New Razer Blade Stealth 2019 UK Owner

Lustral
Hi Just had delivered my Razer Blade Stealth 2019 with the FHD MX150. I ordered the laptop on Tuesday evening and it for delivered to my surprise today. It has replaced a retina MacBook and first impressions are good. Screens really bright and colourful. Keyboard has a nice feel to it and can type without adjusting too much. Performance seems good so far from the games that I have installed on it. Grim Dawn and Diablo 3 It came out of the box with the 1.02 bios version so I cant hear any coil whine or static coming through the speakers , but I will test this properly. Also I got a Samsung NVME instead of the usual Lite-On one which seems to have 3.2GB/sec Reads and 1.5Gb/sec writes according to CrystalDisk Mark … pretty decent , but I might upgrade to a bigger SSD as the 256Gb is a bit stingy.

I'm wondering if you have many of the reported issues that others have: 1. Battery discharges while plugged in and gaming (may only be for 4k models) 2. Exceptionally low gaming performance while unplugged 3. CPU goes from 25w to 15w and/or drops to 400mhz while unplugged and under load (usually gaming)

Hi 1. I have done some light gaming on the unit , and the battery does discharge while gaming , but I have yet to see it discharge beyond the 94-95% mark. Performance from I have seen doesn't dip over time. But need further testing. 2. Not tested gaming unplugged as yet , so I cant comment. (might test tonight when I get the time) 3. Again I haven't checked the watt levels when unplugged , but I have noticed when plugged in the CPU watt does vamp up to 50W at times , but mostly it is constantly around the 25W mark when doing a Cinebench R20. What is your score on Cinebench R20 Multi CPU anyways , mines 1574 which seems to be very high for the CPU , but the overboosting of the CPU might be contributing factor in this. Static and disk access noise can be heard only when my ear is right next to the speaker grill , not loud as some people make out to be. Will need to upgrade that SSD and I have picked up a cheap 500GB Western Digital Black NVME , but im still awaiting for the NVME enclosure so that I can mirror. (Hurry up Aliexpress) Overall , im happy with the laptop so far. Done a few fan curve tweaks on it to keep it quiet when idle.

So did some gaming without being on the charger and there is a noticeable performance drop on Diablo 3 and Grim Dawn game that I play. Not great , but im guessing this machine isn't designed to be a gaming machine on the go. Im not sure if it dips to 400Mhz or it will be slow as anything , I did a quick check on HWInfo and it was running at about 2.3Ghz using 11-15Watts on the CPU

As far as I know, just about any laptop will experience a performance drop when it's unplugged. Not only because of firmware that the manufacturer includes to save battery life, but because components can require more power than a battery provides on its own without a power supply.

figrin1
As far as I know, just about any laptop will experience a performance drop when it's unplugged. Not only because of firmware that the manufacturer includes to save battery life, but because components can require more power than a battery provides on its own without a power supply.

Yeah , its not too bad for what I need the laptop for . BTW thanks for your Bible on the Stealth 2019 , I have upgraded the SSD to a 512GB now … I got the BSODs after cloning , but all sorted out now. Used the same PM981 Samsung model but with 512GB.

Lustral
Yeah , its not too bad for what I need the laptop for . BTW thanks for your Bible on the Stealth 2019 , I have upgraded the SSD to a 512GB now … I got the BSODs after cloning , but all sorted out now. Used the same PM981 Samsung model but with 512GB.

I'm so happy to hear that the guide helped you out and that your SSD upgrade went smoothly! Cheers.

Lustral
Hi 1. I have done some light gaming on the unit , and the battery does discharge while gaming , but I have yet to see it discharge beyond the 94-95% mark. Performance from I have seen doesn't dip over time. But need further testing. 2. Not tested gaming unplugged as yet , so I cant comment. (might test tonight when I get the time) 3. Again I haven't checked the watt levels when unplugged , but I have noticed when plugged in the CPU watt does vamp up to 50W at times , but mostly it is constantly around the 25W mark when doing a Cinebench R20. What is your score on Cinebench R20 Multi CPU anyways , mines 1574 which seems to be very high for the CPU , but the overboosting of the CPU might be contributing factor in this. Static and disk access noise can be heard only when my ear is right next to the speaker grill , not loud as some people make out to be. Will need to upgrade that SSD and I have picked up a cheap 500GB Western Digital Black NVME , but im still awaiting for the NVME enclosure so that I can mirror. (Hurry up Aliexpress) Overall , im happy with the laptop so far. Done a few fan curve tweaks on it to keep it quiet when idle.

I just did a Cinebench R20 run, creators mode, plugged in and got 1666. On battery I got 1243. Mind you this is with a -115mv undervolt.

techBlueLagooninfo949
I just did a Cinebench R20 run, creators mode, plugged in and got 1666. On battery I got 1243. Mind you this is with a -115mv undervolt.

Using Throttlestop (thanks again to the Bible) with a -80mv I got 1686.

figrin1
I'm so happy to hear that the guide helped you out and that your SSD upgrade went smoothly! Cheers.

