Is Razer QA really that bad?

I was considering on buying the new Blade 14" that has the 4K UHD IGZO display for this year's refresh. The form factor seems a lot nicer than what I used to have in my old XPS and its more powerful and just as bright.

But is the QA control really that bad this year? I visited their website, their customer service is open a lot, and they have live chat and phone options.

I am deciding between a Blade and MacBook Pro.

 

Hey there;

As someone who has had a Blade Pro 2013, Blade Pro 2014, Blade 14 2015, Blade 14 Early-2016, and a Blade Stealth Late-2016, I have only had a QA issue once with the Blade Stealth which had a rattling fan.

While I believe the build quality is excellent and unmatched, and if you can bear the noise while gaming - they *do* get loud, even the Stealth -, I must say that my experiences with customer service was less than stellar.

I am waiting for the Blade Stealth refresh with an 8th gen i7, but I sure as heck won't buy it from Razer; probably Microsoft or Amazon.

 

Their QA/QC and customer support are probably the worst in the industry in my opinion. I'd suggest buying from HIDevolution or any other good intermediary otherwise you run the risk of ending up with an expensive paperweight several months down the line. I mean, the simple fact that Razer do not offer any insurance or extended warranty past 1 year shows you how much faith they have in that device - the bare minimum required by laws in order for it to be sold.

 

The blade 14's did have design flaws and poorly made heatsinks. If it would affect you is another matter, if yuo do not stress your systems too often it will porbably will run fine for a few years (if you dont get battery issues). But if you woul duse it like I use my laptop for sometimes even 16 hours a day with 8 hours of load. Well prepare for a world of hurt then. The sizing of those laptops are compromising the thermals and cant defy laws of physics. Bigger laptops offer bigger cooling and heat at the biggest laptop killers these days.

 

Bought my 2017 FHD Blade in March and have had zero technical issues with my current machine. But it took patience, many attempts, and extensive testing to get the perfect one. Whatever you do, do not buy from Razer direct as already stated here. I had to file a dispute with my credit card company to get them to issue a refund for a return after waiting over 30 days. The issues I returned / exchanged for were several screen defects, loose object somewhere in one of the fans, defective GPU out of the box, and uneven heatsinks. If you get an even heatsink (this is the most important piece to look out for) and then mod the bios to undervolt the CPU, you have a heck of a portable machine that won't overheat. My CPU doesn't exceed 83 degrees when gaming, neither does my GPU. My favorite laptop to date.

Avoid Best Buy- they monitor returns and use the TRE which could get you banned for a year. Buy from Microsoft or Amazon. Good luck with your purchase if you decide to go for it.

 

I've had two bad experiences with Razer Support. They're long winded and I'm not sure you'd want to read a novel so here's the short version.

Case 1
I had a 970m razer blade 14 that would not charge and I did not buy it from Razer. Bought it off ebay. It was in warranty but because I was not the original owner they would not honor it. I sent the laptop in to be repaired and the motherboard was replaced and was charged $700. I got the unit back and it still would not charge. I complained and they sent a new AC Adapter. Problem solved. So I was cheated out of $700 on a laptop I paid $2000 for.

Case 2

I ordered an extra ac adapter and a razer back pack from the razer store. I was told my identity needed to be verified so they wanted a photo copy of my drivers license and a copy of a bank statement or utility bill showing my address. I refused to give that to them because I told them that would put my identity at risk. So I am now BANNED from buying on the Razer Store.

Update 11 / 3 / 2017
So the Razer Store I.D. is something I'm currently dealing with. So I actually have an update for you.

Today I got a call from Razer Support. I asked to speak with a manager. And I was promised to get a call from a manager. I just got a call from a regular support member. And they simply repeated what has been told to me atleast a dozen times now. "We need an image of your photo I.D. and legal document proving you are who you are." I respond and tell them no. I don't want them to have that. They assure me it won't be leak and it's safe with them. I told them that Sony and Microsoft had information leaked in the past and they have a much larger budget than Razer. I told them I don't believe them and want another solution.

