This is my 2nd go on a Razer system and I was hoping that this will be different than the my Blade Stealth which had severe phantom touch issues. Charger - The build on this laptop is amazing and my favorite of all the current laptops out so far. Feels nice and sturdy and looks sleek BUT, after using the laptop for a few days, I start to notice some crackling sounds while doing some light Photoshop work. The sound is loud enough to hear even though I was listening to music with headphones on. I take a look around and hear loud buzzing and crackling from the charging unit like its about to pop and catch fire. I immediately unplug the charger and contact Razer's customer service to replace the unit. After going back and fourth with them, they agree to send me a new charging unit, but it will take 5-7 business days to receive AFTER I send my current one back. That means I'd be without power for a little over a week. That's fine, but I use the Blade for work and need power for the laptop. They will NOT send a charger ahead of time so be prepared to be out of a computer for over a week. Paying such a premium price for this laptop, I would expect the urgency and support to be a little better.. Synapse - One of the reasons for me getting this laptop is its amazing keyboard and the ability to customize the colors through Razer's Synapse app. Customizing colors for shortcuts on certain apps would be very beneficial to me. Only problem is, the app does not work! I have a non-functioning light keyboard. As I am typing this review, only 1/3 of my keyboard is lit up. I tried numerous times to open the Synapse app, but it continues to close it self. It closes itself so fast, I can't even uninstall it. Color Accuracy - Another reason I purchased this laptop is because of their claim of 100% SRGB. Since I do a lot of photo work, this was very important to me. After checking calibration, it only hits 97% using the Datacolor Spyder5 Pro calibration tool. It's not too big of a deal since I can always use my calibrated monitors at home, but it is a little disappointing. Battery Life - Not too great, but expectations were low to begin with. About 3 hours of some lite web browsing and its out. Final thoughts - If there weren't any issues within the first few days of owning the laptop, I'd feel more confident owning it. I feel like after a year, something will definitely go wrong and I'd have to spend another couple grand for a laptop. If you are looking for a laptop to use for work, the Blade is probably not for you. You will be out of a laptop for a week at some point due to some charger failure and if you have projects due, you will be screwed. Now I am not the only one with the issue so please be advised before purchasing the laptop.

This is my first experience with Razer. I have always loved the looks of their laptops and other products (external GPU enclosure looks great too), and I also like the idea of a company that's "for gamers, by gamers," and takes in to consideration all of the feedback they receive from their customers to improve their products. For those things, 5 stars. I recently decided to dive back in to the world of a gaming laptop after having ASUS, Aorus, MSI, and other brands in the past, and after seeing how sexy the 2018 Blade 15.6 was, I decided to go that route. The same or better performance can be had for much less (BB currently has an ASUS with the same CPU, same RAM, a REAL 1060 vs the 1060 Max-Q in the Blade, etc. for $1299 vs $2199 for the Blade), but the Blade has better build quality, is almost bezeless, and just seems to be built very well. I forked over the $900 premium for the "look and feel" and was very happy with my purchase, until 3 days later when the charger started making noise. After coming in the third morning of ownership and powering up the laptop, I could hear what can only be described as the sound of a mechanical hard drive under heavy load. Lots of pops and clicks and whatnot. Since the Blade doesn't have a mechanical drive, I started looking around to find where the sound was coming from. It was electrical cracks and pops from the charger. Great. 3 days in, $2199 laptop, and the charger sounds like it's going to fail. I got on chat with Razer customer support. After filling out a form and taking a video of the power supply so the support rep could hear what was happening, he said "Yep! The sound is very audible, we'll be replacing your unit." I had to fill out another form, and then he said "The order for the replacement unit will be processed after tracking info tells us that your old unit is on its way back to us." Wait, what? I asked how long that would take, since I'd obviously be without a laptop the entire time. He said "To process and ship the order usually takes 2 business days, and shipping is 3-5 business days." (So, they're shipping it Ground). At that point I told him that I use this laptop for work, and I couldn't be without it for, best case scenario, 5-7 business days. He told me to hold on and see what he could do. He came back with an offer of "expedited" 2-3 day shipping. Unacceptable. Razer - You are selling a premium product. Please provide a premium service. After taking serial numbers off of my laptop and charger, and requiring I send in a proof of purchase as well as a video of the problem in question, you should have no doubt that I indeed own the laptop that's having the issue. Why not send a charger to me with a return label in the box so I can just stick my old charger in the box and send it back? If you don't trust your customers, I would have even been willing to provide a credit card number so you could charge me for the new one if I didn't return the old one. Just because I can't be dark for a week or more, I'll be returning this laptop. I've read horror stories of Razer's support policies before, and I always hoped it was people being overly critical. Looks like I was wrong. It's a shame because I love the laptop itself, other than the fans that never seem to calm down even when I'm not gaming. Beautiful piece of kit other than the charger, and the customer support. Shame.

