Does Razer Still Have It? Blade 2018 Review

[AlexTheGreatish]

The Razer Blade has been a roller coaster of emotions - but has the 2018 model brought it back to a peak, or just further into a valley?

 

Buy the Razer Blade
On Amazon: http://geni.us/ObrB
On Newegg: http://geni.us/dqnce

[Firewrath9]

first comment again

[aezakmi]

Razer is like the Apple of PC brands eww

[Neo_Decoder]

oh humanity please -.- 

ohhhhhhhh Linus please please why you don't speak about Laptops around $$$$$ 700-1000 $$$$$ this bad a^^  expensive

[Speed Weed]

1 hour ago, aezakmi said:

Razer is like the Apple of PC brands eww

Yeah, both of them can be use as a butter knife. 

[Adorable Cat]

Quote

the highest peak being when I dropped a crap ton of cash on them for my staff Razer Blade at LTX 2017

FTFY

[Arika]

to be fair the only thing Razer "had" on their blades were high temperatures and bad QC

[AlexTheGreatish]

4 hours ago, Neo_Decoder said:

oh humanity please -.- 

ohhhhhhhh Linus please please why you don't speak about Laptops around $$$$$ 700-1000 $$$$$ this bad a^^  expensive

 

[D13H4RD]

To those who plan on buying one

 

If yours is wonky, good luck with Razer’s support

[danwat1234]

Wish Linus had tested the CPU clockspeed under synthetic load, while in Gaming mode (full fan speed) too. Maybe it could stay above 2.2GHZ base? Sure hope so. Must be able to cool better than a MacBook pro...

4:20; 80W or 85W?

[D13H4RD]

One of the comments on the video stated that he was going to buy the $1899 SKU with the GTX 1060 and the 60Hz 1080p display. 

 

I don't know but while he states that he's doing it mostly for the design, I really truly, honestly think that it's an exceedingly poor deal. If he doesn't game much, he'd be better off saving a lot and going with one of the GTX 1050 Ti notebooks that have understated, business-like designs 

[AlexTheGreatish]

12 hours ago, danwat1234 said:

Wish Linus had tested the CPU clockspeed under synthetic load, while in Gaming mode (full fan speed) too. Maybe it could stay above 2.2GHZ base? Sure hope so. Must be able to cool better than a MacBook pro...

4:20; 80W or 85W?

It levels off around 2.5GHz, but is around 100C and freaking loud

[danwat1234]

Thanks 4 responding. Ack. These 6-core CPUs can't be tamed without a 7+ pound laptop. I think many of these thin and lights are prioritizing GPU cooling in their design. MSI GS most certainly 2 fans for GPU, 1 for CPU. I want a thin laptop that has ace 6-core cooling and an OK GPU with thunderbolt but that doesn't exist. 

Well, come 2020 10nm we'll have more clockspeed for the same wattage.

[AlexTheGreatish]

1 hour ago, danwat1234 said:

I want a thin laptop that has ace 6-core cooling and an OK GPU with thunderbolt but that doesn't exist. 

That's where Liquid Metal comes in...

[danwat1234]

And undervolting. I haven't had a good experience with Coolaboratory Liquid Metal. It becomes ineffective after a few months of hard use on copper heatsink and very hard to remove (dry). Happened twice. But... 2.5GHZ with fans blaring synthetic load. That isn't significantly better than a Macbook Pro. Design poop

 

[Guest]

On 20/08/2018 at 7:12 AM, aezakmi said:

Razer is like the Apple of PC brands eww

It's actually disgusting the amount of flex that happened when Linus pressed on the touchpad. It's an insult to fake Apple. 

 

That said, the Webcam is a very welcome investment and other companies, like Apple, should take note. People seem to forget that a Laptop is a portable device, we don't want mad specs for gaming or anything, but stuff you do on a laptop, like FaceTime or Skyping etc should be a priority, as should a keyboard and touchpad. Whether it's a Mac or PC, we need Laptops to be very dependable, with strong build quality to be reliable. Now Razer seems ideal for a PC, but the flex is a real issue, there is absolutely zero flex in my Mac, and it's never slowed down or stopped in the two years I've had it, and for at least three to four years more. Everything still works right as it should as new -  and looks the part as well. 

