Razer 15.6 review

[maflynn]

One piece of frustration for me lately is palm rejection. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do, but Razer increased the size of the touchpad, which seems to have made many reviewers happy but in my typing its causing the cursor to jump and mess up my work . I suppose while working on a desk at home I can set up a mouse but I'd like to find a solution to improve its palm rejection
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Windows is quite foreign to me, but if I could learn how to troubleshoot

Hopefully you'll not need to troubleshoot too much, but there are plenty of online resources to help. One thing I recommend is find out if the manufacture you're looking at has an online community, i.e., forum. Dell has their forums, Razer has their own. I find a lot of my answers there

 

[Queen6]

@maflynn and @Queen6 thank you and everyone else for the intelligent and thoughtful reviews. My 2013 iMac was just crippled by a virus from school related work and my existing Acer laptop is hobbling due to W10 upgrades and is just not enough to get through this degree.

Windows is quite foreign to me, but if I could learn how to troubleshoot and back up, I think I might try a gaming laptop since I need video and photo conversion software running. Added bonus would be stylus for art since my iDevices are also unpredictable. Apple just is not making anything I want to spend money on so I appreciate these threads (and @Queen6 being so wonderful with me in private conversations last year).

Regarding reviewers, I like David and Lisa a lot, but I am completely lost as far as preparing to move platforms, any ideas where I could get up to speed?

The Razer is a nice laptop and I have been thinking about that and the HP spectre. I hope I am not hijacking the thread, but I would appreciate some pointers and suggestions. Dell is off limits for me, had a bad experience at he beginning of 2017 and will not go back.

Please keep the reviews and discussions coming.

Thanks in advance,

Generally Windows works best for most if they don't try to fix what isn't broken. Backups can be completed with reliability with app's included with the OS. Personally I prefer the gaming notebooks as they are performant. frequently scalable without drama, with the downside being physical size and or battery life.

The transition from OS X to Windows can be daunting, however for the most part it's not such a big deal. One simply needs to identify the requirement and shortlist the hardware. Data is another matter depending on the quantity and file types, ultimately it needs to be in formats that Windows and applications can read.

I respect David and Lisa as reviewers as they are genuinely unbiased and informative.

Q-6

 

[apolloa]

Well, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered the Razer blade 15.6. I had plenty of opportunities over the past few weeks, but dropping 2k on a laptop kept holding me back. I ordered it Sunday and it arrived today. What surprised me, is while the original delivery daye was today, Fed-Ex tried to drop it off yesterday.

The model I ordered was the 1060/144Hz/512GB model, not the low end, but not the high end either. I don't think I needed the power of the Nvidia 1070, and I'm hoping by going with the 1060, I'll have less heat isssues.

Here's my initial impression. I'll update this thread later with the stress test and battery tests when I have the time run those tests.

The fit and finish of the laptop exudes quality, very mac like in that sense. It feels solid and premium. I can see this maybe being a fingerprint magnet, but I can skin it, if it bothers me too much.

The fans are noticable, I guess I was spoiled with the MBP near silent operation. I've adjusted the power settings to 80% on AC and 70% on battery and the temps are averaging about 40c for normal stuff like installing apps. I suspect I was overly aggressive on the power setting but I'll play with them later.

I also adjusted the refresh rate from 144Hz to 60Hz. Friday, or late Thursday I'll probably run a run down test on the battery to see how it does. I expect to get close to 7 to 9 hours based on the settings I've applied. If I'm going to play a game or two, I'll reset those settings to squeeze out more performance.

The screen is gorgeous, its a matte screen and its been so long since I had it, I'm extremely happy. The trackpad feels solid and well made, very mac like in its performance.

Others have complained about the buzzing in the power brick. Mine has it as well, its not loud or terribly noticable. I have a worse buzzing from a pair of speakers that I use for my iMac.

