Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsA good laptop if you know what to expect
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2019
I bought this laptop to replace an aging four year old MacBook Pro with discreet graphics. It's an expensive machine for the hardware you're getting, but, in my opinion, worth it.
Note: I am not a gamer, and will not review this machine as one. This laptop serves as more heavy-duty machine than the 13-inch Ultrabook I normally travel with, suited more to work I would normally do on a desktop.
Build:
Superficially, the build quality is impressive. The chassis is made entirely out of aluminum (even the back plate), and the hinge has a nice, solid feel - the screen does not wobble. This is a heavy laptop, coming in at over 4 pounds - not an ultraportable to say the least. However, it's pretty svelte, so fitting it into a backpack isn't an issue.
Opening up the machine, things seem intelligently laid out. This is the base model, so there's no vapor chamber cooling. That's replaced by a standard heat pipe and fan assembly that covers the GPU and CPU. Both the PCH and the controller of the SSD are covered in a thick thermal pad that makes contact with the bottom of the machine. I don't have the data to say if this helps either component, but the PCH appears to maintain good temps under normal use (around 45C).
The machine comes with two storage drives: one PCIe 256GB NVMe SSD (made by Samsung, I believe), and one 2TB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive. I replaced this drive with a 512GB SSD before I even booted the machine for the first time, so I can't speak as to the performance of that drive. But since it's a 5400 RPM spinning disk, it would be quite poor.
Thermals:
My thermal testing was limited, just enough to assuage my fears that the hardware Razer packed into the svelte chassis might end up cooking itself. A run of Prime95 with the power settings set to default yielded maximum temperatures in the 60C range. The fans didn't sound like they were working too hard, either. A quick look at Task Manager showed the clock speed capping out at around 2.7 GHz, nowhere near the theoretical maximum of 4.1 GHz. I suspect that under different power settings, the CPU would turbo higher, the fans would run louder, and the machine would run hotter.
Throughout all of this, nowhere on the machine felt uncomfortably hot to the touch. In all, I was happy with the thermal situation, given the hardware under the hood and Razer's cooling solution.
Battery Life:
I'm able to get about five hours out of it doing web browsing and listening to Spotify. Anything more intensive (photoshop, code compilation, etc) and that number goes down to about two hours.
Overall performance:
This is a fast machine. Applications open quickly, photo editing is a breeze, and software compiles take far less time than they used to on my older machines. I don't have benchmark numbers, but overall, I was impressed.
I/O:
For a modern laptop, I/O is amazing. In fact, it's what made me go for this over the Dell XPS 15. You get Thunderbolt 3 (no charging support, but it couldn't come close to supplying enough power anyway), mini DisplayPort, HDMI, and more. If you don't like dongles, this machine is for you.
Keyboard and trackpad:
The keyboard is nice to type on, but isn't laid out particularly well. The fn key is where the ctrl key should be, and the arrow keys are oddly cramped in the lower right hand corner. This is something they need to improve in the next version of this machine.
The trackpad is fantastic. It's large, accurate, and has a nice solid click. Say what you will about Apple, but their trackpads are almost perfect, in my opinion. This is the first PC I've used that comes close to Apple's.
Linux support:
This machine has pretty decent Linux support. I installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS alongside windows, and everything worked pretty much out of the box. You will want to install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers, but even then, you will not be able to use the HDMI port for some reason. To make the keyboard light up the way it would under Windows, you'll need to install openrazer and polychromatic.
Conclusion:
This is a well-built machine with plenty of power. You can find plenty of machines with specs like this for less money, but they probably won't be as well built or as feature-rich. Based on a couple of weeks' worth of use, I strongly recommend this machine. If you want and expect something heavier, more expensive, and also more powerful than an Ultrabook, you won't be disappointed.
