Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition (2020) Laptop Review: Small changes, better overall package

[Redaktion]

Razer's workstation features a lot of performance, a 4K OLED touchscreen, a Thunderbolt 3 port, 32 GB of RAM (running in dual-channel mode), 16 GB of VRAM and a 1 TB NVMe SSD.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Razer-Blade-15-Studio-Edition-2020-Laptop-Review-Small-changes-better-overall-package.484020.0.html

[John M]

Great review! One question though-
How is it that there is no PWM flicker on this OLED display when all other laptops that use the Samsung SDCA029 all have PWM (even at max brightness). PWM flicker is very noticeable when taking a slow-mo vid of the HP Spectre 2020 15.6 OLED (eb000) display.

[Jack1]

16:9 screen. Nothing to see here. Move along. NEXT!

[orly]

The screen does not suffer from PWM flickering.

Impossible. Even Apple can't put a hand on non PWM OLED.
I bet that screen has the worst of it, something like ~60Hz PWM.

[Milli]

Like Orly has stated, how is this possible to have no PWM? Especially as it is the same panel as previous OLED 15" laptops which all have PWM?

PWM gives me the worst headaches so I long for an OLED panel without PWM so I could actually use it

[RB15 Owner]

It's a pity they are removing undervolting from 10th gen i7s with a BIOS update, even I can get 1150 on my i7-8750H.

As for out-of-the-box performance, Razer has released a BIOS update that increases PL1 and PL2, so one can extract i7-10875H levels of performance. Please benchmark on r15 and r20 again.

[S.Yu]

I suspect this is a WOLED panel, and a relatively bad one, no way can an RGB OLED panel be stuck at a mere 86% of ARGB.

The screen does not suffer from PWM flickering.

Impossible. Even Apple can't put a hand on non PWM OLED.
I bet that screen has the worst of it, something like ~60Hz PWM.

How's it "impossible"? DC dimming is almost everywhere, though at the cost of extra power draw and potential color accuracy issues, Apple obviously deliberately chose against it, for various reasons "Apple", but it's not only possible but easy and relatively cheap to implement.

[Chris K]

Recently you reviewed the new HP envy 15 stating that you wouldn't review the RTX version as it had battery life less than 3hrs.

Why then have you reviewed this?

The Envy 15 RTX is the most affordable RTX workstation / creator laptop available

It is only 40% of the cost of this laptop

It should be topping reccomended lists. Why not?

[S.Yu]

Recently you reviewed the new HP envy 15 stating that you wouldn't review the RTX version as it had battery life less than 3hrs.

Why then have you reviewed this?

The Envy 15 RTX is the most affordable RTX workstation / creator laptop available

It is only 40% of the cost of this laptop

It should be topping reccomended lists. Why not?

You pit RTX2060 against RTX5000 and call it "40% the cost"? They're not competing in the same tier, it goes without say, in fact even RTX3000 will ask for a premium over 2060. This model also uses pretty decent SSD, while Envy uses Intel, possibly the slowest on the market, such that it warrants Optane "acceleration", and you should know that top SSD tiers demand extra and are likely more expensive per GB than lower tier SSDs. Razer's chassis is also among the most solid. That HP has pretty good value but it's not comparable with this model.

[miniledftw]

How's it "impossible"? DC dimming is almost everywhere, though at the cost of extra power draw and potential color accuracy issues, Apple obviously deliberately chose against it, for various reasons "Apple", but it's not only possible but easy and relatively cheap to implement.

DC Dimming is almost nowhere. OnePlus has ok-ish DC Dimming implementation, Xiaomi's DC Dimming is pathetic. Samsung doesn't care, Google doesn't care.
Also, DC Dimming won't eliminate PWM on all range of brightness. Razer just excluded PWM testing with $$$

[S.Yu]

How's it "impossible"? DC dimming is almost everywhere, though at the cost of extra power draw and potential color accuracy issues, Apple obviously deliberately chose against it, for various reasons "Apple", but it's not only possible but easy and relatively cheap to implement.

DC Dimming is almost nowhere. OnePlus has ok-ish DC Dimming implementation, Xiaomi's DC Dimming is pathetic. Samsung doesn't care, Google doesn't care.
Also, DC Dimming won't eliminate PWM on all range of brightness. Razer just excluded PWM testing with $$$

Well, Samsung hadn't "cared" for underscreen fingerprint sensors for a few years so many others had a 2-3 gen head start on optical, Samsung's current ultrasonic part is still slower than optical, though it seems to work with wet hands and in direct sunlight better.
The market doesn't "care" about what Google does, Pixel's been stuck with laughable battery capacity for a few years, glad most of the market isn't following them.
That said, PWM on a certain range of brightness is new to me.

[Alex_Oedo]

GOD DAMN IT NOTEBOOKCHECK !!!
Height dimension COMPLETELY WRONG !!
I normally use this site remorselessly to check specs of my purchases, up till now I thought it was by far the best site on the entire web when it came to reviewing laptops, and boy how I drooled at the thought of a 13.9mm thick beast with a RTX 5000 in it, so much so have just bid on one, now at last min I find out ( from the razer site ) its actually 17.8mm thick.
The ONLY reason I have bought this overpriced ( could have got a Razer advanced for 2/3 or less ) unit, was this review, never in my wildest nightmares did I ever think you guys would get something so basic so wrong !!
Thanks for a bunch of cash down the drain !!