Although pricey, the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop (2020) is more than able to annihilate any PC game you throw at it, all while being stylish and well-built enough to justify the extra cost for anyone looking for a luxury gaming product.
Quick Review: Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop (2020)
The Razer Blade 15 has introduced itself as one of the premier gaming laptops to hit the road, rocking within its sleek exterior the best mobile hardware. That genius combination has led some people to call it the MacBook Pro of gaming laptops.’
For 2020, the Razer Blade 15 continues its legacy, this time boasting under its classy hood the best Intel’s Comet Lake-H processors and RTX Super graphics chips. It carries the same unibody aluminum style popular for the laptop line and is very much reminiscent of a MacBook Pro. It also has two wide speakers at the top of the laptop, along with a trackpad that is, no question, one of the best on any Windows laptop.
Of course, it also comes with a hefty price tag, just like its predecessors. The Razer Blade 15 arrives at $1,599 for its base configuration, providing you an Intel Core i7, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and a 256GB SSD. You’re looking at a whopping $2,999 if you want the best of a model we’ve tested here, which is a lot to ask for. Even this laptop can be worth it if you’re after a computer that can conquer and do it in style in the new AAA games.
The Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop is still the best example of what it would look like if you’re looking for a gaming laptop that looks like a luxury product and not like an edgy plaything. That’s if you have the money for it.
Specifications:
- CPU: 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-10875H
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 200 (Super Max-Q) 8GB GDDR6
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- Screen: 15-inch Full HD IPS, 300Hz (1,920 x 1,080)
- Storage: 1TB SSD (PCIe)
- Ports: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 (USB-A), 2 x Thunderbolt 3, 1 x 3.5mm audio, HDMI-out.
- Connectivity: INtel wireless-AX201 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax); Bluetooth 5.0
- Weight: 4.73 pounds (2.14kg)
- Size: 13.98 x 9.25 x 0.7 inches
Price and Availability – See on Amazon
Starting at $1,599, the Razer Blade 15 (2020) is available right now. The introductory price, along with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 16 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD, will get you an Intel Core i7 processor – which each model has.
But, of course, since this is a computer intended to be one of the best gaming laptops on the market, with up to an RTX 2080 Mega, a 1TB SSD, and a 4K OLED touch panel, you can customize this thing to your heart’s content. However, since that setup would cost you an eye-watering $3,299 (£3,349, AU$6,549), you will have to pay for that luxury.
You can undoubtedly get this hardware standard for less now; take a look at our new ideal powerhouse, the Gigabyte Aorus 17G, which you can get for $500 less with comparable hardware, coming in at $ 2,799.
However, what you pay for with the Razer Blade 15 is luxury. The Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop is a machine you would want to show off in public, although the Gigabyte computer’s nature is not sinful by any stretch of the imagination. At this point, it has become a kind of a cliche to call Razer the Apple of PC gaming goods, but the comparison is evident here.
Design: Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
While we’re busy rivaling Razer to Apple, the kind of Razer Blade 15 serves as what would the MacBook Pro with diverse ports and without Touch Bar?” You have these giant speakers on either keyboard side, which is already an argument favoring the Razer Blade 15.
For the Razer Blade, this is not a revolutionary idea, but we have to emphasize that it does wonders for audio quality. The Razer Blade audio quality is still nowhere near as good as a MacBook Pro 16, but they manage to sound listenable when you want to put on some tunes while having some work done.
Check out: Asus Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop: Review
We also have to compliment the number of ports on the Razer Blade 15 that remain. You will find two Thunderbolt 3 ports, three USB-A ports, a reverse-able dedicated charging port, and a true HDMI. Razer is in the business of selling peripherals, and we are pleased to say that to use any of them, you won’t need to live the dongle life. A gaming headset, mouse, and keyboard can be conveniently plugged in.
Not that you’re going to use your keyboard. Don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing like playing the best PC games on a mechanical keyboard, but the Razer Blade 15’s chiclet keys sound fantastic. Essential travel is more than deep enough, and even for keys on the keyboard periphery, the spacing is virtually adequate. We’d like to see bigger arrow keys up and down, but that’s such a minor complaint that we’re prepared to look beyond it.
Similarly, the touchpad is fantastic – spacious, responsive, and pressing down feels good. Touchpads are beginning to be right on Windows 10 devices, but the Razer Blade is still the best example of a Windows 10 computer touchpad.
Tying all this together is the Razer Blade 15’s premium unibody style. Entirely made of aluminum, the chassis feels fantastic and manages to provide a show with very little flex considering its thinness. Plus, there is absolutely no flex in either the keyboard deck or the area around the trackpad except when you are typing or gaming vigorously. The Razer Blade 15 certainly feels like a luxury product that sort of dulls the sting of so much money being shelled out. Now, if only more manufacturers of gaming laptops could bring as much love into their design as Razer does here.
Check out: What Are the Best Gaming Laptop Brands in the World?
Instead of opting for a 1080p monitor with a whopping 300Hz refresh rate, the model Razer provided us with does not have the ultra-fancy 4K OLED touch display. But it’s not like it doesn’t look fine on the show – quite the contrary.
The Razer Blade 15 display is excellent for some PC gaming at 300 nits of brightness and hitting 111 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, particularly when considering the quick refresh rate. Plus, you’ll certainly actually be able to reach the 300 fps on almost every big esports game with the Core i7 processor and RTX 2080 Super.
Eventually, though there is no fingerprint scanner on the Razer Blade 15, you get Windows Hello facial recognition thanks to the IR-equipped webcam.
Performance: Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop (2020)
Since the Razer Blade 15 is fitted with the Intel Core i7-10875H and an RTX 2080 Super, it has no problem chewing at full settings across all the newest and best PC games.
Even Metro Exodus, one of the most challenging games to run right now, managed to hit more than 60 fps with ray tracing switched off and everything else at peak. But the laptop was quickly able to handle 50 fps, even with ray tracing allowed, which is more than playable, even if it is not at the golden 60fps level.
Even in raw 3DMark benchmarks against notebooks that are much thicker, the laptop holds its own even if it falls underneath something like the Gigabyte Aorus 17X – with some sacrifices, additional portability comes.
A score of 5,227 on PCMark 10 shows why these laptops are so popular with people who don’t play many games. When you have this amount of hardware at your disposal, things like picture and video editing and even straight-up spreadsheet work go far faster.
Battery Power
It’s likely not going to come as a massive shock that the battery power of the Razer Blade 15 doesn’t precisely last all day. There’s much tension on the battery at any time with the amount of hardware on offer, not to mention the super-fast display.
And this is reflected in the paltry 5 hours and 3 minutes of battery life in the PCMark 10 battery test, which replicates a wide range of everyday tasks. It’s enough to do some work away from your charger, but you’re unlikely to be able to work all day on the Razer Blade 15 without packing your charger as well.
Video playback is slightly better, with the laptop looping a locally stored 1080p video lasting 7 hours and 31 minutes. If you’re streaming via Netflix or something, that number will go down a bit.
Features and software
The Razer Blade 15 arrives with Razer Synapse pre-installed because this is a Razer device, and the green-themed gaming manufacturer wants you to use its peripherals and accessories.
This app on the desktop is simply a place to change items such as lighting and macro assignments, but it serves a different function on the Razer Blade 15. You can use it to change performance on this laptop by jumping between various power modes and fan speed profiles.
What’s great about it, though, is that for both the battery and when you have the laptop plugged in, you can build a different profile so that you can go all-in on results when you need to and have something pleasant and quiet for a meeting without having to think about digging into settings.
Check out: Alienware m17 R4 Gaming Laptop (2021): Review