Power talks
With the latest tenth-generation octa-core Intel Core i7-10875H chip tucked inside, it’s safe to expect lightning speeds from all variants of the 2020 Blade Pro, especially when coupled with Nvidia’s RTX 2070 or the top-of-the-range RTX 2080 Super GPU, as with our review unit.
The only difference between our test sample and the all-singing, alldancing model is that it has a 512GB SSD, while the top-specification Blade Pro includes a 1TB SSD. Either will be a speedy unit, with our SSD returning sequential reads of 2,185MB/sec and writes of 1,870MB/sec.
Interestingly, despite having the same CPU inside, the Blade Pro performs at a lower level than the Gigabyte Aorus 15, which is almost certainly due to thermal issues. The Blade is 5mm slimmer than the Aorus, which might not sound much but makes it tougher to vent heat as quickly. This was apparent in both our own benchmarks ( see graphs above) and in Geekbench 5’s multicore test, where the Blade Pro scored 6,009 to the Aorus 15’s 7,779.
It’s in gaming that the Blade Pro 17 really shines. I’ve been playing a few demanding titles on this beast, from Doom Eternal and Control to Hitman 2, and haven’t seen performance issues with any of them, even with maximum quality settings and ray tracing enabled.
You can see how much faster the RTX 2080 Super is than the RTX 2070 Super by comparing the Aorus 15G with the Blade Pro in the graphs. I saw the same pattern in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, where the Razer hit 156fps without ray tracing compared to 129fps for the Gigabyte. With ray tracing switched on, the gap remained sizable at 95fps and 79fps.
What’s more impressive is how close to last year’s Alienware Area
51m ( pcpro.link/300alien) and Acer Predator Triton 900 ( see issue 301, p50) it gets. Both of those machines weigh around 4kg and cost £4,000 apiece when we first reviewed them; when you consider that the Razer Blade 17 Pro is slimmer, lighter and cheaper, its scores become even more noteworthy.
This isn’t at the expense of fan noise, either. When they’re going full tilt there’s a continuous rush of air, but it still isn’t anywhere near as loud as the fans on the Gigabyte Aorus 15G and is much more bearable as a result. Razer claims that it has improved the cooling on the Pro, employing a better liquid cooling system, so perhaps this lies at the root of its quietness.
It won’t surprise you to discover that battery life isn’t one of this gaming laptop’s strengths, but a result of 5hrs 8mins compares well with other high-powered gaming laptops. Note, however, that this was with the screen refresh set to 60Hz; when I tested it at 300Hz, battery life plummeted closer to two hours. And if you’re after a truly mobile workstation laptop, the 16in MacBook Pro trounces all of the competition, having posted a result of 7hrs 22mins in the same test.
P Pro decision d ii
“I’ve been playing a few demanding titles on this beast and haven’t seen performance issues with any of them”
The Razer Blade Pro 17 is a greatlooking gaming machine, as well as being surprisingly slim and light for one so powerful. If you want to play the latest PC games but don’t have room for a proper desktop system and monitor – or you travel a lot and want to take your gaming machine with you – this is the best option available at the moment.
On the other hand, there’s no avoiding the price or the competition: if it’s simply a powerful, portable machine with a larger screen that you want – and your primary jobs are photo editing, 3D design or video editing – the 16in MacBook Pro makes more sense. Not only is it lighter and slimmer, it has a higher quality display and significantly longer battery life.
Octa-core 2.8GHz Core i7-10875H processor
16GB DDR4-2993 RAM 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q Design graphics 17.3in non-touch IPS display,
1,980 ,980 x 1,020 resolution 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD 720p infrared webcam 2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 HDMI 3 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 2.5Gbits/sec Ethernet port SD card slot 3.5mm jack 70.5Wh battery Windows 10 Home 355 x 235 x 22mm (WDH) 2.75kg
1yr yr limited warranty