Razer Blade Stealth Laptop

Brand: Razer
Manufacturer: Razer USA Ltd
Model: RZ09-02812E52-R3U1
EAN: 0811254028661
Category: Gadgets & Tools
Price: n/a  (88 customer reviews)
Dimension: 0.58 x 8.27 x 11.90 inches
Shipping Wt: 3.09 pounds. FREE Shipping (Details)
Availability: In stock. Usually ships within 4 to 5 days.
Average Rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
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Product Description

The Razer blade Stealth 13” laptop is equipped with a more powerful 25W NVIDIA GeForce MX150 4GB Graphics for gaming and content creation. Featuring a visually stunning display, and Razer Chroma keyboard, It combines mobility and style with power that's perfect for work and play.

Features

  • Performance for Work and Gaming: NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (25W) 4GB VRAM graphics, Quad-core 8th Gen Intel Core i7 -8565U processor, and 16GB dual-channel memory
  • Designed for Mobility: Ultra thin, light and incredibly durable with a CNC unibody aluminum frame and long battery life
  • 4K Thin Bezel Touch Display: Visually stunning 4K touch Display with 100 percent sRGB color space for content creation, entertainment and productivity
  • Powered By Razer Chroma: Keyboard featuring single-zone RGB lighting with 16.8 million color options, and a precision glass touchpad
  • Complete Connectivity: Includes Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, USB-A, Wireless AC, Windows Hello infrared camera, and dual-array mics

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Top Reviews

Robust little machine
by Elizabeth (4 out of 5 stars)
January 6, 2019

I was hesitant to purchase this unit based on the lack of reviews (3) negative reviews (2) and the one positive one which seems like it was written by a PR department.

The good, the laptop is fast, small, and light. I have not yet put it through the paces with some science data crunching and 3D graphics but so far so good. Paired with a MSs2 anywhere mouse this thing is a very portable, has solid battery life. The case is very robust and does not flex like some of the bigger laptops I had previously owned (toshiba) and I really do not miss the heft of my old Dell workstations.

The only little knock on it is the keyboard keys are a little different from a typical layout due to the speakers but even after only an hour of two of banging away on the keys I am mostly adapted to it with few mistakes.

Reviewers knock the unit for having few ports (1 USC thunderbolt, one USBC, 2 USB 3.x) but I find this approrpiate considering I can add a docking station if I need more for only $40-80. The screen is bright and images look great so far.
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4.5 stars?
by Esskay (5 out of 5 stars)
January 7, 2019

Bought this '19 Blade for a lightweight general-use laptop. I was torn between the Blade, an LG Gram, and a Lenovo X1 Carbon. The '8565U and MX150 - plus my experience with other Razer products - pushed me to the Razer Blade. My initial impressions are positive. My "Graphics" version weighs in a 2lb 15oz on my postal scale, and it's a nice size. Build is solid and impressive. The Chroma backlighting is nice, but out of the box it is stuck in "rainbow" mode.

The lighting can be dimmed all the way to "off" through the keyboard, but any other changes need to be done through Synapse. If you don't have an account with Razer to use Synapse, save yourself some time and set it up ahead of time while waiting for the laptop to arrive. Synapse is already installed, so just login, update, and configure things the way you want (a 5 minute process at best, assuming you have an account set up).

So far my only complaint is the keyboard. Based on my experience with small Lenovo laptops I'm fairly sure the Lenovo would have been a big improvement over the Blade's keyboard. Spacing is ok, but it has a slightly mushy feel - not cheap or bad, just something different to get used to.

If I could nick a half-star off it would be for annoying size of the right shift key. It's a normal, small, square key that is placed immediately to the right of the "up arrow" (another normal, small, square key). My instinctive reach for that key has me hitting the "up arrow" constantly. My older 12" Lenovo solved that my dropping the arrows (in the same area as the Blade) a half row, staggering the keys a little, and including a full size shift.