I'll be perfectly honest, I'm not 100% sold on keeping it, I'll put it through its paces and then make a determination. I'm not leaving the Mac world either, I'll still have an iMac, but this machine has a lot advantages, It may not take too much of a push to make the razer my main machine and demote the iMac

Don't get me wrong, there are some nice things living in the Apple ecosystem which is why I'm not 100% on keeping it, such as Airdrop, I easily transferred the images below to my iMac thanks to airdrop. There's other advantages as well

More to follow, but here's some eye candy, though the picture doesn't do justice to chroma on the keyboard

View attachment 767063
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Nice machine, is this in addition to your Surface Book?

 

[maflynn]

Nice machine, is this in addition to your Surface Book?

No I sold that to help fund my next laptop

 

[maflynn]

I'm one week into the ownership and I'm at a point where I have a good grasp of the quality of the laptop and I'm impressed with that. I have the system fully loaded and configured to how I use it and that's a plus. My determination on whether I can/return it has moved on to possible hardware shortcomings (there aren't any) to whether I want to live on a windows platform or stay fully on a Mac. While I have windows machines, the usage of this new machine was going to be my primary machine and so I wanted to take the time to discern what works best for me.

As of right now, I am missing some of the things in macOS that I've gotten used too. To put it another way, my personal preferences are coming to light and I'm seeing some short comings with windows. I'm at a point now trying to weigh what improvements I get with windows vs. what I lose with leaving macOS.

 

[Queen6]

I'm one week into the ownership and I'm at a point where I have a good grasp of the quality of the laptop and I'm impressed with that. I have the system fully loaded and configured to how I use it and that's a plus. My determination on whether I can/return it has moved on to possible hardware shortcomings (there aren't any) to whether I want to live on a windows platform or stay fully on a Mac. While I have windows machines, the usage of this new machine was going to be my primary machine and so I wanted to take the time to discern what works best for me.

As of right now, I am missing some of the things in macOS that I've gotten used too. To put it another way, my personal preferences are coming to light and I'm seeing some short comings with windows. I'm at a point now trying to weigh what improvements I get with windows vs. what I lose with leaving macOS.

TBH it takes time to nail everything down on the software side. I too still have a very few apps that are stubbornly difficult to replace and I'm a couple of years in with W10. Tending more to focus on the bigger picture and where the OS's are heading...

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

TBH it takes time to nail everything down on the software side. I too still have a very few apps that are stubbornly difficult to replace and I'm a couple of years in with W10. Tending more to focus on the bigger picture and where the OS's are heading...

Q-6

No question but I think you can get a good feel if a given tool is a good fit or not, and that's where I'm at. Discerning how this is working vs. a Mac.

 

[maflynn]

One of the issues that is surfacing the keyboard. No not like the MBP's but rather the secondary values, i.e., shift-7 or fn-2. For instance in a darkish room, I don't know which key is the ampersand or which fn-f-key adjusts the brightness or sound. They're not lit up.

Other people have complained about it, and I knew about it, going into the purchase, but I thought I could adapt, but I'm a touch typist anyways, but I was surprised at my struggle to use shift-<number> to get the desired result. I was lifting up the laptop bringing the laptop up close to my face to see which key.

I've had other laptop's that didn't have a light up keyboard in the past, so its not as bad as that, but since this a review thread and I'm noticing something on my day to day usage, I thought I should put it here

 

[apolloa]

No I sold that to help fund my next laptop

Ah cool, unfortunately it’s not really an option in the U.K. as Razers support is non existent. I would get me a Surface Book 2 or Dell G7 if I wanted to save some cash. Or the MacBook Pro of course.

 

[SteveJUAE]

One of the issues that is surfacing the keyboard. No not like the MBP's but rather the secondary values, i.e., shift-7 or fn-2. For instance in a darkish room, I don't know which key is the ampersand or which fn-f-key adjusts the brightness or sound. They're not lit up.

Other people have complained about it, and I knew about it, going into the purchase, but I thought I could adapt, but I'm a touch typist anyways, but I was surprised at my struggle to use shift-<number> to get the desired result. I was lifting up the laptop bringing the laptop up close to my face to see which key.

