Review of the 2015 Razer Blade QHD+

This is my review of the 2015 Razer Blade with QHD+ screen.

I am returning or hope to return to gaming (Wife and Kids permitting) on the PC. The last gaming pc I owned was the DELL 9300 17". I was playing WC3 and DOTA 1 back then. As a result, I have been a casual gamer. Fast forward through the years and I haven't had another until now. They are expensive and life can be demanding. Luckily I work at a company that has decided to purchase a laptop for me. I was interested in many other laptops and even pre-ordered the Gigabyte P34W v3. Suddenly the new, new? Razer Blade was announced. I cancelled 15 minutes later and then purchased my RB 2015 30 minutes later.
This was an easy decision for me, but only upon the 2015 announcement. Previously I was overly concerned at the 8GB of memory, heat issues, previous generation gpu and QHD+ screen. These added up to being a deal breaker!

GRAPHICS
I don't have an extensive library of games, due to "re-joining" the PC Gaming genre. I do however, find any way i can to play DOTA 2. I hope to purchase many games in the near future and hopefully test those for you guys.

All test performed using latest Nvidia 344.77 drivers

3DMark - Fire Strike
*Result Score 6473


I see approximately 2400 higher score (second test scored 6498) than the Razer Blade 2014 with the 870M! That is an insane jump considering this is only one generation newer. Nvidia's Maxwell architecture can take the credit for this.

Temps during Fire Strike
*GPU Temperature 66C


Temps at idle
*GPU Temperature 46C


DOTA 2
Gaming for approximately 45 minutes at 3200 x 1800 with max settings :
I held 55-60 FPS consistently and only experienced drops during the load screen. The FPS reporting was through STEAM. I previously read a review that the 2014 RB had 35 FPS. That is a 20 - 25 FPS increase!
NOT ONCE did the keyboard become uncomfortable to use, whether typing or resting my hands. After 45 minutes of gaming it did become warm, but no sweaty palms and no discomfort!

Prime95 - 1080P

I ran Prime95 and captured the temps before and during. The following are the results:
Before
*CPU Temperatures:
Core#0 47C 47C 57C
Core#1 49C 49C 60C
Core#2 48C 48C 58C
Core#3 48C 48C 58C
Package 50C 50C 57C

During
*CPU Temperatures:
Core#0 86C 46C 91C
Core#1 89C 48C 94C
Core#2 92C 48C 98C
Core#3 83C 46C 88C
Package 92C 49C 99C


FANS
The fans are completely silent when typing and web browsing. They kick up slightly during video playback after a few minutes. They kick WAY up when gaming for a long period of time and during the tests I ran.

BATTERY LIFE
Through various manual monitoring, the use of Windows built-in battery estimation and Battery Bar I have documented the battery life. I see an approximate battery life of 5 hours. Battery Bar seems to estimate on the low end, where as Windows estimates were sporadic. The following image is taken after many battery cycles:


RESOLUTION | SCALING
A QHD+ screen sounds great...until you use it. Sure its beautiful and bright, but some apps have major scaling issues and others have minor. Minor scaling issues can be as little as just one toolbar in an app. The toolbar could look like 4 font, where the menu could look like 12 font...not ideal. I really don't want to adjust the resolution and scaling back and forth, but i also want to take advantage of this beautiful screen. I will adjust as needed for as long as I can tolerate it.

CHASSIS
This was the main reason I purchased this laptop! The body has not changed in the 3 generations since the Razer Blade's introduction, BUT, it still is one absolutely beautiful chassis. Razer paid close attention to every detail and curve. It feels so solid and comfortable. Picking it up and moving around a solid laptop gives me such confidence!

I am also happy with the relatively small amount of ports. I require at least 3 usb, which is provided. HDMI gives you a great option. I understand many are concerned with no display port option, however, I don't plan to plug this into anything to game other than itself. Also, if I do output to anything, it will be via an HDMI to DVI or VGA adapter for work purposes.

KEYBOARD | TOUCHPAD
The response you receive from each press or click of a button grants a firm response. My biggest gripe is that there is no native HOME or END buttons. I'm constantly jumping up or down a page or to the total bottom or top of a webpage or document. I know you can customize till your hearts content using Razer Synapse, but my first quick search did not find that option. I will investigate further. Also you have to be careful to rest your wrists on the edge. Its not so sharp that it will slice you open, however, it can leave an indention and cause discomfort fairly quickly.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like further information about anything specific and I will do my best to respond and update this review.