The solution was to buy from one of their certified retailers. But, I can't buy the Razer Power adapter from anywhere but directly Razer. So I ask how is this a solution? I get another apology and am asked if there is anything else that they can help me with.

. . .

If only i could reach through the phone and smack them. . .

 

83c isnt even that great of a temp, it was worse with razer but 83c is quite up there.

 

Wow, that is crazy. Both cases would infuriate me to no end. Razer has been lucky over the past several years in that nothing really competed in the same form factor / looks as the Blade. Enter 2018, we have other options and also Max-Q, love it or hate it. When mobile GPUs get updated things will get interesting, I'm betting Razer will lose a ton of sales. A company with industry-worst support and warranty won't be profitable in the face of very stiff competition.

 

No, no it isn't great, lol. But it never throttles when gaming and beats 93 degrees that I got on Blades that I returned! I have the 2 year Microsoft plan on mine, all good.

 

Razer is already not making money, also partly because they bought THX and Nextbit ofcourse. They are going public and selling IPO's this week, but the outlook is not great. Even though they arent making money know, they also didn't have a lot of growth the past years. It all depends their latest Razer phone I think if the company will grow.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/31/razer-looks-to-raise-up-to-550m/

Yeah at least the microsoft plan is a very good insurance. and you are right about the throttling. I wonder how the temps will go down with liquid metal paste though.

 

I'm actually really interested in the Asus Zephyrus and Acer Triton 700. Yes alot of people are complaining they're the return of the mobile gpu. But if they run quieter I'm all for that.

Razer sells on the name alone. And alot of people that buy them are younger. So they just don't care and just care about looks. And I hope in due time there are alot more thin and light laptops from Asus, EVGA, Acer, and MSI. Portability is key for me, but I need something better than a Netbook. lol

 

I've had so many problems in the past, but I had a powersupply problem and a screen problem during the past 4 months and everything was fixed (free powersupply and free LCD swap) in 30 minutes since I contacted them via chat.

The powersupply arrived within two days and the Notebook was sent, fixed and sent back within around 12 days iirc.

They improved so much that there's nothing which matters anymore from past facts, imho.

I've posted here quite a few times reporting issues, but you could simply ingor my posts now, I guess, to get yourself an opinion about current state.

 

Try gigabyte aero 15.

 

I knew about the aero 14. Didn’t realize there was an aero 15. Might have to wait for the aero 15 X and see how well that performs.

 

Ditch the Max Q 1070.

 

Since you mention the IPO, here is a link to the prospectus on the Hong Kong exchange:

http://www.hkexnews.hk/APP/SEHK/2017/2017062803/Documents/SEHK201706290041.pdf

If you are weird like me, and want to wade through 345 pages of lawyerly jiggery pokery, you can find some interesting tid bits of information, for example:

"Returns and warranties .... In 2014, 2015, and 2016, returns represented approximately 3.3%, 5.0%, and 4.8% of revenue, respectively."

And here is a breakdown of the sales of all three Blade models over the previous three years:

Blade Stealth:
Revenue (US$ in thousands)
2014 -
2015 -
2016 - 36,612

# Units Sold:
2014 -
2015 -
2016 - 31,816

Blade 14":
Revenue (US$ in thousands)
2014 - 28,603
2015 - 30,274
2016 - 45,356

# Units Sold:
2014 - 14,799
2015 - 14,745
2016 - 23,701

Blade Pro:
Revenue (US$ in thousands)
2014 - 12,307
2015 - 6,603
2016 - 3,077

# Units Sold:
2014 - 5,016
2015 - 3,194
2016 - 974

 

Very interesting data. going to check it out. Also the sales numbers for the blade pro's are shocking. Even though they are expensive as hell I would have expected more. But the brand itself hasnt been doing too great past 3 years.

Also, today another Razer product I owned died. My razer kraken headset -___-.

 

Sorry for your loss but if I'd be lying if I said that it comes as a surprise.

 

Yeah, I don't think the sales for the 17" have ever been very high since they started shipping in 2012, but the 2016 number is really low because the new model was very late, and didn't start shipping until November.

 

Haha thank you, i shouldnt have bought it after all the other razer hardware that crapped out on me.

