T3 - UK (2022-02)

FEBRUARY 2022 T3 75

Razer Blade 15 Advanced

Speaking of which, this boasts
basically the best laptop graphics
option around in the form of an
Nvidia RTX 3080 with 8GB GDDR6
VRAM. This is outrageously fast and
realistically complete overkill for the
screen provided – but what is a
potentially future-proof laptop
without a little wiggle room?
Backing that up is a fully muscled
Core i7-11800H processor, which idles
at 2.3GHz and can boost up to double
that speed; backing that up is a full
quotient of slotted 32GB DDR4 RAM, a
seriously quick 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD
(with an open slot for extra storage),
and Intel’s seemingly ubiquitous Wi-Fi
6E AX210 package. Top-flight stuff.

A whole new ball game
Everything we threw at the Razer
Blade 15 was met with the digital
equivalent of a derisive sneer, as if we
were asking far too little of it.
Civilization VI, a notorious CPU-
pounder, flew through the turns with
not so much as a stutter. Shadow of the
Tomb Raider, a punishing graphical
test even when not ramped up to max,
hammered through its ultra settings
benchmark at a solid 122fps. Metro

Exodus was an RTX-enhanced joy.

Nothing touched it, basically.

Even when hooked up to external

displays – a 1440p monitor, a 4K TV

• the Blade 15 stayed comfortably
  smooth in our test suite. There’s
  certainly more than enough overhead
  to keep several displays running on
  the desktop, and more than enough
  pep to drive a high-res desktop display.
  The battery admittedly doesn’t fare
  too well; you can fall back to the
  integrated graphics to save a little
  juice, and we managed a solid five and
  a bit hours over a day’s work, but this
  is more a plug-it-in machine than a
  AAA-on-battery box.
  It can get quite warm, but we also
  found the Blade 15’s capacity for
  cooling to be fantastic. Although the
  area above the CPU gets understandably
  warm at times, and there’s a very hot
  exhaust spitting out towards the
  screen, there’s never really a sense that
  the Blade 15 is struggling to offload the
  heat thrown out by its components.
  You should be aware, though, that
  this (like any laptop) isn’t a one-for-
  one replacement for a big-box desktop
  PC. The numbers are not directly
  comparable: the 3DMark Port Royale

score, which measures real-time

raytracing performance, is a few

notches below what you’d expect from

a big-boy desktop card. Apples-for-

apples, though, this easily holds its

own against other 30-series laptops.

A premium laptop should look

premium (check) feel premium

(check) and perform its socks off (big

check). The work Razer has done on

the insides of the Blade 15 Advanced,

both to ensure that ridiculous

performance and to stop those

high-end components from cooking

themselves, has been an unqualified

success. This is a fantastic machine if

you can afford it – and everything else

on the market with comparable specs

will cost you just as much if not more.

The Razer Blade

holds its own

against other

30-series laptops

GIGABYTE AORUS 15G
If a 30-series graphics
card is a must but you
can’t justify nearly £3k
on a gaming laptop, the
Aorus 15G is ideal. Its
crisp 240Hz panel is a
beaut, while its 10th-
gen Intel i7 processor still gives it plenty of poke.
£1,773, amazon.co.uk

MSI GS66 STEALTH

The Stealth may only

be configurable up to

an Nvidia GeForce

RTX 2080 and a 10th-

gen i7 CPU but you

have the option of a

4K screen – or a lush

300Hz FHD panel instead. And it’s much cheaper.

From £1,399, msi.com

THE ALTERNATIVES

WE’RE IMPRESSED The 3080

can’t be beat; tough chassis;

cooling copes well; super-slick

screen; speedy storage and RAM.

WE’D IMPROVE Very expensive;

not quite desktop equivalent.

THE LAST WORD Really

expensive yet worth every

penny. Its screen is a marvel, its

components are top-of-the-line,

its chassis is tough and beautiful,

and its performance is absolutely

without compromise.

VERDICT

Find top deals for the Blade 15

Advanced at: bit.ly/t3bl15adv