Kind of a long rant about a simple shift key, but it's one thing I really didn't bother to study closely prior to buying. Had a been able to spend 10 minutes with the X1 Carbon, Blade, and Gram, I might have settled on something different. Then again I'm not displeased. All things considered I think the Blade has a little more value when considering the MX150, two Lightning 3 ports, full size USB-A ports, and dual cooling fans. The laptop's appearance and quality is what I'd expected. Fingers crossed it'll hold up as a winner.

Update: While giving the new Stealth a good workout I started noticing a buzzing coming from one of the speakers. A key trigger was watching Youtube - with it happening occasionally elsewhere. After a lot of experimentation to check for wifi interference, feedback from the AC charger, problems from the graphics card - etc - I finally resolved the problem by rolling the Realtek audio driver back to the stock generic MS High Def audio driver. Another solution was to install the Realtek audio drivers for the 2017/2018 Stealth 13. After more research I discovered this isn't a problem isolated to the Stealth or Razer products in general. Other brands using Realtek have at the problem for years. The problem shouldn't exist but I don't think I'm going to ding Razer for using their vendor's latest drivers.
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One month of heavy usage
by J. Rule (3 out of 5 stars)
March 25, 2019

Overall happy with the purchase. There are a few disappointments as well.

On the positive:
1. Sturdy build
2. Doesn't run too hot
3. Good value
4. Low power draw allows it to charge on airplane

Issues:
1. Left type-c port rarely works, support forums confirm
2. Synapse software so buggy, does not detect components
3. Matte finish just shows grease / fingerprints
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Very good! ...but not perfect
by Liam (5 out of 5 stars)
January 30, 2019

I did allot of reasearch and it came down to either this or the Matebook X Pro. I was basically looking for the most powerful 13-14 inch laptop that could be charged with USB C. Lets keep it simple...

Pros: Keyboard, trackpad, windows hello, build quality(!), overall sexyness, performance is solid

Cons: Fan is a bit loud, battery not as good as I had hoped, speakers no better than my xps15 work laptop

Reasons I chose it over the matebook: Web cam location, looks of the laptops, Razer 13 is about 15-20% more powerful, from the prices I had it was only about 15% more expensive too.
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Defective Unit
by Marvin (1 out of 5 stars)
December 23, 2018

**UPDATE**

Amazon replaced my unit with another unit and it has the same issue. Battery is discharging while plugged into AC power while gaming. Needless to say, I'm not happy with this and I am returning for a refund. Will not purchase any Razer products in the future.

So I purchased this system as Razer seems to be the only company out there with any brains that realizes people want ultrabooks with some graphics punch. Unfortunately, I will have to say this has been a bad experience for me. From the gate this thing has caused me nothing but headaches. After I setup the system the way I wanted, neither Steam nor Origin would work properly. After I updated Windows to 1809, I was able to get Steam and Origin to work. And on to the next problem. After installing and firing up some of my games, things seemed to be working just fine. However, after I stopped playing, I noticed that the battery was discharging while PLUGGED in to AC power. I've never seen that in my life and I've had over 20 systems. I contacted Razer support and they were of no help at all. They suggested updating drivers, which I did, and then updating the Nvidia drivers. I couldn't do that because GeForce Experience wouldn't open at all. And to top it off, their tech support asked for a call back number in case we got disconnected, which sure enough, we did. They didn't even bother to call back. After downloading the correct drivers from Nvidia and trying to install, I get the error message that this driver isn't compatible with this version of Windows and the hardware. WTF???!!! I tried a fresh clean install of windows and the same nonsense is occurring. Needless to say, this is a shame, considering the thermals on this laptop are amazing. Never went above 68C for the GPU or CPU. Now this probably a defective unit, as a friend of mine also has this laptop and does not have these problems, but at this point, I don't even want to bother with a replacement. I'm just gonna request a refund.
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What I have been wating for in a laptop.
by Mike (4 out of 5 stars)
December 31, 2018

So far great. Build quality is awesome, battery is good and no issues. This machine has all the features that I wanted in a thin and light laptop.