 

Not to be all fanboy-ish, just my experience. I hear great things about the ThinkPad line for business, and I suppose Razer looks ok too - just not for build quality. 

[AlexTheGreatish]

3 hours ago, RorzNZ said:

It's actually disgusting the amount of flex that happened when Linus pressed on the touchpad. It's an insult to fake Apple. 

I feel like you're underestimating the amount of pressure used or something, the Blade is every bit as stiff as a MacBook Pro.

[Speed Weed]

3 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I feel like you're underestimating the amount of pressure used or something, the Blade is every bit as stiff as a MacBook Pro.

Can the Razer Bblade cut bread as good and smooth as the MacBook? 

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I feel like you're underestimating the amount of pressure used or something, the Blade is every bit as stiff as a MacBook Pro.

Nope. 

[Spotty]

Nice to see the discussion on laptop webcam quality in 2018. Thanks for including it in the video @AlexTheGreatish

Judging by this image pulled from the youtube clip, the webcam quality is a lot better than what I've seen in some other laptops recently. For most uses it seems like it would be 'good enough', and I would be perfectly happy using it for video calling or even using it as a twitch stream camera.
 

Razers website list it as a 1MP 720p webcam.

Huge improvement compared to the webcam quality from the recently reviewed and similarly priced Asus Zenbook Pro with its 480p webcam. (https://youtu.be/P1oudpqEG_w?t=423)

(placed in spoiler tags to prevent sickness. Open at own risk)

Spoiler

 

(Edit: Err, wrote a post but when I hit submit, all the text was deleted and all that posted was the images? Then I'm unable to save changes in the edit. Not the first time this has happened to me either?)

Edited August 22, 2018 by Spotty

[SailorRalph]

On 8/19/2018 at 8:08 PM, AlexTheGreatish said:

 

If I was in need of a gaming laptop for uni I would definitely be picking one of these two up due to the price.  Anything else these days is nearly twice as much if not more.  However, I am lucky enough to have a desktop PC to game on when I'm at home that I am much more inclined to go with the LG Gram for school work due to the longer battery life.  Laptops seem to have gotten a lot more expensive over the years and I'm not excited about that.

[ck_yang]

Dear Linus tech and all
First of all, sorry for my poor English if I did not correctly express myself. 
My I point out this model of Razer NB is already causing customer complaint for its design change without notice.
In Linus tech video, at 8:33, the heat pipe is covered in black.
However, sever customers who already purchased this model, when planning to upgrade ram, right after open notebook cover, quickly discover that those soaking plate has no black anti-oxidation coating on their purchased notebook computer.
After those owner making customer complaint to Razer, Razer even reply that due to overwhelming demand for this Razer new gaming notebook, Razer change the design for those soaking plater to without black anti-oxidation coating. Furthermore, Razer even change their home page concept drawing of this model.
So, may I ask Linus tech's help here?
To purchase a mass production model and test the performance and thermal status again? also open the back cover and check the soaking plate/heat pipe design?
Or, is "*Actual product may differ from picture." also another Razer tax?
As a customer, a user, or a "believer", the only chose is to accept "Change without further notice?"

 

With this price tag.....will Razer is a real "good chose" for gaming notebook? 
 

Thanks for your reading in advance.

[AlexTheGreatish]

9 hours ago, ck_yang said:

To purchase a mass production model and test the performance and thermal status again? also open the back cover and check the soaking plate/heat pipe design?

Ours was a mass production model that we bought, after our last video about the Blade failure rates they have been less inclined to send us stuff.  I highly doubt that this would have any effect on thermals, so it's just a little change in the looks.  Not great they changed it without letting people know but I don't think it's a huge issue.