RAZER HAS NOT NECESSARILY been quick
in updating its heavy-hitting Blade Pro
line—we last saw it a good two years
ago—but the jump to RTX cards is
far from a straight component swap.
Outwardly, things have been significantly
redesigned, with the soft-edged heft of
the previous model replaced by a far
more slimline body, both thinner and less
wide than before, which brings the Blade
Pro 17 into design line with the rest of
the company’s laptop pack. Not that the
guts have been ignored; things have been
seriously cooked up, in terms of both
the RTX 2080 and hex-core i7-9750H in
our review model, and strengthening its
position as a laptop for people who love
games, speed, and spending wads of cash
in equal measure. This is a refresh, sure,
but it’s definitely a new Blade Pro. The
real question is whether it’s a success.
That visual upgrade certainly works
in its favor. The bezel of the previous
version has been chopped down to such
an extent that it’s hard to believe this
carries a 17.3-inch panel; the closed
case has a slick, unfussy profile that
earns the “Pro” moniker about as handily
as the specs do. There are downsides to
the more conventional design—the RGB-
ringed right-mounted touchpad of the
previous generation has been swapped
out for a boring (but pleasant) centrally-
aligned glass number, the keyboard is
no longer mechanical, and there’s no
volume roller, but the now centralized
RGB-lit keyboard allows more room for aThe Blade Pro is dead, long live the Blade Pro!
Razer Blade Pro 17 ( 2019 )
8
VERDICT Razer Blade Pro 17 (2019)RAZER-THIN Gorgeous chassis
redesign; great screen;
effective cooling; excellent speed.
HEAVYWEIGHT Extremely expensive;
some features lost.
$3,119, http://www.razer.comSPECIFICATIONSCPU Intel Core i7-9750H
Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q
RAM 16GB dual-channel
DDR4 2,667MHz
Screen 17.3-inch, 144Hz IPS
Storage 512GB NVMe SSD
Ports
3x USB 3.2, USB-C,
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C),
SD reader, 3.5mm audio
Connectivity 2.5Gb Ethernet, 802.11ax Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth 5.0
Weight 6lb 1oz
Our laptop zero-point is the Asus GL502VS-DS71, with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, 8GB GTX 1070, and 16GB of DDR4. All game tests are performed at 1080p and the highest graphical profile. Size 0.78 x 10.24 x 15.55 inchesBENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 74 3 922 (24%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Read (MB/s)^563 3,228 (473%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Write (MB/s)^133 1,969 (1,380%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 13,202 17,244 (31%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 99 113 (14%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 62 80 (29%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (fps)^48 62 (29%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%pair of up-firing speakers, which belt out
audio with impressive weight.
Between the bezels sits a matte
FHD 144Hz IPS panel, which is initially
baffling. Considering that both Razer’s
13 and 15-inch flagships carry 4K panels,
and this carries the “Pro” moniker, we’d
have thought it a natural choice for a
greater resolution than 1080p. Truthfully,
we’re not all that offended by the screen,
though: It’s bright, viewing angles are
good, colors are absolutely awesome,
and the 144Hz refresh rate is frequently
tested, given the power that’s driving it.
A comparatively lower resolution might
make this a lesser work machine, but it
does wonders for its gaming potential.VAPOR TRAIL
Forsaking wacky cooling designs, such
as the pop-up ventilation seen on the
Asus Zephyrus, and indeed shunning the
large rear-mounted exhaust ports on
offer from most other manufacturers,
Razer has instead employed an internal
vapor cooling system, which pulls in air
from the front of the base, and outputs
it through a pair of inconspicuous vents
at the rear. It’s tidy, certainly, though the
four fans can get loud under heavy load.
Bringing the heat is a ninth-gen Core i7-
9750H running at 2.6GHz; continuing the
theme of what Razer could have done,
there’s little doubt that a Core i9 could
have been made to work and thrown out
half as much performance again, but
there’s no true reason for one to be therebeyond luxury. This is a snappy enough
chip for the job at hand.
The company has also (predictably)
opted to put the graphics in the hands of
the dialed-back Max-Q design of the RTX
2080, clocked at a boost of 1,230MHz.
That’s a good drop in speed from the
desktop equivalent, but comparing
its benchmark results to the similarly
specced Asus Zephyrus S GX701GX shows
that Razer’s smaller, lighter cooling
solution doesn’t mean more throttling—
the numbers here are almost identical,
sometimes a touch better, and gaming on
the Razer Blade Pro 17 is a true joy.
Although the price is somewhat
horrific, Razer at least knows that this
is an investment, making upgrading the
RAM and storage options easy should you
wish, and including 802.11ax wireless,
USB 3.2, and a 2.5Gb Ethernet port for
some forward-thinking connectivity.
That’s the capper to a redesign which,
while lesser in some ways to its
predecessor, results in one of the most
handsome and capable big-screen
laptops we’ve ever seen. –ALEX COXin the lab
84 MAXIMUMPC SEP 2019 maximumpc.com