Update 5/3/2019

on 4/18/2019, I noticed a horizontal scratch on the screen. It looked as if the space bar has scratched the screen when the lid pressed against the keyboard when laptop was in my bag. I contacted the Razer and laptop was shipped out for replacement as this is clearly a design flaw. The rep told me 4 days max on replacement (business days) It took them total of nine business days to get me a replacement. Shipped to Razer 2nd day air. spend 4 days in warehouse (promised one day turn around time) and finally 4 days to get the laptop back (ground shipping and was promised 2nd day air) over all 9 days to get a replacement. Not bad considering horror stories about Razer customer service, however, I think the rep I talk to in the beginning compromised a little. Finally the customer service people, warehouse people and sales department do not talk to each other.

Laptop still a 5 star review, however, I am taking a star away for the design flaw and customer service.
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Buyer Beware Black screen of death after 2 days of use.
by Samantha Myers (1 out of 5 stars)
May 3, 2019

One of the worst laptops I've ever owned. Love Razer products and took a gamble on this, big mistake.

After 2 days of use I have a black screen and its unuseable.

Apparently you can send it in and they will fix it, but I'm just returning this junk.

When I spend $1300 I expect a functional laptop right away.
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So much nope
by Tim Gwynne (2 out of 5 stars)
May 15, 2019

The design of the Razer Blade Stealth 2019 is a flawless machine on paper, and exactly what I want out of a machine. The perfect size at 13.3", with a dedicated (albeit not super powerful) dedicated GPU at the mid-tier and high-tier models, a quad core low power consumption processor, a beautiful 4k touch screen that's calibrated perfectly, fantastic build quality on par with Apple... etc. There are not many (if any?) other machines on the market that fit all of these qualities. **FYI THIS IS NOT A GAMING LAPTOP. The marketing sure makes it seem like it is, but you're better off with a Razer Blade 15 for that*** With that said, you CAN do light gaming on it.

This is the perfect portable laptop for a designer/creator. I'm in to photography so after much research, I jumped for this near-perfect on paper machine hoping that I would avoid all of the hardware/quality issues that are common with it (see below for description of what they are). Unfortunately, I was unlucky and experienced almost all of them and ended up deciding to return it and not get a new one/work with Razer support.

I did my research prior to purchasing this machine and knew going in that it was a bit of a gamble. The Razer Blade Stealth is plagued with some quality issues that appear to affect the majority of users in some fashion. Some users report that hardly any have these issues, so you may get lucky (unlike me) and get a machine that doesn't have it. Here are the common issues/gripes with this machine:

a) coil whine from the SSD. For those of you not familiar with coil whine, it is a harmless but annoying whiney sound which comes from electronic parts. this occurs in more than just razer products, but most users complain that the stock ssd of the razer blade stealth produces this noise. I experienced this with mine. I was willing to live with it, or replace the ssd to get around it despite the issue. but I experienced the other following issues that made me decide against it.

b) the machine's battery actually depletes while plugged in to power, and doing heavy lifting tasks. For example, while doing photo editing, I watched my battery bar slowly deplete despite being plugged in to power. I also experienced it even more dramatically while gaming. I don't know if this is a hardware issue or if it is just because the included power adapter is only 65W. Some users have reported purchasing a higher rated usb-c charger and no longer having the issue. Again, this is another thing I was willing to try as with the above ssd issue, but I also experienced the other below issues that made me decide against this too.

c) loose USB-C ports. This is probably my biggest gripe with the machine. I use a few USB-C hubs and found that the USB-C ports on this machine were so loose that my hub (and therefore power, mouse and keyboard) were constantly becoming disconnected from the machine. this was a dealbreaker for me.

d) The right shift key, which I use heavily, is spaced poorly.

