Great review. I like the very down to earth style and lack of flashing graphics and multiple camera angles. I got a full spec Dell XPS 15 last spring. Great unit but has some odd issues like not allowing the screen to turn back on if you close it unplug the power and re-open it at another location. It is a phantom issue too of course so Dell support just keeps blaming Windows. Still it is enough of an issue for a nearly $3000 pc that I am looking elsewhere. This was my first Dell and most likely my last. The one thing I will say that I love about the XPS is the screen. Hence when I saw the Razer Pro packing an IGZO Sharp display with even greater size I was pretty interested. I was really planning to own this XPS for a few years, but am on the fence post about just selling it off and going to grab one of these RBP's while I am in the states here in April (American expat living in S. Korea) the price is a bit high, but considering the components that it has, I can not say I am very surprised. Of course building a tower is way cheaper, but I really do not see that a valid option considering it is a tower. That all said, how is the unit holding up? Any issues with thermal? Bluescreens, raid0 issues, etc? How is the display, any light bleeding problems? Also have you found an power packs for this? I noticed Razer does not sell them on their site as of recent. I would prefer to have one at the office and one at home, or is the power pack not that bad to lug around? Appreciate the input.
The XPS 15 9560 was at the top of my list of potential laptops to purchase along with the Razers. It has a GTX 1050 in it, so some light gaming at 1080p would be doable. What did it in for me was that the Thunderbolt 3 port being gimped to Thunderbolt 2 speed. This means adding an external GPU isn’t as effective as it could be as the Thunderbolt 2 bandwidth would be the bottleneck. Still it is one beautiful laptop and I absolutely loved the screen and overall size of the laptop given its 15.6 inch size. linustechtips.com/main/topic/724786-new-xps-15-9560-no-full-speed-thunderbolt-3/
Yeah when I got the 9550 I was still playing games on a PS4. My brother kind of pulled me into PC gaming and I figured the 960m would be enough to hold me over. To that respect it can play Tomb Raider or GTA with pretty high settings at 720p/1080p respectively if you consider 30fps decent. Then playing the same game on a desktop rig at a PC Bang (it's like a PC gaming cafe) and then going back to playing on the XPS made me regret the purchase haha. Granted I really don't play games all that much, but every once in a while I get a Saturday with no plans, I can easily burn the entire day up playing. That TB3 port issue you mentioned is a let down for sure. The thing is for making videos and photoshop the 9550 vs even your RBP is not to far behind, I think renders took about 50-80 seconds longer. Considering the price difference I am still relatively good with that, it is just the gaming side of things where yours would blow this XPS out of the water 10 times over. Do you run a desktop setup at home as well? That is the option my brother is pushing me towards, but home space in Korea is at a premium so having the home office with a full desk (while very nice) is ultimately a much more expensive option long term. The reason I ask is although it is marketed as a "desktop replacement" I am yet to meet anyone who has actually gone and tossed their tower in the recycle bin after purchasing the RBP. Cheers!
I've only had it for a few weeks now, so it still has that new laptop smell and I can't really give you feedback on how it is holding up. I will say I've had it on 24x7 and have had zero issues with it so far. I really don't see much screen bleed at all. Even in a dark room it isn't noticeable. What is noticeable is the heat this thing puts out when you are stressing the GPU. Like I said in my review it can get pretty loud and at times can be distracting unless you are using headphones. The overall design of the laptop does a great job at venting the heat in front and behind the laptop's screen. My only complaint here is that the screen surface can get a bit warm and I wish they had vented all the hot air from the backside of the laptop. I haven't looked for a secondary power pack and really just assumed that Razer would have them available if needed. For a 250 watt power supply it isn't that big (7.64" x 3.39" x .67"), but if you are going to be taking it back and forth between two locations I could definitely see keeping one at each location.
My desktop had a total meltdown a couple of weeks ago. Windows wouldn't boot from the SSD and trying to repair it didn't work. After wiping the whole thing, I took the opportunity to convert it into a host for a 15 TB 2-way mirror Storage Spaces set up. I guess it will still be near my desk, but I won't use it as my daily driver anymore.
Thank you for the feedback. This is a learning experience for me and I believe the aspect issue was resolved in my second video. Given your picture I'm not sure you fully remember 1995, but my video would have really rocked 22 years ago. UA-cam didn't even exist until 2005 and videos at that time were only streamed at 320×240. Those were the days...
That's pretty subjective, but I think the keyboard is quiet enough to not bother other people. Compared to desktop mechanical keyboards I've used the Razer Blade Pro is the quietest I've seen.
