Razer Blade, the name is enough to attract the PC gamers on board. As the last model is slowly losing its charm and tempo, the company has brought in a brand new player. The brand new Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop is the one to go for. It features some of the latest gaming laptop features, with better build and design and power-packed performance.
This model is best in the market, for what you can spend on a gaming laptop with the great chassis design, reliable battery life, and classic Razer Blade performance. There are two versions of this model, one is the advanced model that was released in 2019, and the other one is the base model that is released in 2020. The advanced model is on the pricier side, and thus to bring it to a more affordable zone, the base model is released. But the base model is no different in terms of looks, build, speed, performance, and features. The only downside of these laptops is that they can get a bit hot while under pressure.
Features of Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
- Build and design
It is very similar to any Razer notebooks out there. However, it may seem a bit heavier and chunkier, but nonetheless, the design remains the same and authentic. The body is aluminum with a classic black or mercury white chassis by Razer, which is enhanced by the Razer logo. The metal chassis unibody type, which makes it even sharper in looks. The best thing is that the overall look of the laptop is very minimalistic and clean.
The body is scratch-free and is built to last longer than any other laptop. The touchpad is large enough for the game players; also, it has high output speakers on top. The laptop’s hinges are strong yet smooth so that you can easily open the laptop to its maximum. Overall, the Razer blade 15 latest edition holds up to the makers’ quality and build that is expected.
- Display
For gamers, one of the most crucial things is the display. Seeing the graphics and the objects on the screen clearly and in much depth only enhances the overall experience of playing games. The screen is big of 15.6 inches, perfect for gaming. The best thing is that the display is designed with an edge to edge feature, which means almost no side bezel. This has always been of the major concern with gamers, as they find side bezels distracting. However, the top and bottom bezel is slightly thicker, which never poses a problem.
The screen is 4K OLED, which gives a better contrast ratio of the screen along with deeper colors and absolutely no color bleeding. Also, the refresh rate works better with OLED screens, minimizing the ghosting while playing any kind of game. Though IPS panels do not support these, the games still look much more colorful and prettier.
In the advanced model, the touchscreen in touch capacitated, but the base model is not. However, the base model screen is shiny and gives a very polished look to the laptop and supports 100% sRGB. The response time of the screen is approximately 2.6 ms along with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and also, there is a certain screen flickering of 59.62 Hz.
The only thing that can be stated as a minus about this laptop is that the display brightness is quite low. The brightness of the screen has the maximum reach up to 275 nits on colorimeter and is thus dimmer than many in the category.
- Performance
Performance is one of the things that the razer blade owners never complain about. The laptop runs on the Intel Core i7-9750U, which makes it a performance heavy laptop. Razer blade 15 models can support up to 8 cores. The base model is the Hexacore, where the octa-core is reserved for the advanced model.
When not gaming, the laptop does its best in general usage and surfing. You can simply open various tabs, and, yet, the laptop will not lag or glitch at any moment. It is powered by a 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD that is dual channel, making the laptop more reliable for all types of use. It runs on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, which increases the laptop efficiency while playing games with a notched up graphical experience. It works 25 percent faster than any other GPU in town.
This makes it highly effective in playing high-end fast games. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti makes sure that while playing fast games, the FPS does not drop below 30. The fast-paced games tend to give an average of 45 fps, while the general games can go up to 85 fps, which is a sure shot winner, among many others.
This laptop is perfect for both the gaming and the usual work, and it will not glitch or lag at any time. The games run smoothly as ever, and one might not miss the AMD experience here while using this power-packed high-performance laptop.
- Touchpad, keyboard, speaker and webcam
Other than the display, performance, and laptop build, you also need to check what other hardware features the laptop has. Those features include the speaker, keyboard, touchpad, and the webcam that the laptop comes with. After all, you cannot play games without having a good touchpad or work without having a keyboard that is efficient and fast.
Razer Blade 15’s keyboard is a chiclet-style one that is backlit with single-zone RGB lighting. Single-zone RGB lighting is a bit unsatisfactory, especially for the price you are paying.
However, on the other hand, this keyboard is good for work and gaming. But, for gaming, you can use a mechanical keyboard if needed. The keys are smooth and bouncy, and it does not require much work while typing. One thing that may pose a problem is that the keypad is a bit shallow, which can constrain one’s speed while typing. Overall, the keyboard is workable and has a typing speed above the average given by other keyboards.
