Razer Blade Advanced 2019 - Personal Review

I originally planned to buy an MSI laptop (Raider, Titans, Stealth Thin, etc). Having read a bit left and right I noted some quality issues on these products. I am aware that no product is perfect, we will get to some of the Razer shortcomings later, however, I like a solid build. I also own a MacBook Pro 2019 so my standard was quite high.

In 2008, I purchased a very nice Asus laptop following advice received here on the board. In 2019, as you can see i keep my laptops for a while, I ended up coming back to these forums and asking for help. People were very friendly and we had a plan for me. I looked at companies like HID and their competitors but my previous experience with ordering outside Europe made me a bit apprehensive.

A few days before my birthday I browsed sites for laptops. Funny enough, while I kept looking at MSI and Asus products, I only saw a few videos on the Razer. This was by choice not because Youtube does not have any. I did not insist on this product because of the price tag, yet whenever I looked at other brands, I had the Razer in my mind. It looked amazing and discreet. Everything else had a My Little Pony vibe with so many colors and swag. Bear in mind that I use this laptop for work and it would be very distracting in front of the CEO to have 100 RGB lights while I run the presentation. The price tag on the Razer was hard to swallow in the beginning but I was lucky enough to secure a model off Amazon UK with quite a few rebates. I did not see a benefit in getting the 2080 as the price difference was 500 EUR.


Introduction :

Model Razer Blade 15 - Advanced Model
OS Windows® 10 Home (64-bit)
Processor 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8750H 6 Core (2.2GHz/4.1GHz)
Graphics NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 2070 with Max-Q Design (8GB GDDR6 VRAM)
Display 15.6" Full HD 144Hz, 100% sRGB, 4.9mm bezel, factory calibrated
Storage 512 GB SSD (NVMe)
Memory 16GB Dual-Channel (8GB x 2) DDR4 2667MHz
Battery Up to 6 hours (80Wh)
Keyboard Per-key RGB powered by Razer Chroma™
Gigabit Ethernet Not available
USB & Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.1 Gen 1 (USB-A) x3, Thunderbolt™ 3 (USB-C)
Wireless Intel® Wireless-AC 9560 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth® 5
Webcam Windows® Hello built-in IR HD webcam (1MP / 720P)
Finish Black with backlit green logo and green USB ports
Dimensions0.70" x 9.25" x 13.98" / 17.8mm x 235mm x 355mm
Weight 4.63 lbs / 2.10 kg




In this picture, you can see that the box had a bit of a kink, most probably because of transport.






The monitor I use was purchased as a gift for my partner so she can work from home. It is nothing fancy and helps me write this post in comfort rather than being all slobbery on my laptop. My main computer has 2 screens which are hooked to it and it is a pain to remove so many cables and swap things around. I may look at a docking station later, I will see.






First impressions

My ASUS U6 Sg-A1 was a head turner. In school, university and libraries, people would look at the sparkles and were suprised at the leatherish material next to the touch pad. When I saw the videos and reviews of the Razer people claimed that if you do not go the MacBook way, build quality wise, this is one of the best out there. You can imagine that my expectations of the Blade were quite high as my MacBook Pro was on my desk.

From the moment I opened the Box, I noticed an Apple like approach. Simple, stylish and elegant. The laptop was well protected and it had a nice sticky plastic cover running across every cm of the frame. I removed it and get the laptop in my hand. I was surprised to see such a nice finish. The build was sleek and it rivals my MacBook. I was particularly impressed by how heavy this is. I was also not expecting the laptop to be so big. I had the impression that it will be in a much more compact form. This is not a criticism of the product, especially that I read the dimensions before the package arrived.

I agree with all the reviews and critics. If you do not want the Apple Ecosystem and the MacBook Pro sleek design, this is the one to go because people just drool when they see it in person.


Screen

As someone who dabbles in Photography and has some wide gamut products at home, I was aware that the Razer panel was not perfect or as good as my MacBook's. Having said that, it is exceptional and very immersive. I did some content creation on the laptop screen and I had some decent results. I also like the way the panel is lit. Precise yet no significant back light bleed as some people reported. I was lucky enough to get a panel which is not as bad as many we see online. I measured the laptop screen with my Spyder Elite sensor and I disagree with Razer. This is not a 100% RGB screen but I would not be surprised to see that the majority of laptops out there advertising this follow suit. Razer has done a good job on the screen and we need no forget that this is a gaming laptop at the end of the day.




