The 2020 Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition combines some of the most powerful laptop components available with a slick all-metal design that stands above the rest, though the top configurations are very pricey.
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Hi, I’m Matthew Buzzi,
here with the 2020 version Of the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition, Razer’s flagship full size gaming laptop. We’ve seen this design
many times over the years And it’s one of our favorites. Most of the design is
the same on this version, Which means the same sleek All metal aluminum build, customizable, Perky backlight keyboard,
with thin bezels, The really just quality construction And one of the best touch pads Available on any Windows laptop. A lot of the additions
this year are internal. That includes the display,
which is now 300 hertz On the configuration that
we’d receive for review, As well as an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU. Again, one of the best things you can get In a gaming laptop right now. With those components you must be thinking That this is a very
expensive gaming laptop And you would be correct. A configuration of get a
lot of the way now is $3,000 For these components I mentioned. That’s more expensive even than some other Top end competition from
different manufacturers, You’re definitely paying
a bit of a premium For the build itself. The performance will not be
much of a tier above that But when you’re already at the
super high performing range, Which we’ll get to in a moment, Those slight differences in
performance aren’t a big deal. All of these laptops in this price range Are extremely fast and powerful. The starting version for the
Advanced Edition is $2600,
Which is a little more reasonable
but still very expensive. In addition to the GPU
and display I mentioned, It also got at a terabyte SSD storage, 16 gigabytes of memory and all the other Sort of high end features that go Into what making this build what it is. Now since this is a gaming
laptop first and foremost, And you’re gonna be paying a pretty penny For this configuration, You wanna hear all about the performance. Triple-A games 60 frames
per second are no big deal On some of the more
demanding games out there To control is difficult
to run for example, May challenge that depending what settings Whether you wanna use ray tracing or not, But your general games from
the past several years, Any triple-A big budget title can run At 60 frames per second or better. On our benchmark tests
it got 100 on others, 90 on some so it is very
capable at max settings, Triple-A titles if that’s the
type of game you wanna play. Now, if you’re thinking
about the 300 hertz display And whether or not 100 frames per second On triple-A games is
worthwhile for that screen, That’s not so much what it’s for, It’s really aimed at more
competitive multiplayer titles. That’s where you see the
benefit of a 300 hertz display. In games like that you got Fortnight, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six
Siege, Counter Strike GO, Games that are much
less visually demanding And actually benefit more
to have higher frame rates Can actually run more towards
the frame rate ceiling. So we tested Rebels Succeed
and it got well over 200 frames Per second on the lower
and medium settings,
Meaning that the 300
hertz ceiling actually Will get pushed pretty
close to if not up to. So that gives you a competitive edge, That’s the sort of game
where more frames per second Lets you have a competitive advantage, So if you’re one of those
gamers playing a lot Of those types of competitive titles, That’s who the 300 hertz display is for And that should be
really appealing for you. In addition to that, we’re used to seeing Some sort of performance mode
or kind of boosts options Within the built in software settings That manufacturers ship the laptops with, And that is true here. Razers I will say are a
step above what we’ve seen. There’s options in the
synapse included software That let you boost between medium, low, High and boost to get more
out of the GPU and CPU, And sometimes we see a
couple frames per second gain From that, in the case of
this laptop actually got As much as five, 10, 15
frames, depending on the game. So it could actually be pretty worthwhile. The fan speed and the
heat kind of increased As you would expect in relation to that, The fans definitely got louder, I don’t know if everyone would wanna play On that all the time, Nor does every type of
game you play really need That extra percentage boost, Nut if you’re most people and
the sound doesn’t bother you, Go for it, turn it on,
boosted it all the way, Play on that all the time, and
it actually will benefit you. The fan speed and the heat
situation normally is okay. The fans are reasonably
audible, they’re not crazy.
I think it’s better than
some Passpoint laptops Where the fans have been a little loud. I think they’ve done a
better job tuning that, So kudos there. As for the rest of the physical build Other competitors have caught up. This used to be kind of the trailblazer, The first laptop to
really go thin and light While still offering top end performance, It still does that, it’s less light Than it used to be compared
to the competition, Others are now even a smidge lighter, Razer kinda compromised
slightly on making it as thin As possible to get a little
more performance out of it, It’s still only 4.73 pounds, It’s only point seven inches thick, So relatively speaking and
especially for gaming laptop, This is a thin machine And it’s still pretty
easy to carry around. The metal chassis makes
it a little more dense And so I think that’s what
some of the differences But that’s a bit of a trade
off for it feeling so good. The green logo I could do
without, the Razer Blade 13 Has a nice etched black on
black logo, I do prefer that, I think the lime green
kinda Mooresville look, Maybe a black lit, white
light or something like that Might be a little cleaner, but it’s fine, Razer wants to stick to their branding. On top of that there is a pretty good Port selections laptop, You have three regular USB type A ports, There’s two USB C ports, one
of which is Thunderbolt three And both of which can charge
devices, an HDMI connection, So really kind of
everything you could want
Of a laptop like this,
there’s no ethernet jack, That might be a deal breaker for some, Or at least not ideal for some, But that’s usually a bonus
inclusion at this point. Razer has added an SD card reader, So that’s a nice inclusion for
anyone sort of media centric Who might want that option. Finally, the battery life, the Blade 15’s Always been kind of a
step ahead of the others. Again, they’ve caught up and made strides In battery life but
Razer’s is still very good. Seven hours on a rundown test Is really good for a gaming laptop, Especially with this high refresh screen, So it’s powerful components inside, That’s sort of a boon for
anyone who wants to use this As a general use laptop,
take it on the go. In addition to gaming at home, It can last most of the
day off the charger. Obviously if you play games on it, You’re gonna see a decline in battery life But for most general purposes
and for a lot of the day, This has enough juice to get you through.
