ISSUE395|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2021 21
RAAZERHASMADEaname foritself
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the years, and the Razer Blade Stealth 13 is
the most compact laptop in the range.
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when it comes to design or features over
the 2019 variant (Shopper384), but it does
add worthwhile performance and display
updates, and it remains the only gaming
ultraportable worthy of the name.
COPYTHAT
As well as keeping the chassis largely the
same as last year,Razer has retained the
same CPU. All three models of the Razer
Blade Stealth 13 come with the quad-core
10th Gen 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7,achip
that’s farfrom the fastest in Intel’s current
mobile range.
The 2020 Razer Blade Stealth does,
however,benefit from aslight boost in
graphics by wayofthe GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q
graphics chip: adirect upgrade from the
standard GTX 1650 Max-Q.There’s also anew
1080p120Hz displayoption forthose
determined to game at higher frame rates.
Models with 60Hz displays at 4K
(touchscreen) and 1080p (non-touch) make
up the rest of the range and, while there’s no
option to change storage and memory from
the standard 512GB NVMe SSD and 16GB of
RRAAMM,fifixeddspeciifificattiionslliikketthheseddoatt
leastmakechoosingthelaptopyouwanta
lotmorestraightforward.
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model, which costs £2,099.The 1080p model
with the 120Hz displaycosts £1,899 and,
with the 60Hz 1080p screen, you’ll have to
shell out £1,699.All of these are pretty high
prices fora13.3inlaptop,but then alot of
other slimline clamshells –such as the Dell
XPS 13 –don’t have dedicated graphics
power on the GTX 1650 Ti’s level.FINELYCUT
At 15.3mm thin from front to back and amere
1.48kg in weight, the Blade Stealth 13 is atrue
ultraportable.It’s alaptop you can throw in
your bag, type up some emails on the
commutetowork and enjoysomequick
games on theway back.As with all Razer laptops, it’s aminimalist,
smart-looking thing, only available in matt
black and with the Razer logo subtly stencilled
on the lid rather than backlit in green as it is
on other Razer machines. The laptop’s lid and
sides are flatand sharp-edged, and the
underside is tidy as well, finished in the same
matt black aluminium. Acoupleofrubber
strips run the full width of the chassis at thefront anddthe rear,with two grilles forthe
systtem’’sfanstosuckincoolair.
Inkeeepingwiththesimpleaesthetic,
connectivityislimited,althoughtheBlade
SStteeaalltthh 1133 iissmmoorreepprraaccttiiccaalltthhaannmmoosstt.
There’s one USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3port
on the leftedge and astandard USB port
on the right, plus one full-size USB3.1port
on each side forperipherals, with a3.5mm
headset jack on the left. Wireless connectivity
also stretches to the latest Wi-Fi 6tech and
Bluetooth 5standards.
Open up the lid and you’re presented with
afairly standard-looking keyboard with
square,chiclet-style keys and alarge touchpad
occupying roughly athird of the width of the
laptop’s wrist rest. There’s no fingerprint
reader,which is adisappointment, but you get
an infrared Windows Hello camera mounted
in the bezel above the display. This works
reliably enough forquick logins, but it’s only a
720p,30fps camera and quality lags behind
the best laptop webcams.GHOST BUSTER
The keyboard is abacklit RGB unit, as it is
with most gaming laptops, but the lighting is
only single-zone,soyou can’t assign different
colours to individual keys as you can with
Razer’s more fancy laptops and keyboards.
There’s also ten-keyanti-ghosting, which
means it’s able to register as many keys being
pressed simultaneously as you have fingers.
Formore humdrum pursuits, like typing,
it’s reasonably comfortable.Although there
isn’t much travel, the keyactionhas anice
thunk to it, the base is nice and firm,and the
layout is largely sensible,with atweak to the
positioning of the Shift keys this year thatThe Blade Stealth 13 is atrue ultraportable.It’s alaptop
youcan throw in your bag, type up some emails on the
commutetowork and enjoysome games on the wayback