Thanks and I hope you enjoyed!

*****UPDATE 2/10/15 6:33 AM PST******
Ran Battery Eater Pro Reader test last night for a more thorough test of battery life. Brightness was set to 30%. Resolution was set to 1080P. You could very easily lower the brightness further and work without issue.
Results are: 4:38:21

*****UPDATE 2/13/15 11:25 PM PST*****
Ran Crystal Mark to determine speeds of new LiteOn M.2 SSD Drives (256GB)

 

Good, to the point review.

Could you take a few screenshots of the "issues" and annoyances with the resolution/scaling?

Thanks in advance

 

Can you write in the temps? The pictures aren't working for me.

 

Please for the love of God can you take the bottom plate off and upload a photo of the mobo. I need to know if there is a second ssd slot. Please!

 

Great review indeed =) None of the pictures are working though, better is to upload them on NBR.

 

I updated the temps real quick. I will update more later this morning and write in the information you requested. Photos on this site are hit and miss to load.

I also updated the review with the Battery Eater Pro Reader test!

 

If there's any scaling issues with games below native resolution install the latest Intel HD drivers and set your setting to "Maintain Aspect Ratio" this should resolve it.

 

for the battery test, what activities were you doing? is the 4:38 just web browsing, wifi? if so, that's disappointing.

 

Wow I was hoping for at least a 6 hour battery life using 1080p resolution with a 70wh battery I guess I might as well wait till broadwell comes in to see if we can see a significant battery life savings.

 

If you are looking for more than 4 hours off the grid you are looking at the wrong notebooks. These aren't meant for extended use off power. And if you even want to game you can get decent framerates but you are looking at 20-40 minutes.

 

not exactly as the 2013 Blade reached 6 hours, so this is actually a step back. isn't the battery larger also? guess i'll wait and see how the 1080p screen version holds up in comparison.

 

Yes I myself have the 2013 14 inch blade if I turn everything down I can squeeze in 6 hours.

 

Everything is the same except the clock speed on the CPU was increased (thus less battery life).

The 1080p screen should actually be WORSE. The QHD+ screen is very green in terms of power.

I'm sure the 6 hours was everything in low power or undervolted as well as possibly wifi off. Battery is only 70Wh which really isn't a lot.

 

can you explain? the QHD is drawing more power since the GPU is having to cover more. also the 2013 version was widely reviewed by most to easily reach 6 or more hours on avg use, not undervolted, and it did include wifi on.

 

What does rendering 2D images on screen have to do with battery life? The 2014 blade could reach around 6 hours as well from my knowledge.

 

? wasn't that what we're talking about originally? my original question to the OP was what activities did he do to get the 4:38 battery life. if it is just web browsing with wifi, then it is a lesser battery life compared to the 2013 version. i'm also confused as to why you said QHD would be better for battery life, when it's drawing more power than a FHD screen.

 

This specific screen is supposed to have the lowest power consumption in its size screen. I'm not saying QHD+ screens are better, I'm referring specifically to these screens on the Razer/Aorus. They are supposed to be extremely low wattage.

 

Thank you for the review it's a beautifully designed laptop it' s not without its flaws but it does also have its merits.

 

Id be really interested in knowing whether downscaling the resolution to 1920x1080 helps lowering the power consumption. Could anyone try this with their qhd screen?
LVneptune, if you can also chime in on this, that'd be awesome.

 

I see no reason. I think he is confusing rendering with actual displaying. Rendering at 1080p is still displaying at 3k. You can't physically change the native resolution of the panel.

 

Scaling in Remote Console Manager: http://i.imgur.com/xi0Gy8J.jpg
Way too small to remote into. I'm still trying to configure it so that I can make it work at Native Resolution

I wrote them in! I changed to direct upload instead of using NBR hosted. That seems to not work either (although it did at first). I will work on inserting images hosted at Imgur.

I actually had issues with scaling in Minecraft. I am playing around with the settings. I will also try this solution.

Battery Eater Pro runs auto scrolling of a text file until the battery runs out.

