The Blade 2018 laptop is a powerful and well-designed machine that is sure to impress. It comes with a variety of features that make it a great choice for those looking for a new laptop. The Blade 2018 laptop is a great choice for anyone looking for a powerful and well-designed machine.
Blade 2018 Laptop Review
Pros
- Stunning new design
- Screen is excellent.
- Outstanding performance
Cons
- Under strain, it heats up.
- Inadequate battery life
- Surprisingly compact
- There is no Windows Hello.
Spec
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H 2.2GHz (hexa-core, up to 4.1GHz with Turbo Boost)
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5 VRAM; Max-Q); Intel UHD 630 graphics
- DDR4 RAM: 16GB (dual-channel, 2,667MHz)
- Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) matte screen (144Hz; IPS; 100 percent sRGB)
- 512GB M.2 SSD storage (NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4)
- 1 Thunderbolt 3 port, 3 USB 3.1 ports, 1 mini DisplayPort 1.4 port, and 1 HDMI 2.0 port
- Intel Wireless AC 9260 connectivity (802.11ac; Bluetooth 5.0)
- Built-in webcam with 1MP resolution (720p)
- 4.63 pound weight (2.10kg)
- Dimensions: 13.98 x 9.25 x 0.68 inches (35.5 x 23.5 x 1.73cm; W x D x H)
1. Blade 2018 Laptop Display
Razer hit the ball out of the park when it comes to the Razer Blade’s display. This screen may be 1080p, but it’s stunning, thanks to a matte finish that deflects light.
Much of this is due to the 144Hz refresh rate, which makes games appear exceptionally fluid since it outpaces the frame rate of most games played on the device. This enables the Razer Blade to compensate for the GTX 1060 or 1070’s potential weaknesses in delivering consistent frame rates at high-resolution settings.
The display pops with a broad array of colors offered at outstanding precision, thanks to the 100 percent sRGB color gamut. Razer’s factory screen calibration with all of these laptops is also quite helpful.
According to our tests, the screen of the Blade 15 can display 156 percent of the sRGB color spectrum. It significantly outperformed the 110-percentage-point mainstream gaming laptop average and the Hero II’s 120-percentage-point average. At 150 percent, the m15 and Stealth Thin tied.
2. Blade 2018 Laptop Design
The Blade 15 is the epitome of an ’80s throwback. The laptop’s microscopic, tiny rounded edges give it a boxy appearance that reminds me of the epaulet-style shoulder pads featured on those old-school women’s power suits. Or it may be that I’m listening to Huey Lewis and The News “Hip To Be Square” on loop in my brain. In any case, it has a quirky, vintage vibe that I like.
The Blade 15, like other Blades, is constructed mainly of midnight CNC aluminum. Razer’s distinctive emerald three-headed snake casts a beguiling light on the lid (with some apparent flex in the center).
When I opened the lid, my gaze was drawn to the Chroma keyboard, sitting in its small recess like a cluster of stars sparkling against the black metal chassis’s all-encompassing blackness of space. The speakers are situated on each side of the break to maximize the keyboard’s brightness, with the power button hidden away in the left speaker.
Razer maintains its lightweight gaming credentials with the Blade 15, weighing 4.7 pounds and dimensions 14 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches. It weighs somewhat less than the Alienware 15 R4 (4.8 pounds, 14.3 x 10.8 x 0.70.8 inches) and slightly more than the Asus ROG Strix Hero II (5.1 pounds, 14.2 x 10.3 x 1 inch), although it is more than the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin (4.1 pounds, 14.1 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches)
3. Blade 2018 Laptop Audio
Don’t be fooled by the Blade 15’s simple pair of top-mounted speakers; it gets rather loud while being entirely accurate. I could easily hear every component of Pentatonix’s five-person harmony on maximum volume when listening to “Can’t Sleep Love” by Pentatonix.
Thanks to a significant increase from the Dolby Atmos software, the sound was able to encompass our whole medium-sized test facility. The Dynamic and Music options (Movie, Dynamic, Music, Game, Voice, and Personalize) produced the most stunning results.
During Witcher 3, I marched boldly into the woodland on the scent of an infamous witch. The trees shook violently as a storm approached, and the sounds of the mighty wind filled the lab while a flute played sweetly in the background.
However, none of the modifications were able to improve the bass. When I listened to Elephant Man’s “Pon De River Pon Da Bank,” there were glimpses of it, but not enough to make a difference.
4. Keyboard and Touchpad
You do have touchscreen functionality – which works well enough – and something the MacBook Pro lacks full RGB illumination for the keyboard. More significantly, Razer has done an excellent job with the overall usability of the keyboard: the chiclet keys are appropriately proportioned and spaced, and essential travel is substantially more profound than on the MacBook Pro. This is partly due to Apple’s deliberate design decisions – the MacBook Pro prefers a lighter actuation force over travel depth – but we believe the Blade 15’s keyboard is simpler to get accustomed to.
The trackpad is smaller than the one on the MacBook Pro, but it is still well-proportioned for the 15-inch screen. Its silky feel and overall responsiveness are very appealing. Although this is a clamshell laptop rather than a convertible, we found it easy to switch between touchscreen and trackpad inputs.
