Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat quality laptop
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2018
I bought the Razer Blade 15.6” 1060-MaxQ 256GB 60Hz model.
The build quality is phenomenal. It is very thin, and lightweight. Unfortunately the body is a fingerprint magnet, so a skin is needed if you do not want fingerprints all over. The charging brick is good quality, and has braided cable. The charging port is deep, and has potential to be snagged, bringing the laptop with it, so care is required if charging in a high traffic area. The speakers are good quality for the thin build.
The screen is great. It has a small bezel, and the 720p webcam is located at the top of the screen, rather than at the hinge like most similar “bezel-less” laptops. It has a FHD 60Hz screen that looks great, and has excellent color. I do not have any backlight issues on my particular laptop.
The keyboard is good quality with adjustable brightness, and can be individually RGB lit. The only issue is the odd key placement around the arrow keys: it shortens the right shift and slightly moves the “?/“ key. The touchpad can be set up to behave exactly like a MacBook’s trackpad, which I consider to have the best trackpad. The Razer Blade’s trackpad is just a step below it, but still very good. It takes some getting used to in order to stop accidentally hitting it with your palms.
While gaming, the laptop can get very hot, and due to the aluminum body, can start to burn your lap, so definitely recommended to play games on a table or placemat. Personally, I got my computer to max out at 88C with undervolting -150 CPU, and -125 Cache, and limiting CPU speed to 36GHz. I am sure I could get it to run cooler with more tweaking. The fans are also quite loud, so if the noise bothers you a headset is necessary.
The battery life is understandably small, due to the small laptop size. It lasts about 6 hours with internet use (playing videos, browsing sites). When playing a game (tested with Monster Hunter: World) it lasts about 2 hours.
Overall I am very pleased with my laptop, but I have been fortunate enough to not have any issues.
Pros:
- Great build quality
- Great specs
- Lightweight, sturdy
- Good speakers
- Great tiny bezel screen with good camera placement
- Good trackpad
- Good RGB backlit keyboard with adjustable brightness
Cons:
- Runs hot
- Charging cable isn’t easily detached (snags could drag your laptop with it)
- keyboard key placement takes getting used to
- Small battery life (compared to regular laptops)
- Loud fans