I've gone through a long journey in finding my next laptop. Before purchasing the Razer Blade 15, I tried the MSI Stealth GS63 & the Alienware 15 R4. I returned the former because, despite the sleek form factor, the build quality was shoddy, the fans were extremely noisy, the trackpad was ancient, and the speakers & display were mediocre at best. The only part I was really enamored with was the awesome SteelSeries keyboard, but that was the only thing I enjoyed about it. I exchanged it for an Alienware 15 R4 which went on a huge sale shortly after I bought my MSI and featured a much better build quality, a bangin' Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU, sturdy chassis (more like ironclad), with a decent display and trackpad. The RGB lights throughout the chassis were fun to look at, albeit a little tacky. The zone-lighting mechanical keyboard was not as fun as the SteelSeries membrane keyboard which has individually lit keys, but it felt sturdy and had a good amount of travel. The major problem I had with it is how heavy and bulky it is. I thought portability wouldn't be important to me since I would be using it mostly as a desktop replacement at home, but weighing almost 10 pounds and over an inch thick, it was a little overwhelming. Even the charger is literally, a brick. It weighed almost as much as the Razer Blade 15. I didn't love the Synaptics trackpad and lack of Windows Precision driver support. Battery life was on the low-end, give or take 3-4 hours on battery saver mode, which doesn't really matter I guess, because there's no way you're going to be using this in any on-the-go capacity unless you are a bodybuilder. The display is a little dim, and not really exceptional. The huge bezels don't do it any favors. I wasn't 100% satisfied with my Alienware, but there were no other options that fit my budget so I was resigned to keeping it and dealing with the issues Lo and behold, the Razer Blade 15 went on sale and I was able to get a practically brand new open-box certified for ~$1,500. It was a little more money than I intended on spending, and the GPU would be a downgrade from a GTX 1070 to a GTX 1060 Max-Q, but I was really intrigued by the 144 Hz panel and I had always just wanted to own a Razer, despite hearing horror stories about QA and bad thermals. I bit the bullet and drove an hour to the nearest Best Buy that had an open box certified model in stock, exchanged my Alienware + extra cash to cover the difference. After spending a few hours with my new Razer, I am finally satisfied with my purchase. The good: The near bezel-less 144 Hz display is STUNNING. It really unlocks the user experience of Windows 10 and makes simple tasks such as web browsing more fluid and enjoyable. Games feel crisper and snappier. I'm literally just excited to turn this thing on and use it. Even if it's not for gaming. The build quality is solid. It's very low-key, especially compared to its competitors in the gaming laptop industry - which I like because I don't necessarily want to carry around an RGB spaceship for public use. It's sturdier than other slim gaming laptops like the GS63 which honestly felt like it would just deteriorate over time if I carried it around in a backpack. It's sleek and feels premium with a great Windows precision trackpad. IO ports are plentiful with a thunderbolt port as well. It honestly reminded me of the first time I got a Macbook Pro and how amazed I was at the build quality and cool-factor overall. The snake logo looks like a bad tattoo, but it's growing on me. I'll probably get a skin to cover it though. The GPU is powerful enough to run everything on High-Ultra with great frame rates. Fan noise is pretty reasonable compared to aforementioned MSI and Alienware, which sounded like jet engines preparing for takeoff when gaming. The 144 Hz panel really heightens the gaming experience as well and you don't even need a separate gaming monitor! 1060 Max-Q is not the most future-proof GPU in the grand scheme of things, especially with the new RTX cards that released, but that's what external GPUs are for! The 8th gen i7 + 16 GB RAM is great for multitasking and the 512 GB SSD is bigger than average for this price range. Most laptops offer a 128 - 256 GB to use as a boot drive with a 1 TB HDD to store data. Having just the SSD makes the machine much quieter and faster. Boots in a few seconds. The bad: Can confirm thermals are not great. Not so much the internal temperatures, which read fine, but being such a slim laptop, the keyboard and palm rest areas are noticeably warm. Not super hot, but enough to make your palms sweat. The center of the keyboard is warmer than the left and right sides. Not really a big deal, personally. The keyboard lighting looks great, but it kinda bugs me that the media icons and symbols for the number row do not light up with the F & number keys...maybe the only glaring design flaw in this otherwise gorgeous laptop. Razer Synapse sucks. Its the worst system management software I've used between MSI Dragon Center and Alienware Command Center. Confusing and unintuitive, which is odd considering how it goes against everything else about the Razer Blade experience. The Razer Blade is definitely the most expensive out of the three, but you get what you pay for. Even if it isn't in the form of raw specs and performance, aesthetics and user experience matter. If they didn't, the Acer Predator would be the only laptop on the market. TL;DR Tried an MSI and Alienware before buying this. This is the best one overall.