I've had other laptop's that didn't have a light up keyboard in the past, so its not as bad as that, but since this a review thread and I'm noticing something on my day to day usage, I thought I should put it here

Yes I have had several small portable laptops with no KB light and it can be a pain at times but interestingly on the SB2 it's the reverse, in the day its often better with no KB light due to contrast on the silver keys

 

[borgranta]

I'm not really noticing anything

Let me just reemphasize that I'm like the screen, its gorgeous and the fact that I'm working on a matte screen pleases me to know end. I gotten used to the glossy display from Apple, but if I had my druthers, I'd want matte and here I have one.

I have a 14 day return period, and I'm putting the laptop through its paces. I'll probably know early next week which way I'll be leaning towards.


The included app for Razer (Synapse), offers gaming mode and balanced. I'm not sure why they don't offer a silent mode for those times you're not gaming and don't want the fan noise.

I'll hope to test the battery later today, but right now I'm driving an external monitor, so I'll have to wait.

This is obviously not a library friendly laptop but will be a good option for playing games that are not compatible with MacOS.
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One of the issues that is surfacing the keyboard. No not like the MBP's but rather the secondary values, i.e., shift-7 or fn-2. For instance in a darkish room, I don't know which key is the ampersand or which fn-f-key adjusts the brightness or sound. They're not lit up.

Other people have complained about it, and I knew about it, going into the purchase, but I thought I could adapt, but I'm a touch typist anyways, but I was surprised at my struggle to use shift-<number> to get the desired result. I was lifting up the laptop bringing the laptop up close to my face to see which key.

I've had other laptop's that didn't have a light up keyboard in the past, so its not as bad as that, but since this a review thread and I'm noticing something on my day to day usage, I thought I should put it here

Having a clamping desk light to direct light at the keyboard may help in the dark.
[doublepost=1530417294][/doublepost]bing rewards offers extra rewards when using Microsoft Edge to do searches instead of other browsers.

 

[hajime]

One of the issues that is surfacing the keyboard. No not like the MBP's but rather the secondary values, i.e., shift-7 or fn-2. For instance in a darkish room, I don't know which key is the ampersand or which fn-f-key adjusts the brightness or sound. They're not lit up.

Other people have complained about it, and I knew about it, going into the purchase, but I thought I could adapt, but I'm a touch typist anyways, but I was surprised at my struggle to use shift-<number> to get the desired result. I was lifting up the laptop bringing the laptop up close to my face to see which key.

I've had other laptop's that didn't have a light up keyboard in the past, so its not as bad as that, but since this a review thread and I'm noticing something on my day to day usage, I thought I should put it here

So are you going to keep the laptop? I love the RGB keyboard and the surface of the case. It is too heavy and hot for me. Battery life is also a bit short.

 

[maflynn]

So are you going to keep the laptop?

Here's my update, the two week mark was July 04th, given the holiday, I felt I needed to make a decision by the weekend and I did.

I opted to return it, at least for now.
First let me get the why out, and then also some things that were starting to annoy me more then I intended though I think I probably mentioned them at some point in this thread.

The why:
Buyers remorse - but not what you think, with a bit more chatter about a possible new MBP coming out sooner then later I felt I would have had a significant case of buyers remorse on the Razer if Apple improves the keyboard. While the MBP has some other short comings, for me the keyboard is the show stopper. My logic goes like this; instead of feeling painted in a corner because of owning a very expensive laptop. Let me return it now and re-evaulate the situation, once we see the new MBPs. To put it another way, I think I was premature in buying it now and I should have waited.

As for some of the Razer short comings;
The keyboard, funny enough is what bothered me the most. The key travel was excellent, Chroma for the most part is excellent, unless you needed to type shift-<number> then you'll be out of luck since the key lighting on those secondary values is non-existent. The cursor key placement, and moving the question mark key was another annoyance.

macOS, there are some things I feel that work better or at least more efficiently on a Mac and given my immersion in the ecosystem, it would be better with a MBP. I'm very familiar with Windows, and I'm comfortable with it. Oddly enough, for work, the Razer was much better and that's the bummer for me. Using it for work, I'm better off, but for other tasks the Mac has some advantages.

I do have a fair amount of reverse-buyers remorse, i.e., bummed out that I returned a fine machine, but I did so only for the reason of keeping my options open for the future.

To summarize;
No computer is perfect. The razer definitely checked off many of my wants and must haves, but I feel the MBP may very well check off a few more and so I should wait just to be sure.

