Razer Blade Stealth 13
Slim, slick, and slightly gameable
THE HYPE SURROUNDING Apple and its premium-priced products is often completely out of control, but there’s no point pretending Apple hasn’t had a huge impact on the look and feel of laptop PCs. High-quality unibody laptop chassis machined out of solid aluminum are now the norm among premium portable PCs, and that is a direct consequence of the design of Apple’s MacBook Pro models.
It’s therefore no surprise to find that the industrial design of Razer’s latest ultrabook PC closely mirrors the established Apple template. The precision-machined unibody of the new Razer Blade Stealth 13 not only adopts the same crisply beveled shape and hewnfrom-billet physical feel as the MacBook Pro 13, but it’s also within a fraction of a millimeter of the MacBook for width and thickness, and is just a few millimeters deeper too.
Do not, however, assume the new Stealth 13 is just another lazy MacBook clone. Razer has applied its own interpretation to the premium 13-inch portable category, starting with that signature all-black aesthetic. Notably, the Razer logo on the screen cover is not backlit, contributing to what is a more mature overall design vibe. Granted, its user-configurable, albeit single-zone, RGB backlit keyboard does retain some visual links to the gaming community, but the overall impression is slick and subtle. The Blade Stealth 13 would not look out of place in a professional context, that’s for sure.
The other standout feature is the inclusion of Nvidia’s GeForce MX150 graphics chip, in full-power 25W specification. What we have, then, is a quality 13-inch notebook with at least some gaming props. Other highlights include a powerful quad-core Intel Core i7-8565U processor, a super-quick 256GB NVMe M.2 drive, and 16GB of memory. For the record, the screen clocks in at 13.3 inches, runs its 1080p native resolution at 60Hz, and benefits from IPS technology. GRID REFERENCE Configured thus, it’s the middle of three available models, with the flagship SKU upping the SSD ante to 512GB, and upgrading the screen to 4K with touch. Common to all Stealth 13s are the USB Type-C sockets on both sides of the chassis. The right-hand port is also Thunderbolt 3 compliant, which means four lanes of PCI Express connectivity, and support for external graphics boxes for serious, if expensive, gaming action. As for the battery, it’s a 53.1Wh unit, and in this configuration is claimed to be good for up to 11 hours of grid-free operation.
Performance-wise, the vital question is whether this laptop can truly game. The answer isn’t straightforward. Run something well optimized, like Fortnite, and you can set it to 1080p and medium quality, and get decent frame rates. For more demanding triple-A titles, our benchmarks demonstrate you’ll either need to knock the image quality to low or reduce the resolution to 720p, and thus non-native and suboptimal for the 13.3inch IPS panel. Even then, don’t expect buttery smooth performance. All of which means the Stealth 13 can play games, but it will be up to you how rewarding it is.
Games aside, the 13-inch screen is a peach. Highlights include punchy colors, great viewing angles, strong contrast, and a nice matt anti-glare coating that strikes a good compromise between reduced reflectivity and avoiding annoying sparkle. As for battery life, we extracted a little over seven hours of video playback. For general use, you should see at least five or six hours; add an hour or two depending on your MO and how bright you run the screen. So, it’s getting on for all day in some situations, even if the 11-hour claim is optimistic.
Further factor in the pleasingly solid and tactile keyboard, and you have a very compelling 13-inch proposition. Except, of course, for the fairly painful price. $1,599 for this mid-tier config is a bit much. So, this is a lovely laptop, it’s just not conspicuous value.