So this past weekend, I tried the Razer Blade 15. I wanted to give my thoughts on the thing, and why you shouldn't buy one. This is the first thing you're going to notice when you first it up, and get past the awful Windows 10 setup: the 144hz panel. The smoothness of the OS is absolutely amazing on this screen. It fixes nearly all of the standard Windows framerate inconsistencies. It's this type of software experience that makes people forget they're using a computer, as it's extremely fluid. SO GOOD. Also, I of course wiped the awful bloated data mining version of Windows 10 it comes with, and installed the LTSB edition. Worked fine on this machine, took all the drivers, and all was well there. NOW.. onto why this machine is awful. Razer seems to be infamous for bad quality control, and I can confirm that I had quality control issues with my unit on the very first day of ownership. Firstly, out of the box, the internal WiFi card is very slow. I was able to fix this for the most part by changing the settings, but this seems odd, especially since it still doesn't make it as fast as other wireless devices in my home. Secondly, one thing that I couldn't get past; the mouse cursor micro-stutters, and there's nothing you can do to completely get rid of it. You can reduce the issue by forcing the system to only use the dedicated Nvidia graphics chip instead of the Intel graphics, but not only does this take up more battery life, it doesn't even fully address the problem, since the mouse still micro-stutters. I've tried re-installing the OS several times, reloading the correct drivers, problem still exists. Upon researching, this was a problem with the previous model too, and there is STILL no fix. What is this, Apple? This is even worse than Apple's QC. Lastly, and worst of all, this model got ridiculously hot, like really bad. 90-100c when stress testing it. Yikes.. I get that it's a stress test, and may not reflect real world use, but I've never had a machine with good thermal performance ever get that hot during such tests. Not great for a machine where lots of work will be done on it. All in all, it's a pretty package, and the amazing screen is deceptive. It's really a second-rate machine crippled with issues (that have gone unaddressed since the previous model!), and from what I'm reading, Razer's support sucks balls, so I'm not even going to bother with it. It's a shame, because the form factor is great, and it was a great experience until the issues came up. I took it back, and I'm going to keep looking; I suggest you not spend $2K on this thing. For a machine that micro-stutters, and gets really hot, I'd pay maybe $300 for it.

