Computer Shopper – September 2019

ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^201999)
GAMING
THEORIGINALRAZERBladewas arguably
thefirst must-have slim and light gaming
laptop,but its Intel Skylake-erahardware
meant it was doomedto be overshadowedby
the Asus ROG Zephyrus (Shopper 368) and
GigabyteAero 15X (Shopper366). It was
therefore in desperateneed of afresh lick of
paint, and the Blade 15 is exactlythat.
This is the middle child of Razer’s updated
Blade family,nestled betweenthe 13in Blade
Stealth and the 17in Blade Pro.All the
internals are up to date: you get ahexa-core
Intel Core i7-8750HCPU, 16GB of RAM and
your choice of Nvidia Max-Q graphicscards.
MIXAND MATCH
This is where things get alittle complicated, as
you can only have certain display, GPU and
RAM optionswith other display, GPU and
RAM options:the cheapestFull HD,60Hz
screen option,forexample,isonly available
with the £1,700 versionwith aGTX 1060 and
256GB of SSD storage.Ifyou upgradeto a4K,
60Hz touchscreen,you’re stuck with aGTX
1070 and 512GB of storage for£2,250.
Luckily,the most sensible-soundingdisplay
option,Full HD at 144Hz, comes with three
GPU/SSDcombos.The model we tested
combinedthis higher-refresh ratescreen with
aGTX 1070 and 512GB for£1,850.
The Blade 15’s design is very Blade-like.
Razer’s three-headedsnake logo illuminates
the laptop’s lid, and the chassisis made up of
the same all-blackmatt aluminiumas before.
The RGB-backlit,chiclet-style keyboard
also remainsunchanged.Each keyisnicely
spaced,and it will be just as good to use
whetheryou’re poundingthe WASD cluster
or using it forthe less adrenaline-pumping
task of writing an email. The glass-topped
Windows10 precisiontouchpad,meanwhile,
has slightlyincreasedin size and is as equally
lovely to whizz your finger across.
Perhaps the most obvious d
is that the Razer Blade’s displayh
grown in size,from 14in to 15.6i h
diagonal,with neitherasize nor h
increase:it still measures355x2
and weighs 2kg, just as before.Th
dimensionsin particularare dow
slashingthe side bezels down to
4.9mm,which has the additionalb
makingthe Blade 15 even better l k.
Despitethe slim chassis,the
than enoughports. On the right d
Thunderbolt3-poweredUSB Ty
HDMI 2port, aMini DisplayPort d
full-sizeUSB3, while the leftside h
afurther two USB3 ports, apro
RAZERBlade15
★★★★★
£1,850•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
RazersuccessfullybolstersitsslimlineBlade
witha144HzdisplayandNvidiaMax-Qgraphics
three-pinchargingconnector and the 3.5mm
audio jack. As forwireless connectivity,you
get 802.11ac wirelessand Bluetooth 5.0, so it’s
thoroughlymodernhere as well.
The displayissimply wonderful.The panel
is capableof producing90.3% of the sRGB
gamut, with alow average delta-Eof 2.16 and a
maximumof just 4.48. The Blade checks in at
amaximumbrightnessof 330cd/m^2 ,however,
which is atouch on the low side.
BRAINGAMES
The new Blade, rather unsurprisingly,storms
throughany applicationyou put it against.In
our 4K applicationbenchmarks,the Intel Core
i7-8750H-poweredBlade 15 managedan image
test score of 142, which is on apar with a
premiumgamingdesktop system. It also
performed well in the video-encodingtest,
scoring163, and came out with 142 in the
multitaskingbenchmark,for149 overall.
It’s fair to point out that the Asus ROG
Zephyrus GX701, Alienwarem15 and HP Omen
15 all have the same CPU, yet managedhigher
overall scores; it seems that the Blade 15’s
ultra-slimchassisand coolingsystem doesn’t
give the chip quiteasmuch air to breatheas
these other laptops. However,inpractice
there isn’t aclearly tangibledifference,
especiallynot in single-threadedtasks.
The GTX 1070 makes forsome slick gaming
performance,evenifitisadownclockedMax-Q
variant. At the laptop’s native 1,920x1,080with
Ultra settings,Dirt Showdownaveraged asilky
91fps, while Metro: Last Light managed55fps
on maximumsettings.
This isn’t abest-in-classresult, especially
not when the RTX2080-equippedAsus ROG
Zephyrus SGX701 is around,but then the
Asus is more than £1,000 more expensive.The
Blade 15 also undercutsits GTX 1070-based
rival, the Alienwarem15, althoughthe Omen
15 –also aGTX 1070 system –ischeaper still.
The 512GB SSD is good capacity-wise,and
is generallyvery quick. We used AS SSD to
record asequentialread speed of 1,013MB/s
and asequentialwritespeed of 2,099MB/s,
the latter of which is particularlyimpressive.
Battery lifeismuch improved on the
originalmodel, too, thanks to the Blade’s more
efficient coolingtechniques,with abrand-new
heatpipe,larger vapour chamberand dual
coolingfans. Survivingfor7h7minour video
rundowntest before needingto recharge,the
new Blade’s 80Wh battery lasts almost
d ahalf longer than its
runder the same conditions.
S P
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