Keyboard

I am familiar with Razer Keyboards and I had a DeathStalker for 7 years. In March I moved to the mechanical keyboard club and this is the reason my verdict on the keyboard is not going to apply to everyone. Having used my opto-mechanical Elite Huntsman I have issues using any keyboard. Everything I use, seems blank and without soul. So you can imagine that the moment i started using the Razer Blade Keyboard I had a WTF moment. I was like is that it? Why is there such a poor feel, why are the keys not responding like I am used too?

My GF and father used the keyboard and they said it has a nice feel. This was the moment it struck me. They did not use my Elite keyboard and i needed to be a bit more objective. As a consequence, I took out all the laptops we had in the household and started comparing. Having done this, I understood what my gf and father meant. The keyboard has a nice feel, you get used to the travel but i still find it a bit inferior to the MacBook Pro.

I also ask myself who gave the green light on the design of the keyboard? I have the UK version and after having used US layouts all my life you can imagine my annoyance with the left shift key. This key is half the size of the US version as next to it you have the backslash key!

Also, what is up with the arrow between the right hand side LONG shift key and Question mark key? I find myself hitting the arrow more often than I originally thought. I knew about this keyboard mishap from reviews and videos. I never use the right shift key because i am used to a long left shift key but alas, my left shift key needs some time getting used too so I tried to use the right shift. Big mistake as I often do shift+arrow up.





I believe I can get used to the keyboard but if I do not, this does not mean you will not like it. Compared to other laptops the keyboard is solid and apart from the layout shenanigans you can enjoy using it to a certain extent.


Touchpad

Almost as good as the one on my MacBook Pro. No need to add anything else. Perfection for a Windows machine. Others can learn from Razer.



Speakers

It is a laptop at the end of the day so not a lot can be said on the speakers. They sound okayish and while you do have Dolby Atmos by default I would recommend a DAC with a high quality headphone. For gaming there are plenty of headphones out there. For Audio, the sky is the limit. Since I have the laptop, I did not use my headphone jack as the Steelseries I own is USB based.



Performance

In this area I will refrain from linking dozens of benchmarks as I do not believe they are very relevant due to my usage being different than most. Plenty of YouTube videos out there with comparisons and results. My usage is rather specific and I will write a few lines based on this.

I mentioned that I do Photography and while my main machine for that is the MacBook, I dabble in photos with this one as well. Adobe Camera Raw & Photoshop / Lightroom performance is top notch. I like the snappiness and the urgency. This can also be attributed to the NVME drive which based on benchmarks tops out, on battery power, at some ludicrous values.

I also like to travel and when I do, my GoPro is always with me. I tend to snap quite a few videos and up until I got the MacBook and now the Razer, I had difficulties enjoying working on them. The tools I used from Adobe and GoPro have been pitiful at best in performance. Things have changed with the Razer. I can edit videos without having to wait minutes at the time for things to be rendered. I also use Corel Video Studio and Go Pro Quick. Both tools have adequate performance and I can start slowly to clear my back log from Australia / New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore, and Scandinavia.

It was a pain to install MP-HC with various codecs on my old machines just to be able to playback them.


Gaming wise, I cannot fault this laptop and it impresses me every time I run a triple A title. What I found peculiar was the Mortal Kombat 11 benchmark. On a/c power it runs maxed out without any hiccups. On battery power, even with aggressive pre-sets on the Blade the frame rate is reduced by 50% and it has moments where it acts like a PowerPoint presentation. I need to investigate this further but when I connect to the outlet this laptop can crunch pretty much everything. I also found that playing on ultra with everything maxed for eye candy is not what I want. More on this in a few lines.


The slim profile of the laptop does not allow traditional cooling to be more efficient than this. A head to head with my MacBook shows that this is warmer due to the NVIDIA GPU. The Intel AMD combo in the Mac yields cooler results.

Now some of you will note that I made a few posts on the forums on temps. They are not alarming and in factory mode, the Blade reaches 80-85 degrees. This is fine as it is under the 100 centigrade on the CPU but I am worried on the longevity of the parts.

Some NBR members have given me feedback on how to undervolt and based on this, I managed to drop my temps by 5-12 degrees. I also ordered a laptop stand / Coolermaster Masterpal Pro for support in this area.


People have to accept that this laptop will get warm. The form factor is sleek and sexy but there are some drawbacks. If you are willing to keep the laptop at 80-85 centigrade for extended periods that is your choice. I myself will not use it for gaming mainly and will stick to office and content creation.


