Blade RZ09-01302E21-R3U1 14-Inch Touchscreen Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i7 4720HQ, 2.60GHz, 256GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M Graphics Card, Windows 10)

This laptop looks great feels great and can power a punch. But that is where the good things end. The laptop heats up very bad, for as loud as it is I would like it would be a lot cooler. I did a test and while gaming it can get up to 140F (Attached is an image showing it). I'm not sure if this is also the technology of the panel but I see major ghosting, this is showing on my mouse cursor and while I'm gaming. Everything has GHOSTING! Its almost unbearable to play any FPS! So I got this one from the Microsoft Store and the first one has multiple dead pixels and now I'm left with a great laptop that display's great images but nothing more... The big niche from razer is they have one of the thinnest gaming laptops but they have a long way to go in terms of quality. I contacted Rzer customer support about the ghosting issue, so lets see how their customer support is and I will update this thread. From the lat time I remembered their customer service was an embarrassment... Lets hope they do better this time.

This is a hard laptop to review. The spec sheet pretty much speaks for itself, Will run just about anything you throw at it at 1080 or higher [I like that I can run Diablo 3 @ max settings @ max res. The screen needs a little calibration out of the box but overall looks crispy and beautiful. The touch works well, and while I hate fingerprints, I also can't seem to stop using it. Wireless AC works great out of the box without tuning, SSD is nice and fast. Speakers are Better than okay with the Dolby software processing sound, but with audio [spotify, iTunes music] there's just enough audible distortion to be annoying. This also carries through to headphones: My B&W P7s just don't sound right unless I deactivate the dolby home theater software, and without it you lose a good bit of volume...but the trade off is a bit more accurate reproduction.So let's talk about the elephant in the room: HEAT. With great power comes inferno levels of waste heat. The fans ultimately seem capable of dissipating enough of that heat to keep the CPU cool enough to run for extended periods without throttling, but Razer has so aggressively turned DOWN the fan profile that the fans don't really spin up until the CPU is close to thermal shutdown [we're talking 98-99c for the tech literate here] I actually RETURNED my first one because with max CPU set to 80% in power options the CPU was *STILL* pegging 99c and throttling 40-50%! The replacement unit I received [which I had to order direct from Razer as Amazon was out of stock] seems to behave better in that setting max cpu to 99% actually disables turbo clocks and allows the CPU to run cooler. This limitation really has no effect on gaming performance, so file that little trick away if you're grabbing this notebook. Ultimately though, this machine is best described by the words "throttles by design". It's not that it CAN'T deliver better cooling, but I guess quiet fans take precedence over making sure the CPU doesn't melt. On the other hand, for all I know the CPU is just fine with these temps, and I'm just too old fashioned [anything over 75c drives me NUTS]So that's where two stars go: If this machine lasts 6 months at those temps, I'll gladly add a star back to the review. If it makes it a year [it won't matter, it'll be superceded probably q1-2 next year] but I'll gladly add that 5th star back.Ultimately I'm giving this machine a 2nd chance because actually USING it, playing games on it, listening to music and generally having a good time with it -- is one of the best EXPERIENCES I've ever had on a laptop. It's addictive to use, looks amazing. . . yadda yadda specs and every other review out there. Yea, after an hour or so the WASD keys are hot enough for my finger tips to start feeling the warmth, but, providing the CPU holds out no other machine out there will TOUCH this one in terms of performance + portability.No, I didn't forget GPU temps... they just almost aren't worth mentioning. 80c. Go figure....