2019 Razer Blade "Base" 15

[Thysanoptera]

I know I've commented on the keyboard layout before, boy do I feel for you.

That keyboard and the fans constantly revving up was exactly why I returned my 15" advanced. Amazing how kiboshed that is.

I'm at Delta Sky Club at DTW. Took a seat next to a guy with Lenovo y540 who is watching Overwatch on twitch. Looks like my age, about my size too. I have more hair than him still though. How much time have passed before I had his Lenovo in my hands comparing to my Razer? I'd say it didn't take more than 120s, owner is a developer of course. Really nice laptop, especially keyboard. Otherwise comparable internals, slightly bigger, especially depth, but nothing major.

 

[kazmac]

Yeah, that up arrow next to the shift key takes some serious getting used to.

Or not, in my case.

Still, hats off to folks who can use this like a champ.
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I'm at Delta Sky Club at DTW. Took a seat next to a guy with Lenovo y540 who is watching Overwatch on twitch. Looks like my age, about my size too. I have more hair than him still though. How much time have passed before I had his Lenovo in my hands comparing to my Razer? I'd say it didn't take more than 120s, owner is a developer of course. Really nice laptop, especially keyboard. Otherwise comparable internals, slightly bigger, especially depth, but nothing major.

I think as Razer releases their creator branded studio laptops, we might see more normal keyboard layout, but that's an interesting comparison.

I am holding out for the Concept Ds to show up somewhere so I can test the keyboard, but I'll be waiting awhile as I think the D5 Pro isn't due until December.

 

[csurfr]

Or not, in my case.

Still, hats off to folks who can use this like a champ.
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I think as Razer releases their creator branded studio laptops, we might see more normal keyboard layout, but that's an interesting comparison.

I am holding out for the Concept Ds to show up somewhere so I can test the keyboard, but I'll be waiting awhile as I think the D5 Pro isn't due until December.

My biggest concern is the Razer reddit that is full of complaints about bad service and failures after a year. That is worrisome.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I settled on a MSI GS65 8SF.
Reading Thysanoptera`s experience I was a little afraid of encountering his issues.
It seems that I`m lucky because mine works quite nice.
After undervolting in TS with -135mV and limiting the max turbo to 3.7 Ghz I obtained 2709 in CB20 and the temps do not exceed 85 degrees Celsius.
The best part is that on battery I have 6+ hours for office stuff when on the road and the more than decent keyboard is a big plus also.

 

[Queen6]

Or not, in my case.

Still, hats off to folks who can use this like a champ.
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I think as Razer releases their creator branded studio laptops, we might see more normal keyboard layout, but that's an interesting comparison.

I am holding out for the Concept Ds to show up somewhere so I can test the keyboard, but I'll be waiting awhile as I think the D5 Pro isn't due until December.

Of the mind to say **** it and pick a Concept D9, can always cheap out and get a Predator Triton 900 as I don't explicitly need "Touch & Pen" support in a large from factor notebook.

That said I want 20% over this or no sale...

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

I settled on a MSI GS65 8SF.
Reading Thysanoptera`s experience I was a little afraid of encountering his issues.
It seems that I`m lucky because mine works quite nice.
After undervolting in TS with -135mV and limiting the max turbo to 3.7 Ghz I obtained 2709 in CB20 and the temps do not exceed 85 degrees Celsius.
The best part is that on battery I have 6+ hours for office stuff when on the road and the more than decent keyboard is a big plus also.

Take the brakes off seen my 8th Gen GL703GS running engineering simulations all day long at a solid 3.9GHz and sub 85C. 6+ is good on battery, no iGPU here just the Nvidia 1070 3+ I'm happy, if not lucky 😄

TS can't praise enough, this one is 100% stable -140mV and can go as deep as -175mV, however I don't want to be on the "razers edge" with a notebook that's tied to revenue.

FYI CB3100+

Q-6

 

[Thysanoptera]

I settled on a MSI GS65 8SF.
Reading Thysanoptera`s experience I was a little afraid of encountering his issues.
It seems that I`m lucky because mine works quite nice.
After undervolting in TS with -135mV and limiting the max turbo to 3.7 Ghz I obtained 2709 in CB20 and the temps do not exceed 85 degrees Celsius.
The best part is that on battery I have 6+ hours for office stuff when on the road and the more than decent keyboard is a big plus also.

