Razer Blade 15 (2020)
Cut to the quick
Laptop with cutting-edge performance
Last year’s Razer Blade 15 cost from £1,400 upwards. This time, the least you can spend is £1,700. That gets you th h he latest Intel i7-10750h processor and less cutting-edge Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti graphics. Our test unit, at £2,100, had the same 16GB of memory ory and Full HD screen, but twice the SSD storage, at 512GB, and RTX 2070 graphics.
This is still part of the Base Model range, which goes up to the £2,400 model with a 4K OLED touchscreen. The Advanced Model range starts at £2,650 with an eight- core i7-10875h chip and RTX 2070 Super graphics card, rising to £3,100 for RTX 2080 Super graphics and 1TB SSD, or £3,350 with 4K. Swap the RTX 2080 for a Quadro RTX 5000, optimised for 3D graphics work rather than games, and you get the Quadro Studio Edition at £4,300 – the only option that has 32GB of memory.
In comparison, Apple’s Macbook Pro 16in – starting at £2,399 with a 3K P3 screen – would look competitive but for its weak AMD graphics. You’d need the £100 upgrade from the Pro 5300M graphics card to a 4GB 5500M to come close to the 1660 Ti. And the 8GB 5600M (comparable to the Blade’s RTX options) adds £800. If the GPU isn’t important, though, an eight-core i9 chip, 32GB of memory and 1TB SSD for £3,200 is an attractive option.
SPECIFICATIONS
2.6GHZ Intel i7-10750h six-core processor • 16GB memory • 8GB Geforce RTX 2080 Max-q graphics • 512GB SSD • 15.6in 1920x1080-pixel screen • 802.11ax Wi-fi • Bluetooth 5.1 • USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 • USB-C port (10Gbps) • 3x USB 3.0 Gen2 ports (5Gbps) • HDMI output • Windows Hello webcam • Windows 10 Home • 19.9x355x235mm (HXWXD) • 2.1kg • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/35382
Performance in the Blade 15 was as expected, the 10th-gen i7 chip beating its predecessor; the RTX 2070 will do justice to any game at 1080p. But the battery lasted just 4 hours 30 minutes in our undemanding video-playback test. The Base Model’s Full HD screen is nothing special except for its game-friendly refresh rate of 144Hz (the Advanced Model goes to 300Hz). Our meter found 87 per cent of SRGB covered with good accuracy.
While the black metal case looks unchanged, the Base Model gets a second USB-C port, although only one has Thunderbolt 3 and charging is still via the dedicated mains socket. There are also two USB 3.0 Gen1 ports and Gigabit Ethernet, the latter omitted from the Advanced Model. A full-size HDMI port is now the sole monitor output, Mini Displayport being removed.
Inside, the Base Model has a free M.2 socket, while the Advanced has no extra storage space but gains vapour-chamber cooling for the faster CPU. There’s a huge touchpad and a decent keyboard, but only the Advanced gets per-key RGB backlighting, useful for identifying shortcuts as well as gaming setups.
Options galore, but its high performance comes with screen and battery flaws