Image credit : Razer, Inc.T
he Razer Blade 2019 may look
a lot like the 2018 model, and
that’s true in many ways, but
so much has changed inside to
earn the new high price tag.
The Razer Blade 2019’s biggest
change is its new Nvidia RTX
graphics, which are great, along
with dramatically increased battery
life. And, finally, an infrared camera
for Windows Hello facial login.
Price and availability
For a 15-inch Razer Blade with
Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics inside,
Razer wants a whopping £2,199
($2,299.99) to start. That gets you a
model rocking RTX 2060 graphics
that drive a 144Hz, 1080p display
paired with 512GB of SSD space.
From there, you can upgrade to
an RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics chip
paired with just a 256GB SSD for
£2,399.99 ($2,399.99) or with a
512GB SSD for £2,449.99 ($2,599.99)
- both laptops feature the same
144Hz Full HD display.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
Max-Q graphics option – our review
configuration – comes with 512GB
of solid-state storage for £2,849
($2,999) and drives the same Full
HD display. You can get a 60Hz 4K
display, but that model comes with
an RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU and a
512GB SSD for £2,749 ($2,899).
No matter which Blade you buy,
you get an Intel Core i7-8750H CPU
paired with 16GB of DDR4 memory
that can be expanded up to 64GB.Design
Clad in the same black unibody
aluminium shell, the Razer Blade
keeps the same shape for 2019 as
last year’s model, replete with the
more subtle RGB lighting of last
year – down to just the keyboard
and Razer logo on the lid.
At 17.8mm thin, this year’s Razer
Blade is marginally thicker than
before, but just as hefty at 2.10kg. It
also manages to pack a 15-inch
display into a 14-inch chassis.Par for the course, the Razer
Blade keeps the webcam in its
proper position above the screen
while implementing narrow bezels.
At just 720p, it produces a grainy
picture, though it’s serviceable for
video calls – just don’t broadcast
yourself playing games.
The Blade’s keyboard still feels
fantastic, and continues to offer
quite forceful feedback for an
island-style keyboard. Razer still
hasn’t fixed the keyboard’s layout
problem, though with the [Up
arrow] key sitting between the
[Shift] and [?] keys. This makes
typing out questions a major pain,
accidentally pressing the [Up arrow]
and adding a question mark to the
line above when typing. We’d
happily readily take smaller arrow
keys if it led to a more sensible
layout otherwise.
As for Razer’s trackpad, it’s also
excellent, but again is wracked by
one tiny flaw: the tracking surface
is too close to the laptop’s edge,Razer Blade 2019
£2,849 | $2,999 wwww.razer.com
The most improved Blade laptop yet
80 |^ |^ June 2019