So is it necessary for me to buy the pro instead of the 2017 blade if I don't play that many games, I mean, is regular blade enough for normal game players? And by the way, how long roughly is the battery life, say in daily light-weighted usage
The 2017 Blade is a perfect machine for playing games on the go and with the addition of the Core you can get equivalent Pro gaming at home. I decided to go with the Pro because I needed more screen real estate (14" vs 17.3") for work (multiple windows open at the same time). Battery life is not great with the Pro. Even with just light daily usage you will only get around 4 hours of use and that is with the screen brightness turned down.
read that there are so many issues with this laptop Performance drop due to G-SYNC issues crashes in games after 1 plus hour use... crazy fan noise whine. not turning off. and massive GPU throttle due to overheating. is this true?
Most of my gaming has been done with the laptop driving an external non G-SYNC monitor and I haven't had any issues in that mode (40+ hours of The Division running on an LG 34UM95 3440x1440). I have played Resident Evil 7 using the laptop's screen for several hours at at time and have not had any issues with throttling or crashes. I can verify that the fan noise is "crazy" loud during gaming and can be very distracting unless you are wearing headphones.
Hi thank you very much! did it crash to bios? or a complete turn off computer? or did it just crash to windows if it did just crash to windows then thats kinda normal on a new game! all the best! and please keep us posted can you do a review of the fan noises when you are gaming :P thank you
It completely turned off the computer. It has now occurred twice playing the same game. I've played Division for hours at a time without a problem, so I'm going to try a third game and see if I can get it to happen again. I'll try and post something that highlights than fan noise during gaming. There is a snippet of the fan noise in this video and it can be very distracting if you're not wearing headphones.
Thats a such a shame its a stunning laptop! but yeah lots of returns and i dont think razer is making them anymore as iv tried to buy one for the past few months from the site.. i even contacted them and they said no plans to make anymore! so wow
I'm a software engineer so I'll be using it to work, which includes some local use of Visual Studio and other tools. Most of the time it will be my daily driver at home, but family health issues have brought up the need to travel and stay remotely for extended periods (longer than a weekend). I think this laptop will shine during these times of being away from home. I should be able to do everything I need to do for work and at the same time have a pretty bad-ass gaming rig.
Great review. I like the very down to earth style and lack of flashing graphics and multiple camera angles. I got a full spec Dell XPS 15 last spring. Great unit but has some odd issues like not allowing the screen to turn back on if you close it unplug the power and re-open it at another location. It is a phantom issue too of course so Dell support just keeps blaming Windows. Still it is enough of an issue for a nearly $3000 pc that I am looking elsewhere. This was my first Dell and most likely my last. The one thing I will say that I love about the XPS is the screen. Hence when I saw the Razer Pro packing an IGZO Sharp display with even greater size I was pretty interested. I was really planning to own this XPS for a few years, but am on the fence post about just selling it off and going to grab one of these RBP's while I am in the states here in April (American expat living in S. Korea) the price is a bit high, but considering the components that it has, I can not say I am very surprised. Of course building a tower is way cheaper, but I really do not see that a valid option considering it is a tower. That all said, how is the unit holding up? Any issues with thermal? Bluescreens, raid0 issues, etc? How is the display, any light bleeding problems? Also have you found an power packs for this? I noticed Razer does not sell them on their site as of recent. I would prefer to have one at the office and one at home, or is the power pack not that bad to lug around? Appreciate the input.
The XPS 15 9560 was at the top of my list of potential laptops to purchase along with the Razers. It has a GTX 1050 in it, so some light gaming at 1080p would be doable. What did it in for me was that the Thunderbolt 3 port being gimped to Thunderbolt 2 speed. This means adding an external GPU isn’t as effective as it could be as the Thunderbolt 2 bandwidth would be the bottleneck. Still it is one beautiful laptop and I absolutely loved the screen and overall size of the laptop given its 15.6 inch size.
linustechtips.com/main/topic/724786-new-xps-15-9560-no-full-speed-thunderbolt-3/
Yeah when I got the 9550 I was still playing games on a PS4. My brother kind of pulled me into PC gaming and I figured the 960m would be enough to hold me over. To that respect it can play Tomb Raider or GTA with pretty high settings at 720p/1080p respectively if you consider 30fps decent. Then playing the same game on a desktop rig at a PC Bang (it's like a PC gaming cafe) and then going back to playing on the XPS made me regret the purchase haha. Granted I really don't play games all that much, but every once in a while I get a Saturday with no plans, I can easily burn the entire day up playing. That TB3 port issue you mentioned is a let down for sure. The thing is for making videos and photoshop the 9550 vs even your RBP is not to far behind, I think renders took about 50-80 seconds longer. Considering the price difference I am still relatively good with that, it is just the gaming side of things where yours would blow this XPS out of the water 10 times over. Do you run a desktop setup at home as well? That is the option my brother is pushing me towards, but home space in Korea is at a premium so having the home office with a full desk (while very nice) is ultimately a much more expensive option long term. The reason I ask is although it is marketed as a "desktop replacement" I am yet to meet anyone who has actually gone and tossed their tower in the recycle bin after purchasing the RBP. Cheers!