Other common issues with this machine which I DID NOT experience, but to look out for (not reflected in my star rating):

e) CPU clocks down to 400mhz randomly

f) machine does not work correctly with Razer Core eGPU products.

TL;DR: Here's the thing. This is an expensive machine. There are way more machines out there in this price range that don't have the quality issues this machine has... I think this machine is worth the cost if it didn't have all of these quality issues, but when you consider the cost and and weigh against the quality issues, it's a pretty bad deal. If razer can figure out their QA/QC issues I think they can produce beautiful machines that will easily rival Apple. I can't give this one star because I think Razer is on the right track, but I'd never recommend anyone buy this.

I ended up getting a Dell XPS 15. I know this is a very different machine (as it's 15 inches instead of 13), but ultimately it had everything else I wanted so I caved on that one piece - and it's much less expensive, more powerful and better battery life, at least on Amazon right now.
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The perfect 13in laptop
by Vertice (5 out of 5 stars)
December 12, 2018

I have had most of the available 13in laptops on the market (Macbook Pro 13 and 15, XPS 13, Spectre X360, X1 Carbon, past Razer Blade Stealth models, etc) and this one stands above all of them.

The value proposition compared to Apple products is incredibly strong, while also offering a matte display, substantially better performance, user upgradability, and similar build quality.

I can't say anything bad about this machine. Everything from the wifi performance and thermal solution to the sleek and minimalist design, Razer hit it out of the park!
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THROTTLE HELL + LOTS OF HIDDEN ISSUES!!!
by Y. Wang (2 out of 5 stars)
June 27, 2019

I REALLY wanted to like this laptop because it was marketed as one o the most powerful 13 inch laptops around. In certain respects, it is true, however in my many weeks testing this laptop I've discovered certain caveats that may cast some doubt on that statement.

Build:

First off I want to say this laptop is absolutely beautiful and well constructed. The many comparisons with Macbooks are well warranted because few Windws laptops have this level of quality worksmanship. Like Macbooks, It is an true unibody design, which means it was milled from a single block of aluminum rather than have several aluminum pieces pressed and made to fit separately. The resulting rigidity is truly superior. While many screens and lids flex and wobble, the lid is sturdy and thicker than most and is very strong. The sharp corners and cuts are precise and definitely have a premium feel to it. That said, the black matte finish is EXTREMELY fingerprint and hand oil prone. I find myself constantly cleaning it off with a microfiber cloth. Overall these are small annoyances that mar the looks of a beautiful laptop.

The screen:

I got the 4k model and it is a wonderful screen. The bezels are small and unobtrusive. The glass is reflective but common in the Macbook world of reflective glass surfaces. The 4k resolution is wonderful to create crisp texts and images although the resolution is somewhat waste on a 13.3 screen. The Touchscreen is helpful but not something I normally use because the trackpad is so responsive and I despise screen smudges.

Touchpad:

The touchpad is great. It's large - but not Macbook large. It is a good size for 13.3 notebooks. The key is that it is super responsive and the feel is slick and my fingers glides across the surface quickly and without hindrance. Microsoft precision drivers allows for god gestures and unique multi-finger swipes. The only problem is that the trackpad freezes often during first system boot or resumes. It's a small thing but very annoying as it freezes a few seconds and you're frantically moving your finger around trying to find a mouse cursor that wont move. I think the problem is down to Razer Synapse.

Razer Synapse:

Speaking of Razer Synapse, the software Razer uses to control the laptops's performance, lighting, and macros, it freezes and crashes ALL THE TIME. Pretty much 7/10 times when I open my laptop after resume the Synapse would not detect my laptop. This means that my volume buttons (I have a setting where I prefer not to hold function key to change volume) and brightness all get reset because all of these keys are software controlled, not hardware. It's amazing that given how long this laptop has been out on the market and how so many people complain about it, it hasn't been fixed yet.

