Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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.