer to be more thorough and critical of cooling as that is often one of the things that I find sorely lacking in notebook reviews from the big sites - they quickly gloss over it with a couple snapshot measurements and maybe an infrared picture or two.

 

So other than the SSD overheating, is it decent or should I just grab the 256?
I could just suffer with low storage for a few months to save 225 bucks (Cad ) and throw that towards an evo or pro closer to the holidays??

What do you guys think?

 

Due to having only the single SSD interface, cloning the drive to a new one is a pain meaning a new SSD is likely also a fresh install of Windows (which is not the worst thing in the world)

 

I'm most likely going to sell my stock 256GB M.2 (after I exchange models) and get either the 512GB or 1TB Crucial MX500.

The 1TB variant is less than $300 on Amazon after BC taxes and I think I could sell the stock drive for at least 100 on Craigslist.

 

And we love that you do <3

Your content is excellent and I'm a big fan of your channel.

 

Isn't selling the original a bad idea, in case you need to RMA?

 

It's really, really, really not hard to clone to a new SSD. You make an image on an external drive and then restore from it. It's just a longer process because you can't go drive to drive.

That said just do a fresh install. Razer gives a really skinny install of Windows, but SSD drives do seem to be happier to have a fresh install done. You also get to get rid of the recovery partition and regain that lost space.

 

Yep.

 

Did anyone ever verify if a SATA m.2 works in the Razer 15?

 

Great to see you comment here, long time subscriber of your channel!

 

Don’t bother with this. I took a chance and ordered but it is not reliable. I put the 512gb drive that came in the Razer and when transferring large files it will randomly disconnect and reconnect to windows. It was pretty fast when it worked though.

 

Razer and some Chinese export sites (like gearbest) did that, but other major manufacturers don't. I'm not sure if Razer is still doing it after LTT called them out on it. I do know that UBR stopped getting Razer units after Derek declined to shoehorn in wording from Razer -- despite that our review of the Core was pretty positive.

 

Isnt the 256gb Version sata? Cause i got the smaller one and i dont have any heat problems (no ssd mod). It just gets about 50-55c hot. I thought this is because its a sata one

 

On their site it says NVME. The RB14 doesn't support SATA, so I would be surprised if the RB 15 does.

 

Yes it’s NVME, and my ssd temperature is around same 50ish nothing I should worry about on that area. One user reported it works with SATA.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...on-owners-lounge.817185/page-48#post-10741012
I see fun things upgrading and tweaking things in this model...after 2 years when Guarantee out...well if mine still exists I’ll do those things

 

Got mine yesterday, and quite happy with it. Bleed on the bottom is accaptable, fan noise not too bad under light load, and the power adapter rattle is only audible when close to the adapter.
I do have one big annoyance: the screen hinge cracks each time I adjust the screen to another angle. The sound is coming mostly from the right side. Is this normal or am I unlucky with the hinge beeing too tight?

 

From the original poster, I would like to clarify that I too meant the reviewer's RB15's battery life and the temps on gaming seemed "off" . I must have watched every video review from a reputable source (read as 4 of which LTT still hasn't reviewed one properly) and read 3 reviews (of which NBc) plays a major part. mobiletechreview was able to swing me towards blade because her review seemed unbiased and honest, and that the battery wasn't all that bad, and for me that was a sticking point to get this 4000 Aussie dolla' rig with a year's warranty.

 

Mine does not have that issue. Quiet as a mouse.

.....


I do have quite a bit of backlight bleed on the bottom of the screen, but this seems relatively normal at this point. I'm not sure at this point I am going to do anything about it. I'm loving everything else about this thing so much the thought of doing an RMA for it seems pointless at least for now.

Cranked up Overwatch last night for the first time in ages. It ran like a dream. Loved it.

Boy, this thing does get hot though. Certainly a lot better with an undervolt of 140mV, but I still hit 92 C playing Overwatch (on the CPU). Ambient temp was 22 C.

As an aside, SSD went from 90C to 50C under load after applying some thermal grizzly minus pads (2.0mm) to the SSD. It's all I had on me, and I know everyone here has been using at least 3.0mm (doubling up on the 1.5mm pads) on the SSD controller. So those are my results with 2.0mm only. The pads are 8.0W/mk.

What do you guys think of those temps, especially the CPU when playing overwatch? I've still got the stock paste on the CPU (and GPU for that matter). I've done no mods to them yet.

 

Good results on the SSD with the pads you have on it. Those are perfect temperatures.

CPU is going to be 90+ if you don't lower the turbo. If you want to cool it down try lowering the turbo multiplier in throttlestop. You may find that it affects gaming performance not much or even not at all.

 

so the main heat problem with this notebook is again that the heatsink doesnt make proper contact with the cpu die! I put a copper shim (0.5mm) between heatsink and die and my temps arent getting to the 80s anymore! i did run firestrike and my cpu and gpu temp didnt went over 70!
This is with lm between die and shim and shim and heatsink

 

Hi Everyone! New to this forum and new Blade 15 owner, this is my first gaming laptop. I'm coming back to Windows after 10 years of Mac! I'm very happy with it so far. I've been using it for a week and got some questions for the owners of this laptop to check if everything is working as expected:

1/ When the charger is plugged in and I'm working, as soon as I launch an app or do a light task the fans kick in noticeably for about 20 seconds and then go back to silent or almost silent, do you also get the same behaviour on your laptop? It seems to operate more silently when on battery.
2/ When the fans kick in, they produce a light but high pitch noise in the background, Do you also hear it on low/medium/high fan speed (very audible during high fan speed)? Is it something expected on gaming laptop (the high pitch, not the high fan speed)?
3/ When I put my ear on the keyboard, I can hear some coil whine (I hear the same noise on the charger), you can't hear it if your ear is not very close to the keyboard. No problem with the noise but do you have the same kind of noise on your machine and should I care about this?
4/ I'm not used to Windows and by default the screen scaling is set at 100% (that's the recommanded value), is it current scale on Windows or did you change this to 125% ?

Thanks for anyone you will take the time to answer my questions! Hope this will help people (besides me), know what to expect with this Blade.
Other than that it's a terrific laptop!

 

Wow that's really great cpu temperature, how about the score? Is the score also great on balance 13~ish? I wonder why manufacturer couldn't manage that heat sink design since any 8th gen cpu laptops that I saw was quite hot running games compared to 7th gen cpu.

 

I got 14600. Was on gaming Mode with Full Fan and -140mV undervolt. If i put it on Auto, my Max Temp is 81c in firestrike with Gaming Mode.

 

How does adding the shim improve things though? If the die and heatsink don’t sit flush, how does adding a shim in between them make a flush connection where none existed previously?

 

1 yes
2 yes
3 yes
4 kept it at 100%

 

If it does Not fit tight enough, there could be air gaps. When placing a shim between heatsink and die, those gaps can become smaller or even vanish. Before Intel and amd created heatspreader, shims where commonly found everywhere in the oc scene

 

After adding the shim, how is the contact with the GPU and the mem?

 

Hi All,

I have a question about Microsoft warranty spoken previously in this thread.
I don't find the 4 years warranty for $250 ? I just find PerformanceGuard for 2 years for $149.
Please help.

Thank you.

Current Gamer Laptop: MacBookPro 2011 / FireStrike: 896 / 97 C (No throttling) ! ;-)

 

seems quite good. Hottest part is still the cpu. GPU was at 60c (below 70 for sure) if i remember correctly. I will redo the test later and post a pic of it