Keyboard:

This was often criticized by many reviewers but I have no issues with it. The keyboard is shrunken compared to normal 13 notebooks because the speakers take up space on the sides of the laptop. Most other laptops of this size use downward firing speakers which help add volume but can have flimsy performance if not on a hard surface that can reflect sound. I find the smaller keyboard means less reaching for keys and your hands stay more centered. The keyboard also has an exceedingly small left shift button which can be a problem for right-hand-shift typists but thankfully I am not one of them. The keyboard has a REALLY satisfying muted sound which I love. The travel feels just right to me and I found typing on this keyboard is a pleasure. While using this keyboard I was actually looking forward to writing emails or writing in general. Maybe this is why this review is so long and wordy.... Obviously keyboards are a very personal preference and what works or is enjoyable to me may not be the same for you.

Sound:

As mentioned above, these are quad forward-facings speakers located on the two sides of the keyboard. Most laptops these days do bottom firing for added bass but can be highly situational depending on where you sit the laptop. They're not great speakers and sound is lacking bass and punch. However they're not tinny or terrible. Sound is not very loud though. I've had cheaper laptops with better sound like the HP Envy 13. Overall the sound is adequate with no lost points, but not excellent so no additional points either.

Windows Hello Camera and Camera:

In my many years with laptops and computers I have almost never use the camera for chats or videos so it doesn't really matter much to me. However I will mention the Windows Hello IR camera for logging into Windows. I've heard about Windows Hello Cameras and they sound like a wonderful convenient feature. However in practice the camera rarely works well or quickly. If the laptop lid was open from a prior session, logging in with the camera can be done quickly since you already set up with the right angle and sitting posture. However often I find that opening the lid and trying to log in with my face was frustrating because the laptop lid was not in the right angle to find my face. It would search for a long time and fail. Unlike iPhone cameras, the viewing angle of the IR camera does not seem to be wide enough. Often I'd find myself wishing for a good old fingerprint sensor. Like the iPhone, Razer decided to do away with a perfectly good technology with an unnecessarily complicated feature.

Ports:

Ports are good. There's one headphone jack, two USB 3's, one on each side which are very welcome these days. There is also two USB-C thunderbolt compatible ports that double as charging ports. These are great as USB-C charging is the future and you can use any USB-C charger and use them on either side of the laptop giving you freedom depending on your orientation and direction of the wall socket. The only issue is that both USB-C ports are rather wobbly. Many on the forums have complained about the same thing. Some have said theirs are solid. Mine are definitely not. Some have said that theirs were so wobbly if you moved the charging cable the laptop stops charging. Luckily for me, they just jiggle but don't disconnect. However the jiggle is very loose and very worrisome for the future.

Performance:

Let's talk about performance and my biggest gripe with this laptop. As many of you may well know, this has been advertised as the the most powerful 13 inch laptop made by Razer, a company for gamers by gamers. It does this with the 25 watt version of the MX150 whereas most laptops use the watered down 10w version of the MX150. What is not often known is that the Stealth also uses a 25 watt version of the Intel i7 8565u as well. Both higher TDP CPU and GPU allow for higher clocks, higher boosts, and much better performance. TDP stands for thermal design power, and to take care of the excess heat generated by these components, Razer has used three wide heatpipes with very thick metal mounting plates and also includes two large copper mounting plates for the RAM and VRMs. All in all, these are very capable cooling hardware for a 13 notebook.

Performance is generally very good and many review sites say the same thing. However what many review sites don't say is that most of the reviews are done with the laptop plugged in. When the laptop is unplugged the picture changes significantly. The CPU can boost to 40w during Turbo and downgrade to 25w during steady loads. However on battery, the CPU is limited to a mere 15w. 15 watts is the standard for most Intel U series CPUs. Normally the behavior of U CPUs are they would boost to 20 or 25w during Turbo and then drop to 15w under sustained load. The Stealth 2019 on battery power starts at 10w during the Turbo time and then boosts to 15w under sustained load. This could be a good thing on paper but I've observed the CPU do 10w, 8w, or even 7w during Cinebench R15 runs, never reaching the 15w potential, nevermind the 25w potential while plugged in. The performance is extremely inconsistent. While I am able to get high 780's scores in Cinebench R15 there are times where I get scores as low as 300+ on battery.