If you wait for broadwell, you might as well wait for Skylake, but then you'll end up waitinng for Cannonlake...then Larrabee...and on and on and on! If you want 6 hours in a gaming laptop, you might want to look for a processor that has a lower tdp. Perhaps something like the i7 4702EC or a low/ultra low voltage cpu.

Its not necessarily a step back. Its simply a completely different cpu which is what typically dictates battery life during wifi web browsing. The i7 4720HQ has a tdp of 47 watts, whereas the previous i7 4702HQ has a tdp of 37W. More power, less battery!

Absolutely beautiful. What would make it perfect is if Windows 10 resolves the scaling issues. Doubt it, but i'm hopeful.

I ran the battery test at 1080P. I thought I had mentioned that previously. I will update it now!

 

PC Mag review is up too. They achieved approximately 14 minutes more of battery life than I did.

I should point out that when I ran the test, I started at 99%. The test finished with 5% battery life remaining. That could be the discrepancy of 14 minutes.

You could easily lower brightness further and achieve 5 hours to 5:15 minutes of battery life! I would say that this is phenomenal on such a "razer thin" (pun intended) laptop that has such a powerful gpu. Just 3-5 years ago such a thin gaming laptop wasn't only not possible, but also would obtain 2.5 hours at most. Optimus has something to do with this. We can all also thank Intel and the newer Nvidia architecture. One can only imagine what our laptops will look like in 5 years. So exciting...but for now I LOVE this laptop!

 

Here is the other scaling issue I found in MP3 Tag: http://i.imgur.com/LRHhaeI.jpg

This pic was clipped from full resolution, so everything is alot bigger, however, you can really see the difference in the toolbar compared to the Menu.

 

i may be switching from a MacBook Pro. do you have experience with Apple touchpads? if so, how is the Razer's in comparison. i admit, i'm a bit spoiled by how great Apple's touchpad is. if you can also compare the keyboards, that would be appreciated. thanks

 

Excellent. One of the strongsuits of my 2014 RB. You won't regret the switch.

 

I would agree with @.PoNeH
I have used an old MBP circa 2009 and support MBP up to 2014. I would say the touch pad is as good. I actually feel the the left/right click is better. The response is more pronounced.

 

I personally feel the MBP keyboard from around 2007-2010 is better then the current ones. The MBP now compared to the RB2015 is comparable if not slightly better. You still feel such a firm response from every key stroke on the RB, but it isn't quite as smooth. I truly believe its a wash, because they are so close.

 

Have you considered undervolting the cpu/gpu to see how it affects the temps/battery life?

 

I thought about it only briefly. I personally think it has plenty of battery life at about 5 hours. Also the temps seem just fine. Perhaps i'll change my minde, once I play other more gpu demanding games.

 

Have you noticed a weird texture on your screen? It's particularly noticeable on a white background, kind of like the there is a piece of paper between the backlight and the LCD screen.
On high brightness it's not that noticeable but on the lower settings it just looks odd.

<edit>
Aha! I'm not the only one:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/razer-blade-14-2014-weird-grain-in-lcd-backlight.758536/

 

@Pcguy07 can you uploaded an Ultra test?

 

might be a silly question.. would this be able to handle skyrim with high res texture mods at native res without dipping below 60fps?

 

Nice!.. Good to know the fan profile sounds the same as the 2014.. Completely silent browsing and video (non flash) , light noise under medium load and crazy fans under full gaming load.

Also, if you can get the muscle memory for it, fn + arrow keys does home and end.

 

As far as I know it should do ok, however it'll suffer with mod packs. I know the 970 exceeds over 4gb usage with mod heavily modded skyrim.

 

Yes I do notice it. I also notice it on my iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone 6, my toshiba work laptop and many other devices. I would imagine its a result of the Polarizer inside the lcd. Its never bothered me.

Ultra what exactly?

Fan noise during medium load is not constant, but it also does not rev up and down consistently! It seems to come on slowly when needed and back down when needed. It seems the right amount.

fn + arrow keys so obvious, I can't believe I missed it. Thank you for the tip.

 

@Pcguy07 thanks for taking the time to do this review! It's very helpful for us. I'm sure we'll start to see more reviews from the media in next week or two but nice to get some early impressions from fellow users.

I'll be switching from a rMBP 13" myself and can't wait to have a gaming capable laptop. Just trying to decide if I should sell the Mac or just double up. Seems unnecessary to have two laptops but I do like OS X.