 

[Queen6]

All in all absolutely the right decision, if you have any qualms. Personally not a fan of Razer, admittedly I am unable to really pinpoint exactly why, nor do I consider Razer to be lacklustre or a poor provider.

Personally I'm no longer so heavily invested in the Mac, nor do I see Apple producing a notebook that will meet my current needs both professionally or recreationally without a significant compromise in performance and reduction in usability which I'm not prepared to accept. Most importantly my need is now...

I still remain to be very pleased with the Asus GL703GS and will be soon putting it to task on my primary engineering project. A very different class of notebook being a 17.3" ironically also considered to be a "thin & light" amongst it's peers

Good luck with the "hunt"

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

Personally not a fan of Razer, admittedly I am unable to really pinpoint exactly why, nor do I consider Razer to be lacklustre or a poor provider.

I was very happy with the laptop, I think if they had a keyboard that illuminated the secondary values as I mentioned, it would have been more difficult to justify a return. That wasn't the straw the camels back, but rather there was so much going for it.

I may find a better deal in the fall and/or holiday season, so there's that as well.

 

[Queen6]

I was very happy with the laptop, I think if they had a keyboard that illuminated the secondary values as I mentioned, it would have been more difficult to justify a return. That wasn't the straw the camels back, but rather there was so much going for it.

I may find a better deal in the fall and/or holiday season, so there's that as well.

Odd choice with the KB lighting, still a solid notebook. I imagine by the holiday season the picture will be clearer and as you say potentially cheaper.

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

I've now owned the the 2018 MBP for about three weeks (delivered on July 19th)

Here's some thoughts regarding the MBP compared to the Razer.

• Design, perhaps its because I'm so used to the MBP's design. I do like the Razer's design over the MBP. There's a sharpness that's refreshing. I give Razer the the mark on this.
• Display. Apple's is brighter, and the Retina display is superior to a FHD, add in the full P3 coverage. Razer has a matte screen going for it, and I really miss that but overall Apple wins here
• Keyboard: This one is a tough one. I think Razer's keyboard is probably more durable and I enjoy the feel, but it has the following knocks on it. First the non-standard layout with the keys - the ? key being moved to fit a relocated set of cursor keys, and secondly the back lighting of the function and number keys do not illuminate the secondary values. This imo, is a huge pain in the neck. I frequently use my laptop in less then ideal lighting. Apple gets the nod, just for the sake of seeing the keys and avoiding typing mistakes.
• Trackpad. Apple's is ginormous for no appreciable reason, though its palm rejection is the best. I had issues with palm rejection on the razor, causing the cursor to jump around. Again Apple wins.
• Speakers. Apple leads the industry in speakers it seems and they did not disappoint here.
• Upgradability. No competition in this category, Razer wins hands down. No need to beat a dead horse on Apple's desire to solder everything onto the logic board.
• Support: Apple wins out but that's not to say razer's was bad. Apple has a more robust support setup including the ability to go to a local apple store. Razer outsources their support. With that said, They had upgraded the support in 2018 and there seems to be a marked improvement.
• Battery: The Mac wins out easily, with the minimum of changes, I was getting great battery life. I was able to squeeze out a decent battery life with the Razer but it took work. Admittedly the Razer is a gamers laptop and battery life is to be expected to be low.

Overall, I feel that the MBP wins out, not just do to the tangible differences I mentioned above, but also some of the intangible ones. With the the Razer, I found I needed to mess with some of the apps and settings to thermally manage the laptop. That is XTU settings never seemed to "stick". I had to setting them. A bug in windows (after much searching), resets the power settings to balanced for some wacky reason and Windows inconsistencies included the need to change power settings in two areas, to ensure I'm thermally managing the laptop the best I can. The fans were also more noticeable on actions that were not pushing the laptop. I at times were successful in setting things so I'd not hear the fans, but the next boot up, it reset it self. With the Mac, thermal issues exist, but I've basically set the changes and I've not thought about it since.

TL;DR
With the MBP, I spend less time messing with the configuration, it just works. The Razer is a really good laptop in its own right.