For my work purposes, the Razer is beyond reproach. Connectivity and performance are more than I expected. I go to meetings and it boots in a few seconds. Presentations are up and running while the battery seems to last 2-3 hours. I might be using it a bit more aggressively than others because I saw people with almost double the time.


Kinks I do not like

I should get used to the fact that Razer products are finger print magnets because my other accessories look horrible once my greasy paws sweat but dayuuum I should have gone for the Mercury White. After a few minutes of usage the laptop looks like someone spilled some grease on it. I end up wiping the damn thing like a mad man. When clean, this laptop is gorgeous.


Conclusion

The RTX tax makes this laptop very expensive as the build quality has to be justified. While in the beginning I had difficulties accepting the price, the more I use the laptop I realize that there is a reason behind it. You get what you pay for and the discreet form factor is something I would not trade.

Let us see how the laptop performs in a few months or how Razer support will handle my issues; should they arise. For the time being my contact with Razer support has been very productive.

 

First I thought you were a woman from seeing profile picture and scrolling down I saw a man's hand. Hahaa.. Never judge a book by a cover.
It should demolish MBP pretty easily aside from screen.
I think keyboard is not that great unlike thinkpads but your external keyboard should be much much better. Gaming or benching on battery is not recommended since it will wear out the battery faster and also the mobo. If you plan to game use Nvidia battery boost tweak using nvidia inspector.
80Wh battery should last for 6-8hrs max. Use this guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...e-on-windows-enabling-deeper-c-states.815602/

 

Can you share some info on how you undervolted your gpu? Will try this on my RTX 2080 Max q

 

I did not undervolt the GPU but mainly the CPU.

 

Some other goodies purchased to help with cooling. I love the fact that it is well built but I have yet to test the product in gaming .







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I recommend to put the rubber stopper on the second row of the stand so that the laptop cannot slide off.

 

Thank you for the tip! I did what you said. Originally I lowered the rubber stopper so it blocks the original Razer rubber stopper ! Your solution is better.


I games with the laptop for a few hours and under certain circumstances the temperature has dropped. The design and angle of the laptop stand helps with heat dissipation.

I can feel the laptop stand capture heat from the laptop and while charging the battery the palm rest is not as hot as it used to be.

I also need to find a way to undervolt the Gpu because I ran some experiments with both eye candy reduced and if you shave 5-10 degrees of the Nvidia card you will also be able to shave 5-7 degrees of the CPU.


As someone here on the forums mentioned, undervolting both might be the best solution but I noticed that Throttle stop seems to open the door for quite a few BSODS even after successful stress testing.







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yeah had some too, especially when on battery. Have been tuning to iron that out.

 

I am starting to get some BSODs with this machine. They are mainly USB related. With the Razer website if you want to update the chipset, you end up with a download which is incomplete.

I have tried with the mid 2019 Advanced drivers, hopefully these are sorted.

 

While I love the laptop, it is slowly getting on my nerves with this inconsistent cooling. You boot the damn thing, doing nothing, fans ramp up which is nice and then just by loading system drivers and services it stays at 80 degrees. This is in Gaming mode / Content creation mode.

You would think that in these two modes, when the fans ramp up, the laptop would not climb so high. Wishful thinking? So I did a test and rebooted the machine in Gaming / Content creation mode with the fans at maximum. It was loud and manly.

Laptop boots, loads services, drivers, etc, temps 62-85-74-66-85 centigrade. Just by doing nothing with fans maxed out and with my hand under the Coolermaster to see how the air is. Air was very cool and it should not do this.

Then I decided to run 3D Mark to see why I keep getting a stupid NVIDIA BSOD. Installed drivers twice from scratch yet the BSOD randomly shows up. First it was a USB BSOD now its an NVIDIA BSOD. Not what I expected from a 3000 EUR laptop.


Halfway during timespy with the window open for cool air, fans ramped up at max, on the stand with additional air from extra fans, this poor attempt of a gaming laptop ends up with 4 out of 6 cores at 100 degrees and the other 2 cores at 94 degrees. There should be no reason for it to do so, yet it does. Ambient was 19 degrees as I opened everything I could to see what is going on.



I repeated the above tests once I applied my undervolt. To keep temperatures at bay but when I say bay I don't mean 60-70, I mean 85-87, I had to drop my clocks by 500-600 MHz.



At this point in time, i am thinking of getting my money back.

 

I've recently sent my blade to RMA (Blade 15 2018) due to constant BSODs.

Repair center reported they changed the motherboard as a defective USB was causing the BSODs.