Another thing that makes the Razer Blade 15 stand out from the crowd is the touchpad. The touchpad is huge, with a dimension of 5.1 inches x 3.1 inches. It is plush and super smooth, on which the fingers glide easily. It is also receptive to the gesture of Windows 10, including the three fingers glide for switching from one open window to another. It is also receptive to pinch to zoom gestures for windows 10.
Next, the thing that has impressed the users is the speakers and audio quality of the speakers. Razer Blade 15 has two top firing speakers. The speakers are clear and have a great audio performance. You can clearly hear every frequency sound emanating from the video that you are watching, or the game you are playing. Therefore, you can enjoy a good game while listening to every little detail that the game characters have to offer.
Another hardware feature is the webcam. A laptop is not complete without a good webcam. Here, in Razer’s model, the webcam is put on the top of the screen on the top bezel. As the top bezel is broader, it places the cam perfectly. However, one thing that is missing is a webcam shutter for better privacy. The camera is good for budget webcam purposes and making a few video calls. The lens captures the color accurately, and it does not overexpose as well. But, the overall picture quality is not that great, and it can become blotchy, especially in a low light condition.
- Battery life
Being an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti runs a laptop; it gives a good battery life. Yes, the battery life of the advanced model is much better than the base model. Because the advanced model has a larger battery compared to the base model. But, nonetheless, Razer blade 15 still has a running power of more than 5 hours on the battery test.
You can easily enjoy playing games or watching movies, for a longer time with a full battery. As a gaming laptop, Razer blade 15 has a better battery performance against many other market players. Though the OLED display and the backlight tend to use up a lot of power, and when the WLAN is used in general, it can still average 4 hours and more. Also, the battery takes 1.5 hours to get fully charged from empty, which is again a better performance than many other competitors.
- Cooling system
Many tend to ignore this particular feature of gaming laptops. Having a good and reliable cooling system is crucial to ensure that the laptop has a long life in general. Having a device that heats up quickly can hinder the laptop’s performance, making it work at its subpar level.
Razer Blade 15 comes with a better cooling system, including a heat pipe system and thermal blockers along with custom 44 blade fans. This feature helps manage the heat requirements and make sure that the hot spots can be avoided, especially while gaming.
However, the downside is that the cooling system does not work that well, especially when the laptop has all the settings notched up to full. The chassis gets warm, and the bottom side reaches higher temperatures pretty quickly. The touchpad can get hot as well when the laptop is used for gaming for too long.
- Software
Razer blade 15 runs on the operating system of windows 10 home, which comes with various apps by Microsoft. There are also third-party apps like NVIDIA’s GeForce experience and Dolby Atmos installed in the laptop to increase the user experience.
Other than this, the Razer blade 15 comes two pre-installed programs; Razer synapse and Razer cortex. These programs provide a highly usable interface, which is filled with features and settings. You can change the lighting of the keyboard, set macros, change refresh rates, and choose various performance modes. These apps can be used for optimizing the system, remove useless files, free up RAM, boost games, etc. All in all, both this software are perfect for making customized changes while using the laptop.
Razer blade 15 base model also comes with a one year warranty period, which adds up to service benefits that are provided by the company.
Specifications of Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
- Dimensions: 13.98 x 0.78 x 9.25 inches
- Weight: 8.93 pounds
- Memory type: DDR4 SDRAM
- Memory size: 16GB
- Memory speed: 2667 MHz
- CPU speed: 4.5GHz
- CPU model: Intel
- Processor count: 6
- Chipset: NVIDIA
- Screen size: 15.6 inches
- Operating system: Windows 10
- Number of USB ports: 7 (2.0) / 3 (3.0)
Pros of Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
- The performance of the laptop battery is impressive
- The build quality of the laptop is stylish
- Display bezels are thin, and the chassis is attractive
- The performance of the laptop is unmatched
- Many ports can be used
- There are many configurations of the laptop
Cons of Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
- The laptop gets hot when running at full settings
- The screen is not that bright
- There is only single-zone RGB on the keyboard
- No AMD options
- Webcam quality is not up to the mark
- Expensive
Bottom line
This laptop is perfect for those who want to work and play games using the same laptop. Practically, it is for modern gamers in the modern world. Razer Blade 5 is perfect for those who want to play high-end games and want to give it a run for many hours.
Excellent battery life, great looking chassis, sturdy build, and strong graphic performance make it worth the money. However, a few things can be done better on this laptop. The display brightness should be high for the money paid, and the laptop should not be running hot under pressure.
But all in all, Razer blade 15 with revolutionary and iconic Razer design and make is still a winner in its category.