Then there's gaming. When gaming on battery, the GPU stays steady at around 1600-1700mhz. However the CPU runs at 400mhz with spikes of 1800mhz. After digging around on reddit, the laptop has a HARD TEMPERATURE CAP of 60C for the CPU while unplugged. With the GPU running the 60C threshold gets hit very quickly and the CPU throttles down to the bare minimum. Games of course are unplayable at 400mhz. Even using "creators mode" (high CPU power mode) in Razer Synapse had no effect on the CPU performance. Strangely this thermal protection threshold does not exist while plugged in, the CPU is freely able to go past 60C and beyond which means that temps past 60c is not damaging to the system. Most laptops with the same or similar U CPUs are able to do 90C before meeting the REAL hardware thermal maximum threshold. Razer is simply applying this thermal limit in order to keep the laptop cool while unplugged and limit the battery usage. While I can understand the need to limit heat and battery usage, I think the 60C limit is overly-aggressive and prohibitive of performance, especially in a "high performance" laptop. At the very least Razer should allow the user to decide to choose between heat and battery life or performance. The only way I was able to circumvent this limit was by disabling BD PROCHOT (Hardware thermal limit protection) in Throttlestop and some heavy undervolting. Of course I contacted Razer about this, after many days of going back and forth, the official Razer support told me that "This was how the laptop was designed."

Finally there's the issue of the laptop discharging during use. While doing heavy loads the laptop will slowly discharge to 95% while gaming or using CPU intensive demands. This means the 65W adapter is not strong enough to meet the power demands of the laptop. The system simply can't run on AC power alone and will need to supplement with battery, hence you see draining while plugged in. The problem could be simply solved if Razer provided a larger AC adapter, many on reddit and Razer's own forums have found that a 100w USB-C Adapter made by Wacom for their drawing tablet PCs work to keep the Razer stealth well saturated. without discharging. However this is another $100+ investment that Razer should have included in the laptop.

Overall, this laptop is a well built laptop that's thin, sleek, sturdy, and fairly powerful. Any other laptop getting these same praises should be very happy news for the manufacture. However I can't honestly recommend this laptop because the Achillie's heel is its price. At $1900 for the 4k model this is a tall order for a 13 inch laptop. While the reviews of this laptop are generally positive, everything is colored by the laptop's price to value ratio and the ratio is bad. If Razer is offering this laptop and its other models as premium devices competing with Apple, then it should also be judged like Apple products are judged. All too often Apple's premium offerings fall short not because they're bad products, but expectations fall short for the astronomical price. If you're shelling out an entire paycheck for a laptop when you can easily get something that is 80% of the functionality for 50% of the price, then you will ultimately be held to a higher measuring stick. Razer's stealth is a great laptop, but for the $1900 asking price, having a power brick that can't keep up with the power and power that plummets when on battery seems like almost huge mis-steps for such a premium product. If I pay a fortune for something, it had better work, and work well with minimum complaining.

As for me, I am not sure if I will be keeping this laptop. I have a week left before my return window expires and to be honest I am most likely returning it for a cheaper laptop like the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2019. It's not nearly as well built or premium, but I can configure the TDP and undervolt so it can do nearly or even better than the Razer Stealth at much cheaper price. Razer has unfortunately locked this laptop down at the hardware level where no amount of tinkering can change the TDP limits so you're essentially stuck with the limited battery performance Razer has decided to enforce. As a ultra-premium laptop that's supposed to be top of the line, it falls short. Power users like myself that need a fast CPU simply cant't get it with this laptop unless it's plugged in all the time, which defeats the purpose of a laptop. If I needed an ultra powerful machine that's plugged in all the time, it's called a desktop computer.

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