5. Hardware and performance
With its Core i7-8750H (which can Turbo Boost from 2.2GHz to 4.1GHz), 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and GTX 1070 Max-Q, the Blade 15 is one of the most powerful mainstream laptops available. It scored 157 overall in our 4K benchmarks, which is lower than the MacBook Pro’s 173 – albeit not by much, given the latter had what should have been a significant edge in its Core i9-8950HK.
It’s also worth noting that the most current Dell XPS 15 scored 178 with the identical Core i7-8750H processor. When under stress, the Blade 15 feels relatively warm to the touch, indicating that some throttling occurs.
The MacBook Pro outperforms the Blade 15 on GeekBench 4, scoring 4,959 in the single-core test and 17,545 in the multi-core test. However, Apple did not seem to have won the victory: in Cinebench R15’s CPU test, the Blade 15’s score of 924 was only somewhat lower than the MacBook Pro’s 968, and the GPU-reliant OpenGL test favored the Blade 15, with its 111fps result outperforming the MacBook Pro’s 105fps.
This leads us to the GTX 1070. It’s a less powerful Max-Q model, but it still outperforms the MacBook Pro’s GPU, the AMD Radeon Pro 560X. Take the LuxMark graphics test: the MacBook Pro scored 1,533, while the Blade 15 scored 3,112 points. Despite its low CPU, Razer’s laptop is the superior device for modeling and graphics.
That’s not to claim it’s on par with a genuine workstation – in SpecViewPerf, scores like 116.99 in 3DSmax-06, 193.87 in Maya-05, and 66.56 in SW-04 place the GTX 1070 Max-Q behind Nvidia’s Quadro P3200, which can be purchased in laptops for approximately the same price as the Blade 15. But, for a secondary gaming laptop, it’s more powerful than you may imagine – and outperforms the even more expensive MacBook Pro in terms of graphics performance.
Unfortunately, it also has a significant flaw in terms of battery life. It barely lasted 2hrs 34mins in our testing, which is less than half the duration of the MacBook Pro and the XPS 15. We’d point to the thirsty 4K display, but the XPS 15 we tested had the exact resolution and lasted 7 hours 14 minutes.
6. Storage
To begin with, 512GB is enough storage capacity, and the Blade 15 provides it for far less money than the MacBook Pro. However, this comes at a cost: we observed a sequential read speed of 1,301.8MB/sec and a sequential write speed of 486.6MB/sec. These aren’t bad results, but since the MacBook Pro exceeded 2,600MB/sec in both tests, they’re not terrific either.
In actuality, though, we never felt as if the SSD was slowing us down. The Blade 15 boots to the login page very instantly, and programs launch pretty now.
7. Battery Life
Razer is often at the bottom of the list when it comes to battery life. However, the Blade 15 outperformed the 4:30 popular gaming laptop average with a battery test duration of 6 hours and 9 minutes (continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness). It outlasted the MSI Stealth Thin (5:40) and the Asus Hero II (4:56), although it fell short of the Alienware m15 (6:25).
8. Heat
All of that metal looks fantastic, but it can become rather hot. In Witcher 3, I spent 15 minutes tracking down a witch. After the allocated time, I measured the Blade 15’s touchpad, the center of the keyboard, and the undercarriage. The touchpad measured 93 degrees Fahrenheit, while the keyboard and underbelly were 107 and 108 degrees. That’s far higher than our 95-degree comfort level.
After finishing our gaming test, we let the system cool down and played a fullscreen HD movie for 15 minutes. The touchpad and center of the keyboard were 85 and 92 degrees, respectively, while the bottom was a little warm, 97 degrees.
9. Webcam
Photos captured with the Blade 15’s 720p inbuilt camera seemed to be rather impressive at first sight. Except for a bit of visual noise, my dark complexion seemed beautiful, but a rapid zoom showed all of the fuzziness in the shot.
10. Razer Blade 15 Cost and Configurations
Our Blade 15 costs $1,799 and has a 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-8750H CPU with 16GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe PCIe SSD with a 2TB 5,400-rpm HDD, an Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q GPU with 6GB VRAM, a 15.6-inch 60Hz display, and a black CNC aluminum chassis.
If you want more power, Razer offers a $2,399 upgrade that includes an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q GPU, a 1080p, 144Hz display, and 256GB of SSD storage. A $300 upgrade doubles the storage, and a $500 upgrade gets you a 4K, 60Hz screen.
The $1,599 entry-level model has a 128GB SSD, a 1TB HDD, and a full-HD, 60Hz screen. The Mercury White Blade is equipped with a 512GB SSD and a 1920 x 1080, 144Hz display.
Conclusion
Aside from its resolution and graphical capabilities, the Blade 15 is a technically inferior desktop substitute to the Core i9 MacBook Pro:
- It’s not as good at color-dependent tasks like picture editing.
- Its battery life is poor.
- Its storage is sluggish.
Nonetheless, a financial savings of at least $400 before tax buys the Blade 15 a lot of slack. We’re not sure that the MacBook Pro’s CPU performance is adequate to warrant paying so much more – Razer’s laptop can still handle extreme multithreading. Its significantly better GPU probably makes it a more balanced laptop overall.
You’d also get the clarity of 4K and more comprehensive and diversified physical connections. This is not a replacement for the MacBook Pro, but it is a realistic option.
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