Item — HN Reader

> He explained that all computer vendors do this to one extent to another, such as Apple with iPhones, and refused to provide me any means to unlock it no matter how technical I am.

I bought a Razer Blade 15 two weeks ago during Amazon sales - once arrived I opened it and upgraded the SSD from 256GBytes to 1TBytes without any issue, and it works really good on Arch...

So, Acer, not all computer vendors are doing this shit.

3 comments

Just throwing in a surprising second vote of support for Razer's laptop line. I've never owned a laptop that didn't have a ton of quirks, and my Razer Blade Stealth isn't an exception - but even given that, it's one of the best laptops I've ever owned. It looks beautiful, it's light, battery lasts a really long time, it handles any game I throw at it at 1080p with reasonable framerates, so I can game while traveling.

The biggest issue I've had with it was actually with the charger - the USB C port on the charger snapped off after just a few months of reasonable use. Razer replaced it for free, but that's when I learned that any charger less than 100watts results in the battery draining under load when plugged in. The build quality of the laptop itself, though, is excellent.

I've done BIOS updates, etc., and have had no issues.

Razer's computers are expertly designed to die right when the warranty expires.

The machines look and run great, but they don't last. Mine's a paperweight unless I find a replacement motherboard, or send it in to Razer to get it fixed for ~$300.

Fuck that though. A Thinkpad is a better investment.

You don't want to spend $300 to repair a $2000 laptop?

I'm still irritated that I have to spend more than $300 to buy a new laptop. It's a constant struggle to balance old man syndrome with reasonable sticker outrage.

Nope. Why spend money on something that's most likely going to fail again? Those $300 will be better spent on a new laptop from a more reliable company.

Also, I didn't lose $2000, I bought a $2000 life lesson: never buy Razer products.

In fairness, a laptop only has a useful lifespan of 3-5 years anyway. The more questionable thing is spending $2k on a laptop in the first place.

The Blade Stealth ran me $1300, which I thought was reasonable for what I was getting. I don't expect it to last more than a few years, though.

> In fairness, a laptop only has a useful lifespan of 3-5 years anyway

My immortal army of Thinkpads disagrees with you.

The keyword is useful - and for my workload, which in fairness probably isn't yours. I'm intending to play recently released games on my laptop.

You can buy a ThinkPad with a 3080 in it. I think your games would run fine.

I have a 10-year old macbook pro that's still running just fine.

$300 is a goot price for motherboard repair. Razers have few signature failure modes, some have troubling caps, others use weak mosfets. You need to be able to diagnose, what parts to buy and where, know how to microsolder, and own >$300 in equipment.

Check back in three years and we'll see if I have the same experience. Here's hoping not!

Yes. They are impressive. But. They don't seem to last. As someone else mentioned, not long after warranty the motherboard quit working. Looking online there seems to be hundreds with that problem. I suspect from overheating. I think they all have heating issues- perhaps to keep them quieter? I don't recommend then anymore. Search razer won't boot.

I think they have heating problems because they are pushing the limits of what can be done in their form factor: They get extremely hot under load because they're small and the fans are on the bottom, so there's a good chance they're blocked and will overheat. I have experienced this myself.

It will be interesting to see what happens in a few years of use. I wouldn't be shocked if it died - but if it did, I still might get another one. I already replace my laptop every ~3 years anyway, and the benefits it provides in terms of form factor and capability are substantial.

I have a Dell 5401 for work, same story with USB-C charging. Its power brick is 90W but the USB-C block I have can only do 60W max per port. Windows will whine about a "slow USB charger connected" but other than that it works fine for the typical MS Office stuff. It will drain if I really push it though.

I had some issues with the Razer model 4 years ago. The rubber pads on the bottom came unglued from the heat, and I had 2 chargers where the cord frayed from the heat and started sparking. Decided to just stick with a mac for casual use and a desktop for when I want a gpu.

> It looks beautiful

As long as the marketing focuses on the flashy lights I can't bring myself to ever buy Razer anything.

That's the great thing about it. It's a big black piece of CNC'd aluminum. The only lights are on the keyboard and they can be turned off. I don't find it to be flashy at all, apart from the logo being a little overwrought. It's subtle; unless you knew what you were looking for or knew the logo, it looks much like any other highish-budget laptop.

(The Razer Synapse program you use to control the keyboard RGB is annoying, it'd be a good weekend project to replicate its functionality in a free app, but it works for that purpose.)

> The Razer Synapse program you use to control the keyboard RGB is annoying, it'd be a good weekend project to replicate its functionality in a free app

It's already been done: https://openrgb.org/

Much love for openRGB! Made my old ROG laptop so much fun! Having specific keys light up specific colors.

Yet another case where the vendor specific software was complete garbage, but FOSS to the rescue.

I also remember being able to make my PS4 controller LED change brightness and colors/shades/blinking, etc on release, and I don't think you can do that on a PS4 to this day.

Awesome. Thank you!

Wow, 100W seems very underpowered as a charger for a gaming laptop. USB-C really isn't a good choice in this case.

FYI, USB-C 2.1 can charge at 240W.

I really prefer the simplicity of not having to drag around a laptop brick, and love the simplicity of having one cable to carry all the signals I need (USB, DisplayPort, Power, etc.)

2.1 appears to have been released less than 2 months ago. So it might eventually mean USB-C is viable to keep up with higher performance laptops, it can't do it yet.

Even then it's not enough for some top-end laptops. Alienware laptops with a 3080 use 330W

To add to my comment, top end laptops w/ an RTX 3080 use up to 330W. Also USB-C 2.1 w/ 240W isn't actually in any laptop I can find: it's less than 2 months old.

Yeah, this is pre-2.1 (as another commenter mentioned). It makes sense when you think about the hardware though - because it uses a laptop i7 and a Max-Q video card, even when gaming about 100W works OK. See https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/laptops/andrew-munr...

Looks like 2.1 is too new to actually be in any production hardware-- less than 2 months old.

Gaming might be fine in some laptops, but clearly not in the one for this article. Top-end laptops like an Alienware w/ 3080 use a 330W adapter. 100W USB-C is never going to keep that thing from running down the battery.

Can a notebook chassis actually dissipate more than 100W without burning your hands?

I bought MSI GP66 Leopard with RTX3070 (90W TDP with spikes up to 170W) for my nephew this year. It has 230W PSU, but it usable and not too hot even under heavy load as long as it standing on table.

It has two fans that in turbo mode can keep GPU it under 70C even at 100% load. But yeah it's bulky almost 3KG workstation.

Oh and at max fan speed it as loud as modern vacuum cleaner, but people play in headphones most of the time. So yeah you can have laptop with high TDP, but it's gonna be bulky and loud.

When it's at full heat, I can't touch the laptop directly... but that only happens if the fans are blocked.

Worth mentioning that RAM can be upgraded on the Razer Blade 15. I also have one and have upgraded SSD and RAM.

Sadly the new AMD version (Blade 14) has the RAM soldered on. I'm not sure why. I hope Razer isn't backsliding here.

my T490s has soldered RAM as well. It's beginning to look like vendors are doing this to force higher tier purchases or to reduce longevity of the devices.

Give them time - Apple (and other smartphone makers) have shown how profitable it is to lock down a system and make it unrepairable. Once even more custom ARM processors appear on laptops and desktops, we can forget about the kind of "open" hardware and software we have been used to so far.