With these sales numbers I would not expect any manufacturer to invest in such an expensive production prociess. Unless they bought these machines OEM and have exclusivity on it. It is still not know who actually is manufacturing these machines isnt it?

 

It’s a harsh lesson that you have to learn first hand. Everyone online that reviews their laptops praises the hell out of the compact MacBook like design and how great they are. So everyone thinks they’re a great company to buy from. And to be honest this is why no one else tries to push design like them. It just causes problems.

 

The problem is that when you just started using a laptop like this it will perform quite well most of the time. Most problems start happening a year after, just when your warranty expires. Reviews unfortunately do not touch the reliability aspect

 

That is definitely true. But, Linus from Linustechtips religiously uses Razer laptops for the last few years. And he’s never been someone to call out manufactures on stuff like bad support. He strangely no Long has his Razer Blade and used an LG Gram.

I personally am done with them. I’m hoping to sell my current laptop from them and move onto a new company. Who will get my business next is still to be determined. Lol

 

All three models are made by BYD (Build Your Dreams) in Shenzhen , although for the first couple of years the 17" was made by Gigabyte. You can tell by the serial number.

Razer is big on industrial design and branding. Since the ID is integral to the design, not just a skin, then Razer provides the bulk of the design while BYD handles tooling, manufacturing processes, testing, and most of EE design, layout, and component selection.

 

Interesting, going to check it out whats up with that company. But did Gigabyte also make the actual chassis? Because the Gigabytes that I have owned where terribly made. The internals from Razer might not be great because of the thermals, the actual chassis is nicely made.

 

The chassis only "appear" premium - the actual build quality is light years behind Apple (the products they *tried* to copy). It's extremely easy to bend, bruise or batter a Razer laptop. As for internals - heat is the least of their worries - overloaded power delivery, BIOS chips under the heatsink, poor component choice - it has a LOT of issues. Issues that are reminiscent of the early 2000s when everyone was just starting to figure out what doesn't make electronics die.

 

I don’t think gigabyte made the chassis for the Razer products. Just basing that off of the CEO’s attitude and how he would not want anyone to take claim for any of Razer’s Genious. There was a post from member on the Razer forums complaining that when he repasted his Razer Blade 14 his thermals got worse. The CEO commented on that post saying he shouldn’t be opening his laptop and that the Razer engineers are only qualified to put therma paste on Razer laptops. But the problem was that the heat sink was disigned so poorly that you needed to use a ton of thermal paste for the heat sink to contact the cpu and gpu. Because Razers Genious engineers left a gap.

The internals of the Razer Blade 14 currently are rather well done. Build quality is actually really nice. But, I agree with don_svetlio. Apples laptops are a lot better built and a lot more premium than Razer. I’ve owned and used both brands.

 

Ah, forgot that part.... Gigabyte used BYD as the supplier for the chassis on the first 17" and then Razer switched to BYD to make the whole thing for later models.

I know people complain about the thermals, and yes the Blades do have higher skin temperatures than other notebooks, but the thermal design is actually quite advanced. The reason some people may run at a nice 50C while others run at 80C (all else being equal) has more to do with manufacturing quality and consistency than it does design. Resistance to innovation of the thermal solution is one of the major things that has kept other manufacturers from even trying to do what Razer has done.

 

I kinda have to disagree there, when they used direct contact heatpipes they really dropped the ball and they are loud as well. When I tested a Razer blade (2015 model) the heat inside was killing the battery enormously fast (similar to the Gigabyte P34w v3 issues).

I think with the state of hardware now it is kinda impossible to get more out of it without increasing the noise to even higher levels or accept high thermals.

The blade 14 would be a better product if they would turn it into a 15inch laptop. That extra inch in size could make the heatsinks so much larger.

 

Exactly. They need a flat contact surface to touch the die. This won't change however. Very Obvious they left the heat pipes bare to save on thickness of welding on flat plate (only about 2mm in retrospect). Nothing innovative about that

I am having trouble trying to decipher your third sentence... Typing too early in the morning?

 

Sorry, fixed the typos. Typed it too early in the morning indeed, on a cellphone even -___-