I've only had it for a few weeks now, so it still has that new laptop smell and I can't really give you feedback on how it is holding up. I will say I've had it on 24x7 and have had zero issues with it so far.
I really don't see much screen bleed at all. Even in a dark room it isn't noticeable. What is noticeable is the heat this thing puts out when you are stressing the GPU. Like I said in my review it can get pretty loud and at times can be distracting unless you are using headphones. The overall design of the laptop does a great job at venting the heat in front and behind the laptop's screen. My only complaint here is that the screen surface can get a bit warm and I wish they had vented all the hot air from the backside of the laptop.
I haven't looked for a secondary power pack and really just assumed that Razer would have them available if needed. For a 250 watt power supply it isn't that big (7.64" x 3.39" x .67"), but if you are going to be taking it back and forth between two locations I could definitely see keeping one at each location.
My desktop had a total meltdown a couple of weeks ago. Windows wouldn't boot from the SSD and trying to repair it didn't work. After wiping the whole thing, I took the opportunity to convert it into a host for a 15 TB 2-way mirror Storage Spaces set up. I guess it will still be near my desk, but I won't use it as my daily driver anymore.
also next review please change aspect ratio to something past 1995
Thank you for the feedback. This is a learning experience for me and I believe the aspect issue was resolved in my second video. Given your picture I'm not sure you fully remember 1995, but my video would have really rocked 22 years ago. UA-cam didn't even exist until 2005 and videos at that time were only streamed at 320×240. Those were the days...
hahah true! very true :P but you cant fault my aspect ratio ;) remember the first widescreen t.vs with the massive backs. uff
How loud is a keyboard? Loud enough to be annoying to people around you in the library?
That's pretty subjective, but I think the keyboard is quiet enough to not bother other people. Compared to desktop mechanical keyboards I've used the Razer Blade Pro is the quietest I've seen.
So is it necessary for me to buy the pro instead of the 2017 blade if I don't play that many games, I mean, is regular blade enough for normal game players?
And by the way, how long roughly is the battery life, say in daily light-weighted usage
The 2017 Blade is a perfect machine for playing games on the go and with the addition of the Core you can get equivalent Pro gaming at home. I decided to go with the Pro because I needed more screen real estate (14" vs 17.3") for work (multiple windows open at the same time). Battery life is not great with the Pro. Even with just light daily usage you will only get around 4 hours of use and that is with the screen brightness turned down.
read that there are so many issues with this laptop Performance drop due to G-SYNC issues crashes in games after 1 plus hour use... crazy fan noise whine. not turning off. and massive GPU throttle due to overheating. is this true?
Most of my gaming has been done with the laptop driving an external non G-SYNC monitor and I haven't had any issues in that mode (40+ hours of The Division running on an LG 34UM95 3440x1440). I have played Resident Evil 7 using the laptop's screen for several hours at at time and have not had any issues with throttling or crashes. I can verify that the fan noise is "crazy" loud during gaming and can be very distracting unless you are wearing headphones.
I had my first crash today while playing Mass Effect Andromeda. I'll keep everyone updated if it continues to happen.
Hi thank you very much! did it crash to bios? or a complete turn off computer? or did it just crash to windows if it did just crash to windows then thats kinda normal on a new game! all the best! and please keep us posted can you do a review of the fan noises when you are gaming :P thank you
It completely turned off the computer. It has now occurred twice playing the same game. I've played Division for hours at a time without a problem, so I'm going to try a third game and see if I can get it to happen again. I'll try and post something that highlights than fan noise during gaming. There is a snippet of the fan noise in this video and it can be very distracting if you're not wearing headphones.
Thats a such a shame its a stunning laptop! but yeah lots of returns and i dont think razer is making them anymore as iv tried to buy one for the past few months from the site.. i even contacted them and they said no plans to make anymore! so wow
What will you be using this machine for?
I'm a software engineer so I'll be using it to work, which includes some local use of Visual Studio and other tools. Most of the time it will be my daily driver at home, but family health issues have brought up the need to travel and stay remotely for extended periods (longer than a weekend). I think this laptop will shine during these times of being away from home. I should be able to do everything I need to do for work and at the same time have a pretty bad-ass gaming rig.