Razer Blade 15 Advanced gaming laptop review: extreme power, slim, sleek – and also good for work
- Razer’s 2019 iteration of its Blade 15 gaming laptop comes with Nvidia’s new RTX GPU and is slimmer than ever
- Its incredible power delivers silky smooth gameplay, though it does get very hot and loud
The 2019 iteration of the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop packs Nvidia’s new RTX GPU (graphics processing unit) under the hood in a slimmer “Advanced Model” that shaves a couple of millimetres off the less powerful basic model. We test out this latest version to see how it fares for play – and work.
Hardware
Crafted from a single slab of aluminium and with a black anodised finish, the Razer Blade 15 is a high-end gaming laptop that looks as premium as its price. There is nothing unobtrusive about it, from the backlit, triple-headed snake logo on the lid to Razer’s trademark USB-A ports tinted in neon green.
A range of peripheral ports run along both sides: HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3, 3.5mm audio and those USB-As. Razer says you can connect to up to three monitors at once by using the HDMI, Mini DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 ports for a super widescreen experience.
The laptop comes with a matt 15.6-inch, full-HD screen flanked by slim bezels on the top and sides. A 4K OLED touch screen option is also available but currently offered only in selected markets. The display itself is available in 144Hz or 240Hz options, which should eliminate any motion blur and screen tearing.
The inclusion of an infrared camera is a huge convenience, allowing users to log in via Windows Hello facial recognition.
The large glass touch pad supports multi-touch gestures. The backlit keyboard is flanked on both sides by the speakers, with the power button located at the top of the right-hand speaker grille.
What will strike you is the size of the power adaptor, which gives a new meaning to the term “power brick”. Then again, it isn’t every laptop that comes bundled with a 230-watt power adaptor, and Razer has done a respectable job of shrinking it.
It terminates in a convenient but proprietary reversible plug, so you can forget about charging it with an external battery pack.
Software
The pre-installed Razer Synapse software gives you the ability to make various tweaks to the Blade 15.
Configurable options include the backlight for the Razer logo (on, off or pulse), colour schemes for the per-key keyboard lighting, and even the speed of the two 44-blade fans for keeping the laptop cool.
A hidden indicator on the front edge of the laptop lights up when the lid is closed, glowing green when the laptop is running, and white when it’s in sleep mode.
This is useful for those who use their Blade 15 with external monitors and offers a quick way to visually ascertain that the device is in sleep mode before sliding it into a laptop bag.
Performance
As an example of how the Blade 15 fares for gaming, Shadow of the Tomb Raider averaged an impressive 79 frames per second under “high” presets with our RTX 2070 review unit and was silky smooth during gameplay.
The laptop does get very hot when gaming. Parts of the bottom chassis were so hot after a gaming session that I could barely rest my fingers on it.
You won’t notice it during regular desktop use, though, as the hot air is pushed out through the back of the laptop and thick rubber legs help ensure optimal airflow. Just don’t try gaming with the laptop on your lap.
The noise from the fans also gets loud and can be clearly heard, especially in a quiet room.
Music playback from the upwards-firing speakers is clean and loud, but completely lacking in bass. Most users will probably use a pair of headphones for gaming, though, and the speakers are certainly adequate for watching the occasional video.
The track pad is buttery smooth and is easily one of the best in my experience with Windows-based laptops.
Don’t expect stellar battery life with the Blade 15, though it is vastly improved from earlier models. The unit we tested came with a 9th Gen Intel i7 processor and averaged between four and five hours when used as a productivity machine. You could probably eke out a few more minutes by moderating the backlight and apps you use.
There are a couple of minor issues with the laptop that you will want to be aware of.
First, to fit everything into such a slim chassis, the keyboard has very shallow keys. I personally found it to be acceptable, though it does admittedly boil down to preference. I thought it felt much better than Apple’s much-derided butterfly keys.
The chassis, meanwhile, proved to be an oil magnet, and it didn’t take long for my prints to appear all over it.
Conclusion
The Razer Blade 15 is a beautiful and extraordinarily powerful laptop that packs the ability to play top-rated games into a sleek, portable device.
You’ll need to plug it into a wall socket to get any meaningful amount of gameplay, and it will run hot and loud at full tilt, but it has enough oomph to run every game out there with good playability.
When not gaming, the laptop works well as a productivity machine, assuming its 2.1 kilogram (4.6 pound) weight is acceptable and you don’t require “full day” battery life.
If you are looking for a supremely powerful device in a laptop and budget isn’t a concern, look no further than the Razer Blade 15.
Review model price (GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q, 9th Gen Intel Core i7, 512GB SSD):
Hong Kong: HK$21,499
US: US$2,599.99