I have owned a great many number of laptops, Dell XPS 15 (9550, 9560, 9570), XPS 13 (9343, 9360), HP Envy 13T, MSI GS60, Xiaomi Air 13, Xiaomi Notebook Pro, and now the Stealth. I can say that every one of my notebooks have performed the same unplugged and plugged in. The only exception is when you unplug they default to lower CPU performance battery settings in windows power modes. However this is user configurable so you can boost to full power on battery if you need it and change to lower performance when you don't need it. The Stealth is the first laptop I've ever owned that uses a hard coded limit on the EC for battery power that cannot be changed. The windows power settings does nothing as far as I can tell. I would imagine a hardcore gaming laptop might have these limitations as well. However while a MAXQ 2070/2080 and a HQ processor might need these settings, the Stealth is still an intel U processor and a MX150. There are plenty of laptops out there that have similar specs and are not hardware limited.

Some quick Google searches... XPS 15 experiencing low performance on battery, customer service says...

It is normal for the power to throttle when the system is running only on battery and the GPU is under intensive use as it has to use teh backup power only.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/a2nvt6/dell_xps_15_9570_low_performance_on_battery/ The GS60...

They are not intended to be used away from AC power when you want good gaming performance. And this is why you will notice your battery running down while gaming even when your AC/DC power adapter is connected. As you've noticed, if you run on battery only, the CPU and GPU will run at a slower speed and you'll need to reduce the quality settings and/or resolution of your game in order to keep a good FPS. This is normal.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=266056.0 And laptops in general... (Hmm. Notice the part about 400Mhz... sounds familiar. :wink_:)

A typical battery in a gaming laptop can store about 60-80 Wh of energy. Most Li-ion batteries are not designed to be discharged faster than twice their Wh rating per hour (2C). In addition, sustained discharge at rates exceeding 1C can significantly reduce the overall service life of the battery... To avoid overloading the battery, the GPU will typically throttle to a lower clock speed. The GTX 780M on my personal laptop will not run faster than about 400 Mhz when on battery. Lower clock speeds reduce power consumption not only by having transistors switch less rapidly, but also by allowing lower core voltages—power consumption and heat dissipation scale with the square of voltage."

https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/laptop-performance-decreases-when-on-battery.106875/ While it's true that the Stealth has lower power requirements than the XPS15 or the GS60, and it's frustrating when things aren't left up to the user, this is definitely a normal thing. That isn't to say there aren't other issues in general with how the Stealth is power limited, both on and off AC. It definitely has issues. But reduced performance on battery is to be expected.

Lustral
Hi Just had delivered my Razer Blade Stealth 2019 with the FHD MX150. I ordered the laptop on Tuesday evening and it for delivered to my surprise today. It has replaced a retina MacBook and first impressions are good. Screens really bright and colourful. Keyboard has a nice feel to it and can type without adjusting too much. Performance seems Nox Vidmate VLC good so far from the games that I have installed on it. Grim Dawn and Diablo 3 It came out of the box with the 1.02 bios version so I cant hear any coil whine or static coming through the speakers , but I will test this properly. Also I got a Samsung NVME instead of the usual Lite-On one which seems to have 3.2GB/sec Reads and 1.5Gb/sec writes according to CrystalDisk Mark … pretty decent , but I might upgrade to a bigger SSD as the 256Gb is a bit stingy.

The Stealth is the first laptop I've ever owned that uses a hard coded limit on the EC for battery power that cannot be changed. The windows power settings does nothing as far as I can tell. I would imagine a hardcore gaming laptop might have these limitations as well.

nexusBlueBellurban745
The Stealth is the first laptop I've ever owned that uses a hard coded limit on the EC for battery power that cannot be changed. The windows power settings does nothing as far as I can tell. I would imagine a hardcore gaming laptop might have these limitations as well.

Yes, this is the part that I find strange and unfortunate. While it's up to Razer to determine the power settings for their average users, to reduce the power usage on the battery, etc. it's frustrating that they're completely locking enthusiasts out of making tweaks. It makes the Stealth a much less exciting laptop.

Any recommendations for a nice USB - C to HDMI adaptor that fits the aesthetics of the Stealth ? Want to connect my laptop up my screen. Cheers

I have one similar to this. Matte black to match the stealth, small, simple, works seamlessly. Only $16 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QDQHJSF/ref=dp_cerb_1

figrin1
I have one similar to this. Matte black to match the stealth, small, simple, works seamlessly. Only $16 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QDQHJSF/ref=dp_cerb_1

Thanks for the suggestion , however I cant see an equivalent one available for the UK.

One advice - do *not* buy the Anker 7-in-1 adapter for this laptop, there's something about the cable that makes it disconnect when you move it even slightly. I've asked Anker and they replaced it without any fuss, but the replacement does the same thing. I would blame the ports on the laptop but I don't have this issue with any other USB-C cables, nothing disconnects no matter how much I move the cable.