 

Thank you for your appreciation...it is also appreciated! It did take alot of time.

I'm excited to have more 2015 RB owners! It may just be the "Macbook of PC's" but I really think it is something so much more. I love the black unibody. I love the green color. I love the thinness. I love that I can game on high and then go mobile for up to 5 hours. I could focus on what it isn't, but I'd rather sit back and enjoy it over the many years I hope to have it.

 

Bah, why is the Razer blade the only thing that checks off all on my checklist!? Not even that - but the 1080p model doesn't do it for me, so I must go with the more expensive option.

Thanks for the review Pcguy07 - super informative and helps me in my decision between this laptop and its competitors. I do have a question though, and this can be answered by anyone who's owned a blade before actually. How's the quality control on these blades? I've read on here that the customer rep is terrible - which I may be able to avoid by purchasing from Microsoft (?), but I've also seen Razer as having a bad rep for quality control and longevity of life. For example my brother's peripherals from Razer always break down earlier than my Logitech counterparts - and doesn't inspire any confidence when buying a $2000+ laptop from them, especially with the CS reports.

Now to wait until the CAD stops being crap so I don't have to spend $600 more just to buy it... Actually, does the 512gb Razer come out to $3300 for everyone else? I assumed it's above 3k because of currency exchange right now.

 

That is a great review thanks.
I would defenitely buy this laptop if it was avaliable in Italy and with good support, too bad it isn't!

 

That is a great review thanks.
I would defenitely buy this laptop if it was avaliable in Italy and with good support, too bad it isn't!
5 HR battery time for me would be enough, i love the looks of it, and it seems powerful enough to handle the screen resolution

 

That is a great review thanks.
I would defenitely buy this laptop if it was avaliable in Italy and with good support, too bad it isn't!
5 HR battery time for me would be enough, i love the looks of it, and it seems powerful enough to handle the screen resolution.
(sorry for multiple posts, computer acting up and i cant find how to delete them)

 

Firestrike Ultra test.

 

Yes, it's very frustrating for us Europeans! I wouldn't mind so much if they would at least ship from the USA to overseas and offer a minimal international warranty, but they don't :-(

 

Just find a trustworthy person from a country they ship to

 

Easier said than done... though am considering the Bundlebox ( http://www.bundlebox.com/ ) route.

More of a concern is the lack of any international warranty - Razer will only honour a warranty in the original country of purchase.

I'm less worried about the long term warranty (Razer only offer 1 year anyway in the US), but what if something isn't right with the machine in the first 30 days? Would I still be able to return it as not fit for sale, or something?

I did ask Razer whether I would at least be able to send it to them for repair at my own expense if something went wrong (I was thinking more about the long term here, not the first 30 days), so at least I don't end up with a non-repairable brick, they said:

"Yes, you can send it back to our Carlsbad, California office for any repair issues. And our system support can help you set up the RMA and hand over the instructions on how to pack and return the unit back."

So that's something, at least...

 

Pcguy07, I just received mine in the mail and it's awesome. However, when I had it in my lap at about a 45 degree angle it would start making a clicking noise. I was sitting on the floor with my legs bent which is why it was at that angle. All other orientations it was fine. Was curious if it happens for you as well.

 

@Pcguy07 can you please confirm whether it has a 2nd m2 ssd slot. Because one of the latest review I saw yesterday has mentioned blade 15 has a second empty slot. I have commented for his confirmation, but still waiting for him to reply. Mean while thought of asking here.

 

Firestrike Ultra doesn't come with the basic 3dMark test suite. Its $25.

Warranties are valuable to me. I personally wouldn't run the risk.

I have not heard any clicking noise whatsoever, whether i am browsing internet with it on a desk or on my lap or at a weird angle. I obviously only game with it on a desk, but still no clicking. Is the clicking loud, soft?

I am not aware of any second ssd slot. They don't advertise it. I try not to mess with stuff like that.

 

Yea, you are right, i wish they would think about bringing more products in Europe, i think there are some laws or regulations that stops them from doing so, but in any case, they should support my product if i buy it in the states and bring it over.
oh well, i ended up with the alienware 15, my choice was easy. i dont need an ultrabook even thought i love this Razer and would have def. bought it if it was avaliable and supported.

 

Neither does extreme but you ran the extreme test ... ????