In addition, I commend the Stealth for living up to its name by remaining very
quiet while I was gaming. I kept expecting the fans to kick in while I was
running around in Far Cry 5 at ultra-quality settings, but they never got
especially audible.
BATTERY RUNDOWN TEST
After fully recharging the laptop, we set up the machine in power-save mode (as
opposed to balanced or high-performance mode) and make a few other battery-
conserving tweaks in preparation for our unplugged video-rundown test. (We
DOVRWXUQ:L)LR̆SXWWLQJWKHODSWRSLQ$LUSODQH0RGH ,QWKLVWHVWZHORRSD
YLGHR²DORFDOO\VWRUHGS¿OHRIWKH%OHQGHU)RXQGDWLRQVKRUW¿OP7HDUVRI
Steel—with screen brightness set at 50 percent and volume at 100 percent until
the system conks out.
The new Blade Stealth lasted more than nine hours during the rundown test,
which is a strong result. Only the laptops with integrated graphics ran longer,
which is no coincidence. Considering this is at least partially an ultraportable,
XVDELOLW\R̆WKHFKDUJHUIRUJHQHUDOXVHDQGWUDYHOLVDNH\IHDWXUH
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
This model of the refreshed Blade Stealth delivers on the appealing promise of a
13-inch gaming laptop. No, it’s not at the level of an enthusiast gaming rig or a
$2,000-plus 15-inch gaming laptop, but it can clearly, legitimately play big-
budget titles at medium-to-high settings. The rest of the build is as high-quality
as ever, performance is good (if not quite great), and the battery lasts. The price
is reasonable for the construction quality, feature set, and components.
If you’re interested in the idea of gaming on your sleek ultraportable, look no
further—the late-2019 Blade Stealth is perhaps the only current laptop that
nails that concept. The Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model is our top pick for a true
gaming laptop, and for a purer ultraportable, the Dell XPS 13 (9380) is our
(GLWRUV¶&KRLFH
MATTHEW BUZZI
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION (^) I SUBSCRIBE (^) I DECEMBER 2019