That's almost the same as I have, 8SE, the only difference is that mine is with 2060. You can follow my journey in one of the threads on this forum, from being super happy by how much faster it is than Macbook, through some issues I thought I knew why and how to fix them to final realization that the design is inherently fubar. It took several weeks, too late for me to take it back.

To put this into some perspective, on GS65 at best I could get CB20 2950 with temps reaching thermal throttling point of 95C (that's right after repaste), at this moment I'm getting ~2600 with temps also in 95C on even cores and 75C on odd cores. The Blade gets over 3150 with max core temps staying below 80C and 5C spread between cores. But I would pay a lot to have GS65 keyboard on the Blade.

My advice - if you travel, frequently taking the laptop in and out of bag, repeat that benchmark like every week and see if the temps gets worse. Keep an eye on core temps spread, you can see them in Throttlestop, and unlock them to full turbo - that's where the issue is most visible.

Of the mind to say **** it and pick a Concept D9, can always cheap out and get a Predator Triton 900 as I don't explicitly need "Touch & Pen" support in a large from factor notebook.

That said I want 20% over this or no sale...

You're going to need 8 core for that. Or something with desktop 6 core that goes to 5GHz, that Triton with 9980hk would probably get you there, but I'm not sure if you would get anywhere with it in a bag without some sort of long term chiropractic subscription.

I'm still waiting for proper Eluktronics Mag 15 reviews, it is obvious now that Dave Lee sold his soul and provided false thermal information creating undeserved hype, but the laptop still looks decent.

 

[Queen6]

You're going to need 8 core for that. Or something with desktop 6 core that goes to 5GHz, that Triton with 9980hk would probably get you there, but I'm not sure if you would get anywhere with it in a bag without some sort of long term chiropractic subscription.

I'm still waiting for proper Eluktronics Mag 15 reviews, it is obvious now that Dave Lee sold his soul and provided false thermal information creating undeserved hype, but the laptop still looks decent.

I'll pick up an Acer Concept D9 Pro if needs be, pricing don't care too much, as long as the notebook delivers solid performance. Next has to be i9, RTX 2070, 32Gb fast RAM at a minimum, same as your good self I'll unlock the system and reap the benefit. Even my tiny 8.4" display 3S Platinum UMPC is pushing 4.2GHz

Used to travel with two 15" MBP's when they were actually upgradable useable notebooks, not skinny port constrained throwaway appliances with poor reliability. Don't care about the weight. My backup 17.3" weighs in at 5Kg, primary is much better at sub 3Kg. Driver takes me to the airport in a nice car, same on arrival, so not an issue. For on the go I use the UMPC, any serious work I'll dock to a display and remote into the "heavy lifter"

D2D disappointed, or maybe a "special" reviewers model, one or the other IMO.

Q-6

 

[jrichards1408]

I'll pick up an Acer Concept D9 Pro if needs be, pricing don't care too much, as long as the notebook delivers solid performance. Next has to be i9, RTX 2070, 32Gb fast RAM at a minimum, same as your good self I'll unlock the system and reap the benefit. Even my tiny 8.4" display 3S Platinum UMPC is pushing 4.2GHz

Used to travel with two 15" MBP's when they were actually upgradable useable notebooks, not skinny port constrained throwaway appliances with poor reliability. Don't care about the weight. My backup 17.3" weighs in at 5Kg, primary is much better at sub 3Kg. Driver takes me to the airport in a nice car, same on arrival, so not an issue. For on the go I use the UMPC, any serious work I'll dock to a display and remote into the "heavy lifter"

D2D disappointed, or maybe a "special" reviewers model, one or the other IMO.

Q-6

I carry photo gear when I travel and so a heavy laptop will not be good

 

[Queen6]

DP

 

[Queen6]

I carry photo gear when I travel and so a heavy laptop will not be good

TBH much depends on the contract and the mobility need, I'm in engineering and although I frequently travel internationally I don't worry too much about the weight as tend to use a larger more powerful in the office/hotel and a lightweight 2in1 on the go during the day, unless I know that I will need the performance.

