For the most part I love my Razer Blade 15 and it’s been a reliable Clydesdale workhorse that looks like a thoroughbred Arabian. However, once in awhile some small issue will pop up and drives me nearly insane. This latest issue has to do with the adaptive brightness “feature” that’s included in Windows 10.

In case you are unfamiliar with the adaptive brightness setting here’s the gist: your screen backlight is automatically dimmed when anything on the desktop is a darker color. The effect is extremely noticeable in an application like Photoshop (the GUI is dark-themed) and the screen dims to the point where white looks like gray and it’s difficult to do any real work. Why anyone would choose to have the adaptive brightness enabled is beyond me.

In theory it’s very simple to turn the setting off. You simply open your “power options” then navigate to “change plan settings” and the click the “change advanced power settings” link. This brings you to a pop-up box and under the “Display” options you can switch adaptive brightness on or off. Easy right? Not so fast…

When my Razer Blade is plugged in Windows respects the setting and everything is just fine (well, usually- sometimes I do have to restart my laptop). But when the laptop is operating on battery power the adaptive brightness setting is completely ignored. I searched and searched online for an answer to my problem and came across an excellent article suggesting a myriad of different solutions:
https://windowsreport.com/adaptive-brightness-windows-10-wont-turn-off/

The root problem appeared to be a power management setting for the integrated Intel graphics. This setting was a redundant adaptive brightness routine that was overriding the Windows 10 version. Eureka! Only there was an issue…

…I didn’t have an option to access the Intel graphics settings. The registry edits suggested by the article also proved impossible because the corresponding file location wasn’t present. No amount of rooting through Windows 10 allowed me any access to any Intel-related graphic settings. Additionally, no amount of online searches brought me any closer to finding a solution. A few articles suggested the only way to fix a problem like mine was through settings in the BIOS. Did I even have Integrated Intel graphics?

I already knew the answer to that. I’ve installed a few games that haven’t recognize the Nvidia GPU, defaulted to the Intel chip and had to be manually configured (i.e. Transformers: Devastation). A quick peek under the advanced display settings and it was clear the Razer Blade was using an Intel UHD Graphics 630 while on battery power. Okay, so it was still there and it was working.

So what on earth could cause my Intel control panel to be missing? Maybe that there was software that I could get directly from Intel. No dice. Intel’s website suggested contacting the OEM if the Intel Graphics Setting option is missing. I imagined trying to get Razer to help me with my problem chuckled. Okay, so maybe I had the wrong driver installed.

I racked my brain and it hit me. I had swapped out my hard drive and that necessitated a Windows 10 installation. Maybe I had missed something when I was reinstalling my drivers! It certainly couldn’t hurt to reinstall them again.

I downloaded the Intel Graphic Driver file from Razer’s Support page. I ran the installation (side note: Windows Defender repeatedly warned me that threats were detected during the installation, but it completed just fine). And then:

After the installation and a restart there was the “Intel Graphics Settings” option right where it was supposed to be. I held my breath and opened it.

Under the power settings there is an option to disable “Display Power Saving Technology.” Click it, hit apply and voila!

This fixed the problem. Now on battery power the laptop will respect the Windows 10 adaptive brightness settings. I suppose part of me understands why the power saving is enabled by default but what an absolute pain the neck.

Summary Version: If you can’t turn off adaptive brightness then you need to disable the power saving feature in the Intel graphics settings. If the Graphics settings aren’t visible make sure you have the correct OEM driver installed. 

Razer knows how to make a sexy laptop- this is an indisputable fact. Over the years I’ve owned many of these laptops and, for the most part, I have enjoyed them all. Razor build quality is second to none and they cram an amazing amount of power into a very tiny frame. There’s no question that my Razer Pro was still getting the job done (well- minus a battery issue), but the Razor 15 was too intriguing to pass on.

Aesthetically the new design is much boxier than the past models. Personally I like the squarish design and the simple elegance of the laptop’s layout. The reduced bezel is a welcome relief (it feels “right” for lack of a better description) and the 15″ 4K screen is exceptional (bright, no dead pixels and great consistency). Build quality is as high as ever and the laptop feels exceptionally solid.

The very handsome Razer Blade 15!

Performance is on par with my old Pro. The graphic GTX 1070 Max-Q Design in the 15 can’t keep up with the Pro’s GTX 1080 but the 15’s newer CPU easily outperforms the Pro enabling a comparable 3D Mark score (both had scores right around 14,000 with the 15 edging out the Pro by a few points).

I opted to upgrade my 15 by expanding the RAM to 32 GB and upgrading the 512GB SSD to a 1 TB version (the same specs as my Pro has). The upgrade process was straightforward and relatively inexpensive. Interestingly, after my upgrade my 3D Mark score dropped into the mid 13500’s. This is probably a driver or configuration issue – I had to reinstall Windows 10) – and realistically we’re talking about a single fps loss at the moment.

The Razer 15 doesn’t necessarily represent a good value- I don’t think that’s the market they’re after. But as a high quality ultra-portable boutique gaming laptop they remain king of the hill for another year.

Things I like;

• Smaller bezel and larger 4K screen
• New square design and ultra-compact form factor
• Expandable RAM and hard drive
• Redesigned heat management (runs cooler than the Pro)

There aren’t a lot of things to complain about on the Razer 15 but there are still a few things that could be a bit better:

• Shift function symbols are not backlit
• Touch pad is finicky (misidentifies my palm as a finger and result in gesture misrecognition)
• No backlighting around the touch pad (I liked the feature on the Razer Pro)
• No SD card reader or Ethernet jack

Razer 15 System specifications: