[SOLVED] Terrible Battery Life On Razer Blade 14

[ethan206]

I purchased a Razer Blade 14 (Base Model w/RTX 3060) about a month ago and I've noticed the battery life is surprisingly horrible. Now, I know gaming laptops aren't meant to have good battery life in the first place but comparing my numbers to Razer's numbers on their website (and yea, i know laptop manufactures inflate their numbers a lot) and to other reviews of the Blade 14, it seems a bit too far off. They're claiming up to 12 hours of battery life and online reviews are averaging anywhere from 5 to 9 hours, however I'm averaging around ~2 hours.

I set the screen brightness to 50%, the refresh rate to 60Hz, turned off the keyboard backlight and also used Battery saver mode in Windows (Balanced Mode in Synapse), and I was just doing light web browsing (using Chrome) with some background applications open (Discord, Spotify, Notion), yet within 2 hours the battery was at like 10%.

Is there some background application using up battery life or their something wrong with the battery?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's absolutely not "just you".

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/oo33bc/blade_14_poor_battery_life/

Razer Insider | Forum - battery life

The official Razer channel to get hold of the latest updates, product launches, and more, direct from Razer.

insider.razer.com

Are you running the iCue software, or anything similar? Honestly, if you haven't done a clean install of Windows since buying this, it might be a very good idea as you'll likely get rid of a bunch of useless applications and processes related to all the bloatware they normally install on prebuilt machines and laptops. And by clean install, I don't mean a factory reset, since that just puts all the same crap back on it. It couldn't hurt to run task manager and see what, if anything, is using the most CPU, GPU and memory resources, as these will likely be the primary culprits in running down battery life.

 

[ethan206]

It's absolutely not "just you".

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/oo33bc/blade_14_poor_battery_life/

Razer Insider | Forum - battery life

The official Razer channel to get hold of the latest updates, product launches, and more, direct from Razer.

insider.razer.com

Are you running the iCue software, or anything similar? Honestly, if you haven't done a clean install of Windows since buying this, it might be a very good idea as you'll likely get rid of a bunch of useless applications and processes related to all the bloatware they normally install on prebuilt machines and laptops. And by clean install, I don't mean a factory reset, since that just puts all the same crap back on it. It couldn't hurt to run task manager and see what, if anything, is using the most CPU, GPU and memory resources, as these will likely be the primary culprits in running down battery life.

Nope, as far as I’m aware there’s nothing really that glaring in Task Manager that’s hogging up the CPU/GPU. I’ve also disabled a lot of startup applications through task manager and done a decent job removing all the bloatware Microsoft installs. And I’m primarily using the iGPU (not the RTX 3060) all the time on battery with the AMD power savings things/settings enabled through their software so I really don’t know what’s gonna be the culprit application (if there is one).

Yeah, it could just be that the battery inside the Blade 14 is just astronomically horrible. Shame too, it’s a great laptop with great performance and design, but the battery life is just nowhere near acceptable.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Did you buy this new or used?

Where did you buy it from? An authorized retailer or a 3rd party?

How long ago did you buy it?

 

[ethan206]

Did you buy this new or used?

Where did you buy it from? An authorized retailer or a 3rd party?

How long ago did you buy it?

Bought it directly from Razer's own website, new. This was around a month ago I believe.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Have you contacted them and explained the problem? There might simply be a problem with the supplemental power board in the unit, or the battery, or something else, that is to blame. That new, will be under warranty and now is the time to take advantage of the warranty if there is a problem. Later, you'll end up kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.

 

[ethan206]

Have you contacted them and explained the problem? There might simply be a problem with the supplemental power board in the unit, or the battery, or something else, that is to blame. That new, will be under warranty and now is the time to take advantage of the warranty if there is a problem. Later, you'll end up kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.

Nope, haven't contacted them, but will do. If they're unable to fix it as well, then I think I will end up selling it as 2 hours of battery life when I'm just web browsing is beyond horrible.

 

[Darkbreeze]

At only a month old, I'd be considering a return for a full refund or at least a replacement, or potentially a return to be applied towards a different product from them. But I'd certainly try their tech support first, but again, as I linked to before and there are many other links out there, yours doesn't seem to be the only one with that issue of poor battery life.

The bottom line, really, is that you can't put that kind of hardware into a laptop and expect the battery to last without a lot of concessions. I tell people all the time, if you want a device for school or work that's mobile and can run business or productivity applications, then buy a device meant for that. If you want to game, build or buy a desktop. Laptops are not good choices for gaming machines no matter that they sell them supposedly FOR that. They are not FOR that in any realistic sense of the word.

The space inside them has gotten smaller, which means the cooling systems have gotten smaller or stayed the same, despite the hardware inside getting more and more powerful and more and more power hungry. Thermal issues are extremely common in ALL models of "gaming" laptop. Battery issues, anytime the device is not plugged in, are about the same as the thermal issues. It's really not possible to be "only" running off the iGPU, as the graphics card is always getting power and is pretty much always on a semi-light standby, ready to be switched to as soon as there is a demanding graphical or gaming load.

I would never, ever, ever, recommend anybody buy a laptop specifically for gaming unless they only played extremely light, casual type games, but even then I'd tell them to expect to need to have the device plugged in as much as possible because the hardware required for any kind of acceptable gaming experience is going to suck things down on battery power very quickly. Now, for what you have been doing, it's probably not normal, but even if it were to have decent battery life when just browsing etc., you'd end up with these other issues pissing you off sooner or later and additionally the cramped quarters inside a gaming laptop chassis tends to not afford that hardware anywhere near the longevity that a standard productivity laptop would have. CPUs, GPUs, drives, etc., tend to fail much sooner in a gaming laptop than in a standard type laptop or desktop because, heat.

 

[ethan206]

At only a month old, I'd be considering a return for a full refund or at least a replacement, or potentially a return to be applied towards a different product from them. But I'd certainly try their tech support first, but again, as I linked to before and there are many other links out there, yours doesn't seem to be the only one with that issue of poor battery life.

The bottom line, really, is that you can't put that kind of hardware into a laptop and expect the battery to last without a lot of concessions. I tell people all the time, if you want a device for school or work that's mobile and can run business or productivity applications, then buy a device meant for that. If you want to game, build or buy a desktop. Laptops are not good choices for gaming machines no matter that they sell them supposedly FOR that. They are not FOR that in any realistic sense of the word.

The space inside them has gotten smaller, which means the cooling systems have gotten smaller or stayed the same, despite the hardware inside getting more and more powerful and more and more power hungry. Thermal issues are extremely common in ALL models of "gaming" laptop. Battery issues, anytime the device is not plugged in, are about the same as the thermal issues. It's really not possible to be "only" running off the iGPU, as the graphics card is always getting power and is pretty much always on a semi-light standby, ready to be switched to as soon as there is a demanding graphical or gaming load.

I would never, ever, ever, recommend anybody buy a laptop specifically for gaming unless they only played extremely light, casual type games, but even then I'd tell them to expect to need to have the device plugged in as much as possible because the hardware required for any kind of acceptable gaming experience is going to suck things down on battery power very quickly. Now, for what you have been doing, it's probably not normal, but even if it were to have decent battery life when just browsing etc., you'd end up with these other issues pissing you off sooner or later and additionally the cramped quarters inside a gaming laptop chassis tends to not afford that hardware anywhere near the longevity that a standard productivity laptop would have. CPUs, GPUs, drives, etc., tend to fail much sooner in a gaming laptop than in a standard type laptop or desktop because, heat.

Yeah, I get what you mean. I knew that gaming laptops were horrible for battery life in the first place and I primarily use it when I'm plugged in which is why I decided to go through with my purchase. However, I still use it occasionally unplugged and I know to not expect much, but like this is just horrendous. 2 hours of battery life while WEB BROWSING (not even gaming) is just ridiculous to me (with the screen at 60Hz, keyboard backlight turned off, AND on battery saver mode). And with the screen at 144Hz, keyboard backlight at 50%, and on Balanced mode, I'm getting less than an hour. Literally less than 1/12 of the advertised battery life on Razer's website.

Sorry for the mini-rant lol, but yea. Unfortunately, it isn't eligible for a refund/return as it's past the 14-day return window, otherwise I would've picked up a Dell XPS or an M1 Macbook. Yeah, for sure I agree with you that gaming laptops have a LOT of problems in general (heat, battery life, etc.) but I just would've thought they'd matured by now (or at least a bit). I specifically chose the 3060 model as it beats me how Razer was able to cram in a 3080 in that small of a laptop without thermal issues. On the subject of thermals, it does get pretty toasty inside as well (80+ on the CPU in games, and around 70 for the GPU), though unplugged it averages around 45 degrees which is okay I guess. But with the energy efficiency of AMD's Zen 3 chips and Razer using a semi-lower wattage (80W, 100W w/Dynamic Boost 2.0) GPU, I would've thought that battery life would be at the very best, around 5 hours. Clearly this isn't the case, and I think I'll just get an ultrabook next time around (maybe next-gen Intel, or M1X/M2 Macs).

Also, the reviews for the Blade 14's battery life are very questionable as they are WAY out of line with what I'm getting:

Engadget (CLAIMED 10 hours 50 minutes): https://www.engadget.com/razer-blade-14-review-amd-ryzen-173003809.html

PCMag (9 hours 15 minutes): https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/razer-blade-14

TechSpot (7 hours 36 minutes): https://www.techspot.com/review/2313-razer-blade-14/

All of those reviews praised the Blade 14 for "excellent" battery life...

 

[Darkbreeze]

I agree, 2 hours is ridiculous, but again, might be something their tech support can help with or replace the unit if it turns out something is faulty. Which likely, it could be.

As for them "maturing", I don't think so. I think it's gone the other way except on the most energy conscious low powered models. Like I said, everything has gotten smaller, chassis, heatsinks, heatsink fans, the amount of space between components, even the size of the vents has shrunk over the years, while the hardware has seemingly gotten more and more power hungry. That's like putting a V8 in a compact car, with a compact car's radiator, and thinking you won't have overheating issues and that you'll get better gas mileage just because it's a lighter car. Sure, you'll get better gas mileage than with the same engine in a truck, but not nearly as good as with a gas sipper engine. Which coincidentally would also further lighten the load.

Good luck though. Hopefully tech support CAN help, to at least improve things at the very least.

 

[ethan206]

I agree, 2 hours is ridiculous, but again, might be something their tech support can help with or replace the unit if it turns out something is faulty. Which likely, it could be.

As for them "maturing", I don't think so. I think it's gone the other way except on the most energy conscious low powered models. Like I said, everything has gotten smaller, chassis, heatsinks, heatsink fans, the amount of space between components, even the size of the vents has shrunk over the years, while the hardware has seemingly gotten more and more power hungry. That's like putting a V8 in a compact car, with a compact car's radiator, and thinking you won't have overheating issues and that you'll get better gas mileage just because it's a lighter car. Sure, you'll get better gas mileage than with the same engine in a truck, but not nearly as good as with a gas sipper engine. Which coincidentally would also further lighten the load.

Good luck though. Hopefully tech support CAN help, to at least improve things at the very least.

True, I think the smarter move may have been to just build a PC (once GPU prices are back to normal) and bought like a base model M1 Macbook or Dell XPS. But oh well, it is what it is I guess haha. Thanks for the help man, and I'll be contacting Razer support and see if they can do anything. Have a great day 🙂

 

[Darkbreeze]

👍

 

[ethan206]

👍

Lol, I know I already marked this as resolved but turns out what was eating up my battery life was MSI Afterburner. Razer Support didn't help all that much but MSI Afterburner supposedly always wakes your GPU which destroys the battery on laptops. It didn't show up in the most used applications for battery life in Windows but after disabling it I was getting 2-3 hours to 5-8+ hours. Still not the best battery life, but much more acceptable now haha.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, I guess I should have said it from the start, and usually I do, but don't ever use ANY of the MSI software. Actually, don't ever use ANY of ANY of the manufacturer's softwares, including MSI, ASUS, GIGABYTE, ASROCK, all of them, because THIS is exactly what happens. I forget sometimes that not everybody knows this, but is worth repeating, to simply avoid ALL bundled or OEM applications, because they pretty much always create more problems than they solve. Good on you for figuring it out.

 

[ethan206]

Ok, I guess I should have said it from the start, and usually I do, but don't ever use ANY of the MSI software. Actually, don't ever use ANY of ANY of the manufacturer's softwares, including MSI, ASUS, GIGABYTE, ASROCK, all of them, because THIS is exactly what happens. I forget sometimes that not everybody knows this, but is worth repeating, to simply avoid ALL bundled or OEM applications, because they pretty much always create more problems than they solve. Good on you for figuring it out.

Yeah, wiped MSI Afterburner and battery life is significantly better now. Though, do you think I should do the same for Synapse? That's the only way to access all the different performance modes on my Blade and also other settings like controlling the keyboard and logo RGB. I mean, I rarely use it but maybe I should remove it from starting up with Windows? Or do you think I should uninstall it?

 

[Darkbreeze]

I wouldn't try removing any sort of essential software.