30 OCTOBER 2019|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 380
EVERSINCEITlaunched in 2018, the slim yet
powerful Razer Blade 15 (Shopper370) has
been one of our favouritegaming laptops.
Hardware marches on, however,and it’s time
foranew version to potentially
take the old model’s place.
Other than gaining a
fraction of amillimetre of depth,
it’s the same skinny size: 355x235x17.8mm,
weighing in at 2.21kg. Foralaptop with such
formidable internal specs, which include an
Intel Core i7-9750H CPU and Nvidia’s GeForce
RTX2080 Max-Ē graphics, it’s remarkably
compact.Thisispartlyhelpedbyhowthe15.in
displayissurrounded by the tiniest of bezels.
The black aluminium chassis looks great,
too, although the lid could have done with
some reinforcement: it flexes slightly when
pressed down. Ŵoualso don’t get as many
external ports as you might on athicker
gaming laptop.The Blade 15 has three full-size
USB3 ports, one USB Type-C with Thunderbolt
3support, single HDMI 2.0b and Mini
DisplayPort outputs, and acombined mic/
headphone jack. Then again, that’s still an
adequateselection, especially with
Thunderbolt 3onboard.
SHUFFLE OFF
However,the keyboard suffers –despitea
pleasant overall feel –from some minor
tweaks on the 2018 layout. First, Razer has
enlarged the Enter key, necessitating the
relocation or shrinking of other keys, such as
the leftShift button, which is now half-sized.
There’s also still asecondary Fn keyplaced
right alongside the arrow keys, which can
result in repeated accidental presses.
We also notethere’s no backlighting for
the secondary function symbols, despitethe
rest of the keyboard having fully customisable
RAZER Blade15(2019)
★★★★
£2,880•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
WINDOWS 10 GAMING LAPTOP
RGB lighting, and Razer’s own promotional
images displaying the symbols as being
illuminated. Ëuckily,there are no issues
whatsoever with the touchpad, which is
huge,responsive and lovely to use.
The crowning glory of this laptop,however,
is the display. Our model’s 1,920x1,080 IPS
panel runs, like the Asus ROG Strix Scar III
(page 25), at 240Hz –narrowly losing out at
being able to claim it’s the first laptop screen
to do so.Italso has sRGB gamut coverage of
93.4% ,alow average delta-E of 1.78 and a
very respectable contrast ratio of 1,128:1.
This all makes it aclear improvement over
the old Blade 15, and while peak brightness
could be higher,at303cd/m^2 ,that’s still
perfectly usable,particularly when the matt
finish helps deal with reflections.
TUNE UP
Performance has also taken abig step up.The
new CPU helps the Blade 15 cruise to 174 in
our 4K benchmarks, up from 149 on the 2018
model, but it is behind recent Core i9-powered
rivals, such as the Acer Predator Helios 500
(Shopper379) and the ROG Strix Scar III.
Oddly,the Blade 15 also finished behind the
ROG Strix Scar III in Dirt Showdown running at
720p: it averaged 113fps to the Asus’s 123fps,
even though the Blade 15 has amore powerful
RTX2080 Max-Ē GPU. However,this wasn’t
fully representative: running Metro: Ëast
Redux at 1080p,with the High graphics setting
and SSAA off,the Blade 15 managed 14fps
while the ROG Strix Scar III produced 82fps.
In general, the 2019 Blade 15 seems on a
par with the Predator Helios 500 for
gaming performance; not a
bad result when Acer’s
laptop is much larger
and has amore
powerful CPU. Admittedly,aswith the ROG
Strix Scar III, you’re not going to get the full
effect of a240Hz displayunless you’re
running avery undemanding game,probably
with reduced quality settings.
SSD speeds provide another opportunity
forthe Blade 15 to show off.Inthe AS SSD
benchmark, its 512GB PCI-E SSD hit sequential
read speeds of 2,339MB/s and sequential
writespeeds of 1,801MB/s. Those read
speeds are above average and the write
speeds –800MB/s faster than the last
Blade 15 –are downright sensational.
SMALLSPRINT
All this high performance comes at acost,
sadly,and we don’t just mean the wallet-
devastating price.Inour battery rundown test,
the Blade 15 petered out after amere 1h 51m
of video playback –poor even by the low
standards of gaming laptops. It’s even worse
in the context of the original Blade 15, which
went on for7h7minthe same conditions.
Even with this low stamina, the sleekness
of the Blade 15 keeps it well in contention as a
portable gaming system; you’ll just have to
take the charger with you. High performance
and agreat displayonly add to its desirability.
Perhaps it’s not the outright best gaming
laptop,asthe old model once was, but you
won’t be disappointed by it, either.
TomBruce
VERDICT
Therearesomeslip-ups,butthenewBlade15is
amostlyworthysuccessorto anall-timeclassic
SPECIFICATIONS
Windowsoverall
Multitasking
Batterylife
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage90forperformancedetails
PROCESSORHexa-core2.6GHzIntelCorei7-9750H•RAM
16GB•DIMENSIONS335x235x17.8mm•WEIGHT2.21kg•
SCREENSIZE15.6in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,920x1,080•
GRAPHICSADAPTOR8GBNvidiaGeForceRTX2080Max-Q
1h51m
174
185
30
H
hed in 2018, the slim yet
(Shopperr370) has
ritegaming laptops.
however, and it’s time
potentially
ce.
of depth,
e: 355x235x17.8mm,
or alaptop with such
pecs, which include an
and Nvidia’s GeForce
ade15(2019)
★★
LAPTOP
RGB lighting, and Razer’s own promotional
images displaying the symbols as being
illuminated. Ëuckily there are no issues
powerful CPU. Admittedly,aswith the ROG
Strix Scar III, you’re not going to get the full
effect of a240Hz displayunless you’re
ps,butthenewBlade15is
ssorto anall-timeclassic
The crowning glory of this laptop is the display. The 240Hz
IPS panel is aclear improvementoverthe old Blade 15