Hope you don't have the same issue - just shared my experience as you mentioned BSODs caused by USB.

 

Happens to me as well and is very annoying and concerning why this is happening of a fresh boot. Im tempted to do a clean Windows install.

 

I think more likely the trip point to activate air cooling is probably set at 65-70C on CPU.

 

It behaved like this out of the box so I dont think its normal. Anyway to check this trip point and adjust its value?

 

If they use AMI Aptio 5 you can AMIBCP to modify it to make the trip values higher for preferring passive cooling. It might void your warranty because of bios mods.
@Raidriar Any idea how to check if RB 2019 supports modded BIOS?

 

Try the method you just stated, if it works great if not then razer has locked down the system like Alienware

 

Those temps are way too high. Get your money back, or maybe exchange for another. They don’t all run that hot. My 2070maxQ version is super cool and quiet. The 2060 version that I’m returning tomorrow is a scorcher with similar temps to yours.

 

My cpu idle temps range from 49 to 56, gpu idles mid 40s yet the fans go full blast..

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For my blade with 9750h and 2080mq, cpu temps are in the high 70s to mid 80s when playing witcher (-100mv core voltage offset applied) and gpu howers around 70+...

I had the blade with 2070mq before that and was pleasantly surprised that the 2080mq runs around the same temps but boost clocks are actually slightly higher

I haven’t tried a larger cpu core voltage offset yet or tune the gpu Voltage/frequency curve using afterburner yet..anybody tried and has good results?

 

Overall I am ok with these temps and if I want can limit the max cpu turbo boost clocks to bring temps down...what irks is intels marketing BS of max turbo clocks vs the actual chips TDP limitation

Well AMD just “kicked” intel hard, hope they wake up...seems history is repeating itself like when intel had to come back with their core 2 duo chips

 

It feels like we are going back to the Athlon X2 days.

 

After spending 4 hours last night with my laptop, I identified the reasons for high abnormal temperatures.
The WMI Provider Host process was hogging my CPU with minimal activity on my part to 100%.
I disabled and restarted, I enabled, I rebooted, every damn time it would do the same.
Boot my machine, do nothing and bang, 85 centigrade in balanced mode.
I then went in other profiles and while the fans ramped up, the CPU was used at 100% at all times.

I then looked in the event viewer and noticed a lot of errors associated to this process.
I noted the process id. and then identified in the task manager.

Surprise surprise 'Razer Game Manager'. This process would call for resources from windows and the WMI Provider Host would accommodate.
It made my laptop drain its resources and have heat building up.
I am typing this right now with 45 centigrade on the CPU and 40 on the GPU using throttle stop.

So I spent a few minutes reading online, even spoke to Razer support.
They wanted me to open a case file with their engineers and see why the laptop would hang and overheat.
I then decided to manually uninstall the Razer Game Manager.
I ran the *.bat file and then my CPU was free.
*pop the champagne bring the dancers*

I rebooted my machine and Razer Synapse no longer loaded.
So I then got annoyed and reinstalled the whole thing and this time added the damn Razer Cortex in the mix.
It seems that the Razer Game Manager is linked to the damn Razer Cortex software.
I don't like bloatware so I did not install this when I set up the laptop.
Having been forced to install it, now I am happy to report that my laptop no longer spikes randomly to retarded temperatures without me doing anything.
Heck I was gaming and the chip was not only being hogged by the razer software but also by the computational power required to run the damn game.

 

That is an awesome investigation you did there. This would help a lot of people experiencing the same problem.

 

A simple solution I found was to right click the Razer Synapse on the system tray and select Exit All Apps. Immediately after exiting the fans shut off. Then just re-enable Synapse again.


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Razer Synapse software is known to cause issue left and right. In my case, if i allow the software to run at all, i can't have a browser open on my second monitor, or i'll have choppy gameplay despite 250+ FPS on overwatch (1440p, epic) and that with a [email protected] and a Strix 2080Ti. I tried disabling all razer services in msconfig but then overwatch wouldn't start and i guess that's the case for all games with some form of rgb integration in razer products. Disabling the razer software after i start the game makes all the difference. No lagging and gaggin anymore even with 20 tabs open.

That issue and a lot of sudden fps drops in overwatch (i only play that game so i don't know about other stuff) are always addressed first with "do you own razer products or have synapse installed" when someone need tech supports in the forums. lol

 

The external monitor issue is thank to the Intel iGPU drivers. after booting, disable and re-enbale the Intel HD gpu. You will see the stutter is gone. It is present on all Optimus laptops and Intel should fix it for once. The bug is there already for 3 years.

