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Razer Blade Review: The Ferocious Hidden Power That Trumps The MacBook Pro

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Apple was once the brand you turned to if you wanted to think different, if you wanted a machine that stood out from the crowd, if you wanted a laptop that was suited to you and your needs rather than a specification sheet that was designed to appeal to the masses... you went for a Mac. Nowadays the popular option is the MacBook, and if you want something a bit more suited to a specific lifestyle you are going to look further afield.

Following on from last week's look at a number of MacBook Pro alternatives, I'm going to spend a bit more time in December looking at the alternative options. First up is a machine that oozes power, that has a brutal minimalist style, and has a strong brand name backed up by community support.

The Razer Blade.

Based in Irvine, CA, Razer Inc has been making gaming accessories since 1998. The company moved into making gaming hardware in 2011 and the Blade is the middle tier of its laptop range. Launched in 2013 the Blade has been updated and improved every year. The current base model (reviewed here) sports a 14 inch screen running at 1920x1080 HD resolution, the latest Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of SSD-based storage.

It might be the middle tier of Razer's line-up, but the Blade's specifications mark it out as one of the best-specced laptops I'm going to be looking at this month. Gaming is an intensive occupation for any  computer, so the power needs to be there to run graphically intensive games like the critically acclaimed Doom. With the GeForce GTX 1060 GPU  somehow squeezed into a laptop that measures just 17.9mm in depth, the Blade is ready to accommodate VR headsets as required and can accommodate some gorgeous looking games. On top of the graphical power the backlit IPS matt screen looks gorgeous and has a very wide and accurate color reproduction. If you want to go all out on the screen, Razer also offer a 3200x1800 touch screen model.

Benchmark-wise the Blade scores well on the popular 3DMark Fire Strike and the 3DMark Ice Storm tests, and its score is miles ahead of the 'average' laptop in 2016. It's slightly lower compared to other gaming laptops from companies such as MSI or Alienware, but Blade has an advantage in battery life over similar models, easily reaching six hours of internet use when relying on the internal battery.

The Blade is a solid gaming laptop, and while Razer does offer external peripherals to increase the gaming performance, I'm looking at the Blade as a portable workhorse so will happily trade a little bit of gaming power for more battery life and portability.

At 17.8 mm x 345 mm x 235 mm, the Razer Blade is a similar size to the fifteen-inch MacBook Pro (slightly thicker but slightly narrower), and not that much bigger than the thirteen-inch model. Design wise the Blade does feel a touch unadventurous. It is nicely rounded at the corners but is essentially a rectangular box with no fancy tapering or wedges in sight. The screen hinges back to a nice viewing angle but there's no 2-in-1 option to roll it all the way back or detach it from the base.

With this size and weight (1.89 kg) plus a substantive charging block, the Blade is at the upper bounds or portability but is still to my mind a laptop for travelling with. It first comfortably into my day-to-day backpack, and with Windows 10 it is quick to come back from stand-by mode and be ready to use.

As regards ports, the Blade does sport a new USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port, just like the MacBook Pro. Alongside the future it has a wonderfully current set-up including  three USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI 2.0 video/audio out. Throw in a combo headphone and microphone jack and you have a nice suite of I/O that should satisfy most (but not all) expectations.

The exception to this is lack of an SD Card slot. Photographers are left with the choice of a dongle to read their cards, or hook the camera though a cable to the Blade. It's not a perfect solution - although I'd come back to the point that this is a gaming laptop that is not looking to make compromises on something non gaming related. Why would gamers need an SD card? That said I'm looking at alternative laptops here, so if SD Card support is important to you (and the buzz around the MacBook Pro suggests that for some it is key) then be aware of this omission.

Next Page: keyboards, trackpads, and ethos...

The feature that sets the Razer Blade apart from me can sound a touch gimmicky, but in practice it offers a nice guiding hand while using the laptop. The keyboard hides a programmable secret - rather than the one color fits all you normally see with backlit keys, the chroma keyboard system features a batch of LEDs under each key, and each of these can be programmed to show a wide range of color. Presets built-in to the Razer software allow the keyboard to be animated with various patterns, which is attractive but a bit chaotic.

The real value comes on an app-by-app basis, as you can switch the keyboard lighting configuration. Obviously for the gamer this means you can highlight action keys and dim the rest of the keyboard to make it easier to find something in a hurry. For me I found the ability to set up a keyboard so the hotkeys in my audio editing apps were highlighted to be a practical bonus, and in the radio jingle/playback software I use the keyboard colors were set to replicate the on-screen colors of the samples I wanted to trigger.

It's not a deal maker, but the Chroma keyboard is a useful secondary feature that helped me use the Blade in some 'non-traditional' roles that I put my desk-bound hardware through.

One thing I found in use was the pressure required on the keys was lower than expected. This lighter touch obviously helps responsiveness during gameplay while still offering a good level of feedback. Importantly it means that I had to put in less effort when typing at full speed. I think I would have liked a little bit more travel in the keys and a touch more resistance, but it's hard to fault it when it was comfortable in use.

The one area that did worry me was the thin mouse buttons at the base of the glass trackpad area. Compared to the generosity of the target area on each key and the accuracy of the pressure required, the small mouse buttons were difficult to hit and did not feel as robust as the keyboard.

Razer's ethos with the Blade is clear. It has not created a fashionable or stylish laptop, it has built a truck. But it is a truck that has a sizeable amount of power given how thin the Blade actually is. When closed the inky blackness and the strategically placed Razer logo) promises much, with just a hint of danger. Inside I can describe everything as highly functional, but nothing is rushed. Time has been spent to make sure what tweaks that are present are for the greater good.

As an all-round laptop choice for those that need power and capability, the Razer Blade is an attractive option. If you like a bit of gaming on the side then you'll find the potential for gaming and other leisure focused apps is far more than the MacBook Pro starting point. The specifications deliver a smooth Windows 10 experience and there's more than enough power to handle both extensive media editing apps and the more workmanlike office-based applications I use.

The Blade is a robust laptop, it has an understated style that hides some mouth-watering specifications within the thin chassis, and it delivers an almost flawless experience.

Now read about a number of other laptop alternatives to the latest MacBook Pro...

The Razer Blade is available direct from Razer's website. Prices start at $1799.99 in the US and £1749.99 in the UK. Razer Inc supplied a Razer Blade (6th generation Intel Core-i7 with 16GB RAB and 256GB SSD) for review purposes.

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