Right now I'm using a 17.3" ROG GL703GS just short of 3Kg and a One-Mix 3S Platinum 8.4" UMPC at just over half a kilogram, absolutely chalk and cheese

Q-6

 

[csurfr]

I guess I’m just going to hold onto my Blade for the time being. Nothing else that MS sells has Thunderbolt 3 or 16gb of ram (or upgradable).


I’ve read a lot on the Razer reddit and some people seem to be able to get 7 hours out of theirs for basic daily tasks. Now, whether they are undervolting or not, I’m not sure. But I’m in the camp that you shouldn’t *have* to undervolt to get better battery life.

I’d think that the reduction in screen brightness, and turning off the keyboard backlight would make a difference. Also, you can reduce the screen refresh from 240hz to 60hz and that would have an impact as well. Those things are easier (IMO) than messing with voltage and such.

 

[csurfr]

Yeah. . . I don't care what kind of performance the video card in this gives me, this is just unacceptable.

Also of note is that the palm rejection on the trackpad is abysmal, even when set to "low" sensitivity.

 

[jrichards1408]

View attachment 862435

Yeah. . . I don't care what kind of performance the video card in this gives me, this is just unacceptable.

Also of note is that the palm rejection on the trackpad is abysmal, even when set to "low" sensitivity.

I keep banging on here but no laptop lasts over 4h mate.

All the people who claim that it does are probably using it at its lowest bright settings with WiFi and Bluetooth off and just looking at a blank word document... Lol

 

[csurfr]

I keep banging on here but no laptop lasts over 4h mate.

All the people who claim that it does are probably using it at its lowest bright settings with WiFi and Bluetooth off and just looking at a blank word document... Lol

The MacBook Pro with all of its faults with the keyboard lasted all day long, even with multiple dev environments open at once.

The Surface Book 2 13” lasts nearly as long, and the 15” even longer.

There are laptops out there that have all day battery life, they just don’t include RTX graphics cards.

 

[jrichards1408]

The MacBook Pro with all of its faults with the keyboard lasted all day long, even with multiple dev environments open at once.

The Surface Book 2 13” lasts nearly as long, and the 15” even longer.

There are laptops out there that have all day battery life, they just don’t include RTX graphics cards.

I've used macbook-pro both 13 and 15 inch and they only last 4h max. Surface 4 I had and that was even worse.

All devs I've known for the past 15 years have same battery life when developing ios android and backend work.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I keep banging on here but no laptop lasts over 4h mate.

All the people who claim that it does are probably using it at its lowest bright settings with WiFi and Bluetooth off and just looking at a blank word document... Lol

Sorry but this is simply not true.
My use case scenario is the following:
Edge browser opened with 6-7 tabs;
Outlook always open;
At least one opened word document;
1-2 PDF documents;
Screen around 100-120 nits - I really do not need more;
Wireless and BT on;
KB backlight - as needed.

In this scenario my Huawei Matebook X Pro lasts 8-9 hours and my MSI GS65 around 5 hours.

 

[jrichards1408]

Sorry but this is simply not true.
My use case scenario is the following:
Edge browser opened with 6-7 tabs;
Outlook always open;
At least one opened word document;
1-2 PDF documents;
Screen around 100-120 nits - I really do not need more;
Wireless and BT on;
KB backlight - as needed.

In this scenario my Huawei Matebook X Pro lasts 8-9 hours and my MSI GS65 around 5 hours.

It is true. I've tried so many laptops, you may as well call me a laptop reviewer YouTuber.

100nit brightness... Really? Try and 250 or more. 100nit in a bright office? No chance

 

[c0ppo]

I had problems with x1e FHD (around 300 nits) in my office. I will avoid any screen below 400 nits in the future.

 

[jrichards1408]

I had problems with x1e FHD (around 300 nits) in my office. I will avoid any screen below 400 nits in the future.

Yup likewise

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I do not need more than 100-120 nits.
I do not use my laptop outside and indoors it is fine for me.
As a disclaimer I have to tell you that I`m used to calibrated monitors around 100 nits or even 90. Not for energy saving but for accurate prints (I do fine art printing as a hobby).

 

[c0ppo]

I do not need more than 100-120 nits.
I do not use my laptop outside and indoors it is fine for me.
As a disclaimer I have to tell you that I`m used to calibrated monitors around 100 nits or even 90. Not for energy saving but for accurate prints (I do fine art printing as a hobby).

No need to explain yourself. We all have different needs