APC Australia - September 2019

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Razer Blade Pro 17

Razer’s big boy gaming laptop comes with a hefty

price tag, but does it have the minerals to justify it?

T

he last Razer Blade
Pro launched back
in 2017 so this year’s
update is a big step
forward. The new Blade Pro
17 jumps from a 7th
generation Intel Core i7
CPU to a 9th generation
i7-9750H, which boosts the
computer’s raw CPU
performance by between 18
and 24%. This translates to
a slightly more
conservative improvement
of between five and 18
percent in general home
and work tasks, bit it’s still
enough to justify the
upgrade.
The GPU saw a similar
generational jump with the
predecessor’s Nvidia GTX
1060 and 1080 GPUs being
replaced by RTX 2060, 2070
or 2080 (Max-Q) cards. Since
wetestedthe 2017 BladePro

graphics presets for higher

framerates.

Razer’s last Blade Pro 17

ditched the number pad for a

trackpad that lined up with

the keyboard and while the

new model is still repping a

tenkeyless layout, it has

returned the trackpad to the

less controversial centre

front position. While we

prefer this layout, Razer

don’t seem to have expanded

the keyboard size, so it is

skirted by an abundance of

plain metal chassis. The

chunky speaker grills line

up with the keyboard and

provide a nice overall

balance, but we can’t help but

feel like Razer could’ve

utilised this space in a more

functional and less

minimalistic way. Battery

life was also disappointing at

justonehourand 52 minutes

17 with a GTX 1060 and the

current model we tested

with an RTX 2070, a direct

comparison doesn’t make

much sense. The new GPU

performed in line with what

you’d expect from an RTX

2070 with game framerates

of between 56 and 97fps on

Ghost Recon: Wildlands and

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

respectively, using Ultra

1080p settings.

With most games

averaging above 60fps on

Ultra settings there’s enough

grunt on this model to justify

the 144Hz 17.3-inch display,

but only just.

Considering this, we

wouldn’t recommend getting

the entry level GPU

configuration, unless you

only play less graphically

intensive shooters or you’re

willingtodialdownthe

for PCMark 8’s home battery

benchmark and you’ll probably

only get a couple more hours

from sparse usage.

Since it’s not powerful enough

to fully utilise the fast screen

we wouldn’t recommend the

entry level $4,299 Blade Pro 17,

but the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080

models only come with 16GB of

R AM and a 512GB SSD and cost

$500 or $1,150 more

respectively – so really all three

are too expensive to

recommend. You can get a

Gigabyte Aero 17 XA with

identical specs for $1,050 less

and we’ve seen MSI GS75 units

with double the R AM, double

thePCIestorageand an RTX

2080 goingfora similar price.

Joel Burgess

Verdic t

A premium specced gaming unit

that is overpriced and a little

short on high-end features.

LAPTOP

$4,799 | WWW2.RAZER.COM

PCMARK8 - HOME(SCORE)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 4037

MSI GS 75 STEALTH 8SG 4061

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

GHOSTRECONWILDLANDS- ULTRA1080P(FPSAV.)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 56.64

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG^53

0 20 40 60 80 100

CINEBENCH- MULTI-THREADEDCPU

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 930

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG^1067

0 200 400 600 800 1000

CRYSTALDISKMARKREAD(MB/S)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 3139.5

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG 3454.9

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

HWBOT X265 1080P (AVG FPS)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 25.774

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG 31.558

0 20 40 60 80 100

THE DIVISION 2 - ULTRA 1080P (FPS AV.)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 71

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG^82

0 20 40 60 80 100

3DMARK FIRE STRIKE (SCORE)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 16,049

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG 16,134

0 4000 8000 12000 16000 20000

CRYSTALDISKMARK WRITE (MB/S)

RAZER BLADE PRO 17 1942.9

MSI GS 75

STEALTH 8SG 3407.4

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

LABS BENCHMARK RESULTS

“Since it’s not powerful enough to fully utilise

the fast screen we wouldn’t recommend the

entry level $4,299 Blade Pro 17.”