Razer Blade 15 "Base" Model - Just Received AMA

If this belongs in the owners lounge, please feel free to move it or I can start a new reply there.

I went ahead and ordered the "base" model after doing as much research as I could. Appreciate the help from this community in that process. I ordered it Monday and Razer overnighted it from China to my house in NC. Very impressed at the speed of shipping.

First, price: I paid $1,529 at the Razer Online store. This breaks down to: $1,599 - 5% student discount and $10 additional rush processing. I only paid the $10 extra as I'm going out of town Friday - Monday and didn't want it to get caught in the attempted delivery loop.

Initial thoughts: I haven't owned a Razer Blade before, but have spent a good bit of time putting my hands on one at my local Best Buy and Microsoft Store. The build quality is identical from what I can tell. Very solid in your hands, but not to heavy. The "base" model is a bit thicker, as expected, but 3mm if not mistaken - so hardly noticeable. Everything on the laptop feels premium as compared to a base model. The keyboard is very nice and the secondary function keys are backlit on this model!

The screen: Per HWInfo64, the screen is a BOE0747. It is fairly bright and the colors pop out of the box, very vivid. Showed my partner a youtube video running at 1080x60 and even she was impressed (she can care less about picture quality). So far, I'm very impressed with it out the box. There is no backlight bleed from what I can tell.

Upgrade-ability: Pics below with back panel removed. I had a spare WD 500gb SSD m.2 drive and WD 1tb 2.5" ssd, so I swapped the factory drives. Before doing so, I did create a generic profile on the factory drives and checked for firmware/bios updates. There were none. Everything was up to date from the factory. There are 10 T5 screws holding the back panel. Very easy to remove and very, very small. This seems to match the teardowns I've watched of the "advanced" model or previous RB15. The back comes off easy, you do not need anything to help pry it off. Getting to the drives is just as easy as the previous RB15. It took about 10 minutes to swap drives. I then installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro, which was painless.

Performance: So far, I have only installed Windows 10, all the drivers, basic apps, Steam, Blizzard Client, couple of games and Office. I did Windows and drivers separately. No issues. Then I purposefully installed the others simultaneously over WiFi. Steam was downloading a 30gb game with an average of 15mb/s, WoW was downloading at about 17mb/s. The rest I didn't measure. I also loaded up some music streaming. Temps were in the high 50's and low 60's during this. The computer never hesitated or lagged during that. It's a fairly easy workload, but still a lot of activity. Temps seem a bit high to me, but nothing alarming.

That's about all for now. I plan to try some gaming later tonight. Probably FFXV and WoW to check performance. I'll update this as I go. However, I've used this CPU/GPU combo before and expect good results.

Ending thoughts: For $1599, I think this is a bargain IF under the right circumstance. I'm in my 30s, travel for work fairly often, have a family, and doing grad school online. I had previously had a Thinkpad Yoga, but the Nvidia 940 wasn't cutting it anymore. My partner and I play games online together when I travel (she's a MMO fan, met her playing FFXIV ), so needed something that can play games and still travel well. I originally was going to buy the XPS 15, but felt the 1050 TI max-q just wasn't enough to last the next 2-3 years and also was worried about throttling. After going back and forth on what laptop to get (shout out to Bob from BobOfAllTrades and Stephen from OwnOrDisown - best reviewers out there!) I decided on thin and light. I was going to go with the Aero, but wife-aggro was real. She didn't like me spending $2300 on a secondary computer right before Christmas (we have 6 nieces and nephews to buy gifts for... man kids are expensive). I was debating on the original RB15 1060 with 256 model as it was $1700 with student discount at the Microsoft Store. Then they announced this. So far, I'm very pleased. I do think this model caters more to the content creators and professionals, like those who are looking at a XPS 15, than gamers. For me, it's perfect. But the hardcore gamers may benefit from the 144hz panel and 1070 max-q.

I'll update this as I go, but I really do believe this was a good move on Razer's part.