 

What's the BSOD error message? is it VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE? If so, I was getting that a bunch too, but I seemed to have fixed the issue by doing a couple of things - 1) uninstalled current drivers and used DDU to make sure it was completely clean; 2) clean installed drivers and install the absolute latest nvidia game ready dch drivers; 3) used TDR manipulator to change TdrDelay value from 2 to 10 (increased the 2 second default value to 10 seconds for GPU to respond, else TDR watchdog loses its **** and BSOD's). More explanation here:
https://insider.razer.com/index.php...l-9th-gen-processor.45823/page-25#post-491602

Not sure if it was the TDR delay workaround that fixed it or the latest drivers. the changelog of the latest nvidia drivers seems to mention the TDR issue.

 

First upgrade. No BSODS ever since. Hmmm...first boot was quite long. Then all was normal.







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Nice. Is that a 32GB ram upgrade? Thinking of upgrading mine too. But haven't had any BSOD on mine after a clean Windows install.

How is the ifixit toolkit kit? Is the quality good or does it feel cheap? I stripped a torx screw on mine cos I used a cheap torx screwdriver.

 

32GB kit and it does the job. The reason I upgraded was the fact that 2 days ago I ended up using 14GB of RAM while doing some content creation.

The toolkit is very high quality and nothing was stripped here. Magnetic heads and you will not lose anything. I highly recommend.




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You will enjoy that toolkit for years to come. Owning that set for 5 years now. It has served me incredibly well for repairs.

 

What was you GPU OC setting?

Was your nvidia driver updated to the newest on the NVIDIA site?

How many mV did you undervolt on the CPU?

You can try adding +50mV or +100mV to the System agent to stabilize the Memory Controller and see if it is still happening.

 

Hi Wishmaker, thanks for all the details. Please allow me one quick question, before upgrading to 32GB, did you consider any other brand, if so, what was the deciding factor to go with Corsair? Thanks again

 

For laptops I always go Corsair.
For my desktop G-SKILL.
Never had any issues with these two brands for the respective product.

 

But both of them use SK Hynix or Micron or Samsung ICs which are highly binned.

 

Thank you

 

I bought a 2018 blade 15 advanced and I average 3- 4 hours on battery. I also bought mid 2019 blade advanced 244mhz with 2070 and I have spent hours tweaking different settings and at most I get two hours on balanced mode with brightness at 30%

 

Do you have MSI afterburner isntalled? It keeps waking up the Geforce GPU if it is on.

 

Take a look at this thread and see if it helps! http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...e-on-windows-enabling-deeper-c-states.815602/

 

I don't have MSI burner installed

 

I went through this thread and did most of the changes in settings and I think at best it added 5 minutes to battery life

 

Okay, hmm then you ahve to troubleshoot in taskmanager to see which app is draining the system. what happens by the way when you set the screen to 144hz instead? Because the 240hz will also drain the battery faster ofcourse.

I get up to 5 hours on battery with the 144hz model, 2070MQ.

 

That sucks.
You can put higher Speedshift values say 150-180 which will disable Turbo boost on battery and prefer max power savings. You can use ThrottleStop.

 

if you own the 240hz laptop the only other option it to downgrade to 60, not 144

 

Ohh that's the cause of bad battery life.

 

also in windows itself outside of synapse?

 

yes, only option is 60 or 240. 240 shouldn't be the cause of bad battery life I should get more than 2 hours

 

Hard to say, I dont know what the powerdraw of that monitor is. BUt going from 144hz to 60hz gives me from 5 hours of runtime on full brightness a solid 7 hour.

BUt the next step first would be to troubleshoot if any application is waking up the Geforce GPU constantly.

 

Laptop is finished now and it is perfect!
My COVID-19 office away from home.

1. Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition. I have the Huntsman Elite connected to my main rig
2. Razer Basilisk Ultimate
3. Razer Destructor Mouse pad. I have the Goliath Extended Table Mat at home.
4. SteelSeries Arctis Pro + Game Dac
5. Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock
6. Sabrent NVME USB-C Enclosure with OEM LiteOn M2 drive from Razer
7. Razer Blade Advanced 2019 | 32 GB Corsair Vengeance | 2TB 970 Evo Plus

 

Nice.
Only thing missing is room light. Everything else is RGB. Your family members might feel they are visiting Sci-Fi VR with Razer RGB devices.
Lite On NVMe drive has good R/W over TB3.