I've been using this for a few weeks now. It isn't a bad laptop. Lightweight, great picture and good sound. The keyboard takes a bit to get used to, because of the placement of the keys in the bottom right corner. The arrow keys aren't in the standard positions so it messes with typing here and there. The trackpad is absolutely huge and is too easily hit when typing as well so it is nice, but takes a lot of getting used to. The trackpad does sometime mistake a scroll for a stretch from time to time as well. The keys light up beautifully and feel pretty good when typing so that is a plus. For normal loads, it is a perfectly balanced laptop with battery life and functionality. When gaming, this suck gets hot enough to cook an egg; no joke. It is hot enough that you literally don't want to touch it, because it can burn your fingers, especially towards the top of the keyboard where I imagine the cpu and gpu are located on the mobo. If using for gaming, or anything that fully loads it, I would recommend getting a laptop cooling pad and either a gaming controller or a usb mouse and keyboard to use, because you aren't going to want to touch the laptop at all when it is under load as the heat rises. Temps usually stay around 70-80 C when gaming or just using it to stream another device (xbox another PC etc). It cools off rather quickly once the load is removed though. For everything you get in it, I would say it was a decent purchase considering I can get in usually upwards of 60+ FPS while gaming. The SSD is small in my opinion and gets full fast so I would also recommend getting an external drive or finding somewhere to get the internal M2 swapped for something bigger, but keep in mind the temps get way up there so make sure the M2 can handle the heat. Overall, I'd say the only major problem this the heat when under load, becasue the other issues you can more or less get used to over time.

I bought this computer for video editing, and I love it. When I first got it, It was a bit thicker than I thought it would be but I have since learned that because I bought the base model which is thicker than the more expensive advanced model. I did wish they made this more clear but regardless the Razer Blade 15 is still very thin. I switched to this computer from a Mac Book Air, and I was blown away. I love this computer; It's really fast and portable. There are some minor inconveniences that the Razer Blade 15 has though. I would have liked to see a fingerprint reader or Windows hello in this nation as it is one of the more expensive options out there. I like the screen to turn on MMMUUUUCCCCHHHH quicker when you open the laptop, I normally have to wait five seconds which again isn't a huge problem, but this is a 1, 600 or more dollar laptop. Also, Don't expect to et the six hours of battery life they say. Even with power saving mode on it only lasts about three hours and this is just using chrome, no games open. Also, the fans come on quite frequently even when only chrome is running. However, other than all of that, I love this computer. It is redeclesly fast and powerful, the keyboard is clicked, and the touch pads is definitely one of the better ones out there. I definitely recommend this product.

I have been through an Alienware 13, 15, 17, a Dell XPS 15, an MSI and a Surface Book 2 looking for the right, best high quality laptop for gaming and heavy home use. The Razer is a great product... it really is, but it just cannot stand up to the Surface Book 2 as far as was of use, flexibility and build quality. The near OLED screen (bright and touch) just puts the Surface book up and over vs Razer... the others are not even in the same league as these two from a build quality perspective. Both performed well... but I love the fact that Surface Book 2 also has Xbox controller wireless built in and it worked best for me streaming Xbox one to the laptop. Other differentiators in favor of the SB2 over Blade were: 1) it is a stealth gamer... no flashy gamer colors on the outside 2) you can remove the screen in 3 seconds and flip it around so it is all screen and still on laptop base for gaming or watching a show... very cool feature, trust me. Only gain for Razer is that it is upgradeable easier (way easier)... but still... not much YOU CAN upgrade on laptops these days and you can buy external rig for heavier gaming but that is not important to me at all... have another rig for that.

I have been in the market for a "Stealth" gaming laptop for some time; something that doesn't stand out visually in a crowd as a gaming laptop but can still push out serious power. I had originally purchased a Surface Book 2, but I had many problems with the hardware, since it isn't a dedicated gaming computer. Since purchasing the Razer Blade 15 I have had zero regrets. Positives: It handles all of my games and software with ease. It has not crashed, slowed down, or showed signs of faulty hardware. It is a beautiful device, and receives compliments when used in public. Very portable and light, easily fits inside backpacks or bags. Negatives: The power brick has a slight wine to it, but after looking on forums it is said to slowly go away over time. The fans can also get pretty loud under heavy gaming sessions, but the speakers easily play over them and headphones remove the issue entirely. Bottom of the laptop also gets hot while gaming so make sure to use it on a desk. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a high quality, sleek, and powerful gaming laptop that you won't be embarrassed to use in public.