Lastly, as mentioned I bought this from the Razer store. It was painless. Best Buy is supposed to get it on 10/24 and Microsoft Store is unknown. I did speak to Donald at HIDevolution. He is very nice and I almost went with him, but at the end of the day, he was $250 more (not a direct fair comparison as that price included mods). I couldn't justify well enough spending the extra money. If this were to be a daily driver or my main PC, I wouldn't hesitate to go with Donald/HIDevolution. Very nice guy and very patient with all my questions. Again, wife-aggro I do plan to get this warrantied through the Microsoft Store ($130 for two years, covers accidents).

 

Wow, Razer decided to cool the PCH in the "high end" RB15, and decided to again, leave it completely uncooled in the "base" RB15. I cannot believe this, I would return this unit ASAP, it is designed to fail. If you MUST keep it, immediately apply some thermal pads to the PCH, stack them up until they contact the bottom plate to act like a passive heatsink. Are there any thermal pads on the bottom plate other than where it contacts the hard drive and NVMe SSD?

 

Can the built-in screen be overclocked at all?

 

Not that I have seen. I did check, but doesn't look like it's able. Although admittedly, I didn't try to hard as I've heard doing so can void warranty and it's fine the way it is for me - so didn't want to risk it.

 

@Raidriar The TDP of an PCH MH370 is 3W you don't need too cool it active. On desktop motherboards it is only a design element to look cool.

Furthermore for the vapor chamber version it could be bad that the PCH is covered by it.
The reason is simple: Without a heatsink the temp of an PCH will be ~40°C. Under heavy load the vapor chamber will be hotter than ~40°C so it will heat up the PCH and not cool it down


Topic:
I am very interested in heat and clocks under heavy load.

 

Doesn't matter. PCH can get very hot, as demonstrated by Alienware 13 R3, where it is also left uncooled:



Does temperature of 89 C seem safe to you? Razer blades already are a hot mess from the factory, they ALL need cooling improvements. They only started adding thermal pads to the NVMe SSD from the factory after users added them aftermarket to control NVMe temperatures. Razer KNOWS this is a problem with the PCH, they fixed it for their high end model, and left it broken for the low end. Shameful.

Every high end Alienware in my signature, has ALWAYS had a thermalpad + screwed on heatsink for PCH to keep it cool.

 

While I don't disagree with you, I'm keeping it for now as I love the form factor and screen. Will be doing a test run over the weekend as I'm travelling to make my final decision. But, for school work and research, the form factor and screen make it ideal. The gaming piece is secondary to that when in use.

Installing about 10 games via Steam, it was averaging 70c. Pretty hot there for just downloading games to a SSD. The ssd itself hovered in the high 30s. I loaded up FFXV for a bit and within two minutes the fans were on high and the deck above the keyboard was extremely warm (similar to reviews from the earlier models). I had CPUID HWINFO running in the background. After a bit of playing, peak temp was 90, suspect it throttled then. While browsing online, temps are about 45-55c. I have noticed it randomly going to about 70c while sitting beside not in use and then climbing back down to 45c. Not sure what's causing that at the moment.

This is probably going to need an undervolt and repaste, maybe even LM. Haven't decided on that, yet.

To answer your question, no. What you see is what's on there. The backplate did have pads on the drives as you mentioned, but no other location.

 

Make sure you purchase high quality thermal pads, cut to size and fit until they contact the bottom plate.

For comparison, my RBP 7700HQ/1060 120hz does not exceed 70 degrees on cpu or GPU after liquid metal and undervolt playing ffxv, even after hours on end. Never get jet engine noise.

 

Do you work for Razer or where does these info comes from? TjMax for the PCH is 108°C
BTW: For the vapor version the PCH is on the same metal stripe as the GPU VRM. This part has no vapor chamber over it (it ends on the GPU RAM). VRMs will get very hot so I can't belive this is good. But if you give me screen shots AIDA temps Razer Blade 15 vapor vs. heatpipe version then I will trust you.

 

How about keyboard lightning? Is it all key chroma individual or area lightning, the functions key are now lighted right?
Waiting to see Temperature on FFXV, some benchmarks like 3Dmark would be nice.

Most unlikely like previous 60Hz Blade screen.

 

Thanks for the review thecloudx. Like you I am very interested in this laptop for almost identical reasons!
Will be interested to hear your thoughts on speakers/battery/load noise as you use it over the coming days.

Is the psu a compact type like the Razer Blade 14?

 

I was actually logging in to update on this. Decided to return it due to:

- Fans are loud. Downloading a few games from Steam, and nothing else, and temps are in the 70s. Fans sound like jet engines.
- Gaming for just 5 minutes and the fans are screaming, computer is at 90c, and the keyboard deck very warm.
- Today, trying it on battery for just day to day stuff, no gaming. Temps ranged from 42-55c, not terrible. Fans were minimal. BUT, watching a YouTube video - no problem. Watching a YouTube video and checking email? Computer lags. Checking Reddit and the news? Computer lags. Seems anything to do with more than one tab in Chrome and it lags.
- Checked out HWInfo and it showed my Bios was on 1.01. Confirmed in Bios. Compared to Razer site, Bios is 1.05. Not sure why Razer showed my Bios up to date. Went to go manually update it, and the installer wouldn't let - claimed it wasn't a Blade laptop. Went to go open a support ticket, and my model isn't recognized in the system.

I think everything above is fixable. BUT, for a $1500 investment, and less than 24 hours old, I shouldn't have to mess with it. In my younger years where I had the time, I probably would have kept it and tried to tweak it. But, these days a free hour or two is a premium and I don't want to waste it on a new laptop. The loud fans at downloading and gaming are livable. I was going to deal with it as it's a gaming laptop, and thin. Loud fans are to be expected. But, lagging when using multiple tabs? Straw that broke the camels back.

To Razer's credit, they have been very helpful. I opened a case with Support about my experiences (they had to use a dummy 2017 tag as the 2018 models aren't in the system to create cases for... odd).

To answer your speakers and battery... I didn't get a full day use out of battery. But, with CPUID HWINFO running, showing average about 44c, and a YouTube video playing at default battery settings, it was showing about 5.5 hours until dead. Not bad at all. Speakers are actually really nice. I streamed some music last night and my partner and I both enjoyed it. For laptop speakers, they're good.

Really wish it would work better out of the box as I love the weight, form factor, screen, and trackpad.

 

Sorry to hear that, yes windows laptops isn’t like MacBook at first boot on several days especially optimus laptop, driver and hardware compatibility, windows update especially 1809 is seemly still buggy for Blade 15.
Those lags, is that micro stuttering like mouse stopped for seconds when opening Program or just happened when switching tab? Usually first day you have to do windows update and other drivers and software to maximize laptops performance. I was having problems with synapse, after a week usage and updating it was gone and never back again.
And those hot temperature was on balanced or gaming mode?

 

MobileTechReview's review unit had a padded PCH. I'm curious whether it's only the review units that have one, or maybe they just started doing it after the OP's batch?

 

On advanced model i believe i remember when opening it it has 2 rubber pads on bottom cover lid, didn’t know that is for PCH though but knew only for transferring heat to cassis.

 

1070 model has heatsink covered PCH.

 

on new blade 15s they decided to not paint the vapor chamber to increase production of the units

 

1070 model did not need it, vapor chamber already covered the PCH, it is cooled there. Base model, at least in this thread, is uncooled. The two thermal pads you see are to cool the NVMe controllers

 

Ups never see such naked inside, maybe I don't know too lazy to open it, but they're pads attached to the cover.

Yes maybe, though original ssd was still hot, it's better though after changed it to evo970.

 

I just purchased the base model. I am not really interested in gaming but want a laptop with outstanding graphics capabilities (robotic offline programming) that will function like a light weight mobile work station. I wanted the ethernet port due to needing connection to ethernet ports of the robot control cabinets I work on. I would have liked an SD card reader but being that I will upgrade the m.2 SSD with a 2tb card and replace the 128gb HDD with a 4tb SSD I should be good to go on storage. I have scoured as many reviews as I could regarding this machine and heat issues as well as other issues noted on this thread. Since I am not going to be using this as a gaming laptop it should perform pretty well. At least that is my hope.

 

Would really appreciate it if you could check for a cooled PCH. Thank you!

 

I'm currently mulling the thought of purchasing either the Razer Blade 15 Base Model or the newly released Alienware m15. I wonder how does a fully functional Blade, barring its issues aside, would stack up against the Alienware? Looking to replace my AW 13R2 with a lighter and portable machine.

 

I went with razer because of build quality. The milled aluminum chassis is amazing, keyboard is great. Alienware has significantly cheapened its materials and build quality over the years, they are no longer as premium as they claim to be. Just be sure to purchase from a third party seller like best buy, ms store, hidevolution, amazon, etc so they can manage any warranty claims for you, dealing with razer is a pain.

 

So far, I only have positive experience with Razer Support.
They also gave $50 voucher from previous repair.

 

Ya, I’ve been waiting for 2 months for a recovery USB stick with a factory razer image that has been “out of stock”

 

Yes I heard also recently other Blade 15 user said it’s out of stock, but when it was, like on Blade 2015 and my Razer Edge it was pretty fast, like within a week when I’m not wrong. I’ll try ask them for Blade 15 since after ssd upgrade with windows fresh install I loose access to recovery boot on Blade.

 

In general, every single laptop came with recovery partition. Did they owe you that usb stick?
I am sure you can make a fresh Windows installation and all Razer stuffs in about an hour unless you don't know how.
IMO, there is no different between "factory razer image" and fresh installation.

 

You can do fresh Windows while keeping recovery intact. You can also clone whole disk to the new one, adjust partition sizes, and do fresh Windows.
For me, I don't see any different between recovery system vs fresh install. There is no special in recovery system

 

Recovery partition was corrupt. They promised me a recovery stick, and I’m still waiting on them to fulfill that promise. Of course I already installed my own windows, but I would like to have a recovery partition intact in case I ever sell the computer

 

I think we need adapter to clone nvme on Blade 15, tried cloning to hdd first but it couldn’t boot, Ended up with fresh install. Yes i think there’s with factory recovery it comes with old drivers like out of box one, fresh install you have to download it from somewhere like vendors or Razer though both need to update again to the latest. And on original ssd i could access recovery windows (Razer one with F9), on ssd that i did fresh install i couldn’t, and I saw also other users that doing similar thing on this Blade 15 couldn’t access it. So I think like @Raidriar said it’s corrupted, I think I had access to it on original ssd.

 

I tried a fresh installation of Win10Pro and even with the drivers from Razer I could not get one the display adapters to load a driver to make it work. The build would not allow the computer to hibernate or power down. I was trying to install a 2tb m.2 nvme ssd. My 2018 base model blade came with a 128gb m.2 sata ssd so I ended up getting a 2tb m.2 sata ssd and cloned it. In addition to a significant amount of additional storage the cloned ssd is functioning without a single issue. Now I am in the process of installing the rest of the business software I use to perform my business functions.

 

I plan to clone the stock 128 GB SSD in my newly acquired Blade 15 Base to the 1 TB M.2 SATA drive from my MSI 16L13. If you wanted to do the same with a NVMe drive, there are now enclosures available that support the faster interface. Just be warned that they are significantly more costly, about $50 as opposed to the $20 or less for a SATA one.

 

^^Since the jmicron NVMe-->USB bridge came out, you can get NVMe-->USB-c (not TB3) enclosures for >$30 on ebay!

 

For me, I don't need an adapter. I just my USB 3.0 hard drive to